External HDD to boot Windows from and play Games.

Discussion in 'Buying Tips and Advice' started by lyzrd, Nov 8, 2007.

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  1. lyzrd, Nov 8, 2007

    lyzrd macrumors newbie

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    #1
    Hey guys,

    I'm gonna buy myself a MacBook Pro as soon as they are rev'ed. (Well only if I like what I see, but nevermind ^^) and along with it, I wanted to buy an external hard drive. I wanted to connect it via FW800. So my question is, is it possible to boot Windows (maybe Vista) from it. Well I know it is possible, would I feel a difference, compared to a internal one?

    Is it possible to play games from it? (like Half-Life 2, UT, crysis).

    Can you recommend anything to me? What are your experiences?

    Thank you so much in advance,

    lyzrd
     
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  2. hammondc, Nov 9, 2007

    hammondc macrumors newbie

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    #2
    No, this is not possible. You have to boot from the native drive.
     
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  3. SkydiveGuy, Nov 9, 2007

    SkydiveGuy macrumors regular

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    #3
    Plus, an external HDD is going to be SLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW to run off of.
     
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  4. wakerider017, Nov 9, 2007

    wakerider017 macrumors 68000

    wakerider017

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    #4
    Not really. Firewire 400, 800 and eSATA run OS X Very fast!
     
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  5. kkat69, Nov 9, 2007

    kkat69 macrumors 68020

    kkat69

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    #5
    Think MAN THINK! That's OSX it can run off a thumb drive and still be pretty fast. We're talking Windows here.

    From USB/Firewire is not possible to boot windows externally. The only possible way is via eSATA drive mounted externally WHICH we don't have that option (that I know of) on a MBP. So basically short answer already posted above.
     
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  6. Finlandboy, Nov 9, 2007

    Finlandboy macrumors 6502

    Finlandboy

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    #6
    actually it is possible to boot windows on a external drive (whether it was usb or firewall, i have no clue)

    but you have to have a special windows install disk, i saw this on a website about 6 months ago, it was very interesting, i wish i remembered the site :(, but googling will probably find answers to questions

    and as to the speed i don't know, but if i had to guess i'd say it won't be as fast as in internal drive
     
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  7. lancestraz, Nov 9, 2007

    lancestraz macrumors 6502a

    lancestraz

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    #7
    An external FW800 HDD is faster than a MBPs internal 5400 RPM HDD.
    I'm not sure how an internal 7200 RPM HDD would do, since I don't have one.

    You can do that with an express card.
     
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  8. wakerider017, Nov 9, 2007

    wakerider017 macrumors 68000

    wakerider017

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    #8
    I was thinking MAN!

    The guy said it is slow to boot to a external drive... Well if you can't boot to windows (With out doing a lot of "hacking") then obviously he was talking about booting to OS X.

    My reply was... It is not slow to boot to OS X from an external drive.
     
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  9. lyzrd, Nov 10, 2007

    lyzrd thread starter macrumors newbie

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    #9
    Thank you so much for your answers, guys.

    Someone said I could do it via eSATA, but the MBP doesn't have a eSATA port yet, but after some googling: this is what I found:

    "Sonnet's Tempo™ SATA Express 34"

    Would it be possible to boot windows on a external HDD connected via this eSATA Adapter?

    Anybody has done something like this before?
     
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