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.

Similar Messages

How can you erase old back up from my external drive which i placed in the trash?

I removed some old back up from time machine which are on my external drive and it now in the trash. But the old back up is not erasing from my trash can. How can you removed this from the trash without reformatting the external drive.

You really should not remove any Time Machine backups using that or any other method.
Go to > Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions 12 and scroll down to the section in gray at the bottom of the article.
For more great Time Machine info, see > Apple OSX and Time Machine Tips

Can I set up my Macbook Pro to boot to Win 7 from an external drive?

Rather than partition my internal drive for having to work with Windows & Office 2010 (specifically Access 2010) can I set up my macbook pro to boot to Win 7 from an external drive?

No, not with Boot Camp. I've never even tried it with a VM (which I use) - I keep all the data on my internal drive. I'm not saying that it couldn't be done with a VM, I've just never tried it.
Clinton

HT201250 Hi, I had updated folder on my hard drive wich was wrongly replaced with a folder from my external drive. I m not using time machine. How can i recover that updated folder? (it was done on 3-5-12)

Hi, I had updated folder on my hard drive wich was wrongly replaced with a folder from my external drive. I m not using time machine. How can i recover that updated folder? (it was done on 3-5-12)

If the folder was replaced, it was written over.
Nothing short of forensic data recovery (probably involving taking the drive apart to scan the discs seperately) is going to recover anything (if indeed even that will).

How can I import my music CD from an external drive (other PC) via LAN?

How can I import my music CD from an external drive (other PC) via LAN?
I have tried by "add..." but without success.

Hello DIRP,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
For more information on this, take a look at:
iTunes: About the Add to Library, Import, and Convert functions
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1347
Best of luck,
Mario

Can I use my Intel-based MacBook to boot into Windows 7 from an external HDD?

Okay, so I need to use Windows for some simple applications. Problem is, I don't have a Windows desktop anymore and while I have both Windows and Linux partitions along with Mountain Lion on my installed hard drive, I'm probably going to wipe said drive and just use the entire partition for Mountain Lion. That said, I'd like to use an extra hard drive I have lying around to boot Windows.
My questions are:
1. Does my MacBook support USB boot to Windows?
2. If my laptop does support this, can someone point me to a set of good reliable instructions to install Windows onto the external hard drive and boot into it by USB?
Thank you; have a blessed day!

You seem to have a triple boot system that was done using the 10.6 installer disk and a copy of rEFIt.
I know because I had the same thing once.
I can tell you what will happen if you decide to upgrade 10.7 or 10.8
1: The EFI and GUID is going to change, rEFIt hasn't been updated in ages since 10.7 started rolling out back in about June 2011. There will be adverse effects with rEFIt so I hear.
2: The 10.8 upgrader is going to barf at your triple boot system, it will upgrade the 10.6 partition but warn you that the 10.8 RecoveryHD partition (10.7 and 10.8 both install) that it normally installs at the very bottom of the drive will not be installed and you can't enable Filevault.
Intel Mac's can have only 4 bootable partitions on the drive, the 10.7+ installer is normally dealing with EFI, MacintoshHD, BOOTCAMP, RecoveryHD. It barfs at anything else it doesn't understand and will not install RecoveryHD partition, which on a non-Internet Recovery capable hardware is required to reinstall the currently upgraded OS X operating system version. But you can always go back to the 10.6 disks and wipe and restore that way or via 10.6 USB boot key.
http://www.maciverse.com/install-os-x-snow-leopard-from-usb-flash-drive.html
So with 10.7+ you'll have to use something like Carbon Copy Cloner for the OS X partition.
So since rEFIt is going to be hosed, so will your ability to use the EFI based program to boot into the three operating systems at boot time.
I assume you found this out and why you want to dump Windows on a external drive. However Apple's EFI doesn't recognize Linux as a boot option.
There is a rEFIt fork that will allow Linux to boot on a Mac: http://www.rodsbooks.com/ubuntu-efi/index.html
Windows as you now know can't be booted off a external drive, however if your use of it is minor, you may want to consider using a virtual machine to run it in OS X or Linux instead using the free VirtualBox.
Windows in BootCamp or Virtual Machine?
You should Carbon Copy Cloner the OS X 10.6 partition to a external GUID OS X Extended J (JHFS+) drive.
You can use WinClone 3 in OS X to clone the Windows partition to a external drive, but it's a backup only, no booting capability. Restoring it will boot on the internal drive of course.
Linux you should already know how to clone it to a external drive using dd.
I advise you use the 10.6 install disks to set up your new partition scheme, but your going to have to uninstall rEFIt and return the machine and firmware back to basic Apple factory system as possible before doing anything.
EFI doesn't get erased, it resides in NVRAM and the EFI partition, controls the at boot key commands to boot off OS X install disks, so it's important to uninstall rEFIt completely before upgrading OS X.
If the Windows version your using is XP, to install that first using BootCamp in a fresh 10.6 install and reverse clone using WinClone before upgrading to 10.7 or above. It will be grandfathered in, but can't be reinstalled later.

