Installing Windows 8 on an External SSD Guide

[uptownnyc]

Bummer. No luck with the new external drive. Seems to be crashing in the same spot on install. If I re-try, it gives me the "Safe Boot" option, which lets me see the specific drivers it's loading when it hangs/crashes/reboots. It's something called disk.sys that's causing the issue (or at least that's the last driver shown on the screen).

From what I've found online, it appears to be some sort of hardware conflict with the system that causes the crash. I've tried disabling WiFi and Bluetooth (plugged in a USB keyboard instead) but that didn't help. I've also tried each of the USB ports for the external drive, but that didn't help. Beyond that - I'm not sure what else I can really tweak on the iMac to increase my chances of a successful install.

I tried the same (new) external drive on my 2011 MBP, but it's not even discovered on bootup - I see my main drive, and the Recovery partition, but that's all.

I did have one question - does the Windows install need to take place while connected to the iMac? Would it be possible to boot from the external drive on a Windows PC ... perform the install onto that drive, then connect it to the iMac to finish up the instal process with the Bootcamp drivers?

If not - I guess I'm screwed. I suppose 10.8.3 is supposed to fix the 3tb Bootcamp issue - but I'm still not sure whether that'll allow me to install Windows to the external drive like I was hoping. Alternately, I suppose I could try a Windows 8 install - but I'm not really looking to spend any more money on Windows licenses than I need to considering I'd only use it for a few games and I'm already $100 in the hole for this new external drive that didn't solve my problem.

Thanks for the help and any advice you can provide.

[BleepToBleep]

I think you can install Windows from a PC and then run it on potentially any computer since it's in fact a Windows To Go installation.
Let me know if you're successful with that...

[uptownnyc]

Originally Posted by BleepToBleep

I think you can install Windows from a PC and then run it on potentially any computer since it's in fact a Windows To Go installation.
Let me know if you're successful with that...

No luck. Gave it a shot doing the whole thing from a Windows PC and wasn't able to make any progress. Even tweaked every available setting in the BIOS to see if there was some sort of conflict, but it didn't seem to help.

**grumble**

[BleepToBleep]

oh crap... so that could be due to your external drive itself then...

[hfg]

FWIW: I was able to successfully use this technique (BleepToBleep) to create a working Windows 8 system on a Seagate GoFlex Thunderbolt with Crucial M4 256GB SSD. It is not, however, able to co-exist with an internal Windows installation on my iMac as I described earlier, once prepped, after reboot it simply defaults to my existing Windows install rather than performing the external Windows install.

I moved the "prepped" Thunderbolt drive to a Macbook Air which had no BootCamp installation and it proceeded to boot into the startup/installation and completed normally. To answer my own question ... I could not use the external Windows installation with VMware Fusion as a virtual-machine since apparently it can't be located without a boot loader on the internal OS X boot drive. I guess I expected this however.


-howard

[uptownnyc]

Originally Posted by BleepToBleep

oh crap... so that could be due to your external drive itself then...

Seems to be the case. I'm guessing it's hit or miss depending on the make and model of the internal drive and possible the enclosure.

[Snoezzz]

I have a LaCie Rugged Thunderbolt SSD drive on which i have installed Windows 7 (of course this also works for Windows 8 or even Vista... The installation is fully independent from the internal Mac drives. Absolutely nothing is installed onto the internal drives.

For anyone else that is interested in my method... Read on

There are some requirements to get this working of course:

-Access to a Windows (7 or 8) computer.
-An external Thunderbolt drive which also has a USB connector (unless you have access to a Windows computer which has a Thunderbolt port. Or you could open up the external case take out the SSD and connect it to a Windows computer in any other way..)
-A Windows driver for the Thunderbolt drive.

(The LaCie Rugged SSD has a USB connector and comes with a Windows driver, which is the reason i chose this one.)

The installation method is done using official Microsoft tools.

Step by step guide (with pictures ):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

[Snoezzz]

Originally Posted by uptownnyc

I got everything working up until the point where I reboot with the prepared drive connected to perform the Windows installation. Once I do that, I get the startup screens of Windows 7 where the colored blobs start to fly together, followed by a very-quick blue screen, then a system reboot.

