Solution - install Windows 7 with external drive bootcamp lion

I finally found a solution to "trick"the Windows install!
The first install will run also from external drive. The problem ist the reboot!
On every reboot simply plug out your external DVD and press option-key. Select Windows harddisk and the installation
will continue. Plug in your external DVD once you see "Starting Windows".
Repeat this on every reboot until Windows is installed!
That´s it.

A Mac Pro workstation is unique in many many ways....
http://www.apple.com/support/macpro
Besides having 4 internal hard drive bays, two internal optical drive bays.

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Installing windows on external drive, or other method without formatting HD

I would like to install windows in order to run some CAD software (i dont want to take the performance hit of running in parallels and osx has an infuriating lack of a good cad program) but I also dont want to have to format my HD since I have all these software licenses set up that it would take forever to set back up again. Is there a way to install windows without formatting my HD in order to repartition it? maybe resize the partition or install windows on an external HD?
thanks!

Windows cannot be installed on an external drive. This is a Windows thing. If you want to use Boot Camp then your internal drive must have no other partitions. Boot Camp will then create a special Windows partition of any size you designate.
If your drive is already partitioned then repartitioning the drive or resizing existing partitions will result in some data loss. Essentially in order to restore the drive to a single partition you must first backup whatever data is stored on the partitions that must be removed. Alternatively, if possible move that data to the main volume (top volume in the partition mapping.) Doing this makes it possible to delete the other partitions, then resize the remaining partition to full capacity. This can be done on the fly using Disk Utility. Of course there's always risk of something going amiss, so it would be wise to have everything backed up.

Installing iDVD with external drive

Has anyone had success installing iLife '05 while using only an external DVD burner. Can't get iDVD to recognize the drive and install.

Not sure about your question, but let me relate my experience. I have an iMac G5 with combo drive. Use a Lite-On external DVD burner. the iMac recognizes this USB drive with no problems. iMovie and iDVD both work with this external drive.
If you are trying to install the iLife program, my question is why are you using an external drive? But in my experience I have installed software from the external DVD drive.
Ed

Windows on external drive

recently I have stumbled upon installing 10.7 lion on external drive:
+Playing with partitions is not for the faint of heart. Installing OS X Lion to a USB drive or external hard drive is a safer but likely slower option.+
Q1: Is it possible to do so with windows?
I would like to install windows on external drive and use it only when needed (hardly ever, but sometimes I have to)
virtualization is not fast enough for me :{
I have a MacBook Air and SuperDrive, however when I plug superdrive there is no place for external drive,
Q2: Unless I use some kind of usb hub?
Q3: Will it work? Have anyone tried this?

Hi,
OSX could be installed and run from external harddisk for quite some time.
Sadly, Microsoft choosed to not allow Windows to be installed and run from external harddisk.
However, you can find instructions on how-to do this nonetheless on the internet.
A good USB-hub (preferably one that is self-powered and not USB-powered) will let you use both the Superdrive and an external harddisk at the same time.
Regards
Stefan

Can boot camp install windows in external hdd connected via usb

i have win 7 img. in my mac also 500 gb ext hdd
can i install windows in that hdd?????
also i have selected the iso fle n its now downloading support software
so how much time it will take its 3 hours now

No you can't install windows on external drive.

While installing windows with bootcamp error showing "A require Cd/Drive driver is missing" in the middle of installation. Please help what to do ??

While installing windows with bootcamp error showing "A require Cd/Drive driver is missing" in the middle of installation m not able to install windows on my mac . Please help what to do ??

What DVD drive are you using?

Since installing Windows 7 professional via bootcamp onto my 2008 24" imac i have no sound. The sound worked when i had Windows xp installed. I have tried every solution suggested on various forums. Can you please help me?

Since installing Windows 7 professional via bootcamp onto my 2008 24" imac i have no sound. The sound worked when i had Windows xp installed. I have tried every solution suggested on various forums. Can you please help me?

After you install Apple driver to enable the audio chip, YOU then need to manually download and install (Cirrus or Realtek audio depending on the Mac).
Cirrus realitypod mac audio driver
MacBook Pro '10 Cirrus Logic CS4206A (AB 11)
Realtek Drivers

Cant install windows with bootcamp only BSoD

yesterday i install mountain lion on my mbp late 2011 and cant install windows with bootcamp now i only became BSoD.
can anyone help me?

Post in the Boot Camp forum:
https://discussions.apple.com/community/windows_software/boot_camp

Installing Windows to external hard drive or using parallels?

Will installing Windows on external hard drive protect mac from viruses better than parallels? Which option is more sound, installing windows on external hard drive or using parallels? My main concern is mac protection. Thanks

Hi,
Thank's for your reply.
Using Parallels and creating a virtual machine, I think it should be possible installing Windows to an external hard drive, shouldn't it?
Message was edited by: Oleguer Vilella

Since installing Windows 7 professional via bootcamp onto my 2008 24" imac i have no sound. The sound worked when i had Windows xp installed. I have tried every solution suggested on various forums. Can you please help me? Regards Eddie Johnson

Since installing Windows 7 professional via bootcamp onto my 2008 24" imac i have no sound. The sound worked when i had Windows xp installed. I have tried every solution suggested on various forums. Can you please help me?

