Please, how can i install a bootcamp partition on my 250G solid state PBPro drive?

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Level 1

14 points

Please, how can i install a bootcamp partition on my 250G solid state PBPro drive?

My old PowerBook Pro with a 1T drive had a bootcamp partition with Windows 7 installed. It recently died and I replaced it with a new 15" Retina PBPro that only has a 250G solid-state drive (a big mistake!!). But here I am and I have a Windows medical program that I need to run but really don't have room (even after moving everything I think doesn't need to be on the start-up drive off to an external drive) to safely install windows 7. How much can I move off? As it is I have my Photo libraries broken into separate smaller libraries and keep all but the one I actively need to work on, off the start-up drive. Any there options? Has anyone managed this?

Any ideas? How small can the partition be - I don't need to run many programs (possibly 3 small ones) and can trim extras from Windows? Or has someone figured out a way to install and then boot Windows from an external drive?

Thanks in advance for even reading this to see if you can help.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)

Posted on Oct 13, 2015 8:51 AM

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Answer 1

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Oct 13, 2015 9:26 AM in response to Gail Taylor1

Does your Medical program need heavy graphics?

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Answer 2

Gail Taylor1 Author

Level 1

14 points

Oct 13, 2015 12:31 PM in response to Loner T

No - very non-graphic or processor demanding

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Answer 3

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Oct 14, 2015 9:22 AM in response to Gail Taylor1

Option A.

1. Put the old 1TB disk in a disk enclosure. It can be USB, Firewire or Thunderbolt. USB3 is the cheapest and recommended.

2. On your Retina, install Windows (W7 may not be allowed, but W8+/W10) should work. This can be a small 40-60GB installation.

3. Once Windows is installed and booted, connect the 1TB external disk. This will be say your D: (or E:) drive.

4. Try to run your Medical application. A variation here is to install the Medical application on your internal disk.

Option B.

1. Same as Option A,1 .

2. Install a Virtualization engine (Vmware Fusion, VirtualBox, Parallels,...).

3. Use the external disk to create a VM from the Windows installation on the 1TB disk.

4. Run you Medical application inside the Windows VM.

There are several variants of the same two general options, based on what type of complexity you want.

If your 1TB disk has say, a 100GB (i.e. small) installation of Windows, you can also consider Windows cloning solutions like WinClone, CloneZilla or CampTune.

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Answer 4

Gail Taylor1 Author

Level 1

14 points

Oct 13, 2015 1:47 PM in response to Loner T

hi, and thanks,

What do you think is the smallest bootcamp position that will run windows OK? I think you are saying that once I have booted from the windows in bootcamp on my retina, then I can run the programs that are on the windows drive that I took out of my old powerbook. I have it in an enclosure and it seems fine.

I'm out for the evening but will check back tomorrow.

Thanks for helping

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Answer 5

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Oct 13, 2015 2:21 PM in response to Gail Taylor1

The smallest Windows I would recommend is about 60GB.

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Answer 6

Gail Taylor1 Author

Level 1

14 points

Oct 14, 2015 9:33 AM in response to Loner T

Thanks for your help but I don't think I can very easily/safely spare that much room on my Flash drive. Maybe I'll go the easy way and see if I can pick up an inexpensive small Windows notebook. But again thanks for your answer - I need to think about it.

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