Installing Windows on USB/External

[Dinggus]

I have a 64GB MacBook Air and I don't want to use VMWare or really partition my HD to install Windows on it. Is there a way I can get Windows 7 on a thumb drive or external HD, then when I need it all I have to do is plug it in and dual boot to it?

[CPressland]

Just plug the drive in, install Windows 7 on it with a USB DVD Drive and you "should" be done.

If not, Parallels trickery could work.

[Tews]

The short of it is no ... this can not be done ... sorry ... ;)

[iKenndac]

I have it in my head that a Windows install doesn't support booting over USB. Can't back that up with anything!

I made a Windows USB install drive using Microsoft's official tool, and I couldn't get my MacBook to boot from it. I wonder if the EFI in Macs doesn't allow booting *any* form of Windows from USB, be it the installer or the real deal.

[CPressland]

I think it's probably a no, get an external HDD, install VMWare, run the image off of the External Drive. Thats about it.

[Xtreme $niper]

I think it's probably a no, get an external HDD, install VMWare, run the image off of the External Drive. Thats about it.

Be prepared for some horrid performance speeds though. USB is a slow interface for these kinds of things. The best luck (short of a Thunderbolt drive) is Gigabit Ethernet, but if that line is interrupted for some reason... :pinch:

[Glassed Silver]

Windows installations can be hacked to boot from USB.

About Macs and their love for USB booting: mmmh...

I'm not sure... maybe, maybe not...

If not by default, rEFIt could possibly help? :)

Glassed Silver:mac

[Dinggus]

Guess I'll just have to dualboot with Boot Camp.

[.Neo]

I'm finding it incredibly annoying that anno 2011 it's still next to impossible to boot Windows off an external drive, while Mac OS X boots off just about anything you throw at it. Hell, if I want to I could install full Mac OS X Lion on the SDHC Card plugged into the side of my iMac.

The best luck (short of a Thunderbolt drive) is Gigabit Ethernet, but if that line is interrupted for some reason... :pinch:

It's not as if a conventional HDD can read/write so fast it needs Thunderbolt. I've had really good performance running Mac OS X Lion off my FireWire 800 drive, can't say I notice a real difference in performance compared to my internal HDD. Totally different story when running it over USB 2.0 though.

[+Warwagon MVC]

nevermind.

[Xtreme $niper]

It's not as if a conventional HDD can read/write so fast it needs Thunderbolt. I've had really good performance running Mac OS X Lion off my FireWire 800 drive, can't say I notice a real difference in performance compared to my internal HDD. Totally different story when running it over USB 2.0 though.

I agree, but I was making an assumption that the OP probably was going to have access to a USB enclosure or external of some kind because it's generally the more popular option. Firewire 800 capable enclosures have a hefty price premium on them simply because the required chip is more expensive. It was expensive enough for me to put up with USB 2.0 for a while longer until I can find a decent gigabit ethernet external drive.

[Dinggus]

I have a 64GB thumb drive laying around, and all I wanted was to boot Windows from it, just to do some work, since I can't find PureEdge for OS X for the life of me. That's all I need it for.

[Xtreme $niper]

I have a 64GB thumb drive laying around, and all I wanted was to boot Windows from it, just to do some work, since I can't find PureEdge for OS X for the life of me. That's all I need it for.

Loading a VM from the thumb drive seems to be the easiest option, but...

1. Speed could be an issue as you'd be limited by the constraints of the USB interface, which usually maxes out at around 25MB/s

2. Reliability could be an issue because flash drives are not normally designed to support such intense tasks. A good quality drive should last but I would also do regular backups of the VM files to another source just in case.

[Dinggus]

I planned to type out whatever military documents I had to, then upload them to DropBox. Is there a way on Mac to run .exe files?

[Xtreme $niper]

I planned to type out whatever military documents I had to, then upload them to DropBox. Is there a way on Mac to run .exe files?

Eh, it might be a stretch but you could try to use Wine or CrossOver... But most of the time the application in question would have to be popular enough to have gotten some compatibility attention...

Otherwise, no... Not natively.

[Dinggus]

Guess I'm out of luck. PureEdge isn't made for OS X, and I know IBM made LotusViewer which is the same thing, but I can't find it for OS X.

[DootDootMan]

Guess I'm out of luck. PureEdge isn't made for OS X, and I know IBM made LotusViewer which is the same thing, but I can't find it for OS X.

Just use Virtualbox

[.Neo]

Guess I'm out of luck. PureEdge isn't made for OS X, and I know IBM made LotusViewer which is the same thing, but I can't find it for OS X.

Cleanest option here is to just run Windows in a virtualized environment like VMware Fusion or Virtualbox.

[Dinggus]

Okay, thanks for the help everyone.

[Dinggus]

Well, I found a program called WineBottler and it'll open Window files on OS X. So I was able to install Tag&Rename and it works very nice on my iMac.

[Dinggus]

Wine didn't work out to good. Guess, I'll put Windows on some how with Boot Camp.

[Xtreme $niper]

Wine didn't work out to good. Guess, I'll put Windows on some how with Boot Camp.

Why do you insist on ignoring everyone's suggestions to use a virtual machine? If you're not playing a demanding game or using applications that require every bit of your available CPU and GPU power, you don't need boot camp. It's as simple as that. Boot camp requires a dedicated partition that you can't resize or delete as easily as you could with a dynamically growing VM disk image that you can throw onto different drives or delete altogether on a whim.

[Dinggus]

Why do you insist on ignoring everyone's suggestions to use a virtual machine? If you're not playing a demanding game or using applications that require every bit of your available CPU and GPU power, you don't need boot camp. It's as simple as that. Boot camp requires a dedicated partition that you can't resize or delete as easily as you could with a dynamically growing VM disk image that you can throw onto different drives or delete altogether on a whim.

I'm not ignoring any suggestion, and yes I plan to use VMware. Sorry.

[Xtreme $niper]

I'm not ignoring any suggestion, and yes I plan to use VMware. Sorry.

Sorry if I came off as harsh, I was just wondering since boot camp does seem a little overkill in this situation.

[Dinggus]

No it's okay, I apologize. I'll install VMware and install Win7. Thanks for the help!