Single Boot Windows (XP) on Macbook HDD?

[peanutismint]

I'm fast running out of space on my Macbook's 100GB hard drive, so am going to upgrade to a 250GB drive. But what to do with the old hard drive?

Well I figured I could use it for storage or buy an external enclosure, but then another idea hit me....

When I first 'switched' from PC to Mac about a year ago, I installed BootCamp as standard, just to help any 'teething problems' along... But I found that, after only one month, I preferred the Mac OS so much that I never booted into Windows. There is, however, one thing that I always go back to Windows for, and that's recording music. So what I was wondering... if I were to install ONLY Windows XP on my 100GB hard drive, is there a way that I could have my Macbook boot into XP every time the hard disk was present? i.e. could I select my operating system based on which hard drive was present in the laptop?

This way, I could have all my usual Mac OS X stuff on the one drive, and then on the odd occasion I wanted to record music, just flip the laptop over, unscrew and swap the hard drive, and then boot into Windows with all my music software at the ready.... Is this possible?

 

[ilkevinli]

Or you could buy an external USB/Firewire enclosure for the for the drive and then boot from ir when you need to run windows. No need to keep swaping the drives on the notebook.

I'm fast running out of space on my Macbook's 100GB hard drive, so am going to upgrade to a 250GB drive. But what to do with the old hard drive?

Well I figured I could use it for storage or buy an external enclosure, but then another idea hit me....

When I first 'switched' from PC to Mac about a year ago, I installed BootCamp as standard, just to help any 'teething problems' along... But I found that, after only one month, I preferred the Mac OS so much that I never booted into Windows. There is, however, one thing that I always go back to Windows for, and that's recording music. So what I was wondering... if I were to install ONLY Windows XP on my 100GB hard drive, is there a way that I could have my Macbook boot into XP every time the hard disk was present? i.e. could I select my operating system based on which hard drive was present in the laptop?

This way, I could have all my usual Mac OS X stuff on the one drive, and then on the odd occasion I wanted to record music, just flip the laptop over, unscrew and swap the hard drive, and then boot into Windows with all my music software at the ready.... Is this possible?

 

[timswim78]

Or you could buy an external USB/Firewire enclosure for the for the drive and then boot from ir when you need to run windows. No need to keep swaping the drives on the notebook.

Can Windows be booted from a USB or Firewire drive?

 

[peanutismint]

Or you could buy an external USB/Firewire enclosure for the for the drive and then boot from ir when you need to run windows. No need to keep swaping the drives on the notebook.

That is an even better idea!! If it's possible... How easy is it to do? As easy as installing Windows while it's inside the Macbook then putting it in an enclosure and holding a button while you boot your Macbook?

Also, is there definately a way of running a Windows-only hard drive in a Mac machine? Or do they all have to have at least some component of OS X in there, even if it's only like a 1GB partition that tells your Mac to run Windows in Boot Camp?

Sorry for the newbish questions, I just don't really have a clue how Windows emulation on Macs works! :-D I'm just amazed and impressed that it does!!