Is it possible to install windows 7 on mac on a external HD?
I would like to install windows 7 on my macbook pro but i can not afford the space on my internal HD, can i install windows 7 with bootcamp but have everything windows on my 500GB external drive, i also own parrallels desktop if bootcamp is not possible. Thanks for any help i can get.
Star1 wrote:
Hi Michael,
this is being discussed here from time to time:
(Now some pooping on Windows world):
Windows can't be installed on any external HD {as a matter of fact winOS can't be even started from a CD &/or DVD - any win install disk has to create an invisible install partition on your HD & run windows from there...} and has to be installed on partition C:\.
This, combined with 'briliant' "Registry" invention puts ANY windows OS (calling on you, Hatter) "behind the apes"...And how about outdated 'MBR' formating...
And your Parallels set-up will create a folder in your 'Documents' with the size of your win set-up (mine is 20GBs) so you aren't gainning anything.
That's incorrect, Parallels can use an external drive for its windows image, however it runs so slowly that way you might just want to scream!
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Installing windows 7 on mac book pro late 2013
Installing Windows 7 on Mac Book Pro Late 2013
Background
Mac Book Pro Late 2013 uses a USB 3.0 hub for the external ports, the keyboard and mouse devices.
Windows 7 does not have the drivers to support USB 3.0 ports so these must be integrated into the boot.wim and install.win files so that Win7 can be installed and used on a Mac. If these drivers are not integrated when win7 is booted up then the mouse and keyboard will not function.
Requirements:
Two USB Flash drives
Access to a Mac computer
Bootcamp Assistant application
Access to a Windows computer with windows 7 installed
Windows 7 install disk or ISO file
WinUSB application
Windows Automated Installation Kit for Windows 7 (WAIK)
Method
On a Mac
First prepare a USB Flash drive by formatting it using disk util app, found in Application Utility folder, to FAT format this will store the Apple drivers that can be downloaded from Apple using BootCamp.
This will be called USB1
Using Boot Camp Assistant select 'Download the latest windows support software from Apple' to get the files from apple for win7 for your particular machine these will be downloaded and copied to the USB Flash drive called USB1.
On a PC
Using a PC download a copy of WinUSB from www.joshcellsoftwares.com this software can create a bootable USB with the win 7 files copied on to it.
Obtain a copy of Windows 7 either in DVD or ISO format.
Using WinUSB and the Win7 DVD create a second bootable USB Flash drive. This will be called USB 2.
About DISM
DISM is a windows application that allows the editing of windows image files with the extension of WIM.
If DISM is not installed on the PC it can be downloaded from windows website.
To test to see if DISM is installed, open up a command prompt. Then type 'dism' without the quotes this will display the help description of DISM.
Drivers
The apple drivers need to be added to the boot.wim file so that mouse and keyboard can function during the setup phase.
The apple drivers need to be added to the install.wim so that mouse and keyboard can function after the setup phase.
The video drivers are also added as it appears to cause problems if they are not included.
Create a directory structure like this:
c:\appleboot\
drvrs
mount
win7x64install
win7x64boot
Create the following files in c:\appleboot\ with the following code:
adddrivers.cmd
color 0a
dism /image:c:\appleboot\mount /add-driver /driver:c:\appleboot\drvrs /recurse
================================================================================ ==========
mountboot.wim.cmd
color 0a
dism /mount-wim /wimfile:c:\appleboot\boot.wim /index:2 /mountdir:c:\appleboot\mount
================================================================================ ==========
mountinstall.wim.cmd
color 0a
dism /mount-wim /wimfile:c:\appleboot\install.wim /index:4 /mountdir:c:\appleboot\mount
================================================================================ ==========
unmountcommitfiles.cmd
color 0a
dism /unmount-wim /mountdir:c:\appleboot\mount /commit
================================================================================ ==========
Copy the following files into their respective directories:
Copy from USB 1 into drvrs the $WinPEDriver$ directory
Copy from USB 2 \sources\boot.wim to win7x64boot directory, this will store the original file
Copy from USB 2 \sources\install.wim to win7x64install directory, this will store the original file
Then copy boot.wim from win7x64boot directory to the c:\appleboot\ directory
Then copy install.wim from win7x64install directory to the c:\appleboot\ directory
Once all the copying is completed then run the following cmd files in this order:
For boot.wim
mountboot.wim.cmd - this will mount the file for adding of drivers
adddrivers.cmd - this will add the apple drivers to the mounted boot.wim
unmountcommitfiles.cmd – this will commit the changes and unmount the boot.wim
For install.wim
mountinstall.wim.cmd- this will mount the file for adding of drivers
adddrivers.cmd - this will add the apple drivers to the mounted install.wim
unmountcommitfiles.cmd – this will commit the changes and unmount the install.wim
Copy the files back to USB 2
Copy the boot.wim and install.wim files from c:\appleboot\ directory to USB 2 sources directory and overwrite the files.
BOOTABLE USB
You will now have a bootable USB Flash Drive that has the additional drivers needed to install Win7 on Mac Book Pro Late 2013.
Mac Preparation
On your Mac using Disk Util reduce the size of the partition of Macintosh HD so that there is approx. 80GB free for the use of Win7.
Add a second partition, label it win7 and format it to FAT. This is so that win 7 setup can identify the correct partition.
Installing Windows 7
Insert USB 2 into your Mac and reboot, whilst holding the option key down.
