Dual boot on an External HDD

Hello!
I need to buy an external HDD but I have a few questions...
1. Can I create two partitions on it, one for storing personal data & other to install OS X?
2. Can I have two partitions: one with OS X & other with Windows 7?
Thank you very much!
All the best!

That is possible but since the two operating systems each use different file systems as the default, you must select a format such as FAT32 or ExFAT. This will not give you full and total support from either operating system. Personally I see that solution as a poor copmpromise at best.
If the Windows users are not doing anything that requires great amount of computer, you can put Windows on the external drive and run it from virtualization.
Games are heavy users of computer resourses.
Allan

Similar Messages

Dual boot Win7 on external eSata drive with Precision M4700

Because virtualization doesn't support some HW devices I need, I would like to dual boot Win7 Pro/64 on an external (removable) HDD connected to the eSATA port of my Precision M4700.
eSata means optimal performances, but will the boot menu be happy with a removable disk, i.e. which will NOT be permanently connected (obviously I won't boot the OS on the removable disk if it is not connected) ?
And on the legal side, is it OK to use the OEM license of the OS that shipped with the system for this ?
As a side question, are the OS entries in a Win7 boot menu bound to a physical disk on a specific Sata port ? IOW, what happens if I move a HDD with a bootable partition/volume from the internal bay (port 0) to an external eSATA enclosure connected to the eSATA port (port 5) ? Is the eSATA port transparent to the Win7 boot loader ? Will the volumes and drive letters remain unchanged and appear seamlessly to the OS on it ?

Hi Benoitm,
Assuming the M4700 can boot from an external eSATA port, this should be possible. And it should be possible to install onto an HDD then put that drive in an external case and boot from it. Your preferences and drive letters should be retained. You might want to verify your system can boot to an external HDD first.
The Dell license only covers the version of the OS that came with the system. In theory, dual boot requires two licenses.

Can't boot Arch from external HDD

Hi, well first off this is not my first Arch Linux installation, I'm using Arch for a little over a year now (coming from slack). But this is my first attempt to have Arch on an external HDD.
Alrighty, the situation is as follows: A rather new computer (supports booting from USB devices and the bios is set to boot from removable devices first) with a built in HDD and an external HDD that's connected to that computer via USB.
What I did: I connected the external HDD to the computer and booted off a 2008.6 Overlord core-CD.
Arch-Live recognized the internal HDD as sda and the external HDD as sdb.
I partitioned the external HDD using cfdisk and ran mkfs.ext3 on it (I didn't use any switches with that).
I started the installer, set my mount points (I should mention I'm not gonna use a swap partition here), installed the packages, well just went through the installation routine and installed grub in the MBR of sdb (the external HDD).
Then I rebooted. And this is what doesn't work: When I boot that computer with the external HDD connected the computer completely hangs right before grub would come up. It freezes completely, ctrl+alt+del doesn't work, I need to use the powerswitch to reboot the computer.
So I put the Arch-CD back in the CD drive trying to boot into my Arch System on the external HDD. So I started typing:
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sdb1 ro vga=773
initrd /boot/kernel26.img
When I try to boot off that grub tells me that there is no such device as hd1,0. The funny thing is, that the auto copmletion in grub works for the kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 but it doesn't for the device /dev/sdb1, in fact even root=/de<tab> returns a "unrecognized string" message.
So this is what I did and I can't boot off my external HDD, neither can I boot into my system on the external hdd from the cdrom.
What am I missing here?

The harddrive you boot from is in my experience always hd0. Could this mean your external disc is hd2?
Have you tried chainloading from the installer cd to your external disc?

Cannot backup Windows 7 (dual-boot) image to external HD (formated as Mac OS Extended)

I cannot backup my Windows 7 (dual-boot) image to my external HD (formated as Mac OS Extended). I installed MacDrive 8.0 hoping to solve the problem but Windows 7 gives me an error when I try to create a backup: "...drive is not formatted as NTFS, cannot use as backup...".
I also tried making an Image of the Windows 7 partition through Disk Utility but was not allowed to do so.
I am not sure where else to go from here. I need to keep my external hard drive formatted as Mac OS Extended but I also need to backup my Windows 7 partition. I only have the single external at the moment. Is there a way to backup my Windows 7 partition?
Thanks

Winclone will backup your Windows partition to a Mac formatted drive.
Just search for Winclone on this forum and on Goggle.

