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Bootcamp Windows 10 from External Drive?

May i have the question, i've several usb 3.0 enclosure with me and would like to try windows 10 preview beta and may i know if the performance differ a lot between SSD and normal HDD?
 
The performance difference is massive.

On my ASMT 2105-based UASP USB 3.0 enclosure, Windows 8.1 takes only 12 seconds with a Crucial BX100 SSD inside it to get into a fully useable state. On the other hand, with a Hitachi HGST 7200rpm HDD inside, it took over a minute to get into a fully useable state.
 
yjchua95 said:
The performance difference is massive.

On my ASMT 2105-based UASP USB 3.0 enclosure, Windows 8.1 takes only 12 seconds with a Crucial BX100 SSD inside it to get into a fully useable state. On the other hand, with a Hitachi HGST 7200rpm HDD inside, it took over a minute to get into a fully useable state.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the quick update, I'll consider to buy the SSD as the price drops a lot now.

Recently the solution to install bootcamp via external drive can only be done through thunderbolt, it's great now USB3.0 enclosure works as well :)
 
Fzang said:
Amazing. I didn't even know about that! I really want Windows to install some games, but I have huge trouble installing it alongside Yosemite. I'll whip out my external USB 3 drive and see if I can make it work.
Click to expand...

I absolutely could not install windows on my ssd alongside yosemite, tried editing plist files different windows iso's. A real pia, I finally installed it on the spinner I had that originally came with my mini installed as a 2nd disk. Bootcamp is horrible.
 
Finally tried wintousb, it's very easy and straightforward to install at the USB 3.0 HDD. Mine Macbook Pro 15" is late 2013 and once installed, i need to download the bootcamp driver at OSX and save at the thumbdrive. After restart and hold Option, boot up windows instead and install bootcamp driver.
Once all installed, i can use back the tap to click, two finger scrolling, display driver etc. Everything works fine.

Two drawback here, one is usb 3.0 HDD seems not fast enough (yes, i take around 1 mins to boot up to login screen), i'll go for SSD (still thinking 128 or 256GB), another one as you used up one usb 3.0 port, you have one left only.
 
I grab the Crucial BX100 250GB yesterday finally, now it's time to do it again for win10 :)
 
A quick question after install Win 10 using wintousb at my macbook pro.

I use AS SSD benchmark to test the SSD speed and get around 250MB for read and 200MB for write. Is it normal or i need another enclosure to optimize the performance (BX100 state it got around 500MB read and 400MB write).

Thanks.
 
lfcjohn said:
A quick question after install Win 10 using wintousb at my macbook pro.

I use AS SSD benchmark to test the SSD speed and get around 250MB for read and 200MB for write. Is it normal or i need another enclosure to optimize the performance (BX100 state it got around 500MB read and 400MB write).

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Reply to my own thread, doing some research and found that i should use an usb enclosure which support UASP (USB Attached SCSI Prototype) to optimize the performance of SSD. Will go to grab one and try again. :)
 
You can create a bootable media with AOMEI Backupper and boot the Windows 10 under the BIOS mode, you can set it here, and you will boot it later.
 
Hi guys.. I have doe all this wintousb but when I press option key on boot there is only one drive listed and it's internal one. Seems like MacBook Pro cannot see windows drive.

Is this trick working with rMacBook Pro 13" early 2015?

Or should I do semething else?
 
polinux said:
Hi guys.. I have doe all this wintousb but when I press option key on boot there is only one drive listed and it's internal one. Seems like MacBook Pro cannot see windows drive.

Is this trick working with rMacBook Pro 13" early 2015?

Or should I do semething else?
Click to expand...

I'm not really sure, but I had to download rEFIt before it would show up in the boot menu, however I have a much older imac.
 
Summary: Bought an USB 3 enclosure which support UASP and checking speed using Blackmagic have 4xxMB read and 3XXMB write speed.
 
I'm working through this on my macbook air mid-2012 (ivy bridge).