After reboot there will be three icons displayed one is the Mac operating system, the second is the recovery partition and the third is an orange icon indicating a bootable USB drive.
Select this and win7 setup application will proceed to boot up with the keyboard and mouse functioning.
Follow the prompts and when the drive selection appears select the win7 partition and format it to NTFS so that win7 can be installed. When windows setup reboots press and hold down the option key and select the windows partition so that setup can continue to install.
After completion of installation of win7 insert USB 1 with the additional apple drivers. Goto the bootcamp directory and click on setup.exe file this will install additional drivers needed to use Win7 on a Mac.
Once completed reboot your Mac and select windows to allow the drivers to update in windows.Yes this is correct that the /index:4 refers to the ultimate version of windows in mountinstall.wim.cmd
dism /mount-wim /wimfile:c:\appleboot\install.wim /index:4 /mountdir:c:\appleboot\mount
Users should do what applekryzzle suggested if you have a different version of windows. Thanks for the tip applekryzzle.
With regards to the Intel(R) USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller drivers they are the ones that are provided by apple via boot camp assistant.
These appear to work correctly and downloading as per instructions simplifies the procedure.
For those that are interesred the updated drivers can be found here https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=22824&ProdId=346 7&lang=eng&OSVersion=Windows%207%20%20*&DownloadType=Drivers
I have also seen in other discussions that some users get black screens i believe that it is the lack of video drivers which is included in the download from apple using boot camp assistant.
I'm certain that this works on Mac Book Pro Late 2013 models and i feel confident that this will work with other models.
I will appreciate any feedback if this works on other models. -
Trying to install Windows 7 on Mac Mini Mid2011
Am trying to install Windows 7 on Mac Mini (Mid 2011) OS X Mountian Lion (10.8.2) - 2.3GHz/i5/4GB/500GB with external optical drive attached. Using Windows 7 Ultimate (on USB Flash Drive) and Windows Support Software (on separate USB Flash Drive), as the external optical drive is not recognized when Boot Camp restarts to begin installation process. Here are some issues I am having:
Going through BCA, when selecting the new partition to install on (Disk 0 Partition 4 BOOTCAMP), the warning of "cannot be installed...", so I select Drive Options (advanced)/Format. Drive is reformatted to the NTSF, but loses the BOOTCAMP name. (Reformats to UNTITLED);
Installation of Windows 7 proceeds, until after its third restart and the color bar with the light burst at its center appears at the bottom of the screen with messages stating "Preparing....". The computer then reboots and starts this endless boot loop.
As it never gets to the part where the Windows Support Software is engaged, can I have both the Windows 7 Ultimate installation and the WSS on the same USB?
I have been researching this issue, but with no difinitive solutions (other than snarky "You obviously didn't read the prior post for this issue..." & "Don't people READ previous posts?" responses.), other than one rude reply saying this was a known issues and there is a fix/driver for it, but no reference as to where this fix resides.
Please if anyone has a solution, I would be very grateful for serious and considerate answers. If you feel the need to be rude/snarky/downright unhelpful, don't reply. This is a community help page, not your venting page.
Thank you in advance for all serious replies.
JAMinardRight now I have 6 different systems installed. Windows XP, 7, and 8 plus Linux Mint, Commodore, and OS X Snow Leopard (for old times sake), all running on Mountain Lion.
I recommend reading the user manual as it greatly helps getting through the steps, however an intuitive person should pick it up fairly easily.
Thanks to BobTheFisherman for the link.
There are other ways to get Windows on a Mac but I'm a big fan of open-source software.
Give it a try. You might like it or it may not be your cup of tea. -
I need to install windows on my mac
I'm an architect and have found myself needing to use Revit at home, obviously to do this I need to install windows on my mac. After doing some research I've decided to use Parallels to run Windows. My plan is to buy an external hard drive, install Parallels on my Mac and then run Windows as a Parallels Virtual Machine from the external hard drive. I know this sounds complicated but I think it will work as long as a get a good external hard drive. has anyone ever tried running windows like this? any advice on a good external hard drive? all helpful comments welcome!
These are my details
MacBook Pro, 15-inch, Early 2011
Processor:2.3 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory: 8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1024 MB
Software: OS X 10.8.2
Thank you!I have tried it before with USB 2.0 external hard drive. In case you are going to use USB external hard drive then I think the performance will be better if you put the Windows on the local hard drive instead of external since the early 2011 MBP USB port is not 3.0 yet.
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Hello Everyone,
I have a MacBook older model with me.I am running 10.7.6 on that, I was trying to use BootCamp to install windows on my mac. Since BootCamp can only work on a single Volume, I partitioned my Hard Disk to one volume.
Using BootCamp I installed windows and everything worked fine. After installing windows and testing everything, I switched back to OS X and this time I tried to make another partition on my single portioned Mac volume and named it Backup. That too worked. Now I have three Volumes
1)Development2)Backup3)BootCamp.
Next when I switched to Windows, It should the classic error, No Bootable device found, please insert a Bootable CD and press any key. When I tried to enter my Mac OS X install DVD and by pressing option key, it does not show me the proper Mac OS X development volume. It keeps going back to the No bootable device found message.
Any help will be much appreciated
Regards
Mithunyou can't add a partition in between - you put Windows to a new partition number.
GPT (GUID)
EFI
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Lion Recovery
Windows
And now you have two HFS
One partition and one Windows (plus Lion Recovery).
If you were to have more, it can't be before Windows for one thing.
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