Run Windows on external Thunderbolt hard drive possible?

I just got a 256GB rMBP and would like to run Windows (via Bootcamp) next to OS X for a few 3D apps. I'd love to have the 256GB internal flash drive for OS X exclusivley.
So I wonder if it's possible to install and run Windows 7 on a external SSD that I connect via Thunderbolt so I can keep my built-in flash drive free from Windows.
Thanks!

Brostad
the answer is NOT to run Windows in its own space on an external, but to get Paralells from the Apple Store $100 approx and get the helpful peeps at the store to migrate your old windows to your MBP Retina. Paralells is the best part of Mac which IMHO should be the backbone or shipped with every new Mac, esp for peeps that have a lot of expensive WIndows software, Win EXCEL ACCESS WORD, Adobe, GPS and the like.
Once set up rightly its very hard to know if your in windows running Mac or Mac running windows. Will also boot VMs ( Virtual machines) in linux ubuntu or whatever without restarting...
Running any major OS like OS 10.8 or Win 8 is not recommended from an exteranl as performance will suffer
Note: Do not upgrade to Windows 8 pro from an update disk as MS allows only one end user per licence, ( some other more expensive option is required) Even if you have installed Win 8 Pro do a roll back and migate from there. The peeps at the Apple shop may have a smooth solution
Hope this helps Robbo

Similar Messages

Can You Now Install Windows 7 64-bit On an External Thunderbolt Hard Drive?

Hi. Will Windows 7 see external Thunderbolt hard drives as internal and install it finally to an external hard drive (for Boot Camp)? Has anyone tried it yet? Thank you in advance.
Gbu.

Yep, it works great.
I bought the Thunderbolt adapter for my Seagate GoFlex. Use the Windows 7 install USB stick that Boot Camp makes. Each time Windows installer reboots, you need to hold the option key to reboot back to the new installation. If you miss it and the computer boots back to OS X, no problem, just reboot with option. Once Windows is finished, run Windows Support from your USB stick.
    When you try to select Boot Camp in the startup disk control pannel, there is only one 'Boot Camp' even if you have a Windows installation on your internal drive. When you boot into 'Boot Camp' there is a high quality beatiful black and white ASCII boot manager screen that Microsoft made. You'll see 'Windows 7' and 'Windows 7' to choose from. There is a freeware boot manager editor you can use to uniquely name your various Windows boots, or you can use Microsoft's cryptic text based editor. Windows doesn't do Thunderbolt plug and play, so if you're on an internal Windows and plug in the drive, it won't appear or even start up. Reboot and it'll be available in the boot manager.
    I plugged the drive in through the Thunderbolt display, and everything worked fine. I was sure I would have activation trouble with all the peripherals in the TB display, but there was none. In the Windows Device Manager, every last thing has a properly working driver. I've never seen a PC with every device working.
    It all works because Thunderbolt really is a PCI express slot, just like in a desktop machine. In the GoFlex enclosure, there's an ATA controller just like on an adapter card. Windows hasn't a clue that it's external.

Connectiong an external thunderbolt hard drive to an older iMac via firewire to thunderbolt adapter, as my Mac doesn't have any thunderbolt entry?

Is there a possibility to connect an external thunderbolt hard drive to my iMac (originally Leopard 10.5.8. upgraded to Snow Leopard 10.6.3) via firewire to thunderbolt adapter, as my Mac doesn't have any thunderbolt, but has two firewire entries?
Would like to use the hard drive's big data stocking capacity of 8TB, but actual WD-HDDs of such a capacity have no more other entries than thunderbolt.

Basically, no. The Thunderbolt-Firewire adapter does not work "in reverse," meaning, you have to have a Thunderbolt port on your Mac in order to use it.
Most Thunderbolt drives that I have seen also have a USB 3 port. You could use that, but on on an older Mac that does not have a USB 3 port you will be limited to USB 2 speeds.

