Using a Firewire Drive to boot windows from

ModestPenguin · Mar 16, 2006, 10:06 PM

Will this work or not? It would be really helpful to know that cause then I wouldnt be so afraid with the whole risking my pretty pretty 20" iMac's good health and fortune....

Kurst · Mar 16, 2006, 10:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ModestPenguin

Will this work or not? It would be really helpful to know that cause then I wouldnt be so afraid with the whole risking my pretty pretty 20" iMac's good health and fortune....

My initail try is I could get the boot loader to work off the firewire drive. But I could not get the drive itself to be found when installing XP. Could be that there is no firewire driver at that point for hard drive.

I'll try to dive into it later when I have more time to experiment.

balamw · Mar 16, 2006, 10:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ModestPenguin

Will this work or not? It would be really helpful to know that cause then I wouldnt be so afraid with the whole risking my pretty pretty 20" iMac's good health and fortune....

Other posts have suggested that this won't work.

This makes me wonder if the boot selector will still let you boot OS X from a FW drive... This way you could put Windows on the internal drive and boot OS X on the external...

Anyhow, it doesn't take a huge partition to boot Windows, and once booted I suspect it can see external drives where you can keep your apps & docs.

B

ModestPenguin · Mar 16, 2006, 10:36 PM

Thanks guys that helps.

ReanimationLP · Mar 16, 2006, 10:41 PM

Wont work on the 20" from what I've heard.

jamesmcd · Mar 16, 2006, 11:01 PM

Yep, until an update is made, 20" imac users are out of luck (myself included).

I am going to wait until appropriate video drivers are found before I have a go.

mrplow · Mar 17, 2006, 12:11 AM

if it makes you feel any better, as soon asyou get XP installed.. you just start drooling after graphics drivers.. it's a bitter sweet victory. i've bricked my Windows partition twice now trying to hack up some drivers.. i quit until someone else does it

Kingsly · Mar 17, 2006, 12:18 AM

So the XP installer does NOT see a FW drive? Darn. The bootloader does though, right? so If I can install XP on a ext. drive (using a neighbors PC... he owes me

) then theoretically it should work, right?

ModestPenguin · 02:41 AM

Ooooh if it does please let me know.

ECM · Mar 17, 2006, 01:07 AM

Is there any reason why this would not work? Would XP have USB drivers load during the boot sequence so that an external USB drive could be used as a windows boot volume?

velocityg4 · 01:14 AM

Using a neighbors computer to install windows may cause problems. Usually Windows gets upset if you switch major system components on it. Its going to look for the motherboard (chipsets and serial number) and CPU in your neighbors computer when loading on the Mac. Though if you carefully clean out drivers loaded for your neighbors computer and reset the system registry it should work. Also wait to activate your windows license when the FW drive is installed on the Mac.

edit: Also have all of your neighbors hard drives removed as the windows install will put some startup files on the internal drive on your neighbors computer. It wouldn't hurt their machine in any way but you would have to repair the Master Boot Record on the external. I forget the name of what else would need to be repaired, but the commands for repairs in Windows recovery console would be 'fixmbr' and 'fixboot'.

Bengt77 · Mar 17, 2006, 01:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamesmcd

Yep, until an update is made, 20" imac users are out of luck (myself included).

I am going to wait until appropriate video drivers are found before I have a go.

Yeah, why is that? Is it known yet why the 20" iMac won't play along? Is it different in any way from the 17" one? Well, except for the processor. Is the graphics card different in any way? What is the difference between the two iMac models?!...

balamw · Mar 17, 2006, 08:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ECM

Is there any reason why this would not work? Would XP have USB drivers load during the boot sequence so that an external USB drive could be used as a windows boot volume?

The way USB booting "usually" works on Windows PCs is that the USB mass storage drivers are in the BIOS, and the bootloader just sees them as regular internal drives.

B

matticus008 · Mar 18, 2006, 07:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kingsly

So the XP installer does NOT see a FW drive? Darn. The bootloader does though, right? so If I can install XP on a ext. drive (using a neighbors PC... he owes me

) then theoretically it should work, right?

Nope, this won't work. You can't install Windows XP to an external Firewire drive at all. The Windows installer will reboot the computer and then fail to detect the FW drive.

