Install BootCamp windows 8 on external Boot Disk

I have no internal hard disk, for other reasons. I need to install Windows 8 on an external hard disk, which is partitioned, and I boot from one partition (and the drive is GUID). My windows 8 is in the form of an iso, and I cannot burn it to a disk, although I could burn it to a USB drive. If you need any other info, I can provide it.
Thanks in advance,
Oscar Simpson

You cannot install Windows on an external drive. Microsoft only allows you to install it on an internal drive.
There's a Windows 8 feature called Windows To Go, that allows you to put your Windows system onto an external drive, but to do this, you need Windows 8 installed on the internal drive

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One external boot disk for multiple machines

i'm trying to find out if this is possible, but it's quite hard to find information on this
i want to install mountain lion on an external ssd disk (connected via thunderbolt or firewire) and use it as boot disk on a macbook pro (2012), imac (late2009) and a mac pro(not sure about the model).
will this be possible and a safe solution. will be used for music production with logic9 on a dayly basis reliability is key.
hope to find someone that have tried this out and can share some advices..
thanks

i'll be surprised if anyone can give you 100% guarantee that this will work fine.
It will definitely work on the computer you install it from.
Plugging the SSD to other machine - although it may start up - in my opinion it has "Kernel Panic" written all over it.
Would be probably OK with identical Mac models but you are talking about a range of Macs with different hardware in.
It will be interesting if someone does it and posts on this subject.

PSCS5 will not open from external boot disk

Because OS 10.8.2 was the worst update in Apple history, for the first time ever I decided to do the 10.8.3 update on an external boot disk before sacrificing my internal disk. I used Super Duper to make a bootable clone of my internal , booted from the external and then did the combo update. It seemed to be ok although they didn't fix the scroll bars in Safari as I had hoped. The first app I tried was Photoshop CS 5.1. It tried to open but I got a window that said "could not inialize scratch disk because disk could not be found". After I clicked OK on that, another window said "could not open because disk could not be found" . I have never tried to open Photoshop any version from a bootable backup before and I don't know what this means. The scratch disk for Photoshop is set to be my internal drive Macintosh HD. Why would it not find it? If I were booting from my internal and had set the scratch to the external it would find it. Why would the app be looking for itself on another disk?
After recloning my internal which is still 10.8.2, I have not yet booted from the external to see if the problem was somehow caused by 10.8.3, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was. People have reported the usual weird behavior of an upgrade already on forums, but not this paricular problem
I am runninga 2011 mini with dual i7 and 8 GB of RAM.

Just to be clear, resetting the Photoshop prefs is troubleshooting 101. I'll admit that since Photoshop CS and OS X, the need for resetting the prefs has gone way down (although I had a lot of problems when Photoshop first included GPU).
However, if you EVER have a hang/force quit or an actual crash, you should seriously consider resetting the prefs because, well, in a hang or crash, that's when pref can get corrupted...afterwhich Photoshop can misbehave and cause problems.
But in this case, resetting the prefs was a fix for the issue where the exact directory path for a scratch disk no longer existed and thus kept PS from even launching...
Although the OP hasn't given an update, I'm 99.9999% sure his Photoshop is back to launching correctly...and that the issue was fixed by trashing the prefs.

Security when Using an External Boot Disk

Hi All.
I'm about to purchase a new external hard drive for using as a boot disk and was wondering what securities you can now enforce on a partition with OSX 10.6
The main purpose for the external boot disk is for creating a shared usage resource for running applications. As I will be allowing others to use this drive, I am concerned about the security implications of using it with one of my macs, mainly because of viruses and data corruption.
I know that partitions/external drives used for booting Windows are secure because the windows partition is set to read only for other partitions/drives, preventing "infections".
The question is: Can I set the permissions/security for an external boot disk (OSX 10.6) partition so that if I use it with one of my machines, my internal hard drive will be secure from any viruses, corruptions, etc.
If you can, or if there's anything else I can do to the same ends, please can you tell me how (or post a link to instructions/advice)
Thanks in advance for your help.