I was going to install Rosetta Stone Spanish onto my Macbook but am concerned about it taking up space on my 2GB hard-drive. I have an external WD hard-drive; is it possible to put the application onto the external hard-drive to save space on my mac?

I was going to install Rosetta Stone Spanish onto my Macbook 10.6.7 but am concerned about it taking up space on my 2GB hard-drive. I have an external WD hard-drive, and I was wondering if it is possible to put the application onto the external hard-drive to save space on my Mac?

I think you're confused about how much hard drive space you have. You probably have 2 GB of RAM... there hasn't been a Mac shipped with only a 2 GB hard drive in a while. At the bottom of any Finder window, how much space is available?
If you're actually running low on space, you should move documents to the external drive, since many applications want to be on the system drive.

Can I run just windows on a second hard drive in my MBP?

I'm looking to run windows apps but dont want to put windows on the same hard drive as the mac os.

Read the Bootcamp Installation instructions. http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/
Windows must be run on the main internal drive. Windows will not boot from an external drive.

Is it possible to boot or Time Machine restore from an external Thunderbolt disk drive?

(There are several questions - search for "?".)
I purchased a Seagate Backup Plus for Mac Desktop Drive 3 TByte with default USB 3.0 interface, and also acquired the Seagate Thunderbolt Adapter for Backup Plus Desktop Drives and Thunderbolt cable.
I do a redundant backup to the Seagate Drive using both Carbon Copy Cloner (nightly) and Time Machine (hourly) using its Thunderbolt adapter. BTW: One never knows when Time Machine will choke - see discussion titled, "UPDATED: Serious Time Machine bug on Mountain Lion", which I had; Rest In Peace Pondini (James Lewis Pond).
Booting from the external Seagate Backup Plus via Thunderbolt inteface from System Preferences -> Startup Disk:
I select the Time Machine OS X, 10.8.5 Startup Disk (Thunderbolt attached drive), click Restart, confirm my choice, the computer reboots, however, it reboots from the internal Macintosh HD OS X, 10.8.5, NOT the selected external Thunderbolt drive. The SSD drive was used as the Startup Drive, not the selected external Time Machine volume as indicated by the display free disk space command (df(1)) and seeing that the Macintosh HD OS X, 10.8.5 volume is mounted as root. That is very deceptive in that both the internal and external drives will appear in the same manner from a GUI point of view! OS X doesn't even inform me that it did not boot off the selected volume. This is the first half of the problem, that is, Is it possible to boot from an external Thunderbolt disk drive? In my case, the answer is deceptively No. Can anybody else boot off a Thuderbolt attached disk drive? Note that if I remove the Thunderbolt adapter, and attach the drive via its USB 3.0 cable, the MBP boots off the external Seagate Backup Plus just fine, as is expected.
Booting from the external Seagate Backup Plus via Thunderbolt inteface from boot-time "Option - Select startup disk" method:
When I restart the MBP using the startup Option key to select the startup volume, the externally connected Seagate drive ONLY SHOWS UP if it is attached with the USB 3.0 cable, not when it is attached with via the Thunderbolt interface. Can anyone else boot off a Thunderbolt drive with the startup Option key sequence? At least the MBP doesn't deceive me in this case - I know right away that the external Thunderbolt drive is not an option when connected as such.
Time Machine restore from the external Seagate Backup plus via Thunderbolt interface from the "command-R - Recovery Parition" method:
After booting from the recovery partition, I attempt to perform a Time Machine restore from the Thunderbolt connected Seagate Backup drive. When Time Machine attempts to present me with a viable backup Time Machine volume, the external Thunderbolt drive is never offered as an option. So I switch the Time Machine volume to use its USB 3.0 interface, and then Time Machine displays that drive as an option, and the MBP proceeds with the restoration as expected. The interesting thing to note is that while booted in the recovery partition via the Thuderbolt cable, the MBP Disk Utility may be selected, and the Thunderbolt attached drive may be operated on just fine. Can anybody else restore their MBP using Time Machine and the Recovery Partition via the Thunderbolt interface?
This is also a big problem for me in that I am forced to restore my MBP via Carbon Copy Cloner using the USB 3.0 interface, because I cannot even boot off that volume's Thunderbolt interface. Of course, the option may be that I could use yet another eternal USB 3.0 drive, boot from it, and then use Carbon Copy Cloner to restore the Macintosh HD via the aforementioned drive connected by a Thunderbolt cable, but that is less than ideal and not elegant, so I'm not going there.
Another side issue is that the commercially available program, TechTool Pro 7's eDrive, which I installed on the Time Machine volume, will not boot off that eDrive as advertised, but I won't got through those steps here, because that would be beyond the scope of this issue, however, I must say, It does not work either when the Time Machine volume is connected via the Thunderbolt interface, but works just fine when connected via the USB 3.0 interface.