How can I boot from an external HDD that has an OS install on it?

Hello,
I have Windows 8.1 installed on my 500GB LaCie external HDD and I am trying to boot my mac from it. I haven't had any success. Thus far, I am able to get to the Startup Menu from holding the option key and Windows does show up. However, when I try to boot it, it says "No Bootable Device Found."
Keep in mind, the hard drive has Windows 8.1 installed on it. It is not a drive to install Windows through Boot Camp.
Any help would be much appreciated.

Read Starting from an external USB storage device (Intel-based Macs)

Troubles booting eMac from external HDD over firewire

I have an MBP that had to be taken into the shop recently and will unfortunately be there for a week or more. Before I took it, however, I used SuperDuper to do a full backup to a partition on an external HDD (a WD "My Book Pro" 500GB drive with two partitions -- one for full backups and one for extra storage). For the time being, I have an eMac (PPC G4 700Mhz w/OS X 10.4.11) that I was hoping to use to boot from the FW drive.
Unfortunately, I can't seem to get it fly. I have the drive connected via FW and when I hold down option at boot it only shows the internal drive (I've also waited a few minutes and tried numerous refreshes -- no dice). When I look at Startup Disk in Systems Preferences it does show the FW drive as an available boot device. When I select it and reboot, however, I get a the system folder question mark icon for about two seconds and then the eMac boots from the internal.
I know the backup is fine because I was able to boot over FW from the MBP. The backed up data is system 10.4.11 as well.
Any thoughts?

Hey Dema,
Well the builds for Intel vs PPC Macs are very different. However this can be done as here:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2006061610374449
and they talk about the earlier method using two partitions. They figured a way to do it without the partitioning.
Richard
Message was edited by: spudnuty

Boot Camp from External HDD

I need to use boot camp so i can learn MSSQL for work, the problem is that I only have about 15G left on my hard drive.
How do I use boot camp to set it up on the external hard drive, when i start boot camp assistant, it does not give me the option to select the external HDD,
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers

How do I use boot camp to set it up on the external hard drive, when i start boot camp assistant, it does not give me the option to select the external HDD
You basically can't. This is Microsoft's fault, not Apple's.
Format the external drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), move data such as the iTunes or iPhoto libraries to it, launch those applications with the Option key held down, point them there, and then delete them from the hard drive. If there are items in the /Library/Printers/ folder you don't use, those can be deleted, and Monolingual can be run to free up more space.
(47325)

Booting from USB external HDD on Satelite L30

Hi,
Is it possible to boot winxp (pro, sp2) from external HDD case connected by USB?
Some previous topics suggest that it is not possible (officially), but one (http://forums.computers.toshiba-europe.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=21996) says that it is. I have tried to search for mentioned method, but with no results (maybe because english is not my native language).
It is very important for me, and I would really appreciate if anyone could give me a hint.
Second question is about "plus" before HDD boot option in BIOS (Phenix afair). Is suggests it is possible to connect more then one disc - if so, then how? Inside laptop, of course, there is no additional room...
Thank you in advance!

Hi
> I have tried to search for mentioned method, but with no results
As the other threads already suggested its not possible to boot from the external USB HDD. You can boot from HDD, CD/DVD, FDD, LAN.
The external USB FDD can be connected to the notebook and you could boot into the dos from the diskette.
By the way; this notebook does not support select bay and you cannot insert a second HDD

