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BootCamp + External Drive

>>It took me around 90 minutes and I was taking my time, double-checking I'd done everything correctly. The guide at http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176 looks daunting but is less work than it looks. You only need to modify the disc once and then you're done for good if you need to reinstall or want to put it on a different USB drive.<<

After reading through the instructions contained in the above link, I wonder does anyone think it would be possible to take an existing working internal Windows XP config and ghost it to the external device and then make the adjustments to the boot file and registry without re-installing?
 
panzer06 said:
After reading through the instructions contained in the above link, I wonder does anyone think it would be possible to take an existing working internal Windows XP config and ghost it to the external device and then make the adjustments to the boot file and registry without re-installing?
Click to expand...

The hardware fingerprinting system in Windows XP will probably complain about the significant hardware changes. In addition, the changes needed in the registry and boot file are significant. In theory with complete knowledge of Windows what you are suggesting should be possible but in my opinion it is not worth the effort. In addition, I expect that Windows will require you to re-activate Windows due to the massive hardware changes.
 
sorry to be a uber noober... but can someone please clarify what a "partition" is please... srry for the dumb question:confused:
 
thechris69 said:
sorry to be a uber noober... but can someone please clarify what a "partition" is please... srry for the dumb question:confused:
Click to expand...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partition_(computing)

Basically a section of the hard drive set aside to collect data on the disc. Such as XP vs OS X or for example you could put your documents on a separate partition from your OS and apps so you can back the up individuall more easily. In many OSes these show up as "virtual" drives. In XP by default they get their own drive letter, but they can also have a more unixy behavior.

B
 
mrichmon said:
An OEM install disk will not work. You might be able to get something installed on an external drive using an OEM disk, but you would be inviolation of the OEM license for Windows. In addition, it is likely that Windows authentication would complain and/or you would have additional device drivers installed that may conflict with the MacMini hardware.

For what it's worth: I have not heard of anyone being able to install Windows onto a Mac using anything other than a Full Retail version of Windows XP SP2.
Click to expand...

I installed Windows Server 2003 SP 1 with no problem.

Also Windows XP SP2 VLK version.

Steve
 
MacRumorUser said:
Probably not. Windows XP when it sees a huge hardware change - in this case - everything - refuses to boot in most circumstances.

Besides it takes 30 minutes to install, and you would guarantee yourself a working fast copy with no registry problems. It's worth the 30 minutes here, than a couple of hours trying to get the other to work.
Click to expand...

If you want to move an XP installation, read up on the "Sysprep" utility and run that on the old system. XP will then bootup on the new system and run a mini setup and detect new devices.

Steve
 
>>It took me around 90 minutes and I was taking my time, double-checking I'd done everything correctly. The guide at http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176 looks daunting but is less work than it looks. You only need to modify the disc once and then you're done for good if you need to reinstall or want to put it on a different USB drive.<<

After reading through the instructions contained in the above link, I wonder does anyone think it would be possible to take an existing working internal Windows XP config and ghost it to the external device and then make the adjustments to the boot file and registry without re-installing?

mrichmon said:
The hardware fingerprinting system in Windows XP will probably complain about the significant hardware changes. In addition, the changes needed in the registry and boot file are significant. In theory with complete knowledge of Windows what you are suggesting should be possible but in my opinion it is not worth the effort. In addition, I expect that Windows will require you to re-activate Windows due to the massive hardware changes.
Click to expand...

If it is a working internal drive on an Intel mac that gets moved to external would it work? Our client had the corporate licensing version of XP Pro that does not require activation but since it is coming out of a Mac and into an external housing do you beleive it could work? (just adding whatever entires that would allow a USB boot) Also, does anyone know if eSata is supported on any of the Intel Macs? I assume the Mac Pro could add support via an add-on card.

Thanks for your help.
Cheers
 
panzer06 said:
If it is a working internal drive on an Intel mac that gets moved to external would it work? Our client had the corporate licensing version of XP Pro that does not require activation but since it is coming out of a Mac and into an external housing do you beleive it could work?
Click to expand...
I was wondering about that one myself. Even for the retail edition it would be able to tell that it was running on the same configuration hardware and not complain about the change too much. Shouldn't be too hard to try on a MacBook.

eSATA is one of the features lacking in the current MacBooks and minis that would make them really useful. Here's hoping that it'll show up soon... (Will an eSATA drive be seen as internal or external for the purposes of this thread?)

B
 
panzer06 said:
If it is a working internal drive on an Intel mac that gets moved to external would it work? Our client had the corporate licensing version of XP Pro that does not require activation but since it is coming out of a Mac and into an external housing do you beleive it could work? (just adding whatever entires that would allow a USB boot)
Click to expand...

You probably have a good chance of that working. Although if you read through the details and side comments on the page describing the modifications to the Windows install CD to enable booting off an external USB drive you will notice that the author of those instruction clearly states that it is far easier to modify the installer rather than modify an existing Windows installation.

You might want to consider moving the existing installation to an external drive then using a modified Windows install CD to "upgrade" or "repair" the installation.

But realistically, you are talking about an unsupported installation of Windows. There are enough hairy things to be done to get a clean install of Windows working off an external drive. I think you are asking for problems by trying to go with moving an existing installation to an external drive.
 
balamw said:
I was wondering about that one myself. Even for the retail edition it would be able to tell that it was running on the same configuration hardware and not complain about the change too much. Shouldn't be too hard to try on a MacBook.

eSATA is one of the features lacking in the current MacBooks and minis that would make them really useful. Here's hoping that it'll show up soon... (Will an eSATA drive be seen as internal or external for the purposes of this thread?)

