Install Windows 7 on external drive and boot it from a Mac
I want to install Windows 7 on an external hard drive, and boot from it when needed.
Is this possible on a Mac? I have heard from some sources that it is not possible to boot Windows from external drives, at least on the new Macs. I found this quite surprising.
Any idea if this is true?
It is possible, but it's not straight forward. This detailed step by step guide (which I did) contains all you need to know to install and run Windows 7 or 8 from an external drive (USB3 or thunderbolt): http://bleeptobleep.blogspot.fr/2013/02/mac-install-windows-7-or-8-on-external.html
To sum up, this guide will help you:
- Get the Windows installation pack from a DVD or ISO file
- Partition and format your external drive to make it bootable
- Deploy Windows on your external drive
- Boot on your external drive
- Install Windows
- Download and install the bootcamp drivers (without even using the bootcamp assistant)
Bootcamp simply isn't designed to install Windows on an external drive.
If I have more than one hard drive, can I install Microsoft Windows on any drive?
You can use Boot Camp to install Windows on any internal hard drive, but not on an external hard drive.