If this helps anybody else make a decision about whether to consider Apple because of Apple's superior customer service:
Apple sells this entire line of drives right in their store, from 1TB to 4TB. I spent 1 and 1/2 hours, yesterday, confirming that the 3TB model IS NOT 100% Thunderbolt compliant. A MBP cannot boot, nor can it Time Machine restore from this drive, though EVERYTHING about the drive is normal.
Apple's South Coast Plaza store management had at least two responses to me personally about how to proceed:
1. Buy a different drive from another drive manufacturer, and to attempt to return the drive to COSTCO. A lead genius suggested going with GTech drives, for instance.
2. Wait for Seagate to fix their problem.
I told Apple management in the store that the drive is advertised as Mac Compatible (see picture) and that it is advertised as being a Thunderbolt drive (see picture). I pressed management that my purchasing decsion to get the best possible MBP Retina was based on the availablity of Inexpensive Devises (raID), and that not having this complete compatibility is a show-stopper for my needs, and that I wanted a refund. Their response? They needed to talk with "Merchendising" to see if they are on or off the hook for these kind of 3rd party assertions, and would get back to me.
I am not holding my breath.
Note: I do not hold this against the Geniuses that helped me, nor against the management I've dealt with, nor the upper level engineers that I've corresponded with through Apple Care - their problem solving skills were helpful - although I could have arrived at similar conclusions given enough $$$. (For instance, try a Lacie TB drive and see if that works - we did, and it did not work. Or, we have a different TB cable and a different TB adapter, let's try those - we did, and it did not work.) I blame myself for not doing enough homework before going with Apple's solutions.

Rescue and Recovery 4.3 on Win7 doesn't see a backup on external USB hard drive - Model W510

I've run the Rescue and Recovery utility within Windows 7 on two different external USB hard drives thinking that maybe it was a usb drive issue. When I open the R And R utility in expert mode I can see that both backups exist on their respective drives. I planned on updating my hard drive so I made a full hd backup and the R&R startup disc to boot the laptop from. The bios recognizes either external hard drive at boot with no problems. It shows the names and "+" sign next to drives. So I booted the drive at startup off the DVD drive with the R&R startup disc after I was sure that the bios recognized either external drives. Then when I choose a "Full" restore is of course asks me if I want to use hd, cd/dvd, or external usb drive which I choose the later. It then should show me the backup that I created earlier just as it did when I ran the utility from the Win7 environment so I can choose it to restore from. But I get a blank box showing no backups when I run the 4.3 R&R Startup disc. Again if I boot to Win7 and go into the R&R utility I can see the backup on the exact same USB external drive. Then boot off the CD startup recovery disc and it shows NO BACKUP! Help please! I want to shelf my old hard drive "as is" and create the Restore onto the new hard drive but the utility isn't working for me.
Thanks for any help.

