Can VirtualBox+BootCamp install Windows 7 on an external drive?

There are a lot of good comments on these ideas, but I can't quite figure out if I can do this or not. I have an 18GB partition on an external drive. I have OS X 10.6.8 (with BootCamp) and a Windows 7 Home Premium disc. If I install VirtualBox (on my mac with Leopard? on the extenal drive?), can I ask BootCamp to install Windows on the extenal drive? I'll gladly tromp through the manuals if I know this will work.
The reason I want to do this is to keep all that Windows goop out of my mac. If this is possible, does the external habitat provide any additional protection against Bad Internet? I'll be working in Windows offline anyway. If Windows is installed on my mac and I'm online–but booted in Leopard–would I face any greater risks than if Windows was absent? Thanks.

You have downloaded, read and checked out VirtualBox? doesn't sound like it.
Running Windows natively and dual booting plus using in a VM only works with the commercial VMs.
Comparison of VMware Fusion Parallels VirtualBox
Comparison Fusion and Parallels
Yes, a VM only being only a file, can reside anywhere you want, though the speed and performance of the drive does matter.
Users doing things like opening email and clicking on links is goop. Even off line, use Microsoft Security Essentials - and stay patched current and such.
Only in rare setup will Windows work on external drive if the PC not Mac has the motherboard support.

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Bootcamp installing windows 7 on an external drive

i wish to install windows 7 onto a usb hardrive as that way ican have 256gb for windows and still keep my 125gb mac hardrive in one piece so as i still have enough space for my mac apps. i wouldnt install windows if it wasnt for the fact i need windows to play a game.
what is the easiest way of doing this. instructions please would be helpful.
many thanks in advance.

You can however use virtualization (Parallels Desktop for example) and install the guest OS on an external drive. If the game isn't demanding in terms of graphics and CPU this is a viable solution.

Can I install Windows Applications on an External Drive?

I would like to install Windows apps on an external drive. Is this possible?
Windows Vista will of course reside on the internal drive. (on a 2009 Mac Mini)

Is this possible?
Only if the application is explicitly designated as being portable. It may work for other applications, but isn't guaranteed to succeed, as most Windows applications modify the registry when installed and/or use system components.
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Is it possilbe to install Windows 7 in an external drive using Boot Camp

Hi,
Is it possilbe to install Windows 7 in an external drive using Boot Camp? If yes, can you someone show me or direct me where I can find more info?
Thanks a lot

You're welcome anytime.
Microsoft doesn't make it easy sometimes
As for the harddisk it surely is possible.
iFixit http://www.ifixit.com/Browse/MacBook jas repair manuals and/or MacSales http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/2.5-Notebook/SATA/DIY/ with videos on how-to.
Stefan

Can i have my windows partition on an external drive?

hello all,
alright, so im looking at a laptop for college and after much research and a few trips to the apple store i want the new, 13-inch macbook pro, with retina display and a 256GB flash hard drive. i love this computer in every aspect except.... you guessed it, its small hard drive. i can always get external drives to make up the differance though, and their is always the cloud so i dont think ill have too much of a problem. but i do need to use some software for college that is only windows based. so rather then splitting up this already small hard drive can i just install windows onto my mac (because i already know i cant put windows on an external drive with boot camp) and make the entire windows partition on the external drive? this way im not losing any native space besides that used to hold windows and im not installing windows to an external drive so hopefully bootcamp wont have a hissey fit. can anyone tell me if this will work? or if this wont work can anyone give me any other solutions to having windows on my mac without splitting up my native hard drive? such as installing windows to my mac and making the partition in the cloud or something? just anything so i dont have to split my already small, yet extremally fast, 256GB hard drive.

You can install Windows on your internal drive and store your Windows data on any drive you want to use. Keep in mind that any Windows programs you install in Windows will be installed on your internal drive. So make the Boot Camp partition large enough for Windows and any programs you may install now or in the future. You will also need room for swap/page files and other activities such as installing Windows updates.
100GB will likely be a good size for the Boot Camp partition given that it is unknown what programs you will be installing.

Installing windows and booting from external drive

I just got a Seagate 250gb external drive. I only have cords to connect it to my I-mac with usb cords from its dock but the drive itself has a firewire port. What i want to do is install windows xp onto the seagate drive so the drive can stay Windows formatted and my mac drive can stay mac formatted so both OS's will run at peak efficiency. The only reason i want to be able to boot up from the drive is so i can use my I-macs hardware but be able to play my PC games in its windows OS.
How do i accomplish this?

