Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

BootCamp + External Drive

I have been following this discussion thoroughly and have read every post here (plus many others). I'm having some issues getting XP to install. Here's what I've done successfully so far:

1. Modified the XP installation CD to support booting from a USB drive, as detailed here.
2. Formatted a partition on my external USB drive to be MS-DOS FAT32.
3. Removed the internal hard drive from my MacBook.
4. Loaded basic Windows files onto the USB drive (ie: very first part of XP installation).

Now enter the problems. After XP does its initial setup run it asks you for a partition to install to. I choose the FAT32 partition on the external USB drive (the C drive), and it gives me no problems. XP proceeds to load the files onto the USB drive, and upon reaching 100% it restarts the computer.

Once the computer is restarted XP should begin the actual installation process (with the Windows logo, light blue screen, and graphics). However it instead proceeds to boot from the install CD again and starts all over with installation.

What am I doing wrong? How can I get XP to install correctly and completely?

I should mention that as a work around I have tried booting into OS X and choosing the Windows installation that was created on my external USB as my startup disk. However when the computer restarts it just gives me a black screen with a blinking white cursor.

Please help! I've come too far, too close, and put way too many hours into this for it not to work now! :confused: Thanks so much!
 
Probably just that the partition you made is not a primary, active and thus bootable partition. (Windows is somewhat picky about where it'll boot from).

Try it with an external drive that just has a single partition and see if you can get it to work.

B
 
balamw said:
Probably just that the partition you made is not a primary, active and thus bootable partition. (Windows is somewhat picky about where it'll boot from).

Try it with an external drive that just has a single partition and see if you can get it to work.

B
Click to expand...

I agree that it sounds like the partition you installed on was not made active for some reason. You could try ejecting the disk by holding down the mouse button during the reboot halfway through the install. This might force the boot off of the external drive.

Make sure that you have plugged the external drive into the usb port closest to the power socket on the macbook. That is the port I always use when booting from the external drive. After I posted the original instructions someone mentioned that they had problems using the front usb port.

For what it is worth, when I have successfully performed this install I have always made an NTFS partition onto which I install windows and a second FAT partition on the external drive.
 
mrichmon said:
For what it is worth, when I have successfully performed this install I have always made an NTFS partition onto which I install windows and a second FAT partition on the external drive.
Click to expand...
And if you can, let Windows do the partitioning and formatting, at least for the bootable partition. At least then it'll be done the way Windows wants.

B
 
How did you guys do it?

I have tried both USB 2.0 and Firewire and no luck. When I go to select the partition (the external drive) I get the following message from the installer (windows XP).

Your computer's startup program can not gain access to the disk containing the partition or free space you choose. Set up can not install Windows XP on thi hard disk.

This lack of access does not necessarily indicate an error condition. For example, disks attached to a SCSI adapter that wasn't installed by your computer manufacturer or to a secondary hard disk controller, are typically not visible to the startup program unless special software is used. Contact your computer or hard disk controller manufacturer for more info.

on x86-based computers, this message may indicate a problem with the CMOS drive type settings. See your disk controller docs for more information.

I've tried on a generic USB 2.0 case with a WD HD and A Samsung HD and the firewire is a brand new SmartDisk Firelite that I bought today because I saw the guy (iPEDRO) that says this works did it with a FWDH.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

JC
 
jonah002 said:
I've tried on a generic USB 2.0 case with a WD HD and A Samsung HD and the firewire is a brand new SmartDisk Firelite that I bought today because I saw the guy (iPEDRO) that says this works did it with a FWDH.

Any help is greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

What model Mac are you trying this on? Are you sure that you have removed the internal drive?

This error when trying to install Windows on a USB drive typically indicates that the internal drive is still connected.
 
Sharing Failure on External Drive Experience

Please, don't blame me because I trust those guys :D .
I've got a MacIntel Pro (not book):apple:
Firmware is up to date Windows XP installation work on internal drive using BootCamp or not.
I try to do what IPedro said...
I tried to connect using FireWire, USB2 ...
I made the WinXP installer CD modified for USB
When I start install from CD, I can see the USB connected drive, but the installer fail to start installing on this partition.
I tryed with or without internal drive connected.

