Run Windows from an external drive......

I want to boot Windows from an external drive. Why would Apple not allow this to be done. It makes no sence to me at all. You would still have to run Windows from the intel-Mac. To make you waste good MacOS space on the internal drive is a shame. I know... I can remove Windows and re-gain my "lost" space. However, my kid needs to run some school programs that are in the Windows format only. I hope that someday Apple will let BootCamp run from an external drive also.
Apple //GS

I run OS X from one drive, have my home account on a second drive and improves performance.
VMware image is on non OS X boot drive which I think helps so there isn't I/O contention.
OS X shouldn't really be doing much paging regardless of what you are running if you have enough memory. A lot of system and application paging 'maps' to VM, and you can't disable or want to with either Windows or OS X. The Windows \C: is going to be wherever the VM client is located.
Now, whether VMware or Parallels running as an application is paging and using OS X swap, that just depends on your system memory, and goes to OS X boot drive like any application.
OS X can run off external and you could install some windows programs to use an external drive (FAT or NTFS partition) to free up space also. Or use Parallels and put the VM there.

Similar Messages

How Do I Run Windows from an External Drive?

Recently my PC with Windows XP crashed- it's old and the motherboard went. I had a full version of Windows XP on there, and I would like to know what I need to do in order to run Windows off of that hard drive (I've taken it out and have it in an enclosure). Ideally, I would like to be able to plug in this external drive, and start a program that will allow me to run Windows off of this drive.
I have downloaded a trial of Parallels Desktop, which seems like it will work, but it needs me to install a transporter on the Windows drive before it can migrate the drive. The problem is, I can't access my drive anymore since my PC is no longer broken.

Then I guess my question is how do I go about transferring my PC data to the external drive without a PC*.
In Parallels, I try this:
Migrate Windows from a PC > External Storage Device > then it says "please install Parallels Transporter Agent on your PC
Since my PC no longer works, I need to find a way to transport the data. As of now, I plug in my Windows drive to my Mac, and it doesn't even show up. I would be OK with running Windows on my Mac via a VM, although it looks like I would need to buy Windows again since it's an OEM copy...
*I found a site where it says it can be done, but I am just having trouble with the transporter program.
https://www.knowhowcompany.com/en/question/14996/Is-it-posible-to-run-windows-Pa rallels-on-Mac-from-an-external-hard-drive.

How to run windows from an external usb drive

Hi,
I've just install windows using bootcamp. after that i restore that windows installed bootcamp volume to an GUID partitioned external HDD. Now it is shown in startup disc, but when i select that (external HDD) volume it is unable to start.
I don't know what to do? I just want to run windows from an external usb drive like i can run mac osx.
please help. thanks

Windows will not run from an external drive.

Running audio from an external drive question

HI there,
i am waiting the delivery of a high quality firewiredrive to run my audio tracks for my g5 imac.
I am a beginner at logic and i have logic express7.0 with logic pro 8 on its way.
In fact am a beginner at computer music. For the last 5 years i have been recording on an akai dps16 so this is a big learning curve right now, thought i have already made my 1st c.d. on logic express. Logic is awesome.
so
i am trying to get my head around running audio from an external drive as everyone recommends and instead of waiting for the new firewire drive to arrive i thought i'll learn this using my 500gig maxtor usb2.0 drive.
i have sussed out the record path business and all seems well. I have created 24 tracks of audio and i can see them in the audio folder in my logic project in my maxtor drive. So (i think) i have learned how to run audio from the maxtor, but what seems a bit odd to me is that when i run the exact same song from the internal drive ( I copied it from the maxtor drive) there doesnt seem to be any increase in the load of the system memory or the cpu as seen on activity monitor or logics audio performance meter.
I would have expected the identical song running from the internal drive to be more taxing on the computer.
Maybe i am doing something wrong but i dont think so.
Any help would be greatfully appreciated
Tom

The problem with internal drive is that is accessed by the OS and by Logic.
With a powerful Mac 24 tracks recorded at 16 bits and a sampling rate of 44100Khz are not n issue but increasing these values or the number of tracks the problem will appear and you will see the disk I/O meter going up very fast.
At that point you will begin to experiment audio hiccups before and a song stop later.
The same problem appears with drivers that have a reduced band (like USB 2.0) while firewire ones are faster, more stable and don't load the CPU.
cheers
rob

Want to run iTunes from an external drive, how?