Can I boot into Windows XP from a firewire enclosed Hard Drive? Boot Camp

I understand you can install XP (as long as it has service pack 2 or 3) on an Intel Mac using Boot Camp, but I was wondering if it would be possible to take a HD from a PC computer which already has XP installed, and, using an firewire HD enclosure, boot the Mac into XP from that. Would this be feasible?

Yes, but not exactly. The page says:
"Can I install Windows on an external drive?
No. Installing Boot Camp on an external hard drive is not supported."
But I don't want to install Windows, I want to boot my computer into it.
It also says:
"External FireWire disks are not recognized by the Startup Disk control panel in Microsoft Windows. To start up from a bootable external drive, press and hold the Option (Alt) key while the computer starts up, then select the external disk."
I don't mind if external disks won't appear under Windows, as long as I can still boot into it.
I found another helpful post:bootcamp windows 7 Firewire external drive NTFS?
Here someone writes:
"I still use Windows XP with my Mac but still never had such a problem with my two Firewire external HDs (one FW400 and one FW800).
And I did a lot of things with these
Partioned one for use with OSX and Windows (one HFS+ partition; one NTFS partition); copied my complete MP3-collection (180GB) from one external HD to the other; etc.
All without any kind of glitch or slowdown."
So it seems this person was successful in booting XP from an external drive. Windows 7 or Vista on the other hand will encounter problems booting, which that tread explains.
In another thread (Boot camp on an external hard drive) someone wrote:
"I believe there might be a way, I just haven't gotten around to trying this out.
1) use disk utility to partition the external drive to ntfs (i think)
2) attach this disk to a pc and install the OS
3) install refit onto your mac
4) attach the drive via fw800, or even better yet esata, to you mac.
5) Start up your mac
6) choose the win xp option from the boot menu
7) install bootcamp drivers
this seems, in theory, that it should work."
So from what I gather, I think this method would probably work, I just want to know if anyone had any specific knowledge regarding this subject.
From here I only have two questions:
Is it possible to take a working drive from a PC which already has XP installed, and change the format to ntfs under OSX without damaging the drive or OS?
And, would I need a version of XP with service pack 2 or 3, or will anything do, since we are not installing it with Bootcamp, we are only running it under Bootcamp at this point.
Thanks for any help!

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.

HT2518 how do i or can i drag and drop files from one external drive to another ???HOW

how do i drag and drop files from one external drive to another, i cannt get both drives to open up. only one at a time.. i have alot to learn i know but that is where i am at the time...

You posted here so would assume you are also talking about running Windows.
Are the drives NTFS and use on Windows?
Are they Mac HFS formatted?
You likely will need NTFS for OS X in one case. to mount PC and use under Mac OS Lion
MacDrive to mount and WRITE to HFS drives under Windows

Dual Booting with Windows Off of Different Hard Drives

Hi,
Been reading the guides but I'm still struggling with this.
I have this set up
SSD1 - Windows 7 (includes windows boot)
HDD1 - Windows Files (NTFS)
HDD2 - Arch Linux
When I installed, Arch, I unplugged the windows drives.
I partitioned arch as following (from fdisk -l)
sda1 /boot
sda2 /
sda3 swap
sda4 Extended
sda5 /var
sda6 /home
my menu.lst file looks like this
# (0) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux X11
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/sda2 ro 5
initrd /initramfs-linux.img
# (1) Arch Linux Multi-User
title Arch Linux Multi-User
root (hd0,0)
kernal /vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/sda2 ro 3
initrd /initramfs-linux.img
# (2) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux Fallback
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/sda2 ro
initrd /initramfs-linux-fallback.img
After I reconnect the windows drives, i set the boot drive in the bios to HDD2. It boots to grub, but now booting the options fails. i tried changing (hd0,0) to hd1 and hd2 but it fails to do anything, so i assume (hd0,0) is correct. Booting as is puts me into the recovery shell. I tried changing the root=/dev/sda2 to root=/dev/sdb2 thinking it might work, and while it booted, it said it could not find the file system and asked for the root password for maintenance mode. I'm having a hard time discerning which hard drive is which and what the partitions are called once I added the extra disks. Is there some way to determine this? I noticed I couldn't use fdisk in the recovery shell.
Many Thanks.

