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tedesco24

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 4, 2010
75
0
So I need to run some Windows programs for work and would like to avoid carrying around a second laptop. Space is a premium on my MBP, so my idea is to load Windows onto a thumb drive and boot from there, and work from my MBP. I'm not worried about booting in and out; once I'm in work mode I'll be in the Windows environment for most of the day. Here's my Catch-22. I have a mid-2010 MBP that does not support Windows 10. I have Sierra as my MBP OS, which only support Windows 10. Going backwards on my MBP from Sierra isn't an option as I have multiple Apple devices, all synced and working nicely together. Last thing I want to do is make a mess of my systems. Any suggestions that will get a Windows OS onto my MBP?
 
I ran into that same issue with my 2010 MBP. I ended up buying the 2016 model and didn't look back. As far as I'm concerned you can still run windows 7 and 8 I believe on your current MacBook.
 
I think you'll find that Windows would run quite poorly from a thumb drive in USB 2.

Your 2010 should have a DVD drive bay that can be converted to another internal hard drive / SSD, which might be the way to go. Or you could use the ExpressCard34 to get eSata or USB 3.0.

As for Windows 10, I got it to run on my mid-2010 MBP (i5, 8 GB).. it does work. Bootcamp drivers aren't officially supported but the Windows 7 drivers worked fine, which is mostly needed for the trackpad. Windows isn't so fruity about their drivers, and most of the hardware already has support.

The thing is the install USB wouldn't take for me (wouldn't show up at boot), but it worked perfectly using the DVD installer for Windows 10.
 
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