How to Run Bootcamp Tools Again
How to run Bootcamp and Windows 10 on a USB SSD
@ obezuk
Tim ObezukSolutions Engineer
I've been using a late 2013 Retina Macbook Pro as my primary computer for almost two years. It meets all my needs in my solar day job and is light enough to behave everywhere even while flying around for work.
While I love the time flying affords to switch offline and catch upward on some well deserved gaming, mobile gaming can be bit banal and Mac OS X doesn't run my favourite games like Skyrim without some fairly unreliable and poorly performing hacks via Wine.
Merely what near Bootcamp? I was in a very express place, the 256GB SSD rapidly fills up and I couldn't spare the space to partition and install Bootcamp Apple'due south way.
Enter the Samsung Portable SSD T1, this speedy little drive is minor enough to hang off the side of my Macbook without getting in the way and a bump or ii won't impairment it.
Unfortunately Windows refuses to install to whatsoever USB based storage which has historically been far also tedious to run a fully fledged operating system.
Merely that's no issue for the T1 which past Samsung's ain estimates can reach up to 450MB/s. It's more than than fast enough to run Windows as if information technology were running directly on the internal drive.
Luckily with the ability of virtualisation it's easy to bypass these pesky limitations and go Bootcamp running entirely off the external USB SSD drive without making any changes to the internal SSD.
Read on to detect out how!
What you'll need:
You'll need a few things to complete this guide:
- A Mac which supports booting from a USB Device (meet Apple Support: Mac computers that back up Windows 10)
- A USB 3.0 SSD similar to the Samsung T1 (a flash storage device will not be fast enough)
- A spare USB drive with a minimum of 2GB of storage to copy the Bootcamp Drivers over to Windows.
- Basic understanding of VirtualBox and installing Windows.
Download Windows ten Installation
Windows 10 is available to download from Microsoft and allows a grace period to license the installation. Windows x can be purchased from the Microsoft Store.
Click hither to admission the Windows 10 download page.
Follow the prompts to download Windows ten installation disk.
The download is 3.7GB so it may take some fourth dimension, the next steps will ready your system to install Windows 10 to the USB SSD.
Download Bootcamp Software for Windows 10
Apple tree offer a prepackaged commuter installation for Bootcamp.
Click here to download the Bootcamp vi.0 drivers for Windows x via the Apple CDN. ( AppleBCUpdate.exe 1.13GB )
Thanks to Reddit user sadalhayat for identifying this link.
Once this has downloaded copy it to a spare USB drive separate from SSD you will be using to install Bootcamp. Save this for subsequently.
Mac Bone Ten cannot write to the Windows drive out of the box. For this reason you volition need to employ a separate drive to re-create the Bootcamp Software into the new Bootcamp Installation.
Install VirtualBox
Are you lot wondering why VirtualBox is the next step? Don't worry, we're taking advantage of the virtualisation technology to boot starting time the installation of Windows ten.
Nosotros will be using VirtualBox to mount the USB drive as a virtual difficult deejay inside the Virtual Machine. This bypasses the limitations imposed by the Microsoft Installer preventing us from installing Bootcamp the Apple manner.
Download and Install VirtualBox
If you don't already accept VirtualBox, it tin can exist downloaded from their website. Once you take downloaded the packet, utilize the installation package to get up and running with VirtualBox.
Place your USB Drive'south device location
Open up the Terminal and type:
This command will listing all the connected drives on your computer. Browse through the list until you find your storage device.
The text highlighted cherry-red " /dev/disk2 " is the information we need. This information will tell VirtualBox exactly which storage device information technology needs to admission.
Please annotation this information may exist different on your machine. Read the list carefully to friction match the accost of your USB SSD.
Disconnecting Mac Os X from the USB SSD.
Earlier we connect VirtualBox to our USB SSD you will demand to completely unmount the SSD from Mac Bone Ten to permit VirtualBox total access to the USB SSD.
This can exist done by searching for Disk Utility in Spotlight then
- Choosing the External USB Device
- Choosing Eject in the top Menu
Create a Virtual Deejay mapping to the USB Drive
This is where the magic starts. We will be using VirtualBox to mount the USB SSD as a normal hard deejay in lodge to trick the Windows 10 installer into thinking it is using a normal hard drive.
First nosotros need to create a Virtual Disk File for VirtualBox so it knows what storage device we are accessing.
Beneath is the command we will be modifying to create the Virtual Disk file
VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename "bootcamp.vmdk" -rawdisk /dev/diskX
You tin can re-create the entire control with the exception of the last part "/dev/diskX" which will need to be changed to the drive number you identified in the previous step.
In my case information technology is "/dev/disk2".
Installing Windows 10 to the USB SSD via VirtualBox
Now that we accept everything organised we can commencement the installation of Windows ten via VirtualBox.
We will demand to give VirtualBox elevated permissions to access our handy bootcamp.vmdk file.
In your terminal blazon:
sudo /Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VirtualBox
This will force VirtualBox to run as the root user and have permission to admission the USB SSD.
Creating Virtual Auto
In VirtualBox choose "New" and type "Windows 10 Bootcamp" and click Continue.
Change Memory to "512" MB and click Proceed.
On the Hard disk drive screen cull "Use an existing virtual hard disk file" browse to your domicile directory and select the newly created "bootstrap.vmdk".
Installing Bootcamp, from a Virtual Car
Now that we have scaffolded the Virtual Machine, connected the difficult bulldoze and downloaded Windows ten, information technology is fourth dimension to install Windows 10 onto our shiny new USB SSD.
Dorsum in VirtualBox we will need to mountain the Windows x Installation ISO into the virtual DVD drive.
- Open the Virtual Automobile'due south Settings Console.
- Select the Storage tab on the top of the Settings Panel.
- Select