Bootcamp Problems

[bonesmfjones]

Hello everybody, I'm trying to install windows on my 2008 macbook pro and I keep hitting problems. Ive searched google for hours and cant seem to find solutions so I'm just going to post everything here and hope for an answer.

First of all my disc drive is broken. Is there a way to boot the windows install from a usb stick or HDD, without needing to purchase an external disc drive?

Second thing is my HDD wont be partitioned. Whenever I use boot camp to try it says that it cannot move certain files. I have a 500 gig external usb HDD, would it be possible to install and boot windows to/from that?

Thirdly I bought my MBP used, so I don't have the osx install dvds or anything. will that be a problem if I end up needing to reformat my HDD in order to partition it?

any help is appreciated

 

[bonesmfjones]

anyone?

 

[Tomb01]

anyone?

I had the same problem with files that could not be moved. There are a couple of options, one is to buy one of the defrag programs that will move those files. The other is to do an image copy (using something like Super Duper), to that external disk then format your internal and restore that copy. That's what I did.

Don't think there is any way to run Windows from and external drive.

 

[jenzjen]

Hello everybody, I'm trying to install windows on my 2008 macbook pro and I keep hitting problems. Ive searched google for hours and cant seem to find solutions so I'm just going to post everything here and hope for an answer.

First of all my disc drive is broken. Is there a way to boot the windows install from a usb stick or HDD, without needing to purchase an external disc drive?

Second thing is my HDD wont be partitioned. Whenever I use boot camp to try it says that it cannot move certain files. I have a 500 gig external usb HDD, would it be possible to install and boot windows to/from that?

Thirdly I bought my MBP used, so I don't have the osx install dvds or anything. will that be a problem if I end up needing to reformat my HDD in order to partition it?

any help is appreciated

Not sure how you've searched for hours, as most of your questions can easily be found on Google via the first page results. In order to get you to a starting point, I'd reformat and do a clean install of your Mac OS first. Since you do not have the install DVDs, call Apple and for $10-20 they will ship you a set.

 

[bonesmfjones]

yeah, all I found on google were more problems and posts from 2006, so I figured I'd just skip the hassle and ask myself. I cant call apple to get the install dvds because like I said my disc drive is broken.
Which would be easier, doing the defrag or using the Super Duper program? I have about 150gs of data.

 

[jenzjen]

yeah, all I found on google were more problems and posts from 2006, so I figured I'd just skip the hassle and ask myself. I cant call apple to get the install dvds because like I said my disc drive is broken.
Which would be easier, doing the defrag or using the Super Duper program? I have about 150gs of data.

IMHO, what you're trying to do in your original post cannot be easily done at all, so I'd just spend $40 on a cheap external DVD and get the install disks.

 

[snaky69]

Hello everybody, I'm trying to install windows on my 2008 macbook pro and I keep hitting problems. Ive searched google for hours and cant seem to find solutions so I'm just going to post everything here and hope for an answer.

First of all my disc drive is broken. Is there a way to boot the windows install from a usb stick or HDD, without needing to purchase an external disc drive?

Second thing is my HDD wont be partitioned. Whenever I use boot camp to try it says that it cannot move certain files. I have a 500 gig external usb HDD, would it be possible to install and boot windows to/from that?

Thirdly I bought my MBP used, so I don't have the osx install dvds or anything. will that be a problem if I end up needing to reformat my HDD in order to partition it?

any help is appreciated

Firstly: no, not without some serious hacking. Windows wants to boot from an internal component at all costs, making it do otherwise is a nightmare. I seem to remember someone suceeding, though I'd have to search for quite a while to find out how they did it.

Secondly: can't install on an external, nope.

Thirdly: you need them, all the windows drivers for the hardware are on them.

 

[bonesmfjones]

Alright I guess the external drive is the way to go. thanks all