Q: How to run Boot Camp on External Hard Drive?

Hi, I am back and disconnected all non-essential external drives, but I had to retain (NTFS-formatted external hardrive) E: WINAIRBAK, which is my backup destination. Again, Windows did not give me an option to back up C: LILY alone but only together with Bootcamp, and then the backup failed, because obviously Bootcamp is not Windows-formatted.

The output again is:

MacMiniSH:~ pentelho$ diskutil list

/dev/disk0

   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *121.3 GB   disk0

   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1

   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         121.0 GB   disk0s2

   3:                 Apple_Boot Boot OS X               134.2 MB   disk0s3

/dev/disk1

   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk1

   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1

   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         979.3 GB   disk1s2

   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.1 MB   disk1s3

   4:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                20.0 GB    disk1s4

/dev/disk2

   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

   0:                  Apple_HFS Gise                   *1.1 TB     disk2

                                 Logical Volume on disk0s2, disk1s2

                                 6614C729-98D2-4522-BF2C-7B727225F0CE

                                 Unencrypted Fusion Drive

/dev/disk3

   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *512.1 GB   disk3

   1:               Windows_NTFS LILY                    512.1 GB   disk3s1

/dev/disk4

   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk4

   1:               Windows_NTFS WINAIRBAK               1.0 TB     disk4s1

MacMiniSH:~ pentelho$ diskutil cs list

CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)

|

+-- Logical Volume Group 4220513F-F32A-4F3C-AB47-E4BD4CA78F70

    =========================================================

    Name:         Macintosh HD

    Status:       Online

    Size:         1100333862912 B (1.1 TB)

    Free Space:   405504 B (405.5 KB)

    |

    +-< Physical Volume 9031B0E9-35DE-48EC-9BC2-921C5C842FB6

    |   ----------------------------------------------------

    |   Index:    0

    |   Disk:     disk0s2

    |   Status:   Online

    |   Size:     120988852224 B (121.0 GB)

    |

    +-< Physical Volume 49504FCA-49DD-4EB5-9225-A0AD6196110F

    |   ----------------------------------------------------

    |   Index:    1

    |   Disk:     disk1s2

    |   Status:   Online

    |   Size:     979345010688 B (979.3 GB)

    |

    +-> Logical Volume Family B54E248C-0AA0-433E-B4E2-5D16161C8B75

        ----------------------------------------------------------

        Encryption Status:       Unlocked

        Encryption Type:         None

        Conversion Status:       NoConversion

        Conversion Direction:    -none-

        Has Encrypted Extents:   No

        Fully Secure:            No

        Passphrase Required:     No

        |

        +-> Logical Volume 6614C729-98D2-4522-BF2C-7B727225F0CE

            ---------------------------------------------------

            Disk:                  disk2

            Status:                Online

            Size (Total):          1094478200832 B (1.1 TB)

            Conversion Progress:   -none-

            Revertible:            No

            LV Name:               Gise

            Volume Name:           Gise

            Content Hint:          Apple_HFS

Can you post the output of diskutil info disk1s4 ?

MacMiniSH:~ pentelho$ diskutil info disk1s4

   Device Identifier:        disk1s4

   Device Node:              /dev/disk1s4

   Part of Whole:            disk1

   Device / Media Name:      BOOTCAMP

   Volume Name:              BOOTCAMP

   Mounted:                  Yes

   Mount Point:              /Volumes/BOOTCAMP

   File System Personality:  MS-DOS FAT32

   Type (Bundle):            msdos

   Name (User Visible):      MS-DOS (FAT32)

   Partition Type:           Microsoft Basic Data

   OS Can Be Installed:      No

   Media Type:               Generic

   Protocol:                 SATA

   SMART Status:             Verified

   Volume UUID:              92DC32F2-2C4B-3276-AC57-703BC5935FE5

   Disk / Partition UUID:    02FDEB46-D140-43D3-B2F6-003C5BF8A7E2

   Total Size:               20.0 GB (19998441472 Bytes) (exactly 39059456 512-Byte-Units)

   Volume Free Space:        20.0 GB (19970883584 Bytes) (exactly 39005632 512-Byte-Units)

   Device Block Size:        512 Bytes

   Allocation Block Size:    16384 Bytes

   Read-Only Media:          No

   Read-Only Volume:         No

   Ejectable:                No

   Whole:                    No

   Internal:                 Yes

   Solid State:              No

The 20GB partition seems to just hold the FAT part.