So far I've passed through various approaches with different results:
  • With a GPT partition table, and separate efi/w2g partitions, an "efiboot" showed up in the boot menu, but produced a blue screen error "Your PC needs to be repaired .. required file missing or contains errors .. winload.efi .. 0xc0000225". No amount of bcdboot or bootrec seemed to resolve it.
  • With an MBR partition table, and a single w2g partition, the external drive did not show up at all in the boot menu.
  • With an MBR partition table, and separate efi/w2g partitions, both an "efiboot" and a "windows" option showed up in the boot menu, and selecting "windows" booted win8 successfully. I haven't gone any further than that yet.
Also, I ended up trying each of WinToUSB, dism, and imagex.exe several times. Both times I tried WinToUSB it failed with an error about (once at 93%, once at 100%). The once or twice I tried dism it failed with error "cannot find the path specified". Trying imagex also failed a few times, but worked the first time and several other times. I never resolved why the various failures from those commands.
 
yjchua95 said:
I have updated the steps.

Connect external drive to Windows VM. You must have a Windows VM in VMware/Parallels, or a Windows PC. Any existing Windows environment will do.

Note: If you’re using a 32-bit ISO, your Windows environment used to do these commands have to be 32-bit. And if it’s a 64-bit ISO, the environment has to be 64-bit.

What you need:
install.wim file (obtain this from your Windows ISO)

Open elevated cmd.exe (run as admin)

Note: All commands aren't case sensitive, including pathway to files.

Type diskpart
Type list disk
Take note of the disk you want to select
Type select disk 1 (if your disk is Disk 1)
Type clean
Type convert gpt (do this and then stop at this point if you're using a drive with a Thunderbolt port. If installing in BIOS-CSM, type convert mbr and then stop at this point if you’re using a drive with a Thunderbolt port)
Type create partition EFI size=100 (skip if installing in BIOS-CSM)
Type format quick fs=fat32 label=EFI (skip if installing in BIOS-CSM)
Type assign letter=S (skip if installing in BIOS-CSM)
Type create partition primary
Type format fs=ntfs quick label=W2G (or any other name you wish for label)
Type assign letter=E
Type exit

Open up File Explorer. In your C drive, create a new folder named WIN2GO.
Put the install.wim file in this folder

Back in cmd.exe:
Type dism /apply-image /imagefile:C:\WIN2GO\install.wim /index:1 /applydir:E:\ (this process will take quite a while)
Type E:\Windows\System32\bcdboot E:\Windows /s S: /f UEFI (use this one for UEFI installation)
Type E:\Windows\System32\bcdboot E:\Windows /s E: /f ALL (use this one for BIOS-CSM installation)

Restart your entire Mac. After the chime, hold down Option and when prompted to select your boot drive, select EFI Boot (or whatever else that comes up for a BIOS-CSM installation).

Proceed installation normally.

After installation, install Boot Camp drivers. Feel free to trash the VM once you're done too.

For best results, use USB 3/Thunderbolt. If you don't have USB 3, use Thunderbolt. If you have neither, stick back to the internal drive :)

Don’t use a USB stick.

Note: This method involves reformatting the entire external drive.

For Thunderbolt drives, just boot from the Windows USB installer and install directly onto the TB drive. Windows sees TB drives as an internal PCIe connection. However, you must format the TB drive as GPT first.

CAUTION: Windows can only be installed in UEFI flawlessly on Haswell Macs and later. Ivy Bridge and earlier Macs can only run Windows in BIOS-CSM flawlessly. Attempts to boot a UEFI installation of Windows on an Ivy Bridge or earlier Mac will result in driver issues.

These steps do not work with Windows 7, as it lacks the dism.exe utility.

UEFI-compatible Macs:
MacBook Air (mid-2013 and later)
iMac (late-2013 and later)
Retina MacBook Pro (late-2013 and later)
Mac Pro (trashcan shape)
Mac Mini (late-2014 and later)

Long story short, only Macs with PCIe SSDs support UEFI. Non-retina MBPs, along with other Macs not listed above (basically all Ivy Bridge and older Macs), are not UEFI compatible.

WinToUSB basically does the same thing, but doesn’t always work because WinToUSB doesn’t really take into account between BIOS-CSM and UEFI Macs; it only uses one method for all (which may result in boot failures and other problems).

I run Windows off a single Transcend 960GB JetDrive and constantly use it between Macs without problems.
Click to expand...

