How-to install Windows 10 on external hard disk for my Macbook Pro 4,1?

[philgxxd]

I could need some help with this.
The goal is to take an install on my external USB3 hard disk to my friends Macbook Pro 5,2 to make some performance tests before to decide if its worth to install windows on his machine and also i would like to have the ability to try it out on my machines so i think its rather neat to have an Windows 10 installation on an external disk where i can boot from.

Until now i made various attempts following different guides being the last one this.

I have already Windows 10 home (unactivated) as a VM in Parallels Desktop and i'm using it to prepare the external disk so that i can boot of and finally install windows.
I followed the steps from the mentioned guide and did a formatting of the disk within the Terminal of the VM.

1. diskpart
2. list disk
3. select disk # (external)
4. clean
5. convert mbr
6. create partition primary size=350 (size in Mbytes)
7. format fs=fat32 quick
8. active
9. assign letter=b
10. create partition primary
11. format fs=ntfs quick
12. assign letter=o

Then i followed the guide and deployed the Windows installation image i downloaded from the microsoft website.

I did use the DISM command for that as the imagex.exe mentioned in the guide was not available on my installation.
So i did:

C:\>DISM.exe /Get-ImageInfo /imagefile=C:\wim\install.wim

to know what index number is for the Windows 10 home for the actual command to apply the image to the external disk.

C:\>DISM.exe /Apply-Image /ImageFile:C:\wim\install.wim /index:1 /ApplyDir:o:

I came up with that commands reading through the help for the DISM command so it's entirely possible i'm doing something wrong here. Please let me know.

However it started the deploying of the image and some time later it had transferred a windows install to the partition o: of the external disk.

I then used this command to prep the boot partition.

o:\windows\system32\bcdboot o:\windows /f ALL /s b:

Everything went without error messages so i tried to boot from it but the disk is not be seeing from the boot selector screen (pressing ALT on booting)

The boot partition itself and the Windows partition seems to be fine.

Is it a specific problem of EFI compatibility issue within different MacbookPro models?
Do i have to prepare the boot partition differently ?

 

[philgxxd]

I just could test the external hard disk with the Windows installation on an white unibody Macbook from 2010 and it showed up on the boot selector screen. It's now running through the installation so what does it prevent from working on the MBP4,1 machine ?

 

[MysticCow]

It is worth it. I run Win 10 on a 2011 mini and it actually works better than the MacOS.

Just use Boot Camp and only boot to the Mac OS when absolutely necessary.

 

[philgxxd]

I don't have enough space left for a Bootcamp installation as you can only install it on an internal disk.

I installed the Nvidia graphics driver from the Bootcamp 4 which i had prepared for my 4,1 MBP on the 2010 Macbook and now it won't finish booting Windows to the desktop.
After forcing shutdown and retrying i get the "Preparing Automatic Repair" message but it´s just staying there.

How can i Safe Boot the windows 10 on a Macbook keyboard?
I tried with Fn+F8, Fn+Control+F8 and Control+F8 but it wouldn´t make any difference.

 

[MysticCow]

I don't have enough space left for a Bootcamp installation as you can only install it on an internal disk.

oh that sucks. I finally threw all my files onto an external to get as much space as possible for Win 10. So mine was the exact opposite situation of yours.

 

[bobesch]

I don't have enough space left for a Bootcamp installation as you can only install it on an internal disk.

I installed the Nvidia graphics driver from the Bootcamp 4 which i had prepared for my 4,1 MBP on the 2010 Macbook and now it won't finish booting Windows to the desktop.
After forcing shutdown and retrying i get the "Preparing Automatic Repair" message but it´s just staying there.

How can i Safe Boot the windows 10 on a Macbook keyboard?
I tried with Fn+F8, Fn+Control+F8 and Control+F8 but it wouldn´t make any difference.

Wouldn't it be possible to clone the internal macOS onto the external drive, then boot the Mac from that external drive (it then behaves like an internal-drive, especially, when made the booting-drive within system-preferences).
Then run BootCamp from the external drive and create a BootCamp-partition on the external drive in order to install Win10.

 

[philgxxd]

@bobesch
I think I will try the bootcamp route just to see how the disk will be formatted.
The official way will give me Windows 7 but I hope at least I will get an idea how it has to be formatted that my early 2008 MBP will boot it.
In the 2010 Macbook it's working but I got stuck when I tried to install the graphics drivers for the Nvidia 320m which came from the Bootcamp 4 driver pack which I tried to install manually. I think there is a compatibility issue because this pack is for windows 7.
I read that if you are going to install Windows 7 and then upgrade that the Installer will replace the drivers for Windows 10 versions if available.

I have to make room though first.

 

[bobesch]

Would the Mojave-patch make a difference concerning graphic-drivers and Win10-BootCamp-compatibility on that otherwise unsupported MBP4,1 ?

 

[philgxxd]

Would the Mojave-patch make a difference concerning graphic-drivers and Win10-BootCamp-compatibility on that otherwise unsupported MBP4,1 ?

I don't think it would made a difference. I think the plist for the Bootcamp assistant has the supported models embedded and the Mojave-patch wouldn't change that, no ?
Or do you mean that it will make my machine bootable the way it will get formatted as a fake supported machine ?