Thomas A Reed wrote:
I'm glad you enjoyed reading my [Mac Virus guide|http://www.reedcorner.net/thomas/guides/macvirus>, but it sounds like it has not adequately impressed on you the extreme rarity of Mac malware at this time, or the low threat level. Also, it sounds like you're still operating under a couple misconceptions. Firstly:
The external boot drive idea seemed like the perfect solution. As it's the boot drive, when it's used, it's permissions will be enforced on the user. Theoretically this should provide solid protection from trojans, obviously not for that actual boot drive, but for my internal HD.
Keep in mind that trojans are not viruses... they are not going to spread themselves by attaching to other files. (Though, if they did, I'm not sure why you think they wouldn't be able to affect drives other than the boot drive.) Also, malware today is not a juvenile prank aimed at erasing your files. (Though, again, if it was, I'm not sure why you think it wouldn't be able to affect drives other than the boot drive.) Malware these days is big business, aimed at stealing your personal information or turning your machine into a slave to help send spam or crack other machines.
You also say:
The main threat will be from freeware
For this reason, AV software can actually cause more risk. No AV software catches all malware, so by becoming over-reliant on it, you don't use the filter between your ears. That filter is all that is needed to avoid Mac malware. And keep in mind that Mac malware is extremely rare.
@Thomas. I know how rare mac malware is, after a decade and a half of using macs I've yet to knowingly come across any.
The reason for my assumption that a secondary boot drive would afford me more protection is: As with any partition you can set the read/write permissions. Without write permissions, surely a virus cannot copy itself onto another drive.
The important thing is that this secondary boot drive would not contain any personal details, and would not be used for online purchases/transactions. Thus if malware was downloaded onto the drive, it couldn't access sensitive data.
Furthermore when I've finished working with someone, I can scrub the drive and restore from a cloned backup, thus eliminating any maleware that might be on it.
The most common freeware that will be downloaded will be codecs for video. There often is no way to get around this. If the person I'm working with has video in an unsupported format they need this code to use their footage. As you pointed out this is the kind of area that people use to hide trojans (not just for ****!).
Not at all. Again, trojans are not viruses... they do not show up on your machine attached to other software.
This has confused me a little. I thought that Trojans are written as a pice of code that can be hidden within another program. eg. A video encoder program can contain malware but still also behave like a normal encoder when you run it?
Thanks again for your help.

External boot disk, options?

Hi all I am considering buying a new mac mini which comes loaded with Mountain lion,
I want to have an external boot disk with Snow Leopard, so that I can run some legacy Rosetta apps
Q1. will Snow Leopard run successfully on the latest mac minis?
Q2. what is my best option for an external boot drive
I want a drive that will be ideally powered from the computer and that wakes up fast enough to boot an OS without the computer defaulting to the internal Mountain Lion OS
USB or firewire, whichever is best
what are your reccommendations?
cheers Robert

The current Mac Mini (mid-2011) can be retrofitted to have Snow Leopard work on it. There is a very comprehensive thread here on this site.
Look for the work of Newfoundglory:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/19463681?ac_cid=tw123456#19463681

Is it possible to Install SAP R3 in an External Hard Disk?

Experts,
is it possible to Install SAP R3 in an External Hard Disk?
Mohamed AR Rahaman

HI ,
yes You can....
Thanks
Shambhu

Imac retina external boot disk

Anyone have an iMac retina and using an external boot disk? Worked fine on my iMac from last year, but the new iMac won't boot from the several i tried - thunderbolt, usb drive. Oddly the only thing that seems to work is a USB stick.
The others just give the circle-with-a-line-through-it icon showing no boot environment found.
Thanks for any ideas.

