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

Thank you 

1. for clarifying the contents of the media you bought.

2. for taking the onus of asking M$. I am curious how they respond.

I couldn't copy and paste the chat , no idea why but I took a screenshot

I couldn't catch why I need a key for  Win 7,8 or 8.1 , but not win 10

The M$ person did not understand your question. M$ allows the creation of a USB installer or downloading of an ISO, or both for W10. The W7/W8+ statement is related to a possible W10 upgrade.

If you paid money for a USB/ISO Installer, which is otherwise a free self-service, for your personal convenience, then that is not an issue. You could have better made use of the same money.

no, no we started  the chat clarifying that I am not talking about a bootable usb for installation. I am sure that the person understood me right. I pointed out  that I want to install win 10 on the USB stick and to use the OS from it-   like Win-to-go but using uncertified USB.

Anyway,I expected more but that what I got from the chat

Here's an official answer to the question from Microsoft:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/forum/insider_wintp-insider_install/h ow-do-i-install-windows-10-to-a-usb-flash-drive/e16b0be1-8b92-4d32-864e-a67f1def a84d?auth=1

That's pretty much it.  Of course you can do it, but it is not legal unless you have Windows Enterprise/Windows To Go.  That's all there is to it.

uk_baby_pc_developer wrote:

 

no, no we started  the chat clarifying that I am not talking about a bootable usb for installation. I am sure that the person understood me right. I pointed out  that I want to install win 10 on the USB stick and to use the OS from it-   like Win-to-go but using uncertified USB.

Anyway,I expected more but that what I got from the chat

You have now provided two parts of information, which are conflicting. Win10 Installer on the USB vs. running W10 from a USB. The former is allowed, the latter requires Windows Enterprise.

@Pierre80

I have followed your instruction step by step, everything worked fine, I got the right feedbacks from the CMD, but when I wanted to boot into the windows (after step 20) it just showed me a black screen telling me "No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key".

I've tried it several times, with other isos aswell, but it kept showing the same black screen. What am I doing wrong?

I'm working on an Macbook Pro Retina End 2013 with OSX 10.11.3, Bootcamp 6.0.1, Windows 8.1 isos (the one you proposed and he usual 8.1 one, both directly downloaded from microsoft.com), a running windows 7 system and an intel SSD (320 series, 120gb) in a USB 3.0 case.

It is working for me. I try to summarize my process based in the original post from       Link to this post      @Pierre80:

It's absolutely possible to run BootCamp from an External Drive (ie : windows installed on an USB drive)

The windows installation program refuses to install itself to an external USB Drive.

That's not a problem, there's a way to install windows installation files on an external USB drive, and once booted from it, Windows will finish to install itself from said drive.

I tested it with Windows 10 but afaik it only works with an Enterprise Version! and it work perfectly from external USB drive!!

here's how to do so :

You will need :

- your windows 10 Enterprise ISO file (choose x64 because Apple Bootcamp tools are meant for x64)

- a running PC (on windows 7 or 8) real or virtualized with admin rights

- a blank external drive (at least 16GB)

/!\ WHOLE DISK WILL BE ERASED, I cannot be responsible for data loss /!\

this software :

- Apple Bootcamp drivers (obtained from the BootCamp setup): On my MBP the realtek audio drivers did not work see       Link to this post     

- "Windows Automated Installation Kit"In fact all you need from WAIK is the file "imagex.exe" see below.

- Power Iso (create a virtual drive, unless you're using a Virtualised Window) : http://www.poweriso.com/

If you don't have Windows ISO, you can download a demo there : http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-8-1-enterprise

or try windows 10 : http://preview.windows.com/

On your existing PC Setup, do the following steps (each command will be in uppercase to increase readability, type them in lowercase, if there's a space between words, insert a space obviously) :

1 - install Windows AIK, once done navigate to this folder : C:\program files\Windows AIK\Tools\Amd64\

2 - in this folder, move the file imagex.exe to the root folder of your C:\ drive

3 - launch the CMD line tool (clic on the Start menu, in the search bar type CMD, then launch it from the menu)

4 - at the prompt, type DISKPART and hit Return Key

     the command line will be like this DISKPART >

5 - type LIST DISK and hit Return Key

     It will list each available drive on your PC with a Disk number (DISK 0 ; DISK 1; DISK # ; etc...)

6 - Choose the disk you want your windows 8.1 installed onto and type accordingly SELECT DISK # and hit Return Key

(# being the number of the disk you want to use (ie SELECT DISK 2) and hit Return Key (according to our example the prompt will state that disk 2 is now the selected disk). Just to be sure of what you did, you can type LIST DISK again, and you will see a * in front of the disk you will erase and prepare for the installation of windows. If you want to be absolutely sure that you selected the right disk, you can unplug the disk and type LIST DISK again and repeat the above steps.

7 - Type CLEAN and hit Return Key

     DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk

8 - Type CREATE PARTITION  primary and hit Return Key

     DiskPart succeeded in creating the specified partition

10 - Type ACTIVE and hit Return Key

     DiskPart marked the current partition as active

11 - Type FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK and hit Return Key

     DiskPart successfully formatted the volume

12 - Type ASSIGN and hit Return Key

     DiskPart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point

13 - Type EXIT and hit Return Key or close the window

Following 14 to 16 steps will allow you to have the window 8 ISO mounted as a drive. If you are doing this with Parallels Desktop or VMWare fusion, just mount the .iso file as a drive in the CD/DVD Drive section of the software and go to step 17

     14 - Install PowerISO

     15 - Clic on the "Mount button", and select "Set Number of Drives Menu", choose "1 Drive"

     16 - Then clic on the "Mount button" again, then "Mount Image". Select your windows 8.1 ISO file and clic "Open"

Following steps are for everyone

     Please note your drives letters before proceeding :

          What is your Windows CD drive Letter ? My Windows Drive letter is E:

          What is your external Hard drive letter ? My USB Drive letter is G:

     So remember to change the letters for your system accordingly.