One more hint to share: according to Microsoft specification, windows need to set MBR on the first internal drive partition accessible.
So I bootcamp-splitted my internal OSX drive to get a 5Go Windows format partition.
then i plugged the external drive.
I install Windows on the external drive (successfully)
Then on reboot, Windows explain me with its blue screen display, that I got an error on boot drive.

I feel like I'm stuck.

I would be interrested to know what system you have. (I talking to every one who tried, successing or failing to install windows on an external drive)
I think this could give more taste to this thread.

Thank you to all for your experience and discussion.;)
 
Pierrot said:
One more hint to share: according to Microsoft specification, windows need to set MBR on the first internal drive partition accessible.
So I bootcamp-splitted my internal OSX drive to get a 5Go Windows format partition.
Click to expand...

The process I posted earlier has worked for me on both a MacBook and a MacBook Pro. First disconnect the internal drive. You don't want Windows to be able to do anything to your internal drive at all.... disconnecting it is the best way to ensure that.

If you are still having problems then you may have made an error while modifying the install CD to support USB drives.
 
Different Mac/Win and External Drive scenarios: which best??

Greetings!
I am new to the Mac world. I come from and STILL with (no one is going to just "drop" if they are as I am, involved in business operations involving Point of Sale equipment, databases, etc...!!) a heavy, long time Windows (and MS DOS before that!) environment. I just stepped into the Mac world on account of the vaunted capabilities of the mac re: graphics, video, music. BUT, I also made that sideways step because of the new capability to install Win into Inte/macs. In fact, I suspect that many NEW Apple customers come from where I come from! I have NOT installed BootCamp/Win yet: I might wait until Leopard to do such install, since BootCamp under Leopard might offer even more advanced features than the current BootCamp Beta 1.3!

And I am pleased so far with my new MacBookPro: the Mac and its OS are indeed well integrated and smooth and elegant. I LOVE the Widgets!! Networking with Win equipment and devices has been as predicted fairly smooth. The issue of being able to read/write to a FAT or NTFS external drive is clear enough, especially if such a drive is connected to Win machine on the network shared by the Mac. No access problem at all in this case (regardless of whether such a drive is FAT or NTFS formatted).

A big issue seems to remain, concerning HOW to format and use an (USB or FWire) external drive connected to a Mac and to be used primarily by the Mac, and especially if BootCamp (BC)+Win are installed.
I see different scenarios outlined on this forum:
1. Mac with BC/Win installed on the mac internal drive >> external drive formatted either as FAT or NTFS with corresponding limitations as to read/Write capabilities. That drive would be for data only.
2. Same configuration, with the external Drive configured EITHER as FAT OR NTFS - or in Mac's own proprietary format (is there such a thing? i am not clear -- would such a format be better than FAT or NTFS for read/write speed?)
3. Same configuration with external drive configured as two partitions: one NTFS (for >32 gig size), and one EITHER FAT (for read/write compatibility between the Mac and Win sides( OR Mac's proprietary file structure system.
4. Mac with attempted install of Win on the external drive to save on space of the mac internal drive. There seems to be considerable debate on this one!
5. External drive used in conjunction with the elsewhere here mentioned MacDrive, MacFuse, NTFS3g, etc..

My primary concern overall: I want both the Mac and the Win side of the MBP to access the external drive as efficiently and speedily (preferably to speed penalty!) as possible!

I have an external USB Maxtor drive ready to be connected to the Mac: I want to use it for backup purpose for the Mac, for saving movies and slideshows (usually large files!), to store my pictures and videos (I have over 300 gigs of such material - NTFS is a must then!), AND, most importantly, I want the drive to be accessible to both the Mac and Win sides of my MBP (in either or both Read or write).

Wew.. I got that one out: I hope it is not too cryptic. It is just that I am gathering all possible info before undertaking installing Win on my Mac. I do not think I'll use the Parallels solution, since I plan to attempt also to play Flight Simulator X (my only favored game) on the Mac. Parallels evidently still does not handle complex Win graphics well enough.