Can you a screen shot of Windows Disk Management?

Also please post the output of a couple of commands from OSX Terminal.

sudo fdisk disk1

sudo dd if=/dev/rdisk1s4 count=1 2>/dev/null | hexdump -C

Here you go -->

MacMiniSH:~ pentelho$ sudo fdisk disk1

Password:

fdisk: disk1: No such file or directory

MacMiniSH:~ pentelho$ sudo dd if=/dev/rdisk1s4 count=1 2>/dev/null | hexdump -C

00000000  eb 58 90 42 53 44 20 20  34 2e 34 00 02 20 20 00  |.X.BSD  4.4..  .|

00000010  02 00 00 00 00 f8 00 00  20 00 ff 00 00 68 1c 72  |........ ....h.r|

00000020  00 00 54 02 40 25 00 00  00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00  |..T.@%..........|

00000030  01 00 06 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|

00000040  80 00 29 0c 10 2f 5e 42  4f 4f 54 43 41 4d 50 20  |..)../^BOOTCAMP |

00000050  20 20 46 41 54 33 32 20  20 20 33 c9 8e d1 bc f4  |  FAT32   3.....|

00000060  7b 8e c1 8e d9 bd 00 7c  88 4e 02 8a 56 40 b4 41  |{......|.N..V@.A|

00000070  bb aa 55 cd 13 72 10 81  fb 55 aa 75 0a f6 c1 01  |..U..r...U.u....|

00000080  74 05 fe 46 02 eb 2d 8a  56 40 b4 08 cd 13 73 05  |t..F..-.V@....s.|

00000090  b9 ff ff 8a f1 66 0f b6  c6 40 66 0f b6 d1 80 e2  |.....f...@f.....|

000000a0  3f f7 e2 86 cd c0 ed 06  41 66 0f b7 c9 66 f7 e1  |?.......Af...f..|

000000b0  66 89 46 f8 83 7e 16 00  75 38 83 7e 2a 00 77 32  |f.F..~..u8.~*.w2|

000000c0  66 8b 46 1c 66 83 c0 0c  bb 00 80 b9 01 00 e8 2b  |f.F.f..........+|

000000d0  00 e9 2c 03 a0 fa 7d b4  7d 8b f0 ac 84 c0 74 17  |..,...}.}.....t.|

000000e0  3c ff 74 09 b4 0e bb 07  00 cd 10 eb ee a0 fb 7d  |<.t............}|

000000f0  eb e5 a0 f9 7d eb e0 98  cd 16 cd 19 66 60 80 7e  |....}.......f`.~|

00000100  02 00 0f 84 20 00 66 6a  00 66 50 06 53 66 68 10  |.... .fj.fP.Sfh.|

00000110  00 01 00 b4 42 8a 56 40  8b f4 cd 13 66 58 66 58  |....B.V@....fXfX|

00000120  66 58 66 58 eb 33 66 3b  46 f8 72 03 f9 eb 2a 66  |fXfX.3f;F.r...*f|

00000130  33 d2 66 0f b7 4e 18 66  f7 f1 fe c2 8a ca 66 8b  |3.f..N.f......f.|

00000140  d0 66 c1 ea 10 f7 76 1a  86 d6 8a 56 40 8a e8 c0  |.f....v....V@...|

00000150  e4 06 0a cc b8 01 02 cd  13 66 61 0f 82 75 ff 81  |.........fa..u..|

00000160  c3 00 02 66 40 49 75 94  c3 42 4f 4f 54 4d 47 52  |...f@Iu..BOOTMGR|

00000170  20 20 20 20 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |    ............|

00000180  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|

*

000001a0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 0d 0a 42 4f  |..............BO|

000001b0  4f 54 4d 47 52 20 69 73  20 6d 69 73 73 69 6e 67  |OTMGR is missing|

000001c0  ff 0d 0a 44 69 73 6b 20  65 72 72 6f 72 ff 0d 0a  |...Disk error...|

000001d0  50 72 65 73 73 20 61 6e  79 20 6b 65 79 20 74 6f  |Press any key to|

000001e0  20 72 65 73 74 61 72 74  0d 0a 00 00 00 00 00 00  | restart........|

000001f0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 ac c1 ce 00 00 55 aa  |..............U.|

00000200

Would you be willing to try converting the BOOTCAMP FAT32 to NTFS and test? Please backup both OS X and Windows and save files, before trying it. Windows Backup will not support FAT32. The Bootcamp volume is not the boot volume as shown in the Disk Management screen.

