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Windows 10 through external hard drive / Boot Camp issues

Hello.


So I recently purchased an external hard drive (Seagate 2TB Slim BUP) in hopes of running Windows 10 on it just because I didn't want to partition my internal drive on my 2019 iMac. I made sure it was possible and used this video to figure out how to do it. After a bit of trial and error I successfully managed to install Windows 10 onto the external drive utilizing Parallels and I have been able to boot into the drive and onto Windows 10 using the option key command at startup. I got so far as starting the setup from Windows Support -> Boot Camp -> Setup where it was supposed to install all of the appropriate drivers to allow connection with the Apple Keyboard and Apple Mouse as well being able to set up the WiFi in Windows.

However, even after allowing the Setup to run and install all it needed to and then restarting my computer, I log back onto Windows only to find out that I can't use the Apple Keyboard, Mouse or wireless internet still, and I'm not sure why. I've looked up a lot of tutorials and forums online and I've tried uninstalling/removing drivers from the Device Manager in Windows but any time I try to update the drivers with the yellow exclamation point on it (the drop down list for "Other Devices"), the notification pops up saying it could not find the appropriate driver for it. And even in trying to change/add a wireless driver from a set list (i.e. Broadcom drivers), the wireless internet functionality still does not show up on the system. I saw one video where they said to update the drivers from the Boot Camp folder in the Windows Support, but there were no drivers for wireless internet in them, only for BroadcomEthernet and BroadcomBluetooth while they had BroadcomWireless in theirs. And I can't download anything from the internet onto the Windows system because it won't connect so I'm just at a loss and I'm not sure what to do.


Any advice is very much appreciated!

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Aug 29, 2020 12:36 AM

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Posted on Aug 29, 2020 6:16 AM

External disk installation of Windows on Macs are not officially supported, despite all the YouTube videos. None of the videos explain

(in 5 minutes or less) what may have taken someone hours. WinToUSB is also problematic.


However, if you need drivers, and they are not provided by the Bootcamp Assistant -> Action -> Download, then they are provided by Windows Update or How to use Apple Software Update for Windows - Apple Support.


What are the specific reason(s) that you do not want to partition your internal disk? Most stable installations of Windows are on the internal disks of Macs. As a test, if you install Windows on the internal disk, do you drivers issues get resolved? You can always remove Windows after the test.


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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 29, 2020 6:16 AM in response to AdsynPlays

External disk installation of Windows on Macs are not officially supported, despite all the YouTube videos. None of the videos explain

(in 5 minutes or less) what may have taken someone hours. WinToUSB is also problematic.


However, if you need drivers, and they are not provided by the Bootcamp Assistant -> Action -> Download, then they are provided by Windows Update or How to use Apple Software Update for Windows - Apple Support.


What are the specific reason(s) that you do not want to partition your internal disk? Most stable installations of Windows are on the internal disks of Macs. As a test, if you install Windows on the internal disk, do you drivers issues get resolved? You can always remove Windows after the test.


Aug 29, 2020 2:46 PM in response to Loner T

Hi Loner T, thank you so much for your reply!


I'm not so well versed in anything Windows quite honestly, so I am never sure of what's considered good or bad when it comes to this stuff. Probably explains why I have to turn to asking my own question in desperation LOL. 


The problem with the Apple Software Update for Windows is that when I try to execute it, an error notification pops up and says that the server for the update couldn't be found because my internet is not connected, but I can't connect to the internet because there was no wireless connection option anywhere on the desktop or control panel. There were no access points or routers to connect to or even any mention of connecting to wireless internet. It's as if it didn't exist. And our wifi connection is fine on MacOS.


The reason I didn't want to partition my internal disk was just for organizational reasons and I wanted to save the space on my internal disk since I mostly use MacOS for all of my productivity and projects anyway. But in all this frustration I figure that I might as well just try it out anyway and if it's successful then I'll just keep it on the internal disk.


I'm going to try it out and I'll come back to this and update you.


Thank you again!

Aug 29, 2020 3:27 PM in response to Loner T

Update.


I just used Boot Camp on the internal disk and followed a simple video and everything worked perfectly. Had I known how much frustration and headache using an external drive would cause, I would've just opted to do it like this.


Thank you for your help. I'm just going to abandon having Windows run off a hard drive. Considering how much external storage I have now, I think I'll be just fine in terms of internal storage LOL.

Windows 10 through external hard drive / Boot Camp issues

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