- Roger T
 
Still Issues

Ok, so I've tried for the past 3 days, with no success. Here is what I've got so far:

I have a 2.33 Macbook Pro, with OSX 10.4.10 and the most recent firmware update. I'm trying to do this on a WD 120GB Passport drive. I've followed the Ngine.de guide to alter two Windows. One is a normal Windows XP Pro SP2 and another is the Windows Pro SP2 Black Edition that doesn't require a serial or activation.

I pre-formated the external to FAT32 in OSX. I removed the internal from my MacBook Pro (wasn't too terribly difficult with the Pro, just intimidating). I then booted from the Windows CD. I kept getting the standard error: "Your Computer's startup program cannot gain access to the disk containing the partition or free space you chose. Setup cannot install Windows Xp on this hard disk." when I tried to install on that partition. This was with both of the altered Install CDs.

I then followed this suggestion: http://forums.ngine.de/viewtopic.php?t=2007 where I copy ntldr, ntdetect.com and boot.ini files onto the external. I took the files from a friend's PC. Didn't work. I then used boot camp to make a windows on the internal. I took the three files from that Windows and copied them to my external...again, same error when trying to install, with both CDs.

Next step is this option: http://forums.ngine.de/viewtopic.php?t=1764&sp2. I used the Windows XP that i had installed with boot camp. I checked all the .in files that he tells you to change in your folder. They are all fine, as well as the registry (this is because I started with an altered CD). I then turned off pagefiling, and changed the registry so the external would be the c: and the internal would be the d:. I then used Norton Ghost to copy the internal to the external. I tried booting with out the internal, but it would just have the blue screen then an icon with a folder and a question mark that flashed. I tried booting with the internal and going into the startup drive selection in OSX and selecting Windows on my external to boot on, it would just eventually boot up again into OSX. I then altered the boot.ini file since it said partition(3) and the bootcamp internal Windows was on the third partition. Since the external had one partition, i changed it to partition(1). No luck. I even tried reinstalling Windows over the the external, thinking that the files on it might give me access to install, same error.

Oh, when I copied with Norton Ghost, I selected it to make the copy drive a bootable, active partition, and to copy the MBR over to is also.

Any Suggestions?
 
derajfast said:
Can I put the bootcamp xp pro partition on an external drive? i only have 8 or so gb left on my internal, but have about 80gb on my external

would that work? or do they have to be on the same drive
Click to expand...

Windows can not be put on an external, whatever the platform.
 
New iMacs = trouble

Hi

I'm having trouble booting from USB-drive on my new (mid 2007) iMac. Is that a known issue??

I know that my modified install-CD as well as the USB-drive install works since I did try it in my PC.

I did try to install rEFIt but that does not help me either.

Any input??

Cheers
 
jonah002 said:
I have tried both USB 2.0 and Firewire and no luck. When I go to select the partition (the external drive) I get the following message from the installer (windows XP).

Your computer's startup program can not gain access to the disk containing the partition or free space you choose. Set up can not install Windows XP on thi hard disk.

This lack of access does not necessarily indicate an error condition. For example, disks attached to a SCSI adapter that wasn't installed by your computer manufacturer or to a secondary hard disk controller, are typically not visible to the startup program unless special software is used. Contact your computer or hard disk controller manufacturer for more info.

on x86-based computers, this message may indicate a problem with the CMOS drive type settings. See your disk controller docs for more information.

I've tried on a generic USB 2.0 case with a WD HD and A Samsung HD and the firewire is a brand new SmartDisk Firelite that I bought today because I saw the guy (iPEDRO) that says this works did it with a FWDH.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

JC
Click to expand...

I'm having the same problem, I've tried preformatting as both FAT32 and NTFS. Running 10.5.
 
Hi all :)

Very interesting thread here. I just bought an external Firewire Drive to Bootcamp XP onto ... but failed to check on the web first to find whether this is possible or not :rolleyes: Having failed to install XP on the drive I then found threads like this on web ... doh :eek:

I will probably put a small partition onto my main drive and use the FW drive to put all the main XP files on. Bit of a bummer really ....

I have a quick question - what's the smallest partition I can make that will allow me to achieve this? I keep hearing 5GB mentioned here, is that the smallest I can make it?

Many thanks,


David

PS. I wish ipedro would chime in and tell us how he got his to work :rolleyes: ... if he even did!
 
ipedro said:
Exactly my friend. I can confirm that this works. I ran into a minor issue when I tried to install Windows using my above described method, none of the partitions were recognized properly (including size) so I couldn't distinguish which one was my internal drive and which ones were my external partitions.

So I simply went into the Terminal under OSX and formatted my external drive as FAT32

newfs_msdos -F32 /dev/rdisk#s1

(rdisk#s1 being my partition's ID ... you need to check that before you run this command)

I then went booted my MacBook Pro from the Windows CD by holding C on startup, installed WindowsXP flawlessly (mind you, I could have installed VISTA, WinME, Linux, whatever) and then booted into Windows after installation by holding CMD+OPTION+SHIFT+DEL at startup.

The final step was to install the drivers that Boot Camp created previously.

Voilá. You read it here first! (Do I get $13,000? ;) )

This is the perfect solution for me. I don't put crappy old windows living with OSX on the same drive but I get to keep an external drive on my desk at work. When I arrive at work I simply plug in the external drive, boot into Windows and work on that all day. When I get home, I run OSX.

Lovin' It.
Click to expand...


Amazing! There is hope for me with only 5 free gigs on my Macbook Pro~ not quite enough for WindowsXP and Call of Duty 4!
 
Ditto....

I've performed all the steps the online tutorials have proposed to the letter, I still can't seem to get past this
Code: 
your computer's startup	program	cannot	gain access to the disk...
screen. I suppose it could just be the hard disk enclosure.... but why would my enclosure be any different from any of the others? They're all USB, surely they're all exactly the same inside?
 
peanutismint said:
I suppose it could just be the hard disk enclosure.... but why would my enclosure be any different from any of the others? They're all USB, surely they're all exactly the same inside?
Click to expand...

Different USB enclosures use different chipsets so they are very much not all the same inside. But it is more likely that you have the drive plugged in to the wrong USB port.

Someone reported earlier in the thread that they had problems following the instructions when the drive was plugged into the front usb port on a MacBook, but that it all worked when plugged into the rear usb port. (See post #74 in this thread.) I've always connected the drive to the rear port and had no problems.
 
peanutismint said:
If by rear you mean the port closest to the power port, then that's the one I've been using all along... should I try the front one instead?
Click to expand...

Yes, the one closest to the power port. If that hasn't worked, then you could try the front one.
 
I've followed the guides to the letter, created the modified install CD and installed to the USB drive.

The problem I'm having happens when the installation wants to reboot. With the Macbook Pro's default EFI firmware, the usb drive is ignored and OS X boots as normal. If I hold the alt key, the drive doesn't appear, only the Macintosh HD appears.

I have tried with Refit, and the USB drive appears, but when I choose to boot from it refit gives me a lot of error messages stating that the location couldn't be found, and that there was an error when "trying to (re)open our installation media" and then displays the message "The firmware refused to boot from USB. Apple firmware doesn't have good support for booting legacy operating systems from USB".

I was able to use an HP laptop to perform the installation of Windows onto the usb drive, successfully (it'll boot from the usb drive, although page file doesn't seem to work). But I still get the same errors from Refit when trying to boot on the Macbook Pro.

Any suggestions?
 
jasarien said:
I've followed the guides to the letter, created the modified install CD and installed to the USB drive.

The problem I'm having happens when the installation wants to reboot. With the Macbook Pro's default EFI firmware, the usb drive is ignored and OS X boots as normal.

Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

If you read the instructions you will see that you need to remove the internal drive to get the Mac to boot from the external drive during the install. There is no way around this requirement. Because of this, this install is most easily done on a MacBook and not a MacBook Pro.

Read through this thread more carefully and you will see the detailed instructions in post #73 that clearly state "Remove internal hard drive from MacBook.".
 
mrichmon said:
Read through this thread more carefully and you will see the detailed instructions in post #73 that clearly state "Remove internal hard drive from MacBook.".
Click to expand...


In his defense, I've done the tutorial with the hard drive removed and it fails at the Windows Install screen for me....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back