Hi guys
I recently installed Windows 8 on an external SSD for my Mac. In the end the process was quite straightforward, but there were quite a few hurdles along the way. I found a
lot of useful information here on these forums, so I just wanted to say a
big thank you and to post my guide here. Hopefully it will save other people some time. (Sorry for not replying to the other posts directly, but I didn't want to cross-post on so many different threads).
I know not everyone likes Microsoft or Windows, but that aside, for those who want and/or need Windows 8 on an external SSD, here's what worked for me. There are many other ways of doing this (for example, you could change the internal drive instead), but adding an external drive is fairly simple and brings with it a fair amount of flexibility.
What You'll Need
In brief:
- A modern Mac (obviously ^^)
- A Thunderbolt (or USB 3*) hard-drive enclosure
- An SSD drive (if not included with the enclosure)
- A DVD drive
- Windows 8
- Boot Camp drivers
- A blank DVD (a single-layer DVD-R is fine)
- A USB flash drive or SD card
* Update: Sorry for any confusion, but it seems installing Windows 8 on an external USB 3 drive may be more difficult than expected. However, Lyyrad has managed this, so please read his helpful post.
In detail:
- A modern Mac: To get the most out of this, you'll need a Mac made in 2011 or thereafter, as you'll need an IO port fast enough to accommodate an SSD drive. 2011 saw the introduction of Thunderbolt and 2012 brought USB 3 too, both of which are fine for our needs. Firewire 800 and USB 2 may be just about okay for older HDDs, but they'll ruin any speed benefits that an SSD would bring.
- A Thunderbolt (or USB 3) hard-drive enclosure: This is essentially just a case with a small logic board that allows a SATA drive to connect with your Mac. Although Thunderbolt is the fastest and perhaps the most elegant solution, it also carries a large price premium. USB 3 enclosures, whilst not as fast, still offer more than enough bandwidth for our needs and are also cheaper and more readily available. However, the installation process is not as simple. See the Some Buying Advice below for more advice.
- An SSD drive: Although you could use a regular HDD or hybrid drive (like the Seagate Momentus XT), SSDs will bring much improved performance and are now cheap and stable enough for everyday use. Depending on the enclosure you choose, you may or may not have to buy an SSD separately.
- A DVD drive: Depending on your Mac, you may or may not already have one of these. If you don't, thankfully an external USB DVD drive should work fine, just as long as you can boot from it. We'll need this in order to correctly install Windows 8.
- Windows 8: Microsoft are currently offering a cheap Windows 8 Pro upgrade for existing Windows users, so be sure to buy before January 31, 2013. If you already have Windows 7 installed on your Mac, be sure to purchase the Windows 8 upgrade on this machine, as the installer will check your apps and devices for compatibility and also help to download the right version (i.e. if you're using Windows 7 x64, the installer will download Windows 8 x64).
- Boot Camp drivers: You can download these using Boot Camp Assistant on your Mac. Boot Camp 5.x is around 655 MB, so it'll easily fit on a USB drive or SD card (or even a CD-R, if that's how you roll
).
- A blank DVD: I know, I know, but we need to burn the Windows 8 upgrade to DVD in order to ensure maximum compatibility. If you purchased a Windows 8 retail disk instead, then you can ignore this requirement.
- A USB flash drive or SD card: This is just for storing the Boot Camp drivers on.
For your reference, my setup:
- 2011 iMac
- Buffalo Ministation Thunderbolt enclosure
- Plextor M5S 256 GB SSD
- Windows 8 Pro x64 (upgrade)
- Boot Camp 5
Some Buying Advice
If you already have your hard-drive enclosure and drive, you can skip this part. If not, feel free to read on.
Enclosures
USB 3 Pros and Cons
- + Cheap
- + Plenty of choice
- + Compatible with more PCs
- + Should allow Windows to correctly enter standby mode
- - More difficult to install compared to Thunderbolt (please read Lyrrad's post)
- - Not as fast as Thunderbolt (although for our purposes this probably isn't an issue)
Remember to check if the enclosure supports SATA III drives, as some older/cheaper enclosures only support SATA I/II. This isn't the end of the world, as SATA standards are backwards compatible, but if your SSD is rated as SATA III (6 Gbps), then I'd choose a SATA III enclosure too.
Also note that some USB 3 enclosures require a small power brick, whereas others are bus-powered (either requiring one or two USB ports depending on the model you choose). Again, it all works out the same, but bus-powered drives are generally more portable.
Finally, USB 2 drives (and Firewire ones too) will be rejected by the Windows installer as the connection speed is probably deemed too slow. There are workarounds, but really you will need at least USB 3 for a satisfactory experience.
