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Helmling · Aug 22, 2010, 10:19 PM

I've never done this before for myself but I want to set up boot camp on an external drive with Windows 7.

I was wondering, though, is it possible to set it up so that I can use that drive and run Windows on both my Macbook and Macbook Pro?

ghporter · Aug 23, 2010, 06:28 AM

Windows has issues with booting from external devices. At least through XP, the startup code re-enumerates all the ports, basically erasing the address assignments made during BIOS/EFI initialization. With XP you can hack a number of startup code files and get it to work, but it's a PITA.

What can be done that is NOT such a pain is to install the OS minimally on an internal drive-no problems booting from that-and put your data and programs on an external drive.

If someone has some experience in actually getting Win7 to install on an external drive, I'd like to hear about it.

Helmling · Aug 23, 2010, 12:33 PM

It won't be me. Besson's convinced me to just use Wine.

ghporter · Aug 23, 2010, 07:08 PM

Wine has a lot of benefits. I have been using Crossover for quite a while and the "run Windows apps in OS X" thing is really appealing. Unfortunately for me there are a number of things I can't do with this sort of method, so I still have Virtual Box with XP. I'm looking at installing Win7 via Boot Camp and that will be for similar reasons-I can't do some things without actually booting into the Windows OS.

Helmling · Aug 23, 2010, 07:45 PM

Yeah, wine's failed me on this pesky PDF thing.

My wife has this textbook website she needs to use and when we open the PDF's on our macs, the links to other PDF's in the series won't work. I cannot figure it out, but they open just fine on a Windows machine. I installed Adobe Reader and IE7 through Crossover, but glitches stopped both from getting the job done. I'm at my wits' end on this!

Maybe I should get a copy of Parallels, because my wife sure doesn't want to dual boot.

-Q- · Aug 23, 2010, 08:23 PM

Originally Posted by Helmling

Maybe I should get a copy of Parallels, because my wife sure doesn't want to dual boot.

And while it's not free like wine, that does the job for me. And the nice thing is you'll can set up a boot camp partition and then use it with parallels as needed, for maximum flexibility.

Helmling · Aug 23, 2010, 08:56 PM

Originally Posted by -Q-

And while it's not free like wine, that does the job for me. And the nice thing is you'll can set up a boot camp partition and then use it with parallels as needed, for maximum flexibility.

So I do boot camp first, then parallels?

Now I'm worried about space. How much space does Windows 7 take up? She only has about 30 Gb free right now.

-Q- · Aug 23, 2010, 09:18 PM

Originally Posted by Helmling

So I do boot camp first, then parallels?

Now I'm worried about space. How much space does Windows 7 take up? She only has about 30 Gb free right now.

Correct, do the boot camp install first and then you can install parallels and configure it to use the boot camp partition.

I think my Pro install was around 10-15GB when it was done? Can't really recall as it's been awhile. I'd set up a 20GB partition so you have some breathing room for the windows install. But I'd consider upgrading the hard drive - 10GB free isn't much anymore.

Helmling · Aug 24, 2010, 08:02 PM

Originally Posted by -Q-

Correct, do the boot camp install first and then you can install parallels and configure it to use the boot camp partition.

I think my Pro install was around 10-15GB when it was done? Can't really recall as it's been awhile. I'd set up a 20GB partition so you have some breathing room for the windows install. But I'd consider upgrading the hard drive - 10GB free isn't much anymore.

I'm sold, or rather, it is. I just ordered parallels from Amazon. I'll pick up a copy of Windows at the university bookstore next week. I also ordered iLife family pack. Why? Well, this will help me save hard drive space on my MBP. Right now, I have my wife's photo and iTunes libraries in our shared dropbox, but mine are separate because iPhoto is a newer version. So I'm going to merge my iTunes over the weekend, that should free up at least five Gb. Then when iLife arrives, I'll update her iPhoto and then sync my photo library with hers. That's another 11 Gb. That should free up enough space for a Windows partition.

Thanks for the help everybody.