Boot issue with External HDD since OSX 10.10

Hi
Wanted to share my experience and I hope someone can help me here. I have a 2TB USB3.0 LaCie Minimus HDD that worked just fine on OSX 10.9 and even Windows 8.1. However since Yosemite (10.10) every single Mac (MacPro, MacBookPro) that I plug the HDD to will not longer boot-up normally (cold boot) IF the HDD is turned on. Power off the HDD every Mac on 10.10 will boot normally. However reboot and wake-up from sleep work fine.
To make sure I explained my self correctly.
Power off your mac on OSX 10.9, have the 2TB USB3.0 LaCie Minimus HDD (powered on) connected to your Mac. then power it on back and no problems.
Power off your PC with Win 8.1, have the 2TB USB3.0 LaCie Minimus HDD (powered on) connected to your PC. then power it on back and no problems.
Power off your mac on OSX 10.10, have the 2TB USB3.0 LaCie Minimus HDD (powered on) connected to your Mac. then power it on back and the Mac boot will be stuck until your power off the 2TB USB3.0 LaCie Minimus HDD.
Also note that Rebbot and wake from sleep work just fine in every situation and OSs. I reseted the PRAM, SMC, and tested the HDD on a Fresh 10.10 install as well as on a 10.10 upgrade and a Old 10.9.X MacBookPro.
To make sure it was not a partition problem I formatted the drive and removed all partitions (EFI) several times on each OSs... Same result.
Finally I contacted LaCie and I am waiting for their feedback.
Message was edited by: Akiba-Seattle

Here you are!
PS Thanks for helping. In My case it was disk2
XXXs-Mac-Pro:~ XXX$ diskutil info -plist disk0
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Bootable</key>
<false/>
<key>BusProtocol</key>
<string>PCI</string>
<key>CanBeMadeBootable</key>
<false/>
<key>CanBeMadeBootableRequiresDestroy</key>
<false/>
<key>Content</key>
<string>GUID_partition_scheme</string>
<key>DeviceBlockSize</key>
<integer>512</integer>
<key>DeviceIdentifier</key>
<string>disk0</string>
<key>DeviceNode</key>
<string>/dev/disk0</string>
<key>DeviceTreePath</key>
<string>IODeviceTree:/PCI0@0/RP05@1C,4/SSD0@0/PRT0@0/PMP@0</string>
<key>Ejectable</key>
<false/>
<key>FreeSpace</key>
<integer>0</integer>
<key>GlobalPermissionsEnabled</key>
<false/>
<key>IOKitSize</key>
<integer>251000193024</integer>
<key>Internal</key>
<true/>
<key>LowLevelFormatSupported</key>
<false/>
<key>MediaName</key>
<string>APPLE SSD SM0256F Media</string>
<key>MediaType</key>
<string>Generic</string>
<key>MountPoint</key>
<string></string>
<key>OS9DriversInstalled</key>
<false/>
<key>ParentWholeDisk</key>
<string>disk0</string>
<key>RAIDMaster</key>
<false/>
<key>RAIDSlice</key>
<false/>
<key>SMARTStatus</key>
<string>Verified</string>
<key>SolidState</key>
<true/>
<key>SupportsGlobalPermissionsDisable</key>
<false/>
<key>SystemImage</key>
<false/>
<key>TotalSize</key>
<integer>251000193024</integer>
<key>VolumeName</key>
<string></string>
<key>WholeDisk</key>
<true/>
<key>Writable</key>
<true/>
<key>WritableMedia</key>
<true/>
<key>WritableVolume</key>
<false/>
</dict>
</plist>
XXXs-Mac-Pro:~ XXX$ diskutil info -plist disk2
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Bootable</key>
<false/>
<key>BusProtocol</key>
<string>USB</string>
<key>CanBeMadeBootable</key>
<false/>
<key>CanBeMadeBootableRequiresDestroy</key>
<false/>
<key>Content</key>
<string>GUID_partition_scheme</string>
<key>DeviceBlockSize</key>
<integer>512</integer>
<key>DeviceIdentifier</key>
<string>disk2</string>
<key>DeviceNode</key>
<string>/dev/disk2</string>
<key>DeviceTreePath</key>
<string>IODeviceTree:/PCI0@0/PEG0@1/BR00@0/BR13@1/XHC1@0</string>
<key>Ejectable</key>
<true/>
<key>FreeSpace</key>
<integer>0</integer>
<key>GlobalPermissionsEnabled</key>
<false/>
<key>IOKitSize</key>
<integer>2000398934016</integer>
<key>Internal</key>
<false/>
<key>LowLevelFormatSupported</key>
<false/>
<key>MediaName</key>
<string>ST2000DM 001-1ER164 Media</string>
<key>MediaType</key>
<string>Generic</string>
<key>MountPoint</key>
<string></string>
<key>OS9DriversInstalled</key>
<false/>
<key>ParentWholeDisk</key>
<string>disk2</string>
<key>RAIDMaster</key>
<false/>
<key>RAIDSlice</key>
<false/>
<key>SMARTStatus</key>
<string>Not Supported</string>
<key>SupportsGlobalPermissionsDisable</key>
<false/>
<key>SystemImage</key>
<false/>
<key>TotalSize</key>
<integer>2000398934016</integer>
<key>VolumeName</key>
<string></string>
<key>WholeDisk</key>
<true/>
<key>Writable</key>
<true/>
<key>WritableMedia</key>
<true/>
<key>WritableVolume</key>
<false/>
</dict>
</plist>
XXXs-Mac-Pro:~ XXX$ diskutil cs list
No CoreStorage logical volume groups found
XXXs-Mac-Pro:~ XXX$
XXXs-Mac-Pro:~ XXX$ sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0
Password:
gpt show: /dev/disk0: mediasize=251000193024; sectorsize=512; blocks=490234752
gpt show: /dev/disk0: PMBR at sector 0
gpt show: /dev/disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1
gpt show: /dev/disk0: Sec GPT at sector 490234751
      start       size index contents
          0          1         PMBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2         32         Pri GPT table
         34          6
         40     409600      1 GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
     409640 488555536      2 GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
488965176    1269536      3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
490234712          7
490234719         32         Sec GPT table
490234751          1         Sec GPT header
XXXs-Mac-Pro:~ XXX$
XXXs-Mac-Pro:~ XXX$ sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk2
gpt show: /dev/disk2: mediasize=2000398934016; sectorsize=512; blocks=3907029168
gpt show: /dev/disk2: PMBR at sector 0
gpt show: /dev/disk2: Pri GPT at sector 1
gpt show: /dev/disk2: Sec GPT at sector 3907029167
       start        size index contents
           0           1         PMBR
           1           1         Pri GPT header
           2          32         Pri GPT table
          34           6
          40      409600      1 GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
      409640 3906357344      2 GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
3906766984      262151
3907029135          32         Sec GPT table
3907029167           1         Sec GPT header

