Really dumb question. Can you install OS XP from an external cd-drive?

[Hugh]

My CD/DVD L (and so on) isn't working right. I put the disc in, it makes a loud grinding noise. So I figured that it would be cheaper if I just bought an External CD-RW/DVD+/- DL +/- with lightscribe for a good drive.

I don't have it yet. Since the internal drive isn't working does this mean I'm up the s++t, when it comes to installing Windows XP or Windows 7?

If there is a way...How do you do it.

 

[tjb1]

Nope, im not sure if a firewire drive will work but I have my superdrive in an external usb case and it doesnt work. Even tried loading it onto a flash drive and using rEFIt to boot, doesnt work... Only way to do it I have seen is use Parallels.

Here is a thread about it and how they get it to work with Parallels - https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/631901/

 

[Hugh]

Nope, im not sure if a firewire drive will work but I have my superdrive in an external usb case and it doesnt work. Even tried loading it onto a flash drive and using rEFIt to boot, doesnt work... Only way to do it I have seen is use Parallels.

Here is a thread about it and how they get it to work with Parallels - https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/631901/

Thanks for your reply. When I have the time I will read how they did it with Paralles. Which I wouldn't think about trying it though. For some reason would think it would be really hard to do it though way. Oh well if I need to re-instal and don't want to work around with Parallels or Fusion for that matter.

I'll just get the drive replaced, and knowing Apple it will cost $100 for the drive whatever for the labor. Right now I am looking a good price DVD-/+ DL with lightscribe. Which seems to be an interesting way to label your discs.

Hugh

 

[Darth.Titan]

Strange... my 15" MacBook Pro Boots just fine to my external DVD drive with a Windows XP SP2 CD.

I just booted and held down the option key to select the external Windows disc. It booted to a normal Windows install. I have a first-gen unibody MBP.

 

[balamw]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Some combinations of drive and firmware do work reliably. Others don't. Try the particular combination before giving up.

B

 

[Hugh]

Strange... my 15" MacBook Pro Boots just fine to my external DVD drive with a Windows XP SP2 CD.

I just booted and held down the option key to select the external Windows disc. It booted to a normal Windows install. I have a first-gen unibody MBP.

It might be able to boot from the install disk, but can you install XP from an external drive? I would think the first half of the install would work but the second half it wouldn't know to go to the external drive.

Hugh

 

[balamw]

It might be able to boot from the install disk, but can you install XP from an external drive? I would think the first half of the install would work but the second half it wouldn't know to go to the external drive.

Usually the second half of a Windows install is completed from the HDD.

B

 

[Piplodocus]

Never worked for me from an external USB/FW DVD drive.

Works for OSX install, but not Win7, hence I have to do lots of drive shuffling if I want to reinstall Win7 since I have an optibay.