I'm trying to install Windows 7 X64 using an external laptop-sized hard drive in an old Kingston USB2 enclosure (figured I'd try on that before investing in a USB3 or Thunderbolt enclosure).

I also tried to boot to SafeMode, but it had the same result. Think the enclosure matters? Not quite sure what to do now.

This is on a new 2012 iMac w/ 3tb fusion.

Thanks for the guide - I feel like I'm very close.

The USB drivers aren't loaded in this stage of the Windows boot, which is why you get the blue screen... Thunderbolt drivers are loaded very early during a Windows boot (just like Sata and RAID drivers).

[uptownnyc]

Originally Posted by Snoezzz

The USB drivers aren't loaded in this stage of the Windows boot, which is why you get the blue screen... Thunderbolt drivers are loaded very early during a Windows boot (just like Sata and RAID drivers).

Is there any work-around for that, or am I just out of luck trying to do this with a USB drive?

[Snoezzz]

Originally Posted by uptownnyc

Is there any work-around for that, or am I just out of luck trying to do this with a USB drive?

Windows 8 has a To Go option... maybe USB drivers are loaded at an earlier stage in Windows 8 compared to Windows 7.

But i know a workaround You can edit the Windows 7 registry in which you can force the USB drivers load in an earlier stage, i tried it once myself and it worked (at least for USB2, never tried it for a USB3 drive but i think that won't make any difference.) Of course right now you aren't able to edit the registry because windows won't boot. Fortunately you can edit the registry offline if you have access to another Windows computer. It's been a few months ago that i tried this so i have to look up the information for you (which registry key), i'll get on it right away

[uptownnyc]

Really appreciate it! I've got another Windows PC to work with, but don't have a Windows 8 install. Maybe I'll grab their eval copy and see if it solves this problem.

Great guide you wrote-up by the way. Thanks for that.

[hfg]

Originally Posted by Snoezzz

I have a LaCie Rugged Thunderbolt SSD drive on which i have installed Windows 7 (of course this also works for Windows 8 or even Vista... The installation is fully independent from the internal Mac drives. Absolutely nothing is installed onto the internal drives.

For anyone else that is interested in my method... Read on

There are some requirements to get this working of course:

-Access to a Windows (7 or 8) computer.
-An external Thunderbolt drive which also has a USB connector (unless you have access to a Windows computer which has a Thunderbolt port. Or you could open up the external case take out the SSD and connect it to a Windows computer in any other way..)
-A Windows driver for the Thunderbolt drive.

(The LaCie Rugged SSD has a USB connector and comes with a Windows driver, which is the reason i chose this one.)

The installation method is done using official Microsoft tools.

Step by step guide (with pictures ):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

Nice writeup ... thanks for posting. I am interested in the LaCie driver you inject into the Windows boot ... is that just for the USB interface or does it also enable the Thunderbolt interface? I wish there was a Windows driver for the LaCie "Little Big Disk" dual drive Thunderbolt enclosure and perhaps the one you used might work there as well.

Also wondering if you have tried adding a virtual-machine such as VMware or Parallels to the bootable Windows installation for vm access from within OS X? I have been unable to do so from any "standalone" external Windows installation which didn't have a OS X boot disk Windows boot partition.

-howard

[uptownnyc]

Just successfully got Windows 8 installed on my external Touro USB 3.0 hard drive. Literally no issues. I followed the same process as the Windows 7 guide - just used the evaluation Windows 8 WIM file for my install.

Looks like I'm upgrading to Windows 8 whether I want to or not for gaming.

[Snoezzz]

Originally Posted by hfg

Nice writeup ... thanks for posting. I am interested in the LaCie driver you inject into the Windows boot ... is that just for the USB interface or does it also enable the Thunderbolt interface? I wish there was a Windows driver for the LaCie "Little Big Disk" dual drive Thunderbolt enclosure and perhaps the one you used might work there as well.

