Windows 8.1 for gaming on EHD

[cclloyd]

A few questions.

1. Can I install Windows 8/8.1 to an external USB3 hard drive and boot from it?

2. Will it run just fine for games as if it were on my internal drive?

3. Is there a way that, if I wanted, could make Windows read and write to my mac drive for storage there, since I cannot partition it (It won't let me partition)?

 

[m98custom1212]

A few questions.

1. Can I install Windows 8/8.1 to an external USB3 hard drive and boot from it? NO

2. Will it run just fine for games as if it were on my internal drive?

3. Is there a way that, if I wanted, could make Windows read and write to my mac drive for storage there, since I cannot partition it (It won't let me partition)?

Answer in Bold

 

[cclloyd]

Answer in Bold

Damn. So if I can't partition my drive cause it says I need to repair it (Which I have in recovery), I should just bring it to Apple?

 

[m98custom1212]

Hold on which partition? OSX?

 

[cclloyd]

I cannot partition my internal drive. I want to add a partition for Windows.

 

[m98custom1212]

I cannot partition my internal drive. I want to add a partition for Windows.

Use bootcamp assistant

 

[cclloyd]

Use bootcamp assistant

I tried. It was when that failed that I went to disk utility.

 

[Renzatic]

1. Can I install Windows 8/8.1 to an external USB3 hard drive and boot from it?

...there's this. I have no idea how well it works, though. If it's able to identify your hardware and install drivers, it could work fine for games. If not? Well...

...it's worth an experiment.

Alternately (and I have no idea if this'll work at all, I'm going on theory for this one), you could install Windows 8 as usual, get all your drivers installed and everything set up to taste, download, install, and boot off a partition editor like GParted, then clone your entire Windows partition to your USB HDD. Doing this with a bootcamp installation makes an already fuzzy situation even more fuzzy though, since I have no idea if uses Windows usual MBR or not.

It's a lot of hoops, but you may be able to do it with a little work and a helluva lot of luck.

 

[m98custom1212]

I tried. It was when that failed that I went to disk utility.

Did you make an usb to boot from? Do you have an iso file?

 

[cclloyd]

Did you make an usb to boot from? Do you have an iso file?

I have an ISO, but I can't make the partition to install windows.

 

[whiteonline]

I have tried this using the Windows To Go setup (windows that is intended to be run from USB) with 8.1 RTM. Unfortunately, I get an error stating setup is not able to configure for the hardware (retina 13) - or something similar. The same USB disk works fine on my business HP laptop.

 

[m98custom1212]

I have an ISO, but I can't make the partition to install windows.

Idk if you want the trouble but you could do a clean install and make the partitions in disk utility before installing osx then do the windows install

 

[zwaldowski]

Windows 8 To Go works off a USB external drive, but only in BIOS mode, not EFI.

 

[whiteonline]

Windows 8 To Go works off a USB external drive, but only in BIOS mode, not EFI.

Looking forward to the how-to on that.
Seriously, I am. Do it.