Using External Thunderbolt SSD Harddrive as Main Boot for Mac and Windows

JohnDalberg · Dec 8, 2012, 12:56 PM

Hi everyone,

As the topic says, I'm wondering if it's possible to get a external hard drive, LaCie Little Big Disk for example, and use this drive as booting for mac and windows, instead of the internal hard drive that comes with iMac.

I've looked hours for answers and was wondering if anyone has a clear answer for this problem. I'm wondering because of the lack of SSD options in the new iMac, and thought of this one as a better alternative, than to join the 1200$ or whatever mac-ssd-club

In case of malfunction of the drive, this also makes much better sense for me. Flame on if i've missed something here and this is utterly impossible.

Cheers

aneftp · Dec 8, 2012, 01:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnDalberg

Hi everyone,

As the topic says, I'm wondering if it's possible to get a external hard drive, LaCie Little Big Disk for example, and use this drive as booting for mac and windows, instead of the internal hard drive that comes with iMac.

I've looked hours for answers and was wondering if anyone has a clear answer for this problem. I'm wondering because of the lack of SSD options in the new iMac, and thought of this one as a better alternative, than to join the 1200$ or whatever mac-ssd-club

In case of malfunction of the drive, this also makes much better sense for me. Flame on if i've missed something here and this is utterly impossible.

Cheers

So u want to go out and spend $700-1000 extra for SSD external? Vs spending $250 for built in fusion 128ssd or $1300 for 768 GB sad built in?

Ball is in our court. Not much savings in my opinion. As for fear of hard drive failure. I never store any essential info inside computer anyways. Its always hard DVD backup or encrypted PDF on the cloud for me.

JohnDalberg · Dec 8, 2012, 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aneftp

So u want to go out and spend $700-1000 extra for SSD external? Vs spending $250 for built in fusion 128ssd or $1300 for 768 GB sad built in?

Ball is in our court. Not much savings in my opinion. As for fear of hard drive failure. I never store any essential info inside computer anyways. Its always hard DVD backup or encrypted PDF on the cloud for me.

Yes, the logic is fair in my opinion, because of the serious overpriced upgrading option in Norway. The price for the 768 gb SDD build would cost 10400 NOK, when the iMac price is 14990 NOK, thats 10/15 or close to 0,7 for a SSD drive. I would almost be better of just buying another iMac in the future (with possible SSD implemented).

The fusion is not an option because of the lack of fusion in a windows boot partition.

However I'm just wondering if this would work and if it would work efficient, both for the OS and WIN operating systems.

jkautosports · Dec 8, 2012, 01:35 PM

I bought my 27" with a regular 7200rpm 3TB HDD. I justified this because:

1. I noticed that the Lacie 1TB Thunderbolt SSD set up as RAID-0 is less than $1000 right now, and it comes with the cable. Going that route will certainly be faster than fusion. It should actually be just as fast as an internal SATA connection, as the Thunderbolt transfer speed is faster than the maximum transfer speed of the fastest SSD right now. You can even get a Twelvesouth backpack, and nobody will ever know you have an external drive.

2. Fusion is a temporary thing. It's sole purpose is to bridge the gap between spinning drives and a complete switch to SSD (which we all know is going to happen within a few years).

3. I could not justify spending $1300 on a full SSD, knowing that buying an equivalent SSD on my own would cost a fraction of that.

4. The upgrade to a 3TB drive was not much more than the included 1TB drive. It can be used to back up the external SSD later on. I know this is backwards, but who cares?

SSD technology is always expanding, just like hard drives have been for a long time. Once a 2 or 3TB Lacie is available, a 1TB is obviously going to be cheaper... That's the time to buy it!

MatthewAMEL · Dec 8, 2012, 01:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jkautosports

I bought my 27" with a regular 7200rpm 3TB HDD. I justified this because:

1. I noticed that the Lacie 1TB Thunderbolt SSD set up as RAID-0 is less than $1000 right now, and it comes with the cable. Going that route will certainly be faster than fusion. It should actually be just as fast as an internal SATA connection, as the Thunderbolt transfer speed is faster than the maximum transfer speed of the fastest SSD right now. You can even get a Twelvesouth backpack, and nobody will ever know you have an external drive.

2. Fusion is a temporary thing. It's sole purpose is to bridge the gap between spinning drives and a complete switch to SSD (which we all know is going to happen within a few years).

3. I could not justify spending $1300 on a full SSD, knowing that buying an equivalent SSD on my own would cost a fraction of that.

4. The upgrade to a 3TB drive was not much more than the included 1TB drive. It can be used to back up the external SSD later on. I know this is backwards, but who cares?

SSD technology is always expanding, just like hard drives have been for a long time. Once a 2 or 3TB Lacie is available, a 1TB is obviously going to be cheaper... That's the time to buy it!

...and you've obviously decided you aren't going to use Boot Camp on your iMac. That makes your decision easy.

If I wasn't using Boot Camp, I would order the 3TB Fusion drive.

If you know (or even suspect) you want to use Boot Camp, you cannot order a unit with the 3TB HDD or 3TB Fusion Drive.

jkautosports · Dec 8, 2012, 01:51 PM

Honestly, I thought about using Bootcamp.... but for my purposes it isn't necessary. I don't play video games, and to run simple applications like MS Office, Parallels will more than do the job. Plus, I like the idea of using OS X and Windows side-by-side, as opposed to choosing which one to boot to. One example is not being able to view something with Safari, and then opening it in IE via direct link from Safari.... I think the idea is awesome...

petsk · Dec 8, 2012, 03:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnDalberg

I'm wondering if it's possible to get a external hard drive and booting for mac and windows, instead of the internal hard drive.