Also wondering if you have tried adding a virtual-machine such as VMware or Parallels to the bootable Windows installation for vm access from within OS X? I have been unable to do so from any "standalone" external Windows installation which didn't have a OS X boot disk Windows boot partition.

-howard

Hello Howard,

I inject the driver into the Windows image file so Windows recognizes the Thunderbolt drive/controller at Windows 7 startup.

When i boot Windows from the Thunderbolt drive i see the name of the chip/controller right before Windows start, i believe it's an Asmedia controller. I could look up the exact name if you want. It might be compatible with the Lacie Little Big disk.

I don't really know what you mean with the VM part. You want a VM on the external drive and be able to access it from Mac OS?

----------

Originally Posted by uptownnyc

Just successfully got Windows 8 installed on my external Touro USB 3.0 hard drive. Literally no issues. I followed the same process as the Windows 7 guide - just used the evaluation Windows 8 WIM file for my install.

Looks like I'm upgrading to Windows 8 whether I want to or not for gaming.

Nice! So i think you've confirmed that Windows 8 boots from USB natively

[Snoezzz]

Originally Posted by hfg

I wish there was a Windows driver for the LaCie "Little Big Disk" dual drive Thunderbolt enclosure and perhaps the one you used might work there as well.

I just read this somewhere: All of LaCie's Little Big Disk models employ the same Intel CV82524EF/L Thunderbolt and Marvell 88SE9182 SATA controllers.

So you probably need an Intel Thunderbolt driver for the above chip.

[Snoezzz]

Originally Posted by Snoezzz

I just read this somewhere: All of LaCie's Little Big Disk models employ the same Intel CV82524EF/L Thunderbolt and Marvell 88SE9182 SATA controllers.

So you probably need an Intel Thunderbolt driver for the above chip.

Correction, i just found out that the LaCie Rugged driver is nothing more than the driver for the ASmedia Sata controller which resides in the LaCie enclosure. So the bottomline is that i injected the required Sata driver and all the iMac drivers into the wim file. Meaning that if you can find the Marvell Sata/Raid controller driver, the Little Big Disk might actually work with Windows.

[hfg]

Originally Posted by Snoezzz

Correction, i just found out that the LaCie Rugged driver is nothing more than the driver for the ASmedia Sata controller which resides in the LaCie enclosure. So the bottomline is that i injected the required Sata driver and all the iMac drivers into the wim file. Meaning that if you can find the Marvell Sata/Raid controller driver, the Little Big Disk might actually work with Windows.

Thanks for the research and information ... I will have to do a little experimenting now.

The LaCie "LBD" boots fine in OS X, and is fast with RAID-0 SSDs, but what I am trying to create is a single OS X SSD along with a single Bootable Windows SSD, all in the dual-drive Thunderbolt enclosure. If I can get the Windows driver to work ... I will have it!

Thanks,
-howard

[Snoezzz]

Originally Posted by hfg

Thanks for the research and information ... I will have to do a little experimenting now.

The LaCie "LBD" boots fine in OS X, and is fast with RAID-0 SSDs, but what I am trying to create is a single OS X SSD along with a single Bootable Windows SSD, all in the dual-drive Thunderbolt enclosure. If I can get the Windows driver to work ... I will have it!

Thanks,
-howard

I know where you can download the Marvell controller driver, if you haven't found it already. I know the Asrock X79 Extreme 7 motherboard also had this controller, you can download a Windows driver from the Asrock website.

[hfg]

Originally Posted by Snoezzz

I know where you can download the Marvell controller driver, if you haven't found it already. I know the Asrock X79 Extreme 7 motherboard also had this controller, you can download a Windows driver from the Asrock website.

I see that LaCie just posted a Little Big Disk Thunderbolt Windows driver on the support page today (2/26/13)

http://www.lacie.com/support/support...t.htm?id=10549

[Snoezzz]

Originally Posted by hfg

I see that LaCie just posted a Little Big Disk Thunderbolt Windows driver on the support page today (2/26/13)

http://www.lacie.com/support/support...t.htm?id=10549

Yep, i see it too now. I dl-ed it myself and it looks like i was right about the Marvell controller. The Asrock driver probably would have worked as well.