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Installing Windows on a secondary SSD

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Dman91

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 27, 2011
47
0
Hello Folks

I have a early 2011 Macbook pro ( i7 2.2ghz ) 128gb apple ssd, disk space is running out so I decided to buy a samsung 840 evo 250gb ssd, I want to place the samsung in to the old ssd and use the apple ssd as a secondary drive in place of the optical drive.

My question is can I install Windows separately on the second SSD?

If it is not possible, will the second drive be accessible to both OS?

Thanks in advance
 
I believe if you're looking to install windows, you'll need the optical disk drive. Macs with optical drives cannot install windows via a usb thumb drive.
 
I have read in several places that the bootcamp drive must be on the same disk as OS X so I am a little confused.

Can you please link me to a tutorial about installing windows on a separate SSD?

Thanks
 
Installing Windows on a secondary SSD

I would remove the primary SSD and install windows as if on a normal pc bypassing bootcamp installer, since you are using a whole disk for windows. Then download the bootcamp drivers from apple. Once everything works, put back your primary SSD.

Boot holding option to select your boot device.

Only reason to only leave 1 drive in the system because windows installer overrides all boot loaders on the primary drive no matter where the installation drive chosen.

Anyways.. That's how I would do it from experience. YMMV
 
illusionx said:
Only reason to only leave 1 drive in the system because windows installer overrides all boot loaders on the primary drive no matter where the installation drive chosen.
Click to expand...

You mean having only 1 drive during the installation or having one drive all the time?


thanks
 
illusionx said:
It is possible to install windows from a USB drive. Just google it.
Click to expand...

For macs that don't have optical drives, yes but I think its going to be problematic for a Mac that has an optical drive
 
I'm not an expert or anything, but if I'm not wrong installing windows directly would use Mac's EFI, which i see a lot of people complain about not been able to get audio , or graphic card working?

As I said I am not experienced in this so please correct me if I am wrong.

And I just saw in an other thread here that windows won't boot if its placed in the optical bay, since Microsoft doesn't allow it to be run on secondary drives? is this true?

Thanks
 
There does seem to be some issues with drivers when installing windows via the EFI method. I'm not sure why, since I never went down that route myself but you are correct regarding the audio.
 
maflynn said:
There does seem to be some issues with drivers when installing windows via the EFI method. I'm not sure why, since I never went down that route myself but you are correct regarding the audio.
Click to expand...

Is there any other way beside EFI or bootcamp assistant?

I read something about legacy bios but not sure what its about.
 
Last edited:
Installing Windows on a secondary SSD

Wouldn't it still end up the same thing using bootcamp or direct EFI?
Apple EFI manages the boot sequence... I don't see an issue here. You would still need to install the bootcamp drivers once you are in windows...

You should test it before you put conclusions it won't work.

There are no issues with windows booting off a different drive than the "primary" one on any systems. It's just installation might be tricky if you install windows while another primary drive is present since windows would probably install its boot loader on that instead.
 
maflynn said:
I believe if you're looking to install windows, you'll need the optical disk drive. Macs with optical drives cannot install windows via a usb thumb drive.
Click to expand...

depends on the mac model. The newer ones can boot off USB.
 
Today I wanted to try and install windows 8.1 Pro. I followed a guide form a blog, and according to their instructions , when you insert the windows dvd and option click while booting, there should be a windows and efi option beside the mac HD , but I don't see that option.

Is there something I am missing?

Thanks
 
I'm having issues! Please Help!

Sorry if I'm hijacking your thread!

MBP 2012

Main Bay: Samsung 840 Pro 250GB - Running OSX
Optibay: Samsung EVO 250GB - (want to) Run win 7

What I want: 840Pro in main bay running OSX and EVO in optibay running WIN7.

I've installed everything but it shows up "cant find bootable device".

Installed windows with bootcamp by running OSX through USB, the EVO in main bay and installing with win7 dvd.

Took everything out, put in OSX in main bay, evo in optibay, took out superdrive. NOTHING.

Did pram reset and now it doesnt even see the evo with win 7 on it. Its there as a drive but I cant do anything with it.

What am I doing wrong?

Any help is appreciated.
 
illusionx said:
Wouldn't it still end up the same thing using bootcamp or direct EFI?
Apple EFI manages the boot sequence... I don't see an issue here. You would still need to install the bootcamp drivers once you are in windows...

You should test it before you put conclusions it won't work.

There are no issues with windows booting off a different drive than the "primary" one on any systems. It's just installation might be tricky if you install windows while another primary drive is present since windows would probably install its boot loader on that instead.
Click to expand...

I have searched everywhere I can't find anything , I have tried two different Windows DVD, there is no efi option when I option click during boot up, there is only mac HD , recovery 10.9 and Windows DVD. any suggestions?

Thanks
 
damir662 said:
refit?
Click to expand...

I was hoping to do it without third party boot managers, it seems that everyone is able to boot efi with just the windows dvd I was hoping to do so as well.

I am currently looking into refind.
 
I finally installed windows 8.1, I had some trouble with the partition table and formats, i had to use the widnows shell to run a few commands ( believe me I do'nt really know what I did but it worked) , I checked the boot option and its legacy not efi, but still that is not that important to me, what is important to me is that I have windows installed on a separate drive.

Thanks to everyone who helped here :)
 
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