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markw10 · Feb 4, 2007, 02:33 AM

I have an external firewire drive and would like to use it as a Windows drive for Boot Camp. Is there any way I can go about doing this or if not if there are any ideas if Boot Camp in the future will allow this in the future?

ghporter · Feb 4, 2007, 12:00 PM

Yes and no. Boot Camp will ONLY install Windows on an INTERNAL drive. But you can set it up to use a minimal amount of that drive and put everything else on an external drive if you like.

It's also not all Boot Camp's fault. Windows will not boot from an external drive-at least not on the current Mac hardware with XP. It's Windows' fault here.

Fretless · Feb 13, 2007, 03:28 AM

You can, in fact, modify the Windows install disk to allow installation to an external hard drive, and it will work with Boot Camp. I recently installed Windows XP on an external USB drive on my MacBook Pro, and the procedure is relatively simple. You will need access to a Windows system to do this, however, which I imagine may be difficult to a new Windows user.

In any case, there is a simple tutorial available here, should you choose to try it.

ghporter · Feb 13, 2007, 09:23 AM

Originally Posted by Fretless

You can, in fact, modify the Windows install disk to allow installation to an external hard drive, and it will work with Boot Camp. I recently installed Windows XP on an external USB drive on my MacBook Pro, and the procedure is relatively simple. You will need access to a Windows system to do this, however, which I imagine may be difficult to a new Windows user.

In any case, there is a simple tutorial available here, should you choose to try it.

I would not call the tutorial you linked to "simple." This is an extensive hack of the Windows installer, and even though I've been a Windows "super power user" for a long time, I wouldn't go with this unless I had to make it work this way (as in someone's kidnapped my child and the ransom is making this work). It's a rather complex process just to get to where you can start rewriting the installer files.

Obviously it IS possible to do this. But I don't think of it as a mainstream, "every day, anyone can do it" the way that a simple Boot Camp-type install is.

Fretless · Feb 14, 2007, 01:14 AM

I guess simple is relative. Granted, I've been using PCs since before Windows existed, and am pretty comfortable with the system. At the same time, this hack does not require incredible technical prowess, in my opinion. There is no need to use a hex editor, or anything of the sort. Basically, it only involves unpacking files on the install disk, cutting and pasting sections in Notepad, repacking them and burning the disc. I wouldn't recommend it to someone computer illiterate, but it took me under 20 minutes including burn time to create the disc. Honestly, the only issue I had was finding software to defrag my Mac drive to temporarily partition it, but iDefrag did the trick nicely. It's not as daunting a task as it seems, and for me it has been the best solution to allow me to access more free space and take advantage of DirectX on my MacBook. As long as you can follow directions, it shouldn't be an overwhelming procedure.

Also, this method is specifically for USB drives. I'm not sure if there's a method for Firewire, although I can't imagine it being much different than USB.

ghporter · Feb 14, 2007, 08:19 AM

I have no argument against the method you presented, and as a fellow long-time PC tinkerer/maintainer/builder/etc., I don't think it's "that" difficult a job. But it is a very involved process that requires a lot of painstaking attention to detail (those registry entries would be very easy to mess up), which isn't necessarily going to pay off as well as some people want. The link you posted says that you need a 5GB Windows partition on your internal drive anyway-so why not just leave the kernel on that partition and, using something like nLite, tell the installer to put everything else on some other drive? My desktop Windows installs require THREE partitions (OS, applications, and user data), and I set that up by using nLite.

It's not that your method isn't valid, it's just pretty intense.

Fretless · Feb 14, 2007, 11:57 PM

Well, what it doesn't say is that you can remove the partition when you're finished. Technically, you could do the same thing without creating a 5GB partition, and I've seen methods that recommend that. Those methods, however, require disconnecting your internal drive. Honestly, I think you could get away with doing it without doing either, but it may not be worth the risk to find out.