The only thing that could come close to working is removing the external drive from its case, connecting it internally, installing Windows, and putting the drive back in the case, and boot the Mac via Firewire. The Windows bootloader would probably be messed up, but you might be able to coax it into behaving. That's just an outside shot, though. Also, when installing Windows on the PC, make sure that once you've finished and booted into Windows, go into device manager and delete everything (say no when it asks you to restart). Connect it to the Mac without rebooting the Windows drive, and it will then redetect the new hardware, assuming you can get it to boot at all.

Kingsly · Mar 18, 2006, 11:41 PM

Okay thanks, though I think Im going to wait until they work out all the bugs like melting MBP's!

ModestPenguin · Mar 25, 2006, 05:11 PM

shucks...sounds like its not gonna happen then...oh well...one can hope?

thanks guys

staed · Apr 26, 2006, 01:55 AM

Here is how you can modify your windows installation disc so it can install and boot off an external USB drive.

http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176

Someone got it working on a Macbook pro:

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/archives/...06.html#S20998

Hopefully someone could modify the installation even more and enable boot from firewire.

balamw · Apr 26, 2006, 02:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by staed

Someone got it working on a Macbook pro:

I had posted the ngine link in an earlier thread on booting from external drives, glad to see someone verified that it actually works with an MBP!

B

sycho · Feb 19, 2007, 11:47 AM

Ok, got a little bit of a dump-a-roo here...

I was thinking about this booting windows from a firewire drive thing, and well... How is this any different then using a RAID card for a Windows install. I mean, you can slipstream drivers for a RAID card into the install disc, so why couldn't you do the same for a firewire controller? I am not sure if this would work, but it seems to be something that people have kinda overlooked. I will give it a shot later in the year when I can afford to get a FireWire drive. I think that this could work if done similar to booting from a RAID card.

balamw · Feb 19, 2007, 01:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sycho

How is this any different then using a RAID card for a Windows install.

You are right, it's not any different than booting from any non-standard storage device that needs custom drivers.

Trouble is, Windows doesn't ship with the appropriate drivers and I have not found any generic Firewire storage drivers. If you find any, please post and the world will be very happy!

B

sycho · Feb 19, 2007, 10:11 PM

I was reading up a tad and I think that standard Windows drivers will work for the install / booting. So put punk the driver from BootCamp and slipstream it into the install.

Does Windows on a Mac support both FW400 and FW800?

balamw · Feb 20, 2007, 01:52 AM

Windows won't install natively to a FireWire drive without certain BIOS extensions which make the external FW drives look like an internal drive.

Also, as far I have been able to tell FW has the same problem as USB boot in that the FireWire drivers are initialized during boot causing your boot volume to go offline, which is not a good thing.

Have you found something different? Links please.

B

Mar 16, 2006, 10:06 PM	#1
ModestPenguin macrumors 6502 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: OKC	Using a Firewire Drive to boot windows from Will this work or not? It would be really helpful to know that cause then I wouldnt be so afraid with the whole risking my pretty pretty 20" iMac's good health and fortune....
	0

Mar 16, 2006, 10:41 PM	#5
ReanimationLP macrumors 68030 Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: On the moon.	Wont work on the 20" from what I've heard. __________________ "For what am I living?" I want to shout it out loud. Can you hear me? Stuff for Sale :3
	0

Mar 17, 2006, 12:18 AM	#8
Kingsly macrumors 68040 Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Squirtin' calls on mah Zune phone yo...	So the XP installer does NOT see a FW drive? Darn. The bootloader does though, right? so If I can install XP on a ext. drive (using a neighbors PC... he owes me ) then theoretically it should work, right? __________________ OMG its teh Zune phone!!!11!!!!!!one!!!1!
	0

Mar 17, 2006, 12:41 AM	#9
ModestPenguin Thread Starter macrumors 6502 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: OKC	Ooooh if it does please let me know. Last edited by ModestPenguin; Mar 17, 2006 at 02:41 AM.
	0

Mar 17, 2006, 01:07 AM	#10
ECM macrumors newbie Join Date: Mar 2006	How about booting from an external USB 2 drive? Is there any reason why this would not work? Would XP have USB drivers load during the boot sequence so that an external USB drive could be used as a windows boot volume?
	0

Mar 16, 2006, 10:36 PM	#4
ModestPenguin Thread Starter macrumors 6502 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: OKC	Thanks guys that helps.
	0