Assuming it's an Intel iMac since you're installing Windows®, Intel Macs can boot off of USB, but...
USB2 is slow compared to Firewire/400 even, about 1/2 to 2/3rds the spedd, so FW would be better.
How to format your disks...
http://www.kenstone.net/fcphomepage/partitioningtiger.html
Open Disk Utility, format the external MacOS Extended Journalled, and don't forget the GUID partitioning at the bottom of that link.
Then...
Get carbon copy cloner to make an exact copy of your old HD to the New one...
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
SuperDuper...
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/
Or the most expensive one & my favorite, Tri-Backup...
http://www.tri-edre.com/english/tribackup.html
Clone your internal to the External.
Reboot and hold the Option Key down at bootup & select the external drive to boot from, test it all out.

Can you boot with Windows XP from an external drive?

Just curious really. If you have Windows XP on a bootable external drive, I know other PCs can boot from it, but can a Mac?

On a G5 or other PPC Mac, the answer is no (unless you count running XP with VirtualPC). On the Intel Macs, it's a different story, although I have no idea if they support booting from an external drive with Boot Camp.

Can't boot from Windows partition or any external drives...?

My iMac just stopped booting from both my boot camp partition, and any external drives. I tried booting from a bootable flashdrive with drive genius installed, but it just booted OS X. Despite holding TAB, it just boots normally, as if I wasnt even holding it. I also tried installing rEFit, but OS X still ignores it and just boots normally. What's going on?!

...wow....nevermind, i just realized that i was hitting tab not option...good lord...ive been running boot camp for a long time too...alright well...thanks anyway lol

Why can't I install Snow Leopard on an external drive?

In order to open applications which have been rendered useless when I installed Lion, I have been trying to install Snow Leopard from the Install DVD on an external drive. For some reason, it either hangs up and stalls during the installation or, when it does finish the process, I am unable to boot from it. It hangs up and the gear rotates forever. Is it not possible to do what I am attempting to do, whih is to get some use out of my now useless applications, or is there some way to accomplish this with which I am unfamiliar?

I see.
BTW have you considered abandoning Quicken? I was a long time (at least 10 years) Quicken user however it's clear Intuit does not consider the OS X market an important one or not important enough to come out with a true Quicken replacement that will run on the most contemporary version of OS X. Personally I (along with thousands of others) decided the time was right to begin looking at alternatives to Quicken. I chose iBank for it's similarities to Quicken, it's ability to import my Quicken data and it's support. I began using it several months ago now and have been very happy. IMHO it's a better solution than what you're attempting and staying with "dead" software is simply postponing the innevitable which will only become more difficult the longer you postpone it.

Can I install on MainStage 2 on external drive?

Hello,
I have a 2010 MacBook Air running Lion. I have little room left on the internal drive, but I've been able to run other apps and files from my external drive.
Is there any way I can download and install MainStage 2 to my external drive? There is not enough room on the internal drive to even do the basic 4G download of MainStage 2 and essential content.
Thanks,
-- Joe

After you install the base 10.4.x, update to the final Tiger version 10.4.11. Here's the link for the 10.4.11 combo update http://support.apple.com/kb/TA24901?viewlocale=en_US
Look at this link Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger Installing Software Support Page
http://www.apple.com/support/tiger/install/
You can also download the Tiger Installation and Setup Guide
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/TigerInstall_SetupGuide.pdf
 Cheers, Tom

Can I install windows 7 to an external USB 3.0 drive via bootcamp?

with the new airport extremes supporting USB 3.0, can I install windows 7 to an external USB drive via bootcamp?
i'm not willing to sacrafice any of the limited space on the SSD, but i'm very willing to get a good performing USB 3 drive, and use it as necessary with windows.
if this wouldn't work via bootcamp, can it be done on a windows PC and plugged in subsequent to the install to work on the road?

Installing Windows on an external drive is not supported.

HT5628 Can I still install Windows 7 via bootcamp without OSX Mount. Lion installation DVD

I've already got Windows 7 disc.

Yes. The Boot Camp Assistant can put the drivers onto a DVD or external drive; this is actually the only way to do it, as there are no Mac OS X 10.8 DVDs.
(82404)

How can I install windows 7 on a jump drive

I am having trouble installing windows-7 on a jump drive. A person at the genius bar told me I could do this. I have converted the jump drive (64 GB) to a FAT format, but I have not found a way to save the W-7 (32-bit) on the jump drive. The only option seems to be installing through bootcamp into a partition on my Mac. Can anyone help?

