Running Windows 7 from your SD Card Slot

I run Windows 7 using Parallels from an Extreme III SD Card to isolate my mac from Windows and save HD Space (I have a 256 SSD). It was such a process to get it working though that I just wanted everyone to know what I have found out in working with Windows 7 on my Macbook from the SD Card slot:
1) Rated speed of the SD Card doesn't matter but brand does matter
I used 4 SD Cards before I found the right one. I first bought a 16gb "class 10" Adata card that just stopped working and it's replacement never worked. Amazon removed my negative review. I also have a Kingston Class 4, tried a Panasonic Class 10, and a SanDisk Class 10 Extreme III: All the speeds were nearly identical in the card slot but only the SanDisk and Kingston gave consistent non-jittery performance.
2) Don't Run ANY version of Fusion using the SD Card slot- not even 3.0. They all run UNBEARABLY SLOW using the slot. Parallels, including a test of the new 5.0 worked great- Like you are on a PC runs.
3) Don't expect the card reader to work at 480mb/s or even 240- peaks of 15megabytes per second is all you will see and usual 10/s. Thanks Apple for putting a substandard reader in the MacBook . Here are some of my screenshots:
http://communities.sandisk.com/sandisk/board/message?board.id=memorycards&thread .id=1098
4) Parallels needs your SD card to have a certain amount of free space in order to start up the virtual machine and I believe it's over 1GB. That means you need AT LEAST a 16gb card for just running Windows 7 and Enterprise Office on it- and you will need to often use Parallels Disk Imaging Tool to compact your virtual machine if you have the 16GB (which isn't a big deal for me). If you have more you need to do on it you can't get away with anything less than a 32GB SD Card.
I appreciate Apple putting this slot in the MacBook Pro (I could use the Express slot for eSata though) and Keeping windows on an SD Card, away from my mac is working great. Performance using Parallels is fast using the Extreme III Sandisk 16gb Class 10. Post with any questions you may have I just don't want anyone to go through the nightmares I did to get this working.

Windows must be installed from a DVD in the internal optical drive. Burn your digital image to a DVD using Disk Utility, Toast, or similar utility. You can also use the Apple external USB optical drive for the MBA.

Similar Messages

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • What are the pros and cons of running iTunes from an SD card with a Retina MBP?

    Hello,
    I'm thinking about getting a Retina MBP, but I think the default storage of 256GB is way to small to be used as a main computer and the upgrade to 512GB is very expensive. I was thinking of ways to reduce bulky files and was considering running iTunes from an SD card. Does anybody have any experience with doing this, what pros and cons did you discover?

    I wouldn't even try storing multiple iTunes libraries on SD cards. Better idea - what I do - is store the majority of my music on an external hard drive and just my 'must have' tunes on my internal SSD. I have a 512GB SSD and use around 170GB for iTunes. On my external drive, I had about 440GB in tunes (last time I checked).
    You can 'switch' libraries by holding down the option key when you launch iTunes. It's the best of both worlds - storage for on-the-go, must-haves, and an entire library of "all" of my music.
    256GB should be plenty of space - I just store so much music on my internal SSD because I can!
    Clinton

  • Does itunes allowances take money from your credit card or itunes balence

    does itunes allowances take money from your credit card or itunes balence??

    From a  iTunes gift card balance first, then the difference is charged to your credit or debit card account.
    "If your gift certificate, prepaid card, and/or allowance credit is less than the total cost of the purchase, your credit card is billed for the remaining balance. Note: Free song credits cannot be used for album purchases."
    From here >  iTunes Store: How to redeem a code

  • 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?

  • 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.

  • Run Windows from External HD

    I have a 15 inch June 2012 Macbook Pro Core i7 with 500GB. I want to run windows with bootcamp with an external hard drive. Is it possible to boot natively into windows with a bootcamp partition from a 500GB USB 3.0 External HD? I dont have the HD or windows disk yet because I want to make sure this works. If it doesnt with boot camp, is there a 3rd party app that can do this or is it possible with a SSD? I dont want to emulate this, I want native windows.
    PS I dont have much space left on my internal 500GB HD, but I do have enough for some apps.

    Mr. Mayonaise wrote:
    by emulate i mean i dont want it on vmware, i want it to run fast. If you can put the files on the external HD and if it runs fast, than ok, but i really want it to run fast. i want to play games.
    If you search through this forum for MacBook Pros overheating, I think you'll find that the MBP isn't the ideal laptop for playing games. And from what I've read, temperature control is even worse when running Windows in BootCamp.

