I have been reading about a lot of issues with Bootcamp installation under Yosemite. I am curious, is anyone here having issues?
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OS X Bootcamp w/ Yosemite
- Thread starter Freis968
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You should get more responses here - https://forums.macrumors.com/forums/86/
Or Here - https://forums.macrumors.com/forums/171/
Any problem I've had is from the installation USB being FAT32, a solution around this is to format the USB stick to HFS+ before running Bootcamp.
I've got Windows 8 running on Yosemite without issue. I have it set up in Bootcamp and VM Ware. No issues either way.
My last clean installs were of Mavericks and Windows 7. I then upgraded to Yosemite without a problem, then because I had a few screws loose, I installed Windows 8.1 on top of 7. That upgrade went flawlessly. The only thing I had to reinstall was my GPU drivers. It even carried over the patched master boot record to allow AHCI mode on the classic MacBook Pro.
Unless you're trying to run two operating systems with a 128 GB SSD, how is this ideal?
Not sure what you meant. I'm talking about not messing with OS X installation at all, in order to install windows. Keep the OS X in the internal drive, without splitting it with bootcamp assistant, and put windows on an external TB drive, separated from anything else.
If the external drive is connected with thunderbolt and is SSD type, you'll have native ssd speeds, while leaving OS X boot disk totally unaffected.
I know what you meant. I'm asking why you think this is an "ideal" setup?
What you're suggesting is a waste of time (attempting to install Windows on n external device is difficult and Apple's half-baked EFI implementation causes problems in the aftermath) and money (Thunderbolt peripherals are stupid expensive).
I'll second this point...
Not just with Windows, but with EVERYTHING. Reinstalling an OS and upgrading and making everything work can be a real pain - it can take a solid week or more, and a few things never make it.
Yet, whenever I've invested the time to make in a stand alone partition separate from OS-X to house some software or even just data, it requires NOTHING when updating OS-X - it just works. While it may be more of a pain initially to make Windows work in its own partition, it can pay for itself really fast when you upgrade OS-X. In fact, Apple could decide to not support boot camp in the future and you'd STILL be able to use Windows and STILL be able to upgrade your OS-X to the latest version.
As for the "Thunderbolt tax", I don't think it's that big a percentage of the external drive cost, but if you don't need the speed, I find FW800 works reasonably well if you have a laptop that supports it. Booting from a FW800 on an external 3.5" drive is barely slower than using an internal 2.5" non-SSD laptop drive. But if you're using an SSD already, you probably are used to faster connections.
The one thing you didn't point out that is not ideal about the external drive is it means you can't easily carry around Windows with you. That's a reason to make it on a separate partition on your internal drive. But with only 128G, it's hard to imagine you can do much of anything. Literally just the programs I install don't fit in 128GB, let alone my data.
Not just with Windows, but with EVERYTHING. Reinstalling an OS and upgrading and making everything work can be a real pain - it can take a solid week or more, and a few things never make it.
Yet, whenever I've invested the time to make in a stand alone partition separate from OS-X to house some software or even just data, it requires NOTHING when updating OS-X - it just works. While it may be more of a pain initially to make Windows work in its own partition, it can pay for itself really fast when you upgrade OS-X. In fact, Apple could decide to not support boot camp in the future and you'd STILL be able to use Windows and STILL be able to upgrade your OS-X to the latest version.
As for the "Thunderbolt tax", I don't think it's that big a percentage of the external drive cost, but if you don't need the speed, I find FW800 works reasonably well if you have a laptop that supports it. Booting from a FW800 on an external 3.5" drive is barely slower than using an internal 2.5" non-SSD laptop drive. But if you're using an SSD already, you probably are used to faster connections.
The one thing you didn't point out that is not ideal about the external drive is it means you can't easily carry around Windows with you. That's a reason to make it on a separate partition on your internal drive. But with only 128G, it's hard to imagine you can do much of anything. Literally just the programs I install don't fit in 128GB, let alone my data.
No, not difficult at all, there are guides that take user by the hand and you are all set in a few steps. Like this one.
This allows you to save your valuable internal space (especially on later Macs that come with a small SSD), especially if you install windows for gaming. EFI is not an issue whatsoever as long as your external drive is bootable; it will always boot when you press ALT during boot, without messing with your internal OSX-only installation.
You can also move it without any work from your side on another Mac later, if you change machines. Just plug the external drive on your new mac and boot from it. Your windows installation, games and everything will be there ready to play. It's like having a portable gaming PC (well, one that needs a Mac to be plugged in).
I'm using this configuration for some months now (I'm actually using a small external disk where windows are installed and a bigger external one where I install the games). Using bootcamp and splitting my valuable internal SSD drive in order to play windows games natively, now seems a terrible idea thanks to thunderbolt (mind that this can be done also using USB3 drives, with a small hit in speed).
This cannot be done, though, with slower ports (e.g. USB2 or Firewire) as these cannot "fool" windows to "think" that they are internal drives (windows hate to boot from external drives normally).
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Wouldn't booting Bootcamp from different Macs cause some conflicts with drivers? I'm surprised that it works!
Yes, this is correct, but it's a process that you'll need to do this, bootcamp or not. I'll explain.
With bootcamp running on the internal divided disk , changing Macs means that you'll have to do the following on your new Mac:
1. Re-run bootcamp assistant
2. Split your internal drive again (which for most recent Macs having a small internal ssd this is a problem on its own)
3. Re-install windows
4. Boot windows and re-run your bootcamp drivers, suitable for the new h/w
Having windows independently installed on an external TB drive, would only require step 4.
Ah I see. Thanks for the solution! I'm actually planning to have an External Bootcamp drive soon. But probably won't be switching Macs for it. Good to know.