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-Reverie Author

Level 1

11 points

Windows 7 on external drive

Hey all,

I want to have a copy of Windows 7 available for rare use. I don't want to have a Bootcamp partition on my hard drive. Is it possible to have Bootcamp on an external drive? I want to use a flash drive. I tried using WinClone and found out that it doesn't support Windows 7 on an external drive.

I have also tried installing Mavericks on a flash drive, booting from that drive and then trying to setup Bootcamp that way. This didn't work since I got a message saying to enable journalling on the disk. The disk was partition with journalling.

I just want to know if what I am trying to do is actually possible so I don't waste anymore time.

Computer specs are late 2013 unibody Macbook Pro running OSX 10.9.5 and Windows 7 64bit Home Premium

Thankyou!

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9.1)

Posted on Feb 24, 2015 6:51 PM

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5 replies

Level 10

361,741 points

Feb 24, 2015 6:53 PM in response to -Reverie

Windows cannot boot from an external drive unless you are running it in an emulator like Parallels.

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Level 9

59,471 points

Feb 24, 2015 6:57 PM in response to -Reverie

Please see http://bleeptobleep.blogspot.fr/2013/02/mac-install-windows-7-or-8-on-external.h tml for one possible solution.

Windows-to-Go is also another option - http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/enterprise/products-and-technologies/devi ces/windowstogo.aspx

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-Reverie Author

Level 1

11 points

Feb 24, 2015 7:27 PM in response to Loner T

On the bleeptobleep article I read that you need a PC. I don't have one. Can I still do it?

Also can you get Windows-to-Go on Windows 7? Or is that only a Windows 8 thing?

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Level 9

59,471 points

Feb 24, 2015 7:56 PM in response to -Reverie

-Reverie wrote:

On the bleeptobleep article I read that you need a PC. I don't have one. Can I still do it?

You can use a VM instead of a PC.

Also can you get Windows-to-Go on Windows 7? Or is that only a Windows 8 thing?

W8+.

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-Reverie Author

Level 1

11 points

Feb 24, 2015 7:57 PM in response to Loner T

Great thank you for your help! I will try with a virtual machine and see how I go

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Windows 7 on external drive

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