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    Use Windows 10 from an external HDD on a MBP 13

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by aquesi, May 14, 2016.

  1. aquesi

    aquesi Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hi!

    I was just wondering if it is possible to install Windows 10 on an external HDD (Samsung M3 Slimline 2 TB USB 3.0) and make a Macbook boot from it when required.
     
    aquesi, May 14, 2016
    #1
  2. Rhodan

    Rhodan NBR Expert of Nothing

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    Yes, you can use bootcamp to install windows on external media including usb flash drives and SD Cards.

    edit: I should clarify that while it can be done it's not going to be as simple as just running bootcamp. I haven't tried a thunderbolt drive though which may work under bootcamp.

    Here's a link to what I've used to set this up.
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5431182?start=15&tstart=0
     
    Last edited: May 14, 2016
    Rhodan, May 14, 2016
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  3. aquesi

    aquesi Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thanks for the reply @Rhodan

    Do you think it is worth installing WIN10 on the external HDD and getting hideous speeds in order to save up some SSD space on the Macbook?

    Or would it be more practical to make a small partition for Windows on the Mac and then install the programs I intend to use on it on the external HDD?
     
    aquesi, May 15, 2016
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  4. Rhodan

    Rhodan NBR Expert of Nothing

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    Depends on how much free space you have... A thunderbolt SSD drive may be a better option if speed is a concern and you don't have space on your internal drive
     
    Rhodan, May 15, 2016
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  5. saturnotaku

    saturnotaku Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Thunderbolt SSDs are still prohibitively expensive for most users. If you can free up 80 GB or so on your Mac's internal drive, it would be better to install Windows on that and use the external hard drive for mass storage.
     
    saturnotaku, May 16, 2016
    #5
  6. aquesi

    aquesi Notebook Enthusiast

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    I agree, thundrebolt SSDs are unreasonably expensive. What about the Samsung T3 external SSD? The read/write speeds seem pretty decent. I mainly want it to run some light games in Windows.
     
    aquesi, May 16, 2016
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  7. Rhodan

    Rhodan NBR Expert of Nothing

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    @aquesi

    I run Windows 7 on a 1TB Buffalo MiniStation Thunderbolt and the speed is alright, same as what you would get with an internal drive. I went with this drive because of issues with USB3 and Windows 7 at boot time. With Windows 10 you could go with a cheap USB 3 enclosure and the SSD of your choice, this would give you better performance than my setup.

    The procedure linked below is much better if you want to setup your external installation. For Windows 7 it only work with Thunderbolt.

    http://bleeptobleep.blogspot.ca/2013/02/mac-install-windows-7-or-8-on-external.html

    Benchmarks I just ran...
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------
    CrystalDiskMark 5.1.2 x64 (C) 2007-2016 hiyohiyo
    Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------
    * MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]
    * KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes

    Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) : 113.221 MB/s
    Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) : 114.480 MB/s
    Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 0.897 MB/s [ 219.0 IOPS]
    Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 1.139 MB/s [ 278.1 IOPS]
    Sequential Read (T= 1) : 112.427 MB/s
    Sequential Write (T= 1) : 114.946 MB/s
    Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 0.458 MB/s [ 111.8 IOPS]
    Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 1.156 MB/s [ 282.2 IOPS]

    Test : 1024 MiB [C: 4.1% (38.4/931.2 GiB)] (x5) [Interval=5 sec]
    Date : 2016/05/16 11:14:38
    OS : Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)
     
    Last edited: May 16, 2016
    Rhodan, May 16, 2016
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  8. aquesi

    aquesi Notebook Enthusiast

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    @Rhodan

    Thank you! That really helped me.
     
    aquesi, May 17, 2016
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  9. NecessaryEvil

    NecessaryEvil Notebook Evangelist

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    I ran Windows 10 off a USB 3 to SATA adapter and an SSD. It was plenty fast, but when major updates happened, I couldn't upgrade (RTM to 1511). I had to reinstall. But, those major updates are few and far enough between that it's worth it to me.
    The link above is what I used to do it.
     
    NecessaryEvil, May 18, 2016
    #9