The current Mac Mini (mid-2011) can be retrofitted to have Snow Leopard work on it. There is a very comprehensive thread here on this site.
Look for the work of Newfoundglory:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/19463681?ac_cid=tw123456#19463681

CD Boot: memory overflow error! Trying to install Bootcamp / Windows 7 on MacBook Pro 2009 with external superdrive

Hi all,
I'm trying to install Bootcamp on my machine.
I was running Parallels before but need Bootcamp in order to run heavy software on the PC side (e.g. Rhino/Maxwell/etc).
I have a Macbook Pro 17" from around 2009, running Mountain Lion 10.7.3.
Problem is, my internal CD Drive is broken and doesn't read discs, so it couldn't read the Windows installation disc (Windows Home Premium 7 64 bit - OEM System Builder Pack).
So, I rang Apple to try to fix it and they said it would be cheaper and faster to buy an external SuperDrive.
I explained that I wanted it to install bootcamp and they said, fine.
However when I bought the SuperDrive, it turns out its only supposed to be working with new Macbook Pro with Retina display, and other machines that don't have internal cd drives.
At first it didnt work, but then I found a helpful website which enabled it to work on my machine.
So I went ahead and started installing Windows through the BootCamp Assistant.
It partitioned my hard drive - success!
But then it turned into black screen, with message saying "CDBOOT: Memory overfloor error"
Help please!!!
I suspect the problem is either:
a) Old Macbook Pro can't boot from the Windows disk
or
b) The Windows OEM version is somehow not designed to work with Mac. I bought it secondhand off a guy, thinking it was the full version, silly thing to do!
Your thoughts and help is seriously appreciated!
Tomorrow I'm going to the Apple Store and also to buy a brand new copy of Windows, I guess.

This has been resolved. It turned out that in spite of the message at the end of installation - "Windows could not complete the installation. To install Windows on this computer restart the installation" Windows was installed successfully but the problem was the Bootcamp drivers, it could not read them(install them) from my original OSX Istall DVD and I thought that that the whole package was not installed successfully. I will copy the intructions here as well since this thread may attract lots of other people with similar problem who may think it was not a good installation. Here you go:
Ok, after 3 sleepness nights I have found a solution and finally have a working Windows 7 Ultimate. I hope this will be helpful for everyone having similar issues and not have to go through the same nightmare.
Right away after logging in Windows for the first time insert the original Snow Leopard Install DVD and if Windows does not read it or install any drivers after clicking on setup.exe do the following:
Right-click on Start » Programs » Accessories » Command Prompt
Select Run as Administrator
Type cd /d D:, then press Enter
Type cd Boot Camp\Drivers\Apple, then press Enter
Type BootCamp64.msi, then press Enter
If you do not how to right click before installing the drivers the following:
Click on Start
Enter cmd in the search box
Instead of hitting the Enter key use Ctrl + Shift + Enter and will open a dialog box
Click Yes at the prompt and you will be running as an administrator.
If you do not have the original install DVD go the this link and follow the instructions(including the ones from the last comment):
<Edited by Host>

How do I install Bootcamp Windows 8.1 To Go on an external USB disk (MBA 2013)

Hi,
I've got a new 11" 2013 macbook air with 128gb SSD. I've downloaded the windows 8.1 enterprise preview, and am trying to figure out how to install it on a 64gb USB3 Flash drive instead of on my SSD. The Flash drive speeds clock around 150mbs read/write so should be fast enough
I've managed to install the windows 8.1 preview on my SSD with BootCamp, but would like to erase that and try the new Windows To Go instead to install on the external drive.
Anyone know what the steps are?

There are 5 supported flash drives: which one do you have?
Hardware considerations
Windows To Go works both on USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 connections, and both on legacy BIOS and UEFI firmware.[11] Not all USB drives can be used in this environment; Microsoft has set up specific testing requirements that the USB drive manufacturer must meet in order to be a supported device. Currently there are five USB Flash memory devices listed as supported by Microsoft for Windows To Go:
Imation IronKey Workspace[15]
Kingston DataTraveler Workspace[16]
SPYRUS Portable Workplace[17][18]
SPYRUS Secure Portable Workplace (w/ Hardware Encryption)[19][20]
SuperTalent Express RC8[21]

Having trouble installing Windows 7 on external optical disk drive

My internal optical drive doesnt work so i ran out and bought and LG external Optical drive. I Reinstalled mac os 10.6 and created a 45gb partition in bootcamp. When i try to install windows, at the gray screen it flashes a folder symbol and a circle with a line through it like it cant find the boot up disk in the external disk drive. The version of windows 7 im using is a burned .iso that i got from my boss so i could work on my laptop, i have tried an official windows 7 disk and that produced the same error. Im really not sure what to do other than go to the apple store and the nearest one is 100 miles away so i preferably dont want to do that. Any help would be appreciated. thanks.

