External HD: nMP, OSX-M, BootCamp

[sturob]

Hey there,

I'm all set to get my nMP (Hex/D700), order is processing with an expected January ship date, and I have a question for you regarding Thunderbolt 2 drives (or just Thunderbolt drives) and the new machine.

I'm currently using an old Pro for Pro type stuff, and my rMBP (early one) for pretty much everything else. I have my SSD in the rMBP partitioned into two: one for OSX-Mavericks, one for BootCamp on which I use Windows 8.1. I use Windows for various things from work which require Windows, and I will admit to the occasional Windows-only game. Not a hardcore gamer.

When I went to the rMBP and installed BootCamp, I had a devil of a time with an external Thunderbolt drive. I had figured that due to the nature of TB, it wouldn't look like an external drive for Windows, but I had all kinds of problems with it being recognized, or not recognized; Windows being generally unhappy with anything TB plugged in. I quit trying and use a USB drive to back up my Windows partition, no huge deal. It just worked better.

Will I be able to use an external TB drive (maybe even a TB 2 drive), partitioning the TB drive into Windows and OSX partitions, with the new Pro? Has this worked for people and I just can't seem to figure it out?

I know it's early to tell specifically about the new Pro, but I hope there are people who have success with using an external TB drive partitioned so that you can have Windows and OSX data both out there on the drive. If it works well, I don't need the speed of the internal drive of the Pro for Windows, I would be happy making a bootable partition on the TB drive to use for Windows. My current TB drive (LaCie) has HDs and I will either repurpose it for the new Pro or look into getting a new drive for it.

I have searched; it could be that I did not use appropriate terms or missed the best thread on this topic. I'm sorry to be one of those people who posts something to rehash a topic that's been beaten to death, so I throw myself on your mercy.

Thanks in advance.

Stuart

 

[Dranix]

I intend to do just that:

A Lacie 3TB thunderbolt drive partitioned 500GB/Win 8.1 and 2,5TB OSX-user-folder. I couldn'T test it yet as my nMP isn't here yet but I don't see anything that speaks against this scheme.

Edit: I'll try it as soon as my Win8.1 disc gets delivered with my MBP and the Lacie.

 

[Anim]

I too am wondering how to do this. I might go for this one:
http://reviews.cnet.com/hard-drives/buffalo-drivestation-ddr-3tb/4505-3186_7-35757050-2.html

which is USB3 and beats the Lacie thunderbolt drive (scroll down to second graph)

Anim

 

[sturob]

Excellent! I will await your results!

And if for some reason mine comes first, I'll just try and see how it goes.

Stuart

 

[Bones13]

Sticking with USB 3.0

For the time being, I plan to just use a simple USB 3.0 Sata3 external hard drive enclosure with a 256 gig SSD for my Win8 boot disk.

I figure when it's time to upgrade that a better, proven bootable thunderbolt enclosure will be available.

Either that or I will upgrade the internal drive to use bootcamp on it as well.

 

[Anim]

Excellent! I will await your results!

And if for some reason mine comes first, I'll just try and see how it goes.

Stuart

Damn, just been reading all the reviews of lots of USB3 drives and it is making me worried now. Seems like a 15 to 25% fail rate on them. Not great if you want to store an OS on there. What to do, what to do

SSD is too expensive but might be my only choice. I wanted to use Thunderbolt too but there isn't anything I can find that uses TB2 and is classed as a server grade drive (for reliability). I only need 1 Gig to be honest.

More research I guess. Have a month to wait anyway grrrr

 

[wildmac]

Damn, just been reading all the reviews of lots of USB3 drives and it is making me worried now. Seems like a 15 to 25% fail rate on them. Not great if you want to store an OS on there. What to do, what to do

SSD is too expensive but might be my only choice. I wanted to use Thunderbolt too but there isn't anything I can find that uses TB2 and is classed as a server grade drive (for reliability). I only need 1 Gig to be honest.

More research I guess. Have a month to wait anyway grrrr

I'd look at the G-Tech units.

 

[kid2010]

You can do it with thunderbolt I'm using this one from Apple (http://store.apple.com/us/product/H...30-thunderbolt-series-ssd-hard-drive?fnode=5f)
There is one thing need to notice. Orders matters, you need to first format the whole drive from Windows 8.1 EFI Installer and install the Windows 8.1 and after that you create the partition for OS X and install OS X on that drive. You may need to manually create EFI partition for Windows after finish installing it.

 

[sturob]

How hard is that to do? I have a full install of 8.1 in a box; do I need to make a bootable USB drive to use to install 8.1?

I seriously hate Windows, I'm so accustomed to OSX.



Stuart

 

[kid2010]

How hard is that to do? I have a full install of 8.1 in a box; do I need to make a bootable USB drive to use to install 8.1?

I seriously hate Windows, I'm so accustomed to OSX.



Stuart

It's not hard at all. You can use Boot Camp Assistant to create the USB Drive for installation. Reboot the Mac holding option button and select EFI Boot from USB Drive... After that just follow the normal installation process to finish install Windows.

 

[sturob]

Thankyuh!

That sounds super. I think I made my current install like 500x harder than I should have.

I'll read up!

Stuart