Eddie,
There is a forum specifically for Boot Camp & MS Windows users. Because that is where the Boot Camp guru's hang out I'd recommend re-posting there.

HOWTO: install Windows 7 RC in BootCamp via XP using Parallels 4.0 in SL

I know, the subject sounds pretty complicated, but don’t worry: the process of doing it is even worse.
Basically the main idea was to be able to use the same BootCamp partition of WinXP to upgrade to Win7, using the win7 .iso image to install it (I was simply to lazy to go to a shop and buy a rewritable DVD). Still, during my days <!> of tests and investigations few things came out. This can be useful even if one wants just to create a Win7 Parallels virtual machine from an already present BootCamp installation, make a Windows installation using BootCamp or for general knowledge. So let’s start.
*GOLDEN RULE*:
Disable (or even better, uninstall) any 3rd party NTFS package like Paragon NTFS (beta) NTFS-3G, NTFSmount or else. This caused me many problems since it seemed that Parallels and those packages were conflicting on the NTFS ownership of the BootCamp partition. Don't forget to reboot after that.
*INITIAL SETUP*:
Have Parallels 4.0 cleanly installed
Partition your hard disk with Boot Camp Assistant. Reserve at least 15GB for Windows. This will create a 2nd FAT32 partition called “BOOTCAMP”
Insert a WinXP SP2 install CD/DVD in the DVD drive
Go back to Boot Camp Assistant and click “restart”
*INSTALLING WINDOWS XP:*
The system will reboot from the WinXP install disk
Let the installer do its job (loading drivers)
The screen to chose on which partition to install Windows would appear.
Here is the first trick. Boot Camp Assistant actually created 2 more partitions. An empty one of about 100 MB, and the FAT32 one. RESIST from the temptation of deleting the FAT32 partition to then format the available disk space as NTFS or to convert it into NTFS. Instead SELECT the FAT32 partition. This will take us to a next screen were will be able to format it. Select “Format as NTFS” and go. It may be better to use the FULL format, but I’m not sure it’s necessary.
Not doing as above will produce at a certain point the infamous
“hal.dll missing or corrupted message”.
which I can assure you is very much frustrating since we get it only at the end of the installation.
The installation will then continue. Follow all steps as required until you have a full Windows XP installation.
Reboot and press the Option key (alt). Select the Windows partition to check that WinXP is actually cleanly installed. No need to install BootCamp device drivers at this point.
*CREATE THE PARALLELS WINDOWS XP VIRTUAL MACHINE (VM).*
Reboot as OSX.
Check in Finder or Disk Utility that the NTFS partition is present and readable.
Start Parallels Desktop
Go to File/New Virtual Machine and follow the steps to create a Windows XP virtual machine.
Choose custom setting to tell Parallels to use the BootCamp partition
Once the VM file will be create Parallels will start the BootCamp Configurator (a 4 steps very long process) to “convert” the BootCamp partition into a VM.
At the end it will install the Parallels tools as well
Let the WinXP VM start
Shut WinXP down and close its VM window
*UPGRADE THE WINXP PARTITION TO WIN7*
Here is the second trick, and this has been a pretty nasty one. Actually the Parallels BootCamp configurator seems to mess up with the BootCamp partition when creating a Win7 VM. Parallels when trying to access the BootCamp partition during the process of creating the new Win7 VM reports a message:
“A disk configuration error has occurred. Make sure that you have read/write permissions for the disk”
Even being able to pass after that error, and having Win7 installation starting, Win7 may report
Error code ox80070057
When trying to access/format the BootCamp partition.
The solution to these problems appears to be in the BootCamp Configurator, as I’ve found in the Parallels forum:
<a class="jive-link-external-small" href="http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=31190&page=3">http://forum.pa rallels.com/showthread.php?t=31190&page=3
Open the Terminal application and type:
sudo mv /Library/Parallels/Parallels\ Service.app/Contents/MacOS/BootcampConfigurator /Library/Parallels/Parallels\ Service.app/Contents/MacOS/BootcampConfigurator.old
Now the environment should be ready. So follow these steps:
Create a new Win7 VM in Parallels (File/New Virtual Machine)
Use as DVD drive the Win7 RC installation image. This will automatically select a Windows 7 environment in Parallels
Change the boot order having the CD/DVD-ROM first and Hard Disk 1 second
Use the BootCamp partition as VM and create it
The VM will start loading the Win7 installer. Select your local setting, a screen to chose the partition will appear, select the NTFS partition (BootCamp with WinXP on it). The installer will move the old WinXP files in C:\WINDOWS.old and continue with the installation.
Once the installation is complete do the following:
Start Windows 7 in Parallels to check that it is functional
Install Parallels Tools if you like
Shutdown the VM.
Shutdown OSX.
Press the power button and hold Option key at the chime sound
Boot from the Windows disk
Windows 7 should start booting. Don’t worry if it will take a long time. Personally it takes to me something like 30 s. with the blinking cursor before to see the graphical Windows 7 screen
Insert the Snow Leopard install DVD.
Open the Bootcamp folder and Double click on setup.exe to install the BootCamp device drivers.
If it says that your computer is not compatible do as follow:
Locate the Command Prompt app in the Start/All Programs/Accessories menu
Right click on it and start it as administrator
At the DOS prompt:
Select your DVD drive (D: or whatever)
Type
cd \BootCamp3.0\Drivers\Apple
Execute BootCamp.msi or BootCamp64.msi depending if your Win7 installation is 32 or 64 bits (yes, it works in EFI32 Macs as well. Not like SL K64 apparently).
You will be required to reboot.
Restart Windows 7 and enjoy!
PS: This is not intended to be a tutorial about the best way of installing Windows 7 in a Mac. I know a much easier solution is to burn a DVD and do the installation from it using BootCamp assistant. Still doing so one may (will?) face some of the problems described above. It’s just a description about how the Windows 7 installation can be done in the hard way, with hints about common problems installing Windows with BootCamp and the loading it into Parallels. I hope it will be useful for anyone. I just wished there was a similar tutorial when I started this mess!!