Sorry, it is not clear to me if you are trying to install Windows on an external optical drive or what. Read the Bootcamp installation and help manuals http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/
Windows needs to be installed on the internal hard drive drive.
Also, Bootcamp questions are better posted in the Bootcamp forum where the Bootcamp gurus hang out. https://discussions.apple.com/community/windows_software/boot_camp

Can I possible to use dual boot(windows 7 in internal hard disk and windows 8 in external hard disk)?

i want to create dual boot(2 OS in 1 laptop) in my laptop but my internal hard disk reach maximum(3) logical partition so my genuine windows 7 os is not allow me to create new logical partition and install win8 pro. i planed to purchase
one external hard disk and connect with my laptop and install win8 in external hard disk and use both win8 and 7. This is possible? If possible how to i create? please give me step by step instruction.

This is a developers forum for the presentation manager windows forms classes and api's
Try what has now a new name again user community forums, formerly answer forums.
http://answers.microsoft.com
Success
Cor

Is there a way to install Windows on an extern hard disk?

I have a mid 2010 iMac and inside a 160GB SSD instead of an 1TB HD and I want to install Windows on it. Because of the SSD is to small for Windows and all the games and so on I want to install Windows on an external firewire HD. Is there a way to make this possible?

Windows 7 can be trimmed to fit on 40GB (I've seen smaller but you need that probably). Same for Mac OS, a small OS normally unless you load up FinalCut, X-Plane World Edition, etc.
You can use another drive with NTFS partition for all the other things you want to use, page, applications, whatever, even temp/tmp and cache can be relocated to another volume.
And, there are iMacs with SSD + 2TB hard drives, and while the iMac isn't as easy to service and upgrade there are drive upgrades, incl SSD.

Bootcamp Windows 7 from External Drive Hangs

Hi All,
I recently removed my Macbook Pro's internal optical drive and replaced it with a 128GB SSD. I am running OSX 10.8.3 off of the SSD but can not get bootcamp to install Windows 7. I walk through the first steps with bootcamp assistant and partition spase for Windows. All is well untill I have to restart the machine and boot into the external optical drive. I select the Windows CD from the boot menu but the MBP hangs on a grey screen with the Apple logo and the drive spins down.
Any suggestions on how to get the MBP to boot from the external optical drive?

Apple admits in one tech note to poor FW800 speeds on Mac Pro.
Hard to get rid of GPT but if you format the drive to MBR in Disk Utility and FAT you can then convert or reformat to NTFS.
No mention of the make of the case.
FW400 is pretty good. But why not use eSATA PCIe and SATA. Native if possible (no FW/USB type cases, or Oxford with multi interfaces). Works for me, using FW400 or Sonnet Tempo E2P or E4P (but not both together in Windows).
The hot fix wasn't that for XP or something?
Motherboards like Gigabyte are coming out with a dual-use port for SATA and USB3. FW seems like proprietary, not really adopted or supported outside Apple.
And I'd say there are problems with NTFS drivers for OS X so that is an issue.
Also, as nice as it may seem, Boot Camp's AppleHFS.sys and HFS+ support for read-only in Windows causes other problems and side effects, like Windows 7's Backup facility to not work.
When I get a drive, I use Windows and the vendor's (WD etc) hard drive diagnostic to do a full test, zero, etc and almost invariably drives formatted in Mac OS had trouble and worked better after such tests and formatting.