17 - Verify that your Window installation drive is properly mounted : clic on the Start menu then Computer, then check the drives (in my case, my Virtual CD Drive is the letter E:)

18 - Open CMD tool again, but this time as an Administrator : clic on the Start menu, then in the search bar type CMD, then right-clic on it in the menu and select Run as Administrator

19 - Type  C:\IMAGEX.EXE /APPLY E:\sources\install.wim 1 G:\ and hit Return Key (remember to change the letters to fit your setup)

    there's several spaces in the above command ligne.

     You'll see the ImageX Tool for Windows running, with a percentage [   X% ] Applying progress. It'll take 8 to 12 minutes to complete.

Non Enterprise versions of Windows dont have the file install.wim but boot.wim instead. For me that did not work

20 - Now we'll make the USB Drive Bootable. Type  BCDBOOT G:\WINDOWS /S G:

     Boot files successfully created

You're Done !!

Now, plug the USB Drive to your Mac. Start it and hold the ALT Key, and choose the Windows USB Drive that you used all along.

Windows will boot, and then will reboot the computer. at the boot chime hold ALT key and again choose the Windows drive to boot from.

Once on the Windows desktop appears, plug your Apple Windows Drivers USB keydrive and install the Bootcamp drivers.

After a while, the installation will be done, you just have to reboot Windows, hold ALT again at startup to choose the Windows drive, and voilà !

You just completed the installation of Windows on an external drive, and you can boot it whenever you want. The best part of this is that you can use your Windows USB Drive only when you want to use Windows, and free all that space from your internal Hard drive.

You're Welcome

hivader wrote:

I tested it with Windows 10 but afaik it only works with an Enterprise Version!

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831833.aspx

From Boot Camp 5.1: Frequently asked questions - Apple Support,

Which versions of Windows work with Boot Camp 5.1?

Boot Camp 5.1 supports 64-bit, non-Enterprise versions of Windows 7, Windows 8.0, and Windows 8.1. This version of Boot Camp doesn't support Windows XP, Windows Vista, or any 32-bit version of Windows. Depending on your Mac, you may be able to use an earlier version of Boot Camp to work with other versions of Windows. For details, see the Boot Camp system requirements for Microsoft Windows.

If you have an Enterprise license, and Windows will install with such a license, the USB installation is supported (as is a TB, FW connection).

Yes, the Enterprise version is the simplest solution.  I have a new Mac Pro 6 core.  Very little space on the internal and I wanted to instal Steam and GTA V.  No way was there room!  So ... I downloaded a demo version of 8.1 E and installed this in Parallels.  From Parallels I created an external Windows boot on a USB3 dock and an SSD.  This is done in minutes using the tool Windows to Go.  The resulting SSD fires up in seconds and runs GTA V perfectly on a 2560 x 1440 res screen at 90 f.p.s..  After a few hours I see a message on the second screen I have stating I need to activate Windows.  I simply shut down and reboot and get another few hours.  I also duplicated this with Windows 10 E but it is a pain in the butt compared to 8.1 for such a simple task as running Steam.  I have had this set up for nearly a year now and it still runs perfectly and all updates and security patches are installed without any issues.

BTW I also made an AMD driver installation that runs Crossfire for dual GPUs that works better than the Boot Camp drivers.  The info on how was on Mac Rumors site.  In fact I have not installed any Bootcamp Drivers.  In tests I did they messed up the Windows installation.

Digitalclips wrote:

 

BTW I also made an AMD driver installation that runs Crossfire for dual GPUs that works better than the Boot Camp drivers.  The info on how was on Mac Rumors site.  In fact I have not installed any Bootcamp Drivers.  In tests I did they messed up the Windows installation.

Can you post a link to this?

Sure here you go.  It's not too well explained but all you do is substitute the drivers from AMD folder with the ones from Apple while retaining the rest of the Apple installation.

http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/catalyst-15-4-working-on-nmp.1869023/#post-

BTW ... I noticed while istalling Windows 10 on Boot Camp on my Mac Pro yesterday (just messing around) it installed support for Catalyst much to my shock.  Apple seem to have updated to support both GPUs.  The Device Manager in Windows 10 showed them correctly as FirePro500s in my case.  The Catalyst control interface is far simpler than the one I have from the DIY version which installs look alike drivers intended for the genuine AMD for PC cards. 

Being a curious type with too much time, I tested GTA V frame rates on two identical SSDs both running identical set ups (WinClone is wonderful) and sure enough the new Apple Catalyst / Crossfire set up works but it stutters under on heavy load and nothing like the frame rates I am used to.   The DIY one is silky smooth at 90 f.p.s. with V-Sync off.  So it seems Apple are not providing as good a driver. 

My next wish is a simple hack to make a Crimson / DirectX 12 driver work, I am stuck at Omega, the previous version with DirectX 11 for now as the current hack is way beyond me.

Hi !!!

I have an imac late 2012 without efi boot externally from disk.. As i now model from 2013 can boot externally...

Can i try the method you described ??? Can i then boot from external ssd when external have osx in one partition and windows into second partition???

Thanks !!!

HI !!!

please can you tell me IF can i boot into windows externally from thunderbolt ssd with imac late 2012 ????

i think it must be efi compliant from external booting and only imac after 2013 can ...

Thanks

Hi!!

Please can you tell me if can I boot into windows from external drive in iMac late 2012?? Because I am trying but no success. As I now iMac 2012 late don't support efi booting from external drive.

Thanks in advance.