I don't know if you are still around, but I wanted to say thank you for these instructions. After many failed attempts, with other programs, your instructions produced a working drive. I was able to boot the drive into Windows 8 on the MacPro (2013) where I created it, but it won't boot correctly on my mid-2013 MBA. I reset the NVRAM, and it booted correctly right away. (I'm using a StarTech USB 3.0 enclosure with UASP support. Windows shows it as a local drive, but OS X sees it as removable?)

Once the drive was plugged back in the MacPro, I upgraded to 8.1 and I will upgrade to 10, when the download is available.

The only problem I can see going forward is that Microsoft says my version of Windows is activated on the one computer, but not the other. But I'll deal with that in the future.
 
Last edited:
wdhpgx said:
With an MBR partition table, and separate efi/w2g partitions, both an "efiboot" and a "windows" option showed up in the boot menu, and selecting "windows" booted win8 successfully. I haven't gone any further than that yet.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what i get and I'm quite satisfied with that. But I'm a little bit of a perfectionist i i don't want to see the unusable "efiboot" partition in the startup screen. Does anyone know how i can remove this partition from showing?

Thanks and good work all for this very useful thread that got me a fully functional windows 10 on my external SSD LaCie drive!
 
Does bootcamp support thunderbolt external drives for storage? I'm not trying to boot from an external SSD, just use an external thunderbolt drive for storage for an internal bootcamp partition that will be running Windows 10 on a nMacPro.

Thanks in advance.
 
dos Gris said:
Does bootcamp support thunderbolt external drives for storage? I'm not trying to boot from an external SSD, just use an external thunderbolt drive for storage for an internal bootcamp partition that will be running Windows 10 on a nMacPro.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
yes it does
 
Thank you! I tried it with a LaCie SSD and the drive wasn't recognized. Will check format, make sure the drive is connected before booting into Windows and try again.
 
yjchua95 said:
I have updated the steps.

Connect external drive to Windows VM. You must have a Windows VM in VMware/Parallels, or a Windows PC. Any existing Windows environment will do.

Note: If you’re using a 32-bit ISO, your Windows environment used to do these commands have to be 32-bit. And if it’s a 64-bit ISO, the environment has to be 64-bit.

What you need:
install.wim file (obtain this from your Windows ISO)

Open elevated cmd.exe (run as admin)

Note: All commands aren't case sensitive, including pathway to files.

Type diskpart
Type list disk
Take note of the disk you want to select
Type select disk 1 (if your disk is Disk 1)
Type clean
Type convert gpt (do this and then stop at this point if you're using a drive with a Thunderbolt port. If installing in BIOS-CSM, type convert mbr and then stop at this point if you’re using a drive with a Thunderbolt port)
Type create partition EFI size=100 (skip if installing in BIOS-CSM)
Type format quick fs=fat32 label=EFI (skip if installing in BIOS-CSM)
Type assign letter=S (skip if installing in BIOS-CSM)
Type create partition primary
Type format fs=ntfs quick label=W2G (or any other name you wish for label)
Type assign letter=E
Type exit

Open up File Explorer. In your C drive, create a new folder named WIN2GO.
Put the install.wim file in this folder

Back in cmd.exe:
Type dism /apply-image /imagefile:C:\WIN2GO\install.wim /index:1 /applydir:E:\ (this process will take quite a while)
Type E:\Windows\System32\bcdboot E:\Windows /s S: /f UEFI (use this one for UEFI installation)
Type E:\Windows\System32\bcdboot E:\Windows /s E: /f ALL (use this one for BIOS-CSM installation)

Restart your entire Mac. After the chime, hold down Option and when prompted to select your boot drive, select EFI Boot (or whatever else that comes up for a BIOS-CSM installation).

Proceed installation normally.

After installation, install Boot Camp drivers. Feel free to trash the VM once you're done too.

For best results, use USB 3/Thunderbolt. If you don't have USB 3, use Thunderbolt. If you have neither, stick back to the internal drive :)

Don’t use a USB stick.

Note: This method involves reformatting the entire external drive.

For Thunderbolt drives, just boot from the Windows USB installer and install directly onto the TB drive. Windows sees TB drives as an internal PCIe connection. However, you must format the TB drive as GPT first.

CAUTION: Windows can only be installed in UEFI flawlessly on Haswell Macs and later. Ivy Bridge and earlier Macs can only run Windows in BIOS-CSM flawlessly. Attempts to boot a UEFI installation of Windows on an Ivy Bridge or earlier Mac will result in driver issues.