Thunderbolt Pros and Cons
- + The fastest external connection of its type
- + Thunderbolt enclosures are currently premium products (so generally good quality)
- + Intel and Apple designed
- - Thunderbolt enclosures currently carry a large price premium
- - Some enclosures don't ship with a Thunderbolt cable (which is itself expensive)
- - There are currently only a few PCs that have Thunderbolt ports
- - Thunderbolt doesn't currently allow Windows to enter standby mode
Discounting the ridiculously expensive Thunderbolt enclosures and hubs, there are basically three choices at the time of writing (all of which ship with Thunderbolt cables):
- Buffalo MiniStation Thunderbolt: Supports both Thunderbolt and USB 3, bespoke logic board offers great performance, beautiful design, three-year warranty. However, it's not available with an SSD as standard, it's difficult to upgrade, and it's more expensive than the LaCie drive.
- LaCie Rugged: Supports both Thunderbolt and USB 3, available with a 120 GB or 256 GB SSD, not too expensive. However, some reviews say it runs hot under load, it 'only' comes with a two-year warranty, and it's ... very orange (However, the orange removed).
- Seagate GoFlex Thunderbolt Adapter (2.5" and 3.5" versions available): Allows an existing GoFlex or Backup Plus drive to be connected and comes with a three-year warranty. However, the price doesn't include a drive, there's no USB 3 support, and the 2.5" version doesn't offer great performance.
Having read reviews at places like
Anandtech, the
MiniStation seems like a great product, but please see the warning below.
Buffalo MiniStation Warning
Disassembling this drive is a nightmare It's a beautiful piece of hardware, but Buffalo adheres the drive to the enclosure with a large swathe of strong, double-sided tape. Unless you have experience and the right tools,
you will damage this enclosure if you try to change the drive.
The lid is soft plastic, plus the metal scratches easily, and you simply have to apply too much force to remove the drive. I pretty much ruined my enclosure, so please keep this in mind if you're thinking of buying the MiniStation to upgrade the drive: it's not for the faint of heart.
However, once you do access the internals, changing the drive is pretty straightforward. Unscrew and unclip the relevant parts to remove the internal black plastic enclosure, cut the warranty label, then wiggle the drive free from the internal metal enclosure. It ships with a nice Seagate Momentus B HDD (500 GB or 1 TB), so you can either keep this or sell it on eBay etc.
Some SSDs may be slightly too large to fit where the HDD was, in which case you'll need to remove the SSD case and try again. Some SSDs have a warranty label on the case, so think twice before you cut it!
Update: There is already an SSD-based MiniStation in Japan, so these should be available internationally in 2013. This way you won't have to mod the drive yourself and thus your warranty/enclosure/sanity will all remain intact.
SSDs
I'll keep this brief, as there's already mountains of information out there, but essentially SSDs bring large performance benefits over traditional HDDs. Yes, they're more expensive, but prices are have no dropped to at or around US$1/GB, which is much better than it used to be.
Aside from the different brands and their varying firmware updates and warranties, most SSDs boil down to: capacity, controller and memory. 60 GB 2.5" drives are about the smallest capacity available now, but note that 60 GB variants often run slower than their larger capacity cousins (in order to keep costs down). Look for 120-256 GB drives for the best price/performance ratio.
The controller basically handles how the drive works. There are many variants on the market, but the two most common brands are SandForce and Marvell. Both have their strengths and weaknesses, so read some reviews to get a feel for how they're optimised (and read Anandtech to learn more about
SandForce's TRIM performance issues with incompressible data).
Finally, there are basically three types of memory: SLC, MLC and TLC. In that order, they go from the longest endurance and most expensive, to the weakest endurance and least expensive. MLC tends to hit the sweet spot for most consumer applications, so it is now the most common choice.
In terms of brands, Intel SSDs have a good reputation for their reliability, but they do carry somewhat of a price premium. Samsung SSDs offer great performance, but again aren't cheap. However, there are many other decent brands to consider (Plextor, OCZ, Corsair etc.).
A Few Warnings
This should be obvious, but it's worth repeating before we begin:
- Always back up your data before messing with your OS: Even straightforward upgrades can go awry, and you'll be sorry if you lose any important data, so don't take any risks.
- You may void your enclosure and/or drive warranty by doing this: Replacing an enclosure's original drive will void the warranty, and if you have remove an SSD drive from its case, that'll probably void its warranty too. Since most of these products offer generous three-year deals, think carefully before proceeding.
- You will have to live with some compromises: If you follow these instructions, you'll lose the ability to put Windows into sleep mode when using a Thunderbolt enclosure (USB 3 should be fine, though, as this issue seems to be unique to Thunderbolt on Windows). It's a small bug that'll hopefully be fixed in the future, but think ahead if you can accept this.
- Don't blame me if all goes wrong: What works for one person might not work for you. As far as I know, these instructions should work nicely across many different configurations, but your experiences may vary.
If your Mac is your primary computer, you should choose a time to upgrade when you need it the least (i.e. a quite evening or weekend). Start to finish, you should only need an hour or so, but always plan for the worst.
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