I want to run iTunes from my external drive, I have already made back ups of my library and media files but I can't figure out how to save iTunes to the external drive? When you download itunes it just automatically downloads to the computer. Can you even do this? If not, how can I use the saved info on my external drive (library and media files) with my itunes on the computer. The problem we are trying to solve is a lack of space on our computer and we want to free as much space as possible. Thanks!

I want to run iTunes from my external drive, I have already made back ups of my library and media files but I can't figure out how to save iTunes to the external drive?
Drag the iTunes library to the external drive, launch iTunes with the Shift key held down, and point it there.
(56927)

MacBook Air Hard Drive too small - can I run applications from an external drive or is there a better solution?

I just got a MacBook Air 11" 10.7.2 2GB/64GB. I love it, but the internal drive is sooo small. Occasionally I need to take projects home from work or travel with my computer. Is there any way to run apps (Final Cut Studio, CS5, Office 10, etc) from an external drive? I am trying to convert over from my Macbook Pro (running Snow Leopard) and I can't seem to find a solution.
Thanks for your time!
Samantha

Samantha,
It's best to keep your applications on the internal drive and consider external storeage for your data.
Your choices are direct attached storeage to the USB port (external portable USB drives), storeage on your home or work network, or cloud-based storeage, like DropBox.
You can also look at slimming down your OSX installation on your MBA by removing unwanted fonts and printer drivers.
Btw, you will struggle to run CS5 and Final Cut Studio on a MBA with 2GB RAM. Only install the applications you really need on your MBA.
Can I ask which model MacBook Pro you are migrating from?

Running SL from an external drive on Lion-installed iMac

I recently installed Lion on my iMac with the intention of having Snow Leopard bootable from an external drive when I need to run all my PPC apps etc. Having formatted an external drive, I put in the Mac OSX SL DVD into the Mac to install it on to the external drive, but before I could do this, a message appears:
" You can't use this version of the application Install Mac OS X with this version of Mac OS X.
You have install (sic) Mac OSX 23.1"
Can anyone interpret this message for me please?
Thanks

The SL DVD. If you actually tried it, you'd have found that the blank drive doesn't appear because it doesn't yet contain Mac OS X.
(59758)

Options in running Windows from an mSATA drive

I recently ordered an x220 and expect to receive it this week. I also ordered an mSATA drive that I would like to install. Once I have it installed, I am not sure the best method to install Windows to the new drive and would appreciate some feedback.
I don't really like the idea of cloning the HDD to the mSATA because of solid-state disk alignment issues and degredaded performance. Also, I believe Windows 7 will correctly configure itself to utilize a solid-state when it goes through the installation process, and simply cloning the HDD will not give Windows an opprotunity to perform the configurations.
I could install Windows from scratch. I like that this option will ensure Windows will configure itself for solid-state drives. I am concerned, however, that I will not be able to reinstall all of the Lenovo drivers and applications as correctly as they should. I reviewed the User Guide for my x220 (available here) under the section of installing a new OS, and it points to registry patches to update Windows and mentions downloading various drivers from the Lenovo site. If Lenovo integrates into Windows to the degree that it requires manual registry edits, I'm not sure I want to attempt to manually place the Lenovo software on top of a plain Windows installation.
The third choice I see, although I'm not sure it will work, is burning the backup recovery media and using this to install the Lenovo configured OS onto the mSATA drive. I question if this will work because if the recovery process is only dumping flat files into the partition, it will not configure Windows properly to utilize a solid-state disk. If, however, the recovery process is a true Windows installation, it should determine that I am utilizing a solid-state and should adjust its configuration accordingly. Does anyone know how the recovery process works?
If you were in my shoes, how would you proceed with getting Windows onto the new mSATA drive? Looking forward to any replies, thanks.
Jesse

