OS X PC Games on a Mac Computer?

[Tissue Paper]

I have a question. Is it possible to install Windows on an external hard drive? Then hook it to my Mac, and play a PC game from there? I don't think I have enough space to install BootCamp or Parallel. Only 40G available.

I'm getting sick of how scarce the Mac games are. All the good ones are on PC.

 

[saturnotaku]

It is theoretically possible to install Windows 8 on an external drive, but the process is convoluted and not guaranteed to work. This is only if you are installing it using another Windows computer as the "source." You would not be able to then hook it up to a different machine, especially a Mac.

What is possible would be to use the 40 GB you have on your hard drive and use Boot Camp to install Windows that way. With a few optimizations, such as shrinking the pagefile and disabling hibernation, you can get a base Windows 7 installation to significantly less than 20 GB. You can then install and play the games off the external hard drive.

Not a 100% ideal scenario, but far less headache inducing than what you are proposing.

 

[Elmzeh]

I have a question. Is it possible to install Windows on an external hard drive? Then hook it to my Mac, and play a PC game from there? I don't think I have enough space to install BootCamp or Parallel. Only 40G available.

I'm getting sick of how scarce the Mac games are. All the good ones are on PC.

Hey Tissue Paper,

Have you got Steam? There's loads of Mac games available on there including loads of big titles!

Also worth checking out the Aspyr and Feral Interactive websites!

It's true, a lot more titles are available for PC but as Mac / OS X gets more of a market share - more developers are releasing Mac compaitable games or are working with companies like Aspyr and Feral Interactice to get them released!

 

[Huntn]

This from Apple Discussions 2012. As far as I know Bootcamp does not support an external hard drive as a boot drive for Windows. But you can allocate 40GB to your Mac's hard drive, install Windows on it, then install all of your games on the external drive that Windows will recognize and access.

 

[retinagameshow]

Sadly you won't be able to run Windows on an external drive but if you could spare 8Gb and create a Windows 7/8 boot camp partition you can then run steam games/pc games etc. off an external hard drive. Here is a tutorial i made a while back - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99x4-NcfJ24

Hope this helps!

___________________________________________________________________

RETINAGAMESHOW YOUTUBE CHANNEL​

MAXED OUT MID 2012 15" RETINA MACBOOK PRO

 

[N19h7m4r3]

The best thing for windows games without Bootcamping is WINE, or PlayOnMac.

You can just install them that way, even so there are plenty of games on mac.
http://www.playonmac.com/en/

Especially on Steam where 79 out of 167 of my Steam games are Mac compatible.

My signature has a link to some of them as well.

 

[Huntn]

Sadly you won't be able to run Windows on an external drive but if you could spare 8Gb and create a Windows 7/8 boot camp partition you can then run steam games/pc games etc. off an external hard drive. Here is a tutorial i made a while back - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99x4-NcfJ24

Just a note for the OP, in my post previous to this quoted one I suggested 40GB just to allow a bit more breathing space. IMO, even 20 would be better than the minimum.