Bootcamp - No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key help plz

Hello there!
I recently upgraded my imac mid 2010 system with a SSD hard-drive. The old "main" drive went to the place of super-drive and after reinstalling OS X into the new drive and wiping the old drive a very interesting problem happened. I started trying to install windows 7 via bootcamp. I did everything what the bootcamp assistant says and after the imac restarts itself it just says No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key. Firstly I thought that maybe something is wrong with the installation disk (i have an external super-drive connected to the imac). After restarting the imac once again i held down the option button and arrived to the screen, where it shows the avlaible boot options (different disks). Now, what I saw, was funny. The bootcamp assistant had'nt created the bootcamp drive at all. Atleast it did not show it. After doing this two-three times the result was the same. My next idea was that maybe, there is an issue with the concrete SSD model I am using. So I went back to OS X and opened the bootcamp assistant and restored the state of the OS X SSD drive. Next I did an bootcamp partition onto the old drive I have installed. But the result is still the same. Now my head is empty of ideas.
Has anybody had a similar problem and can you please give me tutorial what I did wrong or what to try next?
Thanks.
Indrek.

Hi Michael!
Yep, I did get this running. Not in a normal way (meaning the easy way). What I did, is that I just created the BOOTCAMP partition in OS X. Just let it format and create the partition where you would install BOOTCAMP.
After that I discovered that via a ISO program (WinClone) you can directly restore a previously created OS X boot image to your current computer. So, I installed a blank Windows 7 to my macbook pro, didint install any drivers and just let it work up then. Then I went back to os X (in macbook pro) and made a bootimage for the BOOTCAMP partition. After that I saved it to my external harddrive and wired it to my iMac. In iMac I just downloaded the same boot-image program and restored the bootimage that I made in Macbook Pro to iMac. After that I made an restart and the bootcamp section with windows worked well with my iMac. Install the bootcamp soft and you can do everything and everything works. FYI, you get the windows working via those steps, BUT if you either delete or do anything to make your bootcamp partition unworkable then you will have to repeat those steps again. But it´s fast non-the-less, so it shouldn´t be a problem for you.
If you didin´t understand anything or something doesen´t add up, send me a letter or a notification.
Hope this helps.
Indrek.

Bootcamp Windows Installer won't boot properly on rBMP late 2013

I have been redirected to this community. I will repost the same question I asked in the mackbook pro community. I am new to Apple Support Communities, I hope this is okay for me to ask the question here again.
Here is my post in the other community: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5922375?tstart=0
I just bought my MBP Retina 13" Late 2013 last week. It came with Mavericks 10.9, and I have since updated it to 10.9.1.
I have installed Windows 7 64bit using Bootcamp, and ran into a situation, which I hope the experts here could give me a hand.
I used the first two options in Boot Camp Assistant (BCA) and sucessfully created a Bootcamp Windows Installer for Windows 7 64bit on a USB Thumb Drive (USB 3.0). Then I launched Boot Camp Assistant again, and selected the last option to install Windows 7 64 bit on the bootcamp partition, the installation went through successfully. Both Windows 7 and the bootcamp drivers are installed, and I am able to dual boot OS X and Windows properly.
However, if I try to launch Bootcamp Windows 7 USB Installer created using BCA as described in the above by holding down <option> key while rebooting, and select the USB device lableled as 'Windows', Windows 7 Installer starts (in BIOS boot mode, I believe) and then it freezes after it gets to the language selection screen, the mackbook no longer responds to either the trackpad or the keyboard.
In other words, this Windows 7 USB Installer boots properly when launched by BCA's third option. However, this USB Installer does not boot properly when launched by selecting 'Windows' after holding down <option> key while rebooting. What am I doing wrong here?
Any help will be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Joe

I did create a Recovery Disk from inside Windows 7 this weekend following your suggestion. Unfortunately, this has the same problem as the installer.
However, USB Installer I created for Windows 8.1 could boot properly both in BIOS boot mode or EFI boot mode. This Windows 8.1 USB Installer is created using the standard procedure for the BCA; the only difference from the Windows 7 USB Installer is that I used Windows 8.1 ISO instead of Windows 7 ISO.
With this Windows 8.1 USB Installer, I am able to access the BOOTCAMP partition and perform necessary operations to fix startup issues, and perform backup and restore using the native Windows tools for the BOOTCAMP partition. And no need to spend $30 on WinClone
Thanks for your help!
Joe

Install BootCamp windows 8 on external Boot Disk

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