These steps do not work with Windows 7, as it lacks the dism.exe utility.

UEFI-compatible Macs:
MacBook Air (mid-2013 and later)
iMac (late-2013 and later)
Retina MacBook Pro (late-2013 and later)
Mac Pro (trashcan shape)
Mac Mini (late-2014 and later)

Long story short, only Macs with PCIe SSDs support UEFI. Non-retina MBPs, along with other Macs not listed above (basically all Ivy Bridge and older Macs), are not UEFI compatible.

WinToUSB basically does the same thing, but doesn’t always work because WinToUSB doesn’t really take into account between BIOS-CSM and UEFI Macs; it only uses one method for all (which may result in boot failures and other problems).

I run Windows off a single Transcend 960GB JetDrive and constantly use it between Macs without problems.
Click to expand...

Hey yjchua95, if you're still around and reading this, many thanks!

I recently used your instructions to install a fresh copy of Windows 10 on a Thunderbolt/USB 3.0 external drive for use with my new 2015 MacBook Pro and it worked flawlessly. Since my PC (already running Windows 10) doesn't have a Thunderbolt port, I first connected the drive to it via USB and followed all the instructions and partitioned it for UEFI boot.

I then plugged in the drive via Thunderbolt to the MacBook Pro and restarted with the Option key. Despite that I labeled the drive as W2G (as indicated), the Mac boot screen still called the drive simply as "Windows". Windows 10 immediately booted and after waiting a few minutes through loading screens, I was presented with "Enter product key" screen. I chose to enter it later, and Windows proceeded to the next screen where you enter user information. Note: The screens appeared REALLY tiny (forcing me to look closely) since the scaling is off on Retina displays at first. Once I got to the desktop I ran Windows update, let it restart a few times, then installed the Boot Camp 6.0 drivers, ran Apple Software Update to download any updates. Finally finished and Windows 10 with 200% scaling on looks great. Some Windows programs though are still extremely tiny to read because they don't seem to scale with the OS setting.

The only issues I've expired with this setup so far is that it doesn't seem to wake from sleep while in Windows 10. I turned off sleep in Windows' power settings. It also takes an few extra moments to completely "shut down". The screen goes through the motions of Windows shutting down then goes completely (off), but the keyboard is still backlit for 5-10 more seconds while the external drive still spins (with blinking activity light) before it eventually stops, then the keyboard backlight goes off. The external drive activity light remains on and solid however, no longer blinking, because I presume the Thunderbolt port is supplying power regardless of whether the MacBook Pro is AC charging or on battery. At this point I just unplug the drive. Have been using Windows this way for a week now and runs great.

I like this method because I did not have to partition the internal SSD drive for my OS X work and apps.
 
Last edited:
I also followed yjchua95's instructions, though I had to alter them slightly as I needed to run OS X + Windows on the same drive, but it was a great walkthrough. Worked really well.
 
Windows 10 has been refusing to update and keeps getting error to Win 10 updates (security and other stuff updates fine), it seems to detect that I'm running on an external USB drive. Has anyone got this problem also?
 
UniDoubleU said:
Windows 10 has been refusing to update and keeps getting error to Win 10 updates (security and other stuff updates fine), it seems to detect that I'm running on an external USB drive. Has anyone got this problem also?
Click to expand...

Yes, I have this problem as well. I have not been able to find a fix for it.
 
Hi I just saw this thread I have posted an issue in another thread, but it seems here it is better placed so again:


Hi I used BootCAmp to install Windows 10 on my internal HDD (with GUID). After that I made a Winclone iso of it and tried to install it on an external Thunderbolt Freecom HDD, which I partitioned with GUID and two Partitions one with mac journaled and one the one for Windows with FAT32. After that I Used Winclone to install Windows from the iso (the internal one I made before out of the running Windows system) onto the external drive.

First time after rebooting nothing worked, then I change the iso from legacy Boot to EFI boot and it tried to start Windows from the external Drive after rebooting but I saw this rotating circle of Windows starting but then it crashed and rebooted.

Does anybody has an idea what happened here? I also tried to start with legacy mode but then Windows is not starting at all.

THX
Andreas
 
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