Hmmm,
Seems like that _should_ work. Here's a way you might be able to finesse it: go to the advanced R&R menu in Win 7 and create rescue media on your USB drive. It's essentially the same process as creating the CD - it makes the USB drive bootable and puts a copy of R&R there.
There _should_ be an option to "preserve existing data" but be prepared to lose your existing backup and make it again.
Then just boot the external USB drive and see if R&R recognizes a backup image on the same drive from which you booted.
That's the way I usually migrate to new drives. Maybe it will get around your mysterious problem.
Z.
The large print: please read the Community Participation Rules before posting. Include as much information as possible: model, machine type, operating system, and a descriptive subject line. Do not include personal information: serial number, telephone number, email address, etc. The fine print: I do not work for, nor do I speak for Lenovo. Unsolicited private messages will be ignored. ... GeezBlog
English Community Deutsche Community Comunidad en Español Русскоязычное Сообщество

External USB hard drive won't reformat, won't appear in Finder, error: Unable to write to the last block of the device message

So I just got a new MacBook Air and since I had an external USB hard drive (TOSHIBA MQ01ABD100 1TB) lying around, I decided to use it for back-up. Since I only have just the one hard drive, I decided to partition it into two - one for Time Machine backups, and one for general files (formatted FAT so I could use it with Windows). However, the partitioning failed and I ended up with a partition named disk1s2. Plus, it won't appear on Finder anymore, but it appears in Disk Utility.
I have tried to reformat it, but I always get the message "Unable to write to the last block of the device".
Here's the info about my drive:
Name: TOSHIBA MQ01ABD100 Media
Type: Disk
Partition Map Scheme: GUID Partition Table
Disk Identifier: disk1
Media Name: TOSHIBA MQ01ABD100 Media
Media Type: Generic
Connection Bus: USB
USB Serial Number: 1220069C
Device Tree: IODeviceTree:/PCI0@0/XHC@14
Writable: Yes
Ejectable: Yes
Location: External
Total Capacity: 1 TB
Disk Number: 1
Partition Number: 0
S.M.A.R.T. Status: Not Supported
And here's for disk1s2:
Name: disk1s2
Type: Partition
Disk Identifier: disk1s2
Mount Point: Not mounted
File System: Mac OS Extended
Connection Bus: USB
Device Tree: IODeviceTree:/PCI0@0/XHC@14
Writable: Yes
Capacity: 999.86 GB
Owners Enabled: No
Can Turn Owners Off: Yes
Can Be Formatted: Yes
Bootable: Yes
Supports Journaling: Yes
Journaled: No
Disk Number: 1
Partition Number: 2
Here's what it says when I run diskutil in Terminal:
Device Identifier:        disk1
Device Node:              /dev/disk1
Part of Whole:            disk1
Device / Media Name:      TOSHIBA MQ01ABD100 Media
Volume Name:              Not applicable (no file system)
Mounted:                  Not applicable (no file system)
File System:              None
Content (IOContent):      GUID_partition_scheme
OS Can Be Installed:      No
Media Type:               Generic
Protocol:                 USB
SMART Status:             Not Supported
Total Size:               1.0 TB (1000204884480 Bytes) (exactly 1953525165 512-Byte-Units)
Volume Free Space:        Not applicable (no file system)
Device Block Size:        512 Bytes
Read-Only Media:          No
Read-Only Volume:         Not applicable (no file system)
Ejectable:                Yes
Whole:                    Yes
Internal:                 No
OS 9 Drivers:             No
Low Level Format:         Not supported
I didn't have any data in it prior to the failed partitioning attempt, so there aren't any worries of data recovery. But I'd really like to be able to use this drive again, and save some money (external hard drives are expensive where I live). Anyone with any ideas?

I'd also like to add that repairing the disk using Disk Utility does nothing but tell me to reformat the drive. So I'm stuck in a loop here.