I believe that you cannot install Windows on external drives? Though, in one thread someone claimed that you can install Windows on the external drive if you run OS X off the same external drive.

Maybe someone can confirm this?

I saw a review of the LaCie Little Big Disk not long ago and one downside with the drive is that there's a small, high pitch fan inside the alu enclosure, making it pretty noisy.

wmy5 · Dec 8, 2012, 03:16 PM

No, you cannot boot Windows from an external drive.

EPiCDiNGO · Dec 8, 2012, 03:18 PM

I need windows on an EXTERNAL SSD

jkautosports · Dec 8, 2012, 03:32 PM

Maybe not bootcamp? I have no idea... I can't see why Parallels wouldn't work though... but it all depends on what you need Windows for, I suppose.

JohnDalberg · Dec 9, 2012, 08:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wmy5

No, you cannot boot Windows from an external drive.

Anyone has confirm this? I've seen OS being booted from external, why shouldnt bootcamp work? Can anyone deleborate?

joe-h2o · Dec 9, 2012, 08:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wmy5

No, you cannot boot Windows from an external drive.

False.

You can boot windows from an external Thunderbolt drive.

You can't *install* Windows to an external thunderbolt drive - the installer simply will not see it, but you can install on the internal drive and then use something like Winclone to clone the partition over to the TB disk. With the TB drivers installed in Windows (which you do before cloning it) Windows will happily run from a TB source.

JohnDalberg · Dec 9, 2012, 09:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joe-h2o

False.

You can boot windows from an external Thunderbolt drive.

You can't *install* Windows to an external thunderbolt drive - the installer simply will not see it, but you can install on the internal drive and then use something like Winclone to clone the partition over to the TB disk. With the TB drivers installed in Windows (which you do before cloning it) Windows will happily run from a TB source.

Cheers, that's good news. Anyone have any experience with this? Any downfall?

Dec 8, 2012, 12:56 PM	#1
JohnDalberg macrumors newbie Join Date: Dec 2012	Using External Thunderbolt SSD Harddrive as Main Boot for Mac and Windows Hi everyone, As the topic says, I'm wondering if it's possible to get a external hard drive, LaCie Little Big Disk for example, and use this drive as booting for mac and windows, instead of the internal hard drive that comes with iMac. I've looked hours for answers and was wondering if anyone has a clear answer for this problem. I'm wondering because of the lack of SSD options in the new iMac, and thought of this one as a better alternative, than to join the 1200$ or whatever mac-ssd-club In case of malfunction of the drive, this also makes much better sense for me. Flame on if i've missed something here and this is utterly impossible. Cheers
	0

Dec 8, 2012, 03:18 PM	#9
EPiCDiNGO macrumors member Join Date: Sep 2012	I need windows on an EXTERNAL SSD __________________ 2010 Macbook Pro i5 2.4GHz 8GB ram 256 SSD iPhone 4 Black 32GB iPad 2 32GB Black Soon to buy 2012 27" iMac
	1

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Dec 8, 2012, 01:35 PM	#4
jkautosports macrumors regular Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: New York, NY	I bought my 27" with a regular 7200rpm 3TB HDD. I justified this because: 1. I noticed that the Lacie 1TB Thunderbolt SSD set up as RAID-0 is less than $1000 right now, and it comes with the cable. Going that route will certainly be faster than fusion. It should actually be just as fast as an internal SATA connection, as the Thunderbolt transfer speed is faster than the maximum transfer speed of the fastest SSD right now. You can even get a Twelvesouth backpack, and nobody will ever know you have an external drive. 2. Fusion is a temporary thing. It's sole purpose is to bridge the gap between spinning drives and a complete switch to SSD (which we all know is going to happen within a few years). 3. I could not justify spending $1300 on a full SSD, knowing that buying an equivalent SSD on my own would cost a fraction of that. 4. The upgrade to a 3TB drive was not much more than the included 1TB drive. It can be used to back up the external SSD later on. I know this is backwards, but who cares? SSD technology is always expanding, just like hard drives have been for a long time. Once a 2 or 3TB Lacie is available, a 1TB is obviously going to be cheaper... That's the time to buy it!
	0

Dec 8, 2012, 01:51 PM	#6
jkautosports macrumors regular Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: New York, NY	Honestly, I thought about using Bootcamp.... but for my purposes it isn't necessary. I don't play video games, and to run simple applications like MS Office, Parallels will more than do the job. Plus, I like the idea of using OS X and Windows side-by-side, as opposed to choosing which one to boot to. One example is not being able to view something with Safari, and then opening it in IE via direct link from Safari.... I think the idea is awesome...
	0

Dec 8, 2012, 03:16 PM	#8
wmy5 macrumors member Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: Beijing	No, you cannot boot Windows from an external drive.
	0

Dec 8, 2012, 03:32 PM	#10
jkautosports macrumors regular Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: New York, NY	Maybe not bootcamp? I have no idea... I can't see why Parallels wouldn't work though... but it all depends on what you need Windows for, I suppose.
	0