Yes it is, follow the Boot Camp Instructions here

Can I install Windows without optical Driver

Hi!
I have a Macbook pro Early 2008 - MB134LL/A but its optical driver cannot read any disc. Now I want to install Windows via BootCamp but it cannot. Anybody know how can I install Windows without optical Driver? I tried to boot by USBflash, USB DVD Driver but it cannot boot.
I think that does external optical drivers via firewire work?
Thanks alot!

Thank you for your reply, and the information. This is what I came up with:
I added the strings as instructed, however when I went to sign the script in terminal, I was told:
/Applications/Utilities/Boot Camp Assistant.app: replacing existing signature
/Applications/Utilities/Boot Camp Assistant.app: code object is not signed at all
In subcomponent: /Applications/Utilities/Boot Camp Assistant.app/Contents/info.plist
Also, here are screen captures of the lines that I added. Mine are the top string entries:
Thank you for your help, thus far!

What's up with external drives?

I found a FAQ here that says that Windows can't be on an external drive when using Boot Camp. That *****.
Here's why. I have a Windows box. I hate it, but there's a lot of software I use for work already installed on it. It'd be so much easier to just take out my C drive, put it in an external casing and then connect it to my Mac running Boot Camp so I can finally be free of the beast.
But no, I have to figure out where all my install discs are (tough after moving house twice in the past year), and then install XP as well as all the other software on a new partition once I upgrade to Leopard (when Adobe supports it).

you can run OS X from external drives. And it is Microsoft's and not Apple's limitation in that regard.
You can do what you say if you use a VM (Fusion etc). And they can use and import from external drives, BootCamp partition, and use it from there.
I wish I could install Vista as easily on external RAID as I can with OS X, but it seems too complicated to attempt and not supported. I keep all my docs and files and email though on a non-system drive, both in Vista and OS X. So whether using ultimate or home premium I have access to all my files. Same in OS X.

Serious problems after Mavericks installation with External Drive Lacie P9220.

Experiencing serious problems after Mavericks installation with External Drive Lacie P9220 1TB. Mac Finder totally locked!
I had to format the External hard drive with a Windows PC (fat32), then format again with my IMac (mac Journal.) and hopefully restored data from time machine backup.
So far so good but system looks unstable. Some software were not able to write on the hard drive.Some strange things happens. With Mountain Lion never had an even minor issue.
I read many discussion regarding problems with WD, just wondering if anyone had the same problems with Lacie and if there is any tip to solve the
problem.
Many thanks.
Marco

Thanks very much for your reply.
Unfortunately I couldn't find a solution because the article refers to whom have configured the drive with included software and drivers that came with the drive.
This is not my case, I never used any third party soft ...only OS X disk utility ...
best
marco

Moving Windows from external drive to a new internal partition

I have Windows 7 installed on an external drive connected to my Mac Pro, which I access by rebooting into Windows. I am transitioning from the Mac Pro to a new MacBook Pro and want to copy the Windows disk (with all its installed applications and data) onto the laptop's internal drive. Without creating a partition with Boot Camp and reinstalling Windows, how can I do this?
Thanks, Eric

Hilal Malawi wrote:
Thanks, but that site doesn't have a clear answer.
Correct. As it clearly states, there are too many variables to have detailed solutions for every possible situation.
In the 'pink' box, which best matches my situation, the instructions begin with: "•You must be logged on to the account being moved...".
That's not clear at all. How do I log in to an account that doesn't exist yet? Connecting a hard disk that has a home folder to a new Mac doesn't allow me to 'log on' to that home folder's account, because it doesn't yet exist on the new Mac.
You may have to set up user accounts "from scratch." Then change the ownership and permissions on the old home folders so you can copy the contents of the sub-folders from the old home folders to the new ones.
If you're comfortable with permissions and Terminal, this may help: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20013630-263.html

Solution - install Windows 7 with external drive bootcamp lion

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