I could do that, but I would suffer write performance loss due to the SSD partition being out of alignment. I found this helpful article that describes what alignment is, and why it is important.
I think you are probably running your SSD at less than full performance capacity. Since you cloned the original HDD to the SSD, you probably didn't even notice your SSD could be performing faster. You can check you alignment by following this.
Additionally, if you don't let WIndows detect that it is being installed on a solid state disk, it won't optimize itself for that disk. I am referring to things like disk defragmentation, indexing services, or prefetching. These tasks really only apply to traditional spinning disks, and should not be enabled on a solid state. There are other things that are enabled that could be turned off, such as hibernation. With solid states, it is just as fast or faster to completely shut down the computer rather than hibernate, so why waste the disk space?
What are other people doing when they install solid states in their lenovos?

Running iPhoto from an external drive

So Santa was very kind and got me a new HDD to replace my busted up old one. I have partioned it with 1 partition running as my Time Machine back-up. The other partition I would like to use to store media that will not get changed a lot. Naturally I want to store my photos there. So I have 3 questions:
1. Should I just drag my iPhoto library over to the external?
2. Is it then safe to delete the original iPhoto library off the previous HDD?
3. Then just point iPhoto at the new location?
Thanks in advance.

jmoorezy
Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
1. can I move over only certain albums from iPhoto to the hard drive, or does it have to be the entire library?
It doesn’t have to be the entire Library, but the albums must be in an iPhoto Library if you want to
...access them through iPhoto again to view, manipulate, make albums, etc?
It’s common for folks to have two Libraries. We often see folks have a full library on an external disk and a smaller one on the internal disk of their laptops, for instance.
Here’s how you can do that:
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library to the External Disk. - Now you have two full Libraries.
3. In the Internal disk, remove any pics that you don’t want: Put them in the iPhoto trash and empty it. (Hint: iPhoto will baulk at trashing too many pics at one go. So, trash and empty the trash every 100 pics or so.)
Now you have a Full Library on the External, and a smaller subset on the Internal.
To choose between them: Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library'
Managing Multiple Libraries - including moving pics/albums/rolls and metadata between them - is greatly facilitated by using iPhoto Library Manager
Regards
TD

How can I run GarageBand from an external drive that is not my boot drive?

Hi, I'd like to move my GarageBand loops and songs I've composed to my external hard drive. I have moved my iTunes library to the external, I found good instructions on how to do that, but I have not seen any for GarageBand. Is it possible to move both loops and created songs, or just loops, or what? Any guidance would be much appreciated...

Is it possible to move {...} loops
http://www.bulletsandbones.com/GB/GBFAQ.html#loopsexternaldrive
and created songs
just move them

Why can't I move my iTunes library and run iTunes from an external hard drive?

I've been having issues with space on my Macbook pro, so I wish to move my music in order to free up more space. I have been following the instructions on how to run iTunes from an external drive, but each time I attempt it only the 'Automatically Add to iTunes' folder copies to my drive - which has nothing in it.
What is going on?

Which exact set of instructions? Just about all of them are wrong, even the ones that specifically say how to move your library.
iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music [library] to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527 - a somewhat bewildering and not always easily understandable set of options.
Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Open iTunes and immediately hold down the Option (alt) key (shift on Windows), then guide it to the iTunes Library.itl file in the moved iTunes folder.
For the record there's this reference for iTunes 11 but it really doesn't strike me as having the specifics you need. iTunes 11 for Mac: Move your library to another computer - http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12168

How do I move a partition on my mac hard drive, to an external hard drive so that i can run windows when the external hard drive is connected

How do I move a partition on my mac hard drive, to an external hard drive so that i can run windows when the external hard drive is connected

Are you talking about a Bootcamp partition? You can't boot Windows from an external drive.

Can I run applications from an external hard drive

Hi I am a sort a new Mac user and I would like to run Lightroom from an external drive. Is this possible on a Mac?
Thanks!

Yes, but it will load a little slower. If it does disk I/O from the external then that will also be slower.