Problems with Boot camp and External HDD's

Hi, I recently installed windows XP using Boot Camp, and everything worked fine, until yesterday when I tried to reboot into MAC from WINDOWS. It restarts back into windows everytime, and now I can't get back to mac! (using leopard, not snow leopard) Whats wrong?
Another thing, I have a 500gb Lacie ext HDD, and I can use it fine with mac, but when I tried to access it with windows, it won't work. It will appear in My Computer but when I log in it won't access the data. What can I do?
Im using the HDD for backups with time machine, is this why windows cant access it?
Thanks in advance

FAT32 will accessible from both Windows and OS X
If you don't want to reformat your ext drive you need something like http://www.paragon-software.com/home/hfs-windows/ or http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/

Dual HDD dual boot Win7/Win7 hibernate corrupts partitions? W510

I have two SSDs in my laptop using the ultrabay caddy. Both have 2 partitions each one with Windows 7 64bit and another one with OEM stuff on it (SYSTEM_DRV). I use the BIOS boot menu to boot between the drives. I have removed the drive letters so that no partitions of drive 1 are mapped in windows 2 on drive 2 and wise-versa.
What I have observered however is that when I hibernate windows 1, boot windows 2 do some work and shutdown then resume windows 1 - the windows 2 partition will get corrupt quite often (on either hdds). On several occassions I have seen the win 1/2 partition become RAW instead of NTFS (that is - it's completely borked) in Disk Manager or chkdsk running and wiping out all security descriptors on the file system resulting in a completely broken system (black screen of dead - unbootable).
Why am I seeing these corruptions and what can I do to prevent them?