Imaging from external DVD player or an external usb hard drive

Hey,
At the High School i work at we are running Netware 6.0 SP5 and Zenworks
4.01 ir6. We have Zen Partitions installed on most computers to store a
local image in case the the computer needs to be re-imaged.
However, we have a dilemma. Every now and then a hard drive will go in a
computer.
When we replace the hard drive with a new one, we install the Zen
Partition, do the config and then our last step is to bring down an image.
Unfortunately our only means of dropping down an image is from the network
either through normal imaging or through multicast sessions.
When we drop an image down from the network which takes up network
bandwidth, it causes slow downs on the users computers and they start
complaining. Our network is running at 100mb.
Is there any way possible to image from an external DVD player or an
external usb hard drive when dropping down an image to a new hard drive in
the computer? Currently I have all my Zen Images on the external USB
Maxtor 160gb hard drive and I also have Zen Images burnt to DVD's.
If so, how do I go about doing this and is there documents on doing this?
Thanks!!!

Bpilon,
It appears that in the past few days you have not received a response to your
posting. That concerns us, and has triggered this automated reply.
Has your problem been resolved? If not, you might try one of the following options:
- Do a search of our knowledgebase at http://support.novell.com/search/kb_index.jsp
- Check all of the other support tools and options available at
http://support.novell.com.
- You could also try posting your message again. Make sure it is posted in the
correct newsgroup. (http://support.novell.com/forums)
Be sure to read the forum FAQ about what to expect in the way of responses:
http://support.novell.com/forums/faq_general.html
If this is a reply to a duplicate posting, please ignore and accept our apologies
and rest assured we will issue a stern reprimand to our posting bot.
Good luck!
Your Novell Product Support Forums Team
http://support.novell.com/forums/

Partition External Usb hard drive

Hi,
Can I partition a 500GB external usb hard-drive to 2 partitions (nfts and HFS)
The HFS part is for using with Time-Machine (150 GB) and the nfts for storage of photos etc. trough Windows.
Is it possible to back-up on a partition with Time Machine?
I know that it is impossible to partition to nfts with the standard Mac program, but it is possible with Gparted Live-cd (the one Ubuntu uses).
Can all that be done?
Thanks on purpose
TheM4inframe

set up two partitions both fat32.
erase one and reformat as the apple format. plug the drive into the winbox, use administration>computer management>storage to find and reformat the fat 32 partition as ntfs.
you can also format both as mac, then have win reformat one (I think)

R4 & R6 Thunderbolt Hard Drive Speeds

Anyone using the Thunderbolt Hard Drives from Pegasus and what kind of speeds are you getting? Anyone using Raid 10 with the Thunderbolt Drives? I want to get one but I plan to do either RAID 1 or RAID 10 and all I can find is speeds for RAID 5....and I don't want to use it with RAID 5. lol

Paul,
I haven't got a R4 to try it out yet. I wonder if it's possible to run a Thunderbolt cable between 2 iMac's then access the R4 Thunderbolt Drive from the other iMac via the Thunderbolt cable hooked into the other Mac? This way you are still transferring data at a high rate because all the connections are via a Thunderbolt Cable...?
I am trying to save for the R6 because I want the faster speed over the R4. I do have a ton of questions about the drives though. Can I install OSX on the Thunderbolt Drive and use the internal HD as a scratch disk for Photoshop? Can I use the R4 as a scratch disk and how will that improve performance for Photoshop and FCPX? I also wonder with the R6 1TBx6. Can I Raid 0(2TB) then Raid 1(2TBx2)
Steven

Toshiba 1TB USB 3.5" External Desktop Hard Drive I need help

Hi and I hope you can help me soon.
I have a Toshiba 1TB USB 3.5" External Desktop Hard Drive which has worked as a back up to my computer without fail and last week I had to get a new computer with W8 installed. I connected this external up to retrieve my backed up folders etc and it was OK at first but now it does not show up under the computer tab but is visble in the devices and printers section of Control panel, I can also see it in the disk management console. It is just the Computer tab where I cannot see it, the problem being that my backup program cannot locate it either and I need to retrieve e-mails etc.
I have a HP desktop running W8 with 8GB of RAM. it is also 64BIT
One other point is that I can access the external using a laptop of my daughters so I know it is OK.
Thank you for any help.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

I reassigned it the drive letter..
Great, Jeff. That's actually not an uncommon problem.
My Drive does not appear in Windows Explorer view
-Jerry

Use Time Capsule as a external wireless hard drive

i want to use TC as external hard drive but wireless and without extra router or internet i mean just plug it to the power and setup it on ios 5 wifi and thenuse it just like hot spot, i connect to the TC and use it as a external wireless hard drive, is it possible ?
1. i dont have router
2. i dont have internet
3. i dont want to have router and internet

I too purchased TC today and it came out to be very easy to setup.
I am using windows pc so just downloaded Airport utility from following link:
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1391
Once the installation is complete, it automatically detects TC and ask for password. That's it.
Good luck!!

How to use iPad (4th gen) to edit with iMovie - but using an external source such as a USB stick or external USB hard drive

Want to use my iPad (4th gen) to edit a movie using iMovie - easy enough if the movie file is on the iPad - but what if it's too large - can I keep the source file on a USB stick or external USB hard drive and edit from there? How can you do this?

You can't export any type of file using the camera connection kit, so a USB flash drive or SD card won't work.
There are some wireless external hard drives that can be used with the iPad.
The Kingston Wi-Drive, which costs $50 for the 16 Gigabyte, and then $30 more for every 16 gigs more. It works by you turning it on and then accessing the files on it from an app that you download on your iDevice. You can access music, movies, and other stuff. No connections or anything, it works like a WiFi connection, you connect to it from the setting on the iPad under wireless networks.
Then there is the Seagate GoFlex, which some would recommend over the Wi-Drive. But this one costs $199 and had 500 Gigabytes of storage. It works the sameway as the Kingston: no wires, runs over its wireless connection. You can actually fit up to 300 HD movies on it.
Another option:
Expand your iPad's storage capacity with HyperDrive
http://www.macworld.com/article/1153935/hyperdrive.html
On the road with a camera, an iPad, and a Hyperdrive
http://www.macworld.com/article/1160231/ipadhyperdrive.html
 Cheers, Tom

How do I stream purchased movies to my Macbook Pro if I've already downloaded them and moved the source files to an external desktop hard drive and I'm away from home?

I recently added a number of movies to my iTunes library by redeeming digital copeis that came with Blu-rays. Due to limted disc space on my MacBook Pro, and for safe keeping, once I downloaded the movies, I moved the source files to an external desktop hard drive. When I'm home and I'm able to access that external HD via my home network, I'm able to watch the movies without an issue. However, if I'm away from home and I want to watch them, I'm not sure how to do that. I thought I could "stream" purchased movies from within iTunes - even after downloading them - using "iTunes in the Cloud" but can't figure out how to do that, or it simply isn't possible.
What are my options?

I understand that I can't play my downloaded movies when my external HDD is not connected becuase iTunes is looking for the downloaded files. This is not the issue. The issue is that because my HDD is not connected (as in when I'm away from home) I'd like to be able to stream the movies via the cloud.
If I hadn't downloaded the movies when I redeemed my codes, would I have been able to keep the movies online via Apple iCloud and watched them anytime by streaming them or must the movies be downloaded in order to be viewed on my MacBook? I read that Apple allows movies purchased (or redeemed) via iTunes to be stored in the cloud via Apple iCloud so that they can be viewed any time, on any device. IF this is the case, how does it work? From what I can see, it looks like movies can only be "streamed" from the cloud when useing Apple TV; on my iPhone and MacBook Pro, it looks like they need to be downloaded in order to be viewed.
Can someone clarify this for me?
Also - Michael - when you said that If I've already downloaded the film but I'm away from my external HDD I should "Delete the entry from the iTunes library so iTunes only sees the iTunes in the Cloud version", what exactly would this mean? Would this mean that I could then stream the movie from the cloud or would I have to re-download it to my Mac's internal HDD in order to watch it?
Many thanks!

Run Windows on external Thunderbolt hard drive possible?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for