[Guide] Install and run Windows 7/8 from an external drive without using bootcamp (works for late 2012 iMacs with 3TB drive)

This is a copy of a post from my blog, you can also Read it on my blog...
Introduction
After I received my new iMac with a 3 TB Fusion Drive, I was disappointed when I realized that Bootcamp was not running on this model and prevented me from installing Windows on it. I wanted to take advantage of the powerful iMac hardware to play games but I couldn't.
There are a few ways of working around this limitation, but I found most of them quite complex and most of the time they required formatting the internal hard drive or repartitioning it and go for a brand new installation of Mac OS X. I was not comfortable with that.
But there is another way, and that is to install Windows on an external hard drive, using either USB or Thunderbolt. Personally I used a Lacie Rugged 1 TB drive that has both USB3 and Thunderbolt connectors. Both work very well.
This guide may interest you if:
You have an internal hard drive of more than 2TB and you can't run bootcamp at all (like late 2012 iMacs with a 3TB drive)
You have limited space or you don't want to dedicate disk space on your internal hard disk drive to a Windows installation
What this guide will make you do:
It will make you erase all your data from your external USB3/Thunderbolt hard drive
It will make you install Windows on your external USB3/Thunderbolt hard drive
It will make you install bootcamp drivers
What this will not make you do:
It will not make you modify anything on your internal Mac hard drive
It will not make you use or install the bootcamp assistant
It will not activate the Preference Pane for the default boot drive. You have to boot by pressing the ALT key to manually select your boot drive each tome you want to boot Windows.
What you'll need
An external hard drive with a USB3 and/or Thunderbolt connector. This drive will be formatted so ensure you saved your files before going further. You can use either an SSD drive or a classic hard drive.
A Windows 7 or 8 install DVD or ISO (check whether to install 32 or 64 bits versions based on your Bootcamp drivers) and the corresponding Windows serial number.
One of the following:
Mac OS X with a Windows 7 or 8 Virtual Machine (use VMWare Fusion or Parallels Desktop for example. Note: VMWare Fusion seems to have some issues with Thunderbolt and USB3. Plug your drive to a USB2 enclosure or hub to work around this -it worked for me-, or use another VM software) → Read the important note below
A PC running Windows 7 or 8 → Read the important note below
Windows AIK (free) running on your Virtual Machine or on your PC, or just the imagex.exe file (the rest of the Windows AIK package is not needed)
Download imagex.exe
Download Windows AIK (this download and installation is not required if you have already downloaded imagex.exe)
Bootcamp drivers for your Mac. You can get these either by running bootcamp from your Mac (Applications > Utilities > Bootcamp) or, if like me you have a 3TB drive and can't run bootcamp at all, use the direct download links here.
A USB stick to store your bootcamp drivers
IMPORTANT: If your Mac has a 64 bits processor, your Windows Virtual Machine on OSX, your Windows installation on your PC and your Windows DVD/ISO must also be in 64 bits!
Step by Step guide
Step 1: Get the install.wim file
If you have a Windows ISO file:
Mount the ISO
If you're on OS X: double click on the ISO file
If you're on on Windows 7: Use a software like Virtual Clone Drive (free)
If you're on Windows 8: double click on the ISO file
Open the mounted drive, then go to the "sources" folder and locate the "install.wim" file. Save this file to C:\wim\ on your Windows installation or virtual machine.
If you have a Windows DVD: open the "sources" folder on the DVD and locate the "install.wim" file. Save this file to C:\wim\ on your Windows installation or virtual machine.
IMPORTANT: If instead of a "install.wim" file, you have "install.esd", you can not continue this step by step guide. And an ESD file can not be converted into a WIM file. So you must get a version of the Windows installation DVD/ISO that has an install.wim file.
Step 2: Clean, partition and format your external hard drive
On your Windows installation or virtual machine, plug in your external hard drive (can be plugged using USB2, USB3 or Thunderbolt at this stage)
Open the command prompt in administrator mode (cmd.exe). To run it in administrator mode, right click on cmd.exe > Run as admin.
Type the following and hit enter to open the disk partitioner utility:
diskpartType the following and hit enter to list your drives:
list disk
This will display a list of disks mounted on your computer or virtual machine. Make sure your drive is listed here before you continue.Identify the disk ID of your external hard drive. Replace # by your real external disk ID in the command below:
select disk #Clean all partitions by typing the following (warning: this will erase all data from your external drive!):
clean
Create the boot parition by typing the following followed by the enter key:
create partition primary size=350
This will create a 350MB partition on your external driveFormat the partition in FAT32 by typing the following:
format fs=fat32 quick
Set this partition to active by typing:
active
Assign a letter to mount this partition. We will use letter B in our example. If B is already used on your PC, replace B by any other available letter:
assign letter=b
Windows will detect a new drive and probably display a pop-up. Ignore that.Create the Windows installation partition using all the remaining space available on the external drive by typing the following:
create partition primary
Format the new partition in NTFS:
format fs=ntfs quick
Assign a letter to mount this partition. We will use letter O in our example. If O is already used on your PC, replace O by any other available letter:
assign letter=o
Windows will detect a new drive and probably display a pop-up. Ignore that.Exit the disk partitioner utility by typing:
exit
Step 3: Deploy the Windows installation image
Still using the command prompt in admin mode (you didn't close it, did you? ), locate the imagex.exe file mentioned in the "What you'll need" section and access its folder. In our example, we have put this file in C:\imagex\imagex.exe
Type the following and hit enter (remember to replace o: with the letter you have chosen in the previous step):
imagex.exe /apply C:\wim\install.wim 1 o:
This will take some time. The Windows installation image is being deployed to your external driveOnce done, type the following to create the boot section (remember to replace o: and b: with the letters you've chosen in the previous step):
o:\windows\system32\bcdboot o:\windows /f ALL /s b:
If you get an error message saying that you can't run this program on your PC, then most probably you are running on a 32 bits installation of windows and you're trying to deploy a 64 bits install. This means you did not read the important notes in the beginning of this guide
If you get an error message on the options that can be used with the BCDBOOT command, then it's because you're installing Windows 7, and the /f option is not supported. If that is the case, remove /f ALL from the command and retry.
Step 4: Boot from your external drive and install Windows
Plug in your external drive:
If you've done all the previous steps from a Windows PC, unplug your external drive from your PC and plug it to your Mac, either on a USB3 or a Thunderbolt port.
If you've done all the previous steps from your Mac using a Virtual Machine, ensure the external drive is plugged in to a USB3 or Thunderbolt port. Using USB2 should also work but you'll get very poor performance so I don't recommend doing that.
Reboot your Mac and once the bootup sound is over, immediately press the ALT (option) key and release it only when the boot drives selection screen appears. If you did not get the boot drives selection screen, reboot and try again. The timing to press the ALT (option) key is quite short. It must not be too early or too late.
On the boot selection screen, choose "Windows" using the arrow keys on your keyboard, then press enter.
The Windows installation starts. Follow the on-screen instructions as normal. The installation program will restart your computer one or 2 times. Don't forget to press ALT (option) right after the bootup sound, and boot on Windows again each time to continue the installation.
Step 5: Install bootcamp drivers
Once the Windows installation is complete, plug in the USB stick where you stored the bootcamp drivers (see "what you'll need" section), open it and right click on "setup.exe" and select "Run as admin". Follow the on-screen instructions.If you have an error saying that you can't run this program on this PC, obviously you have installed a 32 bits version of Windows and the bootcamp drivers for your Mac are made for a 64 bits version. You have to restart the whole guide and make sure to get a 64 bits version of Windows this time!
Once the bootcamp drivers are all installed, reboot and press ALT (option) after the bootup sound to boot on Windows again. And Voilà, you have Windows installed on your USB3/Thunderbolt drive running on your Mac.
Now each time you want to boot on Windows, press and hold the ALT (option) key after the startup sound and select "Windows", then press Enter.

Hi i'm trying to follow your guide, I installed windows 8 on bootcamp to do it planning to remove it after the operation is done, but i get stuck at part 3: every command i give to imagex i get a pop-up ftom windws asking how do I want to open this kind of file install.wim and imagex does nothing, what do i have to do to stop those pop-ups?

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.

Run Windows from an external drive......

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