Windows 7 Pro on a Data Doubler without OS X and Bootcamp?

[jamesmoser]

I'm a newbie, both to this forum and to the Mac, so forgive me if I place this post incorrectly. I have a Macbook Pro 13" i5 w/ 8G upgrade, late 2011, and would like to install Windows 7 Pro with this hardware config I am considering-

A Data Doubler with 750GB HD and placing the optical drive from the Mac in an aftermarket, USB connected external case. I would like to load Windows in this new HD and be able to, with a option keystroke boot at start-up select this new HD, have Windows open, the default at normal start-up the Mac OS X on the stock drive. I am assuming I would have to load the Lion operating system in the new Hard Drive, make the partition for it just large enough to hold the OS X and then the rest for Windows 7 Pro. Can I have Windows run on the HD without Lion OS X and bootcamp? I had an old tower running XP and want to import all my files and programs. How much extra memory should I allocate to software and security updates for the OS X partition?

I also have a 1 TB WD for Mac I will Velcro to the cover and the same for the optical drive. Can I partition the external memory for Mac AND Windows? I don' care about pretty, just want to have two machines in one.

 

[jamesmoser]

Could I load and run Windows 7 Pro from the WD external HD and keep the optical drive in the machine? Less clutter and always have a USB port available. I have a digital voice recorder with a USB connection that I will have to download files from daily. I could get a WD with Firewire 800 connection to back-up my files. I need to transfer HD video flash drives to memory or make ISO files on DVD so I can use them the next day.