B
Click to expand...

I believe an eSATA would be seen as "Internal". With External the issue is generally that USB or Firewire needs to be 100% working during the boot process.

Someone asked about eSATA and the Mac Pros. The Mac Pros actually have 6 SATA connectors on the motherboard so 2 are unused. You can buy PCI brackets that have provisions to run traditional SATA cables internally to the bracket, and have two eSATA connectors are on the outside of the card.

Steve
 
MBPro User

Hi
Firstly if an install was made using the above method and a macbook, would that copy of windows then boot from a mbPro or any other intel mac ?
Would this machine need to have any windows drivers etc installed on the internal drive ? I assume it would have to have bootcamp installed.

2ndly I have read gradenko's guide on http://forum.onmac.net/showthread.php?t=1015
which details installing on a mbPro without having to remove the hard drive - is this recognised as a working method ?

Many thanks for your advice.
 
pandaman said:
Hi
Firstly if an install was made using the above method and a macbook, would that copy of windows then boot from a mbPro or any other intel mac ?
Would this machine need to have any windows drivers etc installed on the internal drive ? I assume it would have to have bootcamp installed.
Click to expand...

The installation of Windows might boot a MBPro or other intel Mac. You would probably run into some driver issues but presumably not too many. However Windows does fingerprinting of the hardware and will complain if Windows detects that the hardware has changed drastically.

There is no need to have bootcamp installed and there is nothing Windows related installed on the internal drive. The process I explained above (and was later converted into a how to guide) requires you to physically remove the internal drive during the Windows installation. I have and you can boot Windows from the external drive without having an internal drive so there is absolutely nothing Windows related stored on the internal drive.


pandaman said:
which details installing on a mbPro without having to remove the hard drive - is this recognised as a working method ?

Many thanks for your advice.
Click to expand...

A recognized working method for installing Windows on an external USB drive was posted my me earlier in this thread and converted to the guide: http://guides.macrumors.com/Boot_Camp_Windows_XP_On_External_Drive

This method has no impact on your internal drive (though you do need to remove the drive during the install). You must ensure that you have at least 1GB of RAM installed since Windows refuses to create a paging file on an external boot drive. Some people have decided to create a partition on their internal drive to hold the Windows page file. My MacBook has 2GB of RAM installed and I have never had any problems with running Windows without a pagefile.
 
ulyssesric said:
So there is still no way to install Windows on an external firewire drive, right ?
Click to expand...

No way that will result in a Windows installation that will boot from a firewire drive.
 
MBPro user

Thank you
So it appears your method, while the most convenient, is only open to macbook users as macbookpro and intel imacs are notoriously difficult (though not impossible) to get to the hdd on. I havent seen a MacPro.
In his article gradenko does go on to say that he repeated his experiment, making only a 6mb partition on his drive.
I was wondering if anyone alse had tried this, and with what results ?
 
pandaman said:
Firstly if an install was made using the above method and a macbook, would that copy of windows then boot from a mbPro or any other intel mac ?
Click to expand...

If you have temporary access to a MB or Mac Pro then you could do the install process to the point where the Windows installer has copied files across to the external drive and the Windows installer reboots the machine. If at this point you move the external drive to the machine that you intend to use Windows on and boot the Windows drive to allow the Windows install to continue you should end up with a Windows install that will work. (To boot the external drive you will need to use the OS X Startup Disk preference pane.)
 
I have tried clicking on the NGINE link (for instructions to build new Win XP USB Booting CD) and the page is down. Hopefully it will come on later on, but does anybody know of a page that has the same instructions or if somebody saved them for the personal use?

I have looked all over for these instructions but to no avail!

Thanks all
 
Successfully have parallels and xp on an external drive. :)

Off topic question though, I didn't want to make a new thread-

How do you change the windows partition's icon? For example- on my desktop, the only icons that are there are my osx computers icon and the windows partition drive. I want to make them both an iMac icon, one with osx on the screen and one w/ windows on the screen. The windows partition is read only and I cannot edit the icon.

Any suggestions??
 
iKWICK7 said:
The windows partition is read only and I cannot edit the icon.

Any suggestions??
Click to expand...
You'll need to make the appropriate changes from within XP search for .VolumeIcon.icns.

B
 
bigmikeyp said:
I have tried clicking on the NGINE link (for instructions to build new Win XP USB Booting CD) and the page is down. Hopefully it will come on later on, but does anybody know of a page that has the same instructions or if somebody saved them for the personal use?

I have looked all over for these instructions but to no avail!

Thanks all
Click to expand...

Anybody..?

The link seems to be totally dead now :(
 
Download preformatted disk

Does anyone know where I could download a preformatted XP CD? I just don't have the patience or time necessary to figure this whole process out. I mean I aleady own XP, I just don't want to have to fiddle with it.
 
whoooaaahhhh said:
Does anyone know where I could download a preformatted XP CD? I just don't have the patience or time necessary to figure this whole process out. I mean I aleady own XP, I just don't want to have to fiddle with it.
Click to expand...

Yea.. thatd be nice.
 
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