Or you can run Windows in a virtual machine, which saves having to reboot to Boot Camp. This allows you to access Mac OS and Windows from one boot.
Parallels
VirtualBox
VM Fusion

Can I install windows on a RAID hard drive?

Hi,
I recently purchased a used macPro. This mac pro had a raid set so 4 1TB hard drives were created to make one 4 GB partition. This made the raid utility pop up frequently saying there was something wrong so I just broke the RAID set and tried to set the disk up as their on storage partitions (Just as if they were 4 normal hard drives. Now that I did this, only 3 out of the 4 hard drives are visible in disk utility. Also, I reinstalled macosx snow leopard and tried installing bootcamp but when I partition the hard drive and restart using the windows installation disk, it doesn't show that I have any available hard drives to install windows on. Is this because of my RAID disks? (Sorry I don't know anything about raid disks and didn't know this computer had it before I bought it)
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

As stated in the Mac Pro RAID card FAQ you can't install Windows if you have the drives controlled by that card.
Question: Why can't I install Boot Camp on my Mac Pro or Xserve that uses a RAID?
Answer: Boot Camp does not support the installation of Windows onto a Mac using hardware or software RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Drives). Boot Camp is not supported on the Xserve with or without the Xserve RAID Card installed.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1346
Look inside and see if there is a RAID controller from Apple, proably top slot #4. Also look in System Profile under SATA interface.
Pull non-graphic card, seems you don't need it if you have one.
You are not getting something: internal hard drives are one thing. RAID card is another. The RAID card just replaces the normal SATA controller that otherwise interfaces.
Take a look at the photos and manual for the card.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3514
You can find the above from the Mac Pro Support home page I posted above.

Bootcamp 'Glowing' windows logo freeze after gfx driver install

Bootcamp 'Glowing' windows logo freeze after gfx driver install
Last week suddenly, after having changed or installed nothing, trying to boot into windows resulted in a frozen glowy window logo 'Starting Windows', which resulted in having to format the windows partition.
Since then I've found out that I can do everything except install gfx drivers.
I've installed firefox, all bootcamp drivers except gfx, swtor (doesn't run of course, but installs fine), quicktime, rebooting is fine after all this...
But as soon as I install any kind of graphics driver and reboot, it freezes at the glowy window logo.
I have tried;
The bootcamp included gfx driver
Windows Update included gfx driver
Official nVidia latest beta driver
Official nVidia latest whql driver
Official nVidia oldest whql driver
nVidia Cuda driver, both versions
All give the same result
I have formatted the entire harddrive and written zeros and made the windows partition in a physically different location to make sure it's not a harddrive issue, no luck.
I have tried both Windows 7 x86 and x64 with matching drivers, same results.
Tried booting with no devices attached, no luck.
This all seems to me like a bust gfx card, were it not that under Lion everything works fine, even gaming (WoW).
Techtool Pro's test machine shows no errors.
My machine is a;
iMac
24-inch, Early 2008
Processor 3,06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Geheugen 4 GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
Videokaart NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS 512 MB
Software Mac OS X Lion 10.7.3 (11D50b)
Hardwareoverzicht:
Modelnaam: iMac
Modelaanduiding: iMac8,1
Processornaam: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processorsnelheid: 3,06 GHz
Aantal processors: 1
Totale aantal cores: 2
L2-cache: 6 MB
Geheugen: 4 GB
Bussnelheid: 1,07 GHz
Opstart-ROM-versie: IM81.00C1.B00
SMC-versie (systeem): 1.30f1

I am running Lion on a Mac Mini Server wherein I placed a Bootcamp partition and installed Windows 7 Ultimate. I've been testing Windows Media Center using a CableCard Tuner installed in a SiliconDust HomeRun box.
All was well until I received a Windows notification of an NVIDIA driver update. After the update, I now freeze at the same point that you do in the Windows startup splash screen.
I rolled back the driver using the Windows control panel associated with the device. Still freezes.
Windows repair does not have a fix. I can't get windows to start in "safe mode" so I can remove the additional apps that NVIDIA installed during the update.
I'm certain the freeze is associated with the NVIDIA driver.

Can VirtualBox+BootCamp install Windows 7 on an external drive?

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