MacBook Air won't boot from external hard drive with Windows 7 installed

Question

Level 1

8 points

MacBook Air won't boot from external hard drive with Windows 7 installed

Goal

To be able to boot from an external hard drive with Windows 7 installed on it from my MacBook Air.

So far...

I have successfully installed Windows 7 on said hard drive and have verified it works by booting from it on a PC running Windows 10.

The Problem

When I plug my external hard drive into my MacBook and select Windows from the Startup Disk utility my MacBook hangs on a black backlit screen with a folder with a question mark on it until I shut down or restart.

MacBook Air, macOS High Sierra (10.13.3)

Posted on May 20, 2018 11:48 PM

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Answer 1

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

May 21, 2018 4:17 AM in response to robbyjm

This is an unsupported configuration on a Mac.

What is the year/model of your Mac (do not post the serial number)?
Was Windows installed using Bootcamp?

Also, be aware, if Windows has drivers for the PC on the external installation, it does not support any Apple-specific hardware on the Mac.

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Answer 2

robbyjm Author

Level 1

8 points

May 21, 2018 5:15 PM in response to Loner T

The year of my MacBook Air is 2017. Windows 7 was not installed on my MacBook Air using Boot Camp. As far as I am aware, Boot Camp does not support the installation of Windows on external hard drives. This was the method I used, but instead of using a VM to create the installation media, I used my Windows 10 Desktop.

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Answer 3

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

May 21, 2018 6:21 PM in response to robbyjm

W7 is not supported on Macs after 2014 models. Also, your video shows a legacy (BIOS) installation, which is not supported on models after 2014. If you really want to do this, follow the example, which installs W10, not W7 and test.

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MacBook Air won't boot from external hard drive with Windows 7 installed

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