Install Windows 7 on external drive using Boot Camp (Lion)

Feb 14, '13 07:30:00AM

Contributed by: LaermTot

Having purchased a Segate GoFlex Desktop Thunderbolt Adapter made me wonder if it's possible to install a Bootcamp-Partition on an external Drive. Well it works; sort of.

  1. Launch Boot Camp Assistant.
  2. Select the local Drive for installation (not the external Drive) it will take about 20 GB of disk space.
  3. Boot Camp Assistant will now repartition your local drive.
  4. Wait a while for Boot Camp Assistant to finish preparing the drive.
  5. When the Windows 7 Installer comes up simply choose the external drive as target, not the local one.
  6. Proceed with the installation.
When booting your Mac (holding the Option key) you'll now see that there is a local Windows 7 boot volume. Unfortunately, you will have wasted 20 GB creating a partition on your main drive.

[kirkmc adds: I haven't tested this. I don't know if Disk Utility can delete that partition; live partitioning is possible, but in some cases certain partitions can't be deleted.]

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