Hi Benoitm,
Assuming the M4700 can boot from an external eSATA port, this should be possible. And it should be possible to install onto an HDD then put that drive in an external case and boot from it. Your preferences and drive letters should be retained. You might want to verify your system can boot to an external HDD first.
The Dell license only covers the version of the OS that came with the system. In theory, dual boot requires two licenses.

Windows 8 and Canvio Desk 3TB: System will not boot when external hdd is connected

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Operating-Systems-e-g/HP-PAVILION-A6109N-amp-windows-8-System-w...
Hi,
just recently upgraded to Win Pro on my HP PAVILION A6109N. I also bought a toshiba canvio desk 3TB. What I notice is that if I reboot my pc with the extermnal HDD connected, my system will not boot.
I have check my BIOS boot settings and the order of the boot.
I have tried disabling USB Legacy Support in the BIOS
I have reformatted the external HDD
but still my desktop will not boot if the external HDD is connected....If I disconnect the external HDD...the system will boot up ....
I am at a loss....*** scratching my head ***

Update: The only solution for me was to format the drive as ext3 and plug it into one of my Asus RT-N66U USB ports, as most routers don’t yet recognize 3TB drives as NTFS. It’s not much help to people who don’t have a router with this capability, and it also slows transfer rates to ~12MB/s.
Given the short length of the cable, your only other options are to have the 3TB Canvio sitting right next to you so you can unplug from a front USB port before each boot, or place it towards the rear of your desk and crawl under the desk to disconnect it from your PC prior to each boot.
It's a pity because Toshiba produce great internal HDD's, but my experience when it comes to external drives is they're simply junk. I wish I had read the reviews before purchasing.

Mac won't boot, stuck on grey screen if the external hdd plugged in

as the title.
if i plug my external drive, via usb port, the mac won't boot and stuck at grey screen.
unplugging it, the boot process will continue.
the hdd is a LaCie mobile hdd
any help?

Hello jason(?)
It's a LaCie external mobiel hdd, formatted as exFAT. without adapter. take power directly from usb port.
i tested it on my iMac and it works fine. boot up as normal. the only difference is my iMac is on 10.6.8 and my Air is on 10.7.2
I tested on both USB port on my Air and the problem still persist.
the read/write speed is normal (bought it like a day ago).
another thing is I don't have this problem with my external WD drive.
One thing to notice is that, I accidentally left like for like 2-3 mins and it boots. So why the question now is why it's taking so long to boot? normally it just takes <20 seconds. Seems like it tried to boot from the external hdd, doesn't it?

Booting from external hdd

booting from an external hdd through the usb port - can it be done on my g3 imac indigo?

For the FireWire port, it's not a theory; it will work. However, I do not know of any adapter that will allow a USB 2.0 drive to connect to the FireWire port.
You should buy a good quality external drive enclosure and transplant the drive. You can often find cheap ones by looking on dealmac.com
http://dealmac.com/categories/Computer/Storage/Drive-Enclosures/Fire-Wire-Drive- Enclosures/369.html
However, I prefer better quality enclosures even if they cost a bit more. OWC (www.macsales.com) sells some good enclosures with no drive. I have a Macally aluminum (fanless) case that I got from Amazon; it has been reliable with several different drives inside.

3 mem stick in dual mode - how high + external usb HDD boot question

Hi guys. I have 2 questions:
1. If I put 2X512 mb Kingmax DDR 433 mem sticks in one channel and the 1 gb stick in another one will I be able to run mem clock on 209 MHz in dual channel mode (because of memory controller limitations)? Is there any chance to break 200 fsb limit with this memory combination.
2. I have Philips SPD 5100CC external USB HDD. Last night I tried to install windows xp on it but after first reboot I am getting the messsage Windows could not boot ........windows root\system32\hal.dll is missing or corrupted. I have latest bios and the drive is listed in boot menu under Hard Drive option and so is my USB flash drive. I boot without any problem from USB flash. Is this related with the mobo or external HDD encosure?

well, one thing is sure, you won't get dual channel if you use 3 memory sticks. the problem is that sometimes you cannot even boot with 3 modules installed. check the mobo manual on the possible memory modules configurations

Dual boot on an External HDD

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