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rMBP running WIN7 bootcamp via USB 3.0 Flash Drive. Doable?

A

amberashby

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 6, 2003
254
0
Hi all,

I'm thinking about getting the new rMBP and I have the need to run Windows mostly just for occasional MS Office use.

Is it possible to run Win7 via bootcamp and have it running off of a fast USB 3.0 flash drive? I'm not sure if it is even possible and if it is I don't know if it will be usable performance wise. Anyone try something similar?

Since I will only need Win7 occastionally I didn't want to waste any precious internal SSD space on a bootcamp partition.

Any comments or advice would be appeciated.

Thanks.
 
I don't know if the bootcamp tool will let you format and boot from a removable device, but from a performance perspective USB 3.0 is more than enough so that will not be a problem.
 
I think Windows prevents actually installing on a USB.

I'd recommend looking into office for osx or using parallels.
 
There zero point in installing Windows on a separate partition just for MS Office. There is MS Office for Mac or you can install Windows in a VM and use Office that way. You'll be able to run Office without having to change OS's/restarting the computer.
 
amberashby said:
Hi all,

I'm thinking about getting the new rMBP and I have the need to run Windows mostly just for occasional MS Office use.

Is it possible to run Win7 via bootcamp and have it running off of a fast USB 3.0 flash drive? I'm not sure if it is even possible and if it is I don't know if it will be usable performance wise. Anyone try something similar?

Since I will only need Win7 occastionally I didn't want to waste any precious internal SSD space on a bootcamp partition.

Any comments or advice would be appeciated.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Step 1: Create a boot camp partition the same size as your USB drive. Create it on your internal ssd as you would normally create a windows partition.

Step 2: in windows format the USB drive to ntfs.

Step 3: In OS X clone your boot camp partition to your USB drive.
 
Windows is incapable of booting from a USB port. It would require some serious modifications to get it working. The same with a firewire port on normal MBPs.

I have heard that it does work from the Thunderbolt port however, although not quite enough people have tried it to verify it. I'm getting closer and closer to trying it myself, despite the high price.
 
Parallels

I have to use some Windows specific applications for work, while I haven't set it up on my rMBP yet, this is the setup that I use currently on my Mac Mini. I have a thunderbolt WD external hd at 6TB (RAID). I placed my Parallels VM on the external drive, and the read/write speeds are actually faster on the external than the internal SSD that I installed. The Windows VM runs perfect, and my mini is less powerful than the rMBP will be (Windows is running on a single core with only 3GB of ram).
 
Since Thunderbolt is directly on the PCI bus Windows 7 should be able to boot from a Thunderbolt drive.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. It seems that bootcamp on a USB drive may be more trouble than it is worth (if even possible). I do own Parallels so I guess that would be the easiest solution. I need to run the Windows office version and not the Mac version because of some specific VB for Excel plus I've been working in the windows version of Excel for a long, long time and the Mac version is just not the same for me.

So now my only concern is how it will perform on a USB 3.0 flash drive. I'd rather not spend the money on a thunderbolt HD right now.
 
amberashby said:
Thanks for the replies everyone. It seems that bootcamp on a USB drive may be more trouble than it is worth (if even possible). I do own Parallels so I guess that would be the easiest solution. I need to run the Windows office version and not the Mac version because of some specific VB for Excel plus I've been working in the windows version of Excel for a long, long time and the Mac version is just not the same for me.

So now my only concern is how it will perform on a USB 3.0 flash drive. I'd rather not spend the money on a thunderbolt HD right now.
Click to expand...

Go with Parallels and you'd be able to store the VM file on the usb drive, run off it.

With Parallels, you can just hide the rest of the Windows stuff and only see Office running on your laptop.
 
MikhailT said:
Go with Parallels and you'd be able to store the VM file on the usb drive, run off it.

With Parallels, you can just hide the rest of the Windows stuff and only see Office running on your laptop.
Click to expand...

I'll give it a shot.
 
Personally, I'm going to wait a bit for thunderbolt external SSD's to go down in price, then bootcamp windows 8 on it.

I had some hopes of "Windows to go" via usb 3.0 (I already have it working on an air and the dev win 8 release), but it looks like the enterprise version licensing required for that once windows 8 is released is a bit much. A shame, as windows to go is absolutely cool as cool gets.

So... thunderbolt external ssd seems the best solution, if ssd/thunderbolt prices drop over the next year. And why should I buy a windows 7 license with windows 8 right around the corner.

I only want windows for gaming, and I have a home-built desktop pc for that... so having it on my mac would just be nice to have for gaming on the road... I can wait.

Edit: Besides the fact that I sort of promised my wife (with my fingers and toes crossed) that I would only use my new rMBP for photography, software, and video work... or else it was a no go. She's going to be very irritated the first time she sees a game on it.
 
Sorry if this is hijacking :D

If you can use boot camp with an external thunderbolt drive, would there be away to use this on multiple computers?

I want to use the bootcamp, on my (when it comes) rmbp and also on my IMac, would be really cool to use the drive when I'm out and about and then on the iMac when I'm at home :cool:
 
Google windows to go. You can (with some work) make a bootable USB with the release preview version that is free form microsoft. There are even youtube videos of it being booted on a MBP and MBA. This will be supported by windows 8.
 
brand said:
Slow.
Click to expand...

Slow, but possible?

Reason being my 128GB SDXC reads at about 45MB/s, which is perfectly fine for me considering I was planning on gaming from it in bootcamp anyway to save on internal storage space.

I used to boot from an old 20MB/s USB 2 HDD at one point so I can handle the slowness :)
 
striker33 said:
Slow, but possible?

Reason being my 128GB SDXC reads at about 45MB/s, which is perfectly fine for me considering I was planning on gaming from it in bootcamp anyway to save on internal storage space.

I used to boot from an old 20MB/s USB 2 HDD at one point so I can handle the slowness :)
Click to expand...

I should get my MacBook today, the first thing I'll try is to install W7 on that card.
 
biohead said:
Windows is incapable of booting from a USB port. It would require some serious modifications ...
Click to expand...

This is way wrong. I don't know if a MacBook will allow it, but you can certainly boot Windows from a USB flash drive.
 
SimonDK said:
Sorry if this is hijacking :D

If you can use boot camp with an external thunderbolt drive, would there be away to use this on multiple computers?

I want to use the bootcamp, on my (when it comes) rmbp and also on my IMac, would be really cool to use the drive when I'm out and about and then on the iMac when I'm at home :cool:
Click to expand...

You would be violating liscensing agreement by running a single installation of Windows on more than one machine regardless of whether it would work or not.
 
SimonDK said:
Sorry if this is hijacking :D

If you can use boot camp with an external thunderbolt drive, would there be away to use this on multiple computers?

I want to use the bootcamp, on my (when it comes) rmbp and also on my IMac, would be really cool to use the drive when I'm out and about and then on the iMac when I'm at home :cool:
Click to expand...

Nope, gotta activate Windows on each different machine and each key will let you activate it only on one.
 
Cloned my bootcamp partition using winclone to a usb3 external. It's a no go...

Bought the seagate thunderbolt adapter and scored some go flex enclosures on eBay for $7 ea.

Crossing my fingers
 
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