Mar 16, 2006, 11:01 PM	#6
jamesmcd macrumors 6502a Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Wellington, New Zealand	Yep, until an update is made, 20" imac users are out of luck (myself included). I am going to wait until appropriate video drivers are found before I have a go.
	0

Mar 17, 2006, 12:11 AM	#7
mrplow macrumors member Join Date: Sep 2004	if it makes you feel any better, as soon asyou get XP installed.. you just start drooling after graphics drivers.. it's a bitter sweet victory. i've bricked my Windows partition twice now trying to hack up some drivers.. i quit until someone else does it
	0

Mar 17, 2006, 01:09 AM	#11
velocityg4 macrumors 68040 Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Georgia	Using a neighbors computer to install windows may cause problems. Usually Windows gets upset if you switch major system components on it. Its going to look for the motherboard (chipsets and serial number) and CPU in your neighbors computer when loading on the Mac. Though if you carefully clean out drivers loaded for your neighbors computer and reset the system registry it should work. Also wait to activate your windows license when the FW drive is installed on the Mac. edit: Also have all of your neighbors hard drives removed as the windows install will put some startup files on the internal drive on your neighbors computer. It wouldn't hurt their machine in any way but you would have to repair the Master Boot Record on the external. I forget the name of what else would need to be repaired, but the commands for repairs in Windows recovery console would be 'fixmbr' and 'fixboot'. __________________ Quadra 650 040 33MHz 72MB RAM, 2GB HD, 2x CD Macbook C2D 2.0Ghz; 3GB RAM, 500GB HD Home Made i5 4.0Ghz, GeForce 560 Ti, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD RAID 0, 3TB HD RAID 0 in a G5 Case. Last edited by velocityg4; Mar 17, 2006 at 01:14 AM.
	0

Mar 18, 2006, 11:41 PM	#15
Kingsly macrumors 68040 Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Squirtin' calls on mah Zune phone yo...	Okay thanks, though I think Im going to wait until they work out all the bugs like melting MBP's! __________________ OMG its teh Zune phone!!!11!!!!!!one!!!1!
	0

Mar 25, 2006, 05:11 PM	#16
ModestPenguin Thread Starter macrumors 6502 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: OKC	shucks...sounds like its not gonna happen then...oh well...one can hope? thanks guys
	0

Apr 26, 2006, 01:55 AM	#17
staed macrumors newbie Join Date: Apr 2006	How to boot windows off an external USB-drive Here is how you can modify your windows installation disc so it can install and boot off an external USB drive. http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176 Someone got it working on a Macbook pro: http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/archives/...06.html#S20998 Hopefully someone could modify the installation even more and enable boot from firewire.
	0

Feb 19, 2007, 11:47 AM	#19
sycho macrumors 6502a Join Date: Oct 2006	Ok, got a little bit of a dump-a-roo here... I was thinking about this booting windows from a firewire drive thing, and well... How is this any different then using a RAID card for a Windows install. I mean, you can slipstream drivers for a RAID card into the install disc, so why couldn't you do the same for a firewire controller? I am not sure if this would work, but it seems to be something that people have kinda overlooked. I will give it a shot later in the year when I can afford to get a FireWire drive. I think that this could work if done similar to booting from a RAID card.
	0

Feb 19, 2007, 10:11 PM	#21
sycho macrumors 6502a Join Date: Oct 2006	I was reading up a tad and I think that standard Windows drivers will work for the install / booting. So put punk the driver from BootCamp and slipstream it into the install. Does Windows on a Mac support both FW400 and FW800?
	0

Feb 20, 2007, 01:52 AM	#22
balamw Demi-God (Moderator) Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: New England, USA	Windows won't install natively to a FireWire drive without certain BIOS extensions which make the external FW drives look like an internal drive. Also, as far I have been able to tell FW has the same problem as USB boot in that the FireWire drivers are initialized during boot causing your boot volume to go offline, which is not a good thing. Have you found something different? Links please. B __________________ MBA (13" 1.7 GHz 128GB), UMBP (15" SD 2.8 GHz), UMB (13" 2.4 GHz), iMac (17" Yonah), 32GB iPad 3 WiFi+LTE, 64 GB iPad WiFi, 32 GB iPhone 5, Airport Extreme
	0


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