02-04-2007, 01:44 AM

I have an external firewire drive and would like to use it as a Windows drive for Boot Camp. Is there any way I can go about doing this or if not if there are any ideas if Boot Camp in the future will allow this in the future?

02-04-2007, 11:56 AM

Originally Posted by markw10

I have an external firewire drive and would like to use it as a Windows drive for Boot Camp. Is there any way I can go about doing this or if not if there are any ideas if Boot Camp in the future will allow this in the future?

(EDIT: Incorrect answer removed) This link answers many similar questions.

02-04-2007, 12:26 PM

From http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303572

Note: You cannot install Windows XP on an external hard drive.

According to that article you posted, no you cannot.

02-04-2007, 12:32 PM

Originally Posted by mynameis

According to that article you posted, no you cannot.

I apologize, I missed that note and stand corrected:

"I have more than one hard drive, can I install Windows XP on any drive?

With Boot Camp Beta 1.1 or later, yes, but you can install only one Windows partition on any of your computer volumes. The Setup Assistant will allow you to partition drives, or to install Windows XP on an entire drive if it does not contain Mac OS X. Note: You cannot install Windows XP on an external hard drive."

02-04-2007, 01:31 PM

Originally Posted by cwa107

I apologize, I missed that note and stand corrected:

"I have more than one hard drive, can I install Windows XP on any drive?

With Boot Camp Beta 1.1 or later, yes, but you can install only one Windows partition on any of your computer volumes. The Setup Assistant will allow you to partition drives, or to install Windows XP on an entire drive if it does not contain Mac OS X. Note: You cannot install Windows XP on an external hard drive."

I did a bit of digging and found that the reason for this is that the XP installation process continuously stops and restarts the Firewire and USB drivers during the installation process which is what mucks up the process of installing to an external drive. The problem is not so much inherent to Bootcamp or the Mac as it is that XP itself is not designed to be installed on an external drive. Now, that said, it might be possible to perform the installation process on a drive that is attached via the internal drive connector and then later (after the install was completed) move it to an external enclosure, but that's more of a guess rather than a confirmed solution.

Again, I totally mis-read Apple's own FAQ and apologize for my erroneous answer.

02-04-2007, 01:32 PM

I found out you can't boot from a external drive but was hoping maybe I can put a partition there so I can use it for additional space but seems that's out as well. Well I can only hope for this in a future version. Like you said it's a limit of only one partition so seems the idea of putting additional data on a external drive is out. Seems it can only be used on internal drives.

02-04-2007, 01:33 PM

I did some work on google and seems there are some work arounds but they are very complicated which I don't want to get into doing. Maybe with Vista it will be possible.

02-04-2007, 01:45 PM

Originally Posted by markw10

I did some work on google and seems there are some work arounds but they are very complicated which I don't want to get into doing. Maybe with Vista it will be possible.

As per my post above, I'm not sure that it will ever be a simple process or fix that Apple can introduce since it seems that, even on a PC, XP is not designed to be installed on a USB or Firewire external drive. I don't believe that Vista is any different, I have read a number of threads on different PC forums that indicate that although Vista will detect and allow for installation on external drives, the process fails during installation. Simply put, Microsoft hasn't designed any version of Windows to run on an external device. To be quite honest, I feel like a real dope for suggesting that it was possible to do this in the first place, I should have known better.

I wonder if E-SATA external drives are any different?