I am not sure that I want to to this, specifically because I only have a file backup but not a system backup of C:LILY.  I did not chose the FAT32 format for Bootcamp, rather that's what the Bootcamp installer did. If I reformat Bootcamp I'll likely loose all of the drivers, and at the "best" what may happen, that Windows will boot, but then there's no way to input anything, as happened to me during the last crash. If I loose Lily, I have to go through 3+ days reinstallation again.  Perhaps I should back-up LILY using Winclone or Carbon Copy Cloner? But that's risky, too.  Perhaps I just leave it a what it is for now.

Does anyone know anything about this situation?

I have a second boot external drive for my imac. I'm running Yosemite on the internal drive, but I have mavericks boot drive on an external so I can boot up in mavericks for troubleshooting.  I was wondering if I could treat it like the internal drive with a divided partition and bootcamp running windows on it, or will it fail to boot windows because of it being an external drive?

This will NOT work! The Bootcamp installer with your Mav on the external drive will tell you that it cannot because the drive is "not journaled"! I have not found a way around this.

thanks

There is some literature on the WinClone website about how to clone a functional internal Bootcamp partition on an external drive and render it bootable, but this works only with Windows 8.1 and above, and there are so many strings attached that I'd be hesitant to do it.

I actually succeeded with WinClone to create an image of Lily on an HFS formatted external drive, and within Winclone, this image can be restored to Lily. I have not tried, however, because earlier versions of Winclone royally corrupted previous Bootcamp partitions of mine. I'll wait for 911 with this.

cheers

Can you restore the Winclone image and test it for boot ability?

This would set me back another $370 for a second TB flash drive. For obvious reasons I am very hesitant to restore the WinClone image onto the current home of C:LILY. So this experiment will have to wait for a time when I am more flush.

Cheers, Steve

I finally got Win 8.1 (note this was an "upgrade" key) installed on my 2015 RMBP 13" and just wanted to share my experience. I bought 8.1 from my university and used the provided executable to download the ISO. I more or less followed GGooeytoe's guide with a few minor modifications; I had to make these modifications as I couldn't get my drive recognized in the RMBP without the slight modifications.  I am using a brand new SSD in a USB 3.0 enclosure and used the windows disk manager on another desktop to get the drive ready.

Note that I could not use Pierre80's method because when I went into my ISO I saw install.ESD instead of install.wim. It was too much hassle to convert it. This method works without the wim file and is quite simple relative to the MANY failed approaches that I attempted.

Here are the steps:

0) On the 2015 RMBP, open up Bootcamp in OSX and choose the option to download the drivers. Copy the drivers onto a flash drive.

1) Set up the SSD in Windows disk manager. Plug in the drive, right click on the SSD, click "Convert to GPT Disk." If this option is not active, then you may have an existing partition on the SSD. To get this option, erase the existing partitions on your SSD. Afterwards, create a new Fat32 partition of size 100MB, which will be used for the EFI partition, followed by an NTFS partition with the remainder of the space (I called mine Windows).

2) Download WinToUSB (free) and tell it where the Win 8.1 ISO file is. When asked, select the Fat32 partition as the EFI system partition and the "Windows" partition as the boot partition. Let WinToUSB do its magic and install the ISO.

3) Try booting the external SSD on the mac. Plug the SSD in, turn on the laptop, and hold alt while the machine is turning on. You should be able to boot into the Windows installation now and finish the install.

4) After the base install, plug in the flash drive with bootcamp drivers and set them up.

5) Sit back and enjoy your new system.

6) Optional. My RMBP's screen was dimmer in 8.1 as opposed to OSX. I went into power management and turned dynamic brightness (or something to this effect) off. Instantly my screen was brighter!

Thanks everyone.