This is precisely the reason to use UUID, or even better labels, instead of actual device names which might change depending on the order in which your system "discovers" the disks.
Here's what I would have done:
1) Connect all three drives and boot into a LiveCD
2) Run blkid to get UUID for each partition (might be useful if labels fail for whatever reason). This will also show you the currently assigned labels, if any, for the partitions
3) Use e2label to set label for ext{2,3,4} and ntfslabel for NTFS partitions. (Both use slightly different syntax, so be sure to check manpages before proceeding)
4) In menu.lst, replace all occurences of
root=/dev/sdxy
with
root=LABEL=arch
, assuming you set the label for your / partition as "arch"
5) In menu.lst, replace all occurences of
root (hdx,y)
with
label boot
, assuming you set the label of your /boot partition as "boot"
6) In /etc/fstab, replace all occurences of
/dev/sdxy
with
LABEL=<insert corresponding label here>
7) Profit!!!

Can I boot up my Macbook from an external USB HD?

Hello,
I was wondering if it is possible to boot up the latest Macbook from and external USB hard drive.
Please advise.
Thanks

That is incorrect GeeKay. I boot mine from a USB drive all the time, as do many others.
It is true that PPC-based Macs require a FW connection, but the Intel Macs can boot from either USB or FW drives.

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.

Can i run the adobe cloud from an external drive at internet cafes etc?

I'm travelling and I'd like to be able to leave my macbook behind sometimes, (such as in countries where I'd rather not carry such an expensive thing with me), however I use the adobe cloud suite on an educational subscription to process all my photographs..
My question is, can i keep the adobe suite on my external hard drive and run it off that at internet cafes etc?
I use Bridge, Lightroom, Photoshop and occasionally Premier for the most part.
Thanks,
Sarah Stackman

The Cloud is a delivery process... the programs still install on your local hard drive
Installing in Windows makes entries in the system registry... meaning the programs will not run away from the computer where they were installed
I do not know if a Mac has a similar process, where the drive must be with the computer where it was installed
This is an open forum with a mix of program users and Adobe staff, not Adobe support... you need Adobe support
Adobe contact information - http://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html may help
-Select your product and what you need help with
-Click on the blue box "Still need help? Contact us"

How to use iMovie with Aperture Library from an external drive?

Hey,
Some problems:
1. My first video, I stored the project on my own laptop and used the library from the HD. This seems to give some problems, but I now figured out I have to consolidate the media etc. so now my files don't get missing after unplugging the harddrive. I figured it would be a better idea to make all new projects on the HD, so I have everything in place all the time. BUT. look at the picture: there seems to be something wrong with the way iMovie recognizes the aperture library: i'ts not listed in the events library under the HardDisk (named Passport) but under my own drive... ??? (+ I don't understand the idea of events when I have my aperture library: Do I need to make events for all projects I make? how is this possible when the library is not in the correct position?)
2. I made a movie, but I'm unable to export a large/high quality version of this project. That's why I want to move my project to the HD and then open it on my partners Mac Book Pro to make a good export. Unfortunately, his macbook doesn't recognize the files and the files can't be opened in iMovie... (files stay gray and unclickable)
To sum it all up:
I want the best way to work with this set-up: mac book air, external drive with all my files and iMovie. And I want to be able to open the project on a different computer to make high quality exports.

First thing that comes up with videos in your 'picture' library is the videos are always under the full control of the picture library program. Which means Aperture is the keeper and master, and it decides what will be displayed in iMovie's Event Library. If Aperture is having difficulties sometimes it cannot or will not display the videos you are storing there.
Right now, I think the problem is your Aperture Library is on the internal Mac HD, not the external. You would have to move Aperture's Library to the external HD (along with all the pictures and videos). Then try to add the videos back into a project.
In extreme cases I have recommended moving the videos out of the picture library and re-importing them into iMovie Event folders to let iMovie manage it.

How can I boot my (OS Lion) Macbook (using external drive) to run Leopard

   I have recently installed Lion on my macbook. Previously, I had Snow Leopard. During that time, I used an external hard drive to boot into Leopard to run some programs that didn't run on SL (Spring Cleaning, for example).
   Today is the first time I tried to boot from the hard drive with Leopard on it since upgrading to Lion. Hitting Option during startup doesn't even show the external drive, and using the System Preferences/ Startup Disk method is equally useless.
   I like Lion and don't feel like doing a total re-install just to have occasional access to an older OS, but I'd sure like to have it all!
Any ideas for a workaround?

Verify that your external drive was formatted as GUID, it won't be bootable otherwise.

Can you boot with Windows XP from an external drive?

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