  • Booting an R100 from the SD Card slot.

    I found mention of R200s (?) being able to boot from the SD Card if one put a 2.88Mb floppy image on SD media named as file $tosfd00.vfd and then chose the floppy icon from the Toshiba power-on boot menu.
    I thus upgraded my BIOS to 1.60, used the Toshiba "SD Memory Card Format" utility, found an example boot image, copied it to my SD card, rebooted, chose the floppy disk icon (I'm assuming this overrides the boot order selectable within the Toshiba hardware utility) and had no luck - the machine booted from the HDD as usual.
    Does anyone have any advice? Thanks!

    Hi
    As far as I know you can create bootable SD card using SD card boot utility. In this case the SD card has the same function like MS-DOS startup disk. Unfortunately it will not help you because with this boot SD card you can not see content of HDD. Just FAT32 partition is readable but not NTFS (available on your unit). You can use SD card for BIOS update or for user password saving. Thats all.

  • Retrieving footage from your SIM card with iPhone 3GS

    I have some old video clips and photos from vacations and what not on my Sim card. Can I get those off my sim and into my 3GS?

    I don't think so. The typical SIM card can barely hold a couple of hundred contact records and text messages, and doesn't really have any room for videos or photos at all. I suspect your old videos and photos were only on your old phone, and never on the SIM card at all.

  • Running Windows from external USB HD

    Will Leopard's bootcamp let me install Windows (Vista or XP, any) on an external usb HD?
    I've seen posts in other forums that it can be done with bootcamp from 2006, but it's rather complicated.

    as far as i know you can not install windows on an external disk. it has nothing to do with bootcamp, it is windows related. Microsoft does not want people to use external disks with windows installed and use that disk whichever computer they use without need to buy new windows cds.

  • [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?

  • Run a program on Macbook from a sd card

    Hi, I have a doubt, I have a Macbook air and I wanted to know if it's possible to run application from a SD card, I mean, cut the program from the aplication folder, for example Aperture and paste it into a sd card. Would it be able to run normal?

    Some may, some may not - depends on the application. Most Mac apps, even if they can launch from non-system drives, are going to need to be launched from a drive formatted Mac Extended.
    Why would you want to do that, anyway? If it's to save space, your Aperture library is going to be much larger than the application itself.
    Matt

  • I'm running Windows 7 on my Mac using parallels 7. Do I need to isolate my mac from windows?

    If I isolate Mac from Windows, can I copy and paste between OS?  I use Windows 7 developer applications (Access, Visio, Visual Basic) for my job.  Wanting to make sure I am using the best practice without compromising my security of my Mac.  Any insight would be appreciated.

    There is no absolute need to isolate Windows from your Mac.
    You do, however, have to protect the Windows side of your computer with antivirus and antimalware software.
    You can decide on the level of integration.
    You can share a specific folder to move files between the two operating systems.
    You can just drag and drop files between OSX and Windows without creating a shared directory.

  • SD card slot not workin

    I have an HP Touchsmart 15-r053cl running windows 8.1. Im having an issue with the built in SD Card reader. It was working fine when i got the laptop, but it stopped working some time ago and I have not been able to get it fixed. I've tried alost everything. I've uninstalled and reintalled the driver several times. Even tried different kinds of drivers and still no luck.  the computer does not recognize when an sd card is inserted at all. it makes no sound. no messages pop up. Is as if i had not inserted anything. I've also tried different SD cards and still nothing. no response from the notebook whatsoever.

    Hi  ,
    Thank you for visiting the HP Support Forums and Welcome. It is a great site for information and questions. I have looked into your issue about your HP ENVY TouchSmart 15-j053cl Notebook and your SD card slot not working correctly. Here is a link to help troubleshoot the Memory Card reader. The section you need to look at is SDHC card locks up or the SDHC card cannot be read.  You can do a system restore. System restore will help if something automatically updated and did not go well on the Notebook. When performing a System restore please note remove any and all USB devices. Disconnect all non-essential devices as they can cause issues.I would also check into the device manager to see if there is anything in there that shows a complication. What is the manufacturer of the SD card as your does only 32GB for Secure Digital cards? Hope this helps you out. Thanks.  

Maybe you are looking for