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(Can you) install a bootable windows 7 operating system onto a thumb drive.

T

TheDavinHarris

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 26, 2013
5
0
One of my co workers is purchasing a new MacBook Pro with Retina, and he wants to be able to run his windows partition on a 128GB Thumb Drive, due to the fact that his internal HD is restricted to the SSD storage sizes. Is this possible?
I found that you can prepare the drive for hosting a Windows OS, but I'm not sure how to go about installing all of the proper Boot Camp Drivers, etc.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks, Davin.
 
Last edited:
TheDavinHarris said:
One of my co workers is purchasing a new MacBook Pro with Retina, and he wants to be able to run his windows partition on a 128GB Thumb Drive, due to the fact that his internal HD is restricted to the SSD storage sizes. Is this possible?
Click to expand...
Not possible to install Win 7 on a USB thumb drive, but you could do it with a Win 8/8.1 Enterprise version or use an external Thunderbolt-connected hard drive to run Win 7 as explained in this thread. Read posts #7 and #10 for more details.
 
xcodeSyn said:
Care to share it with the OP since I am not the one interested in this approach.
Click to expand...

I cannot as I read the OP's post wrong; I thought it was about using an external drive to install Windows onto the MBP, not run the OS from it.
 
biohead said:
Those instructions just tell you how to create a USB bootable installer. It doesn't actually install Windows to your USB drive.
Click to expand...

Actually I suggest that you research the function of a .wim file before you say that.

Essentially what you're doing in those instructions is turning the install media ISO which you have copied to a local drive into an offline image install that's stored on the USB. Exactly the same idea that Windows Installation Services or Windows Automated Installation uses.

Same Principle Win7PE uses. http://reboot.pro/topic/12427-win7pe-se-release/
But you're right, I'm only the Tier 3 lead over 3200 desktops in an enterprise, I really don't have a clue how to do this.
 
Ccrew said:
Actually I suggest that you research the function of a .wim file before you say that.

Essentially what you're doing in those instructions is turning the install media ISO which you have copied to a local drive into an offline image install that's stored on the USB. Exactly the same idea that Windows Installation Services or Windows Automated Installation uses.

Same Principle Win7PE uses. http://reboot.pro/topic/12427-win7pe-se-release/
But you're right, I'm only the Tier 3 lead over 3200 desktops in an enterprise, I really don't have a clue how to do this.
Click to expand...

At the end of the day, the OP was looking for a method to install a typical Windows 7 installation to a USB drive - which this isn't :rolleyes:

It requires a lot more work than a standard installation, which unless you know what you're doing never ends well. But a Tier 3 lead would know that right :D
 
biohead said:
It requires a lot more work than a standard installation, which unless you know what you're doing never ends well. But a Tier 3 lead would know that right :D
Click to expand...

Agreed, but frankly both links I've posted don't make the reality of doing it all that overly difficult. While Win8 makes it pretty no-brainer it's not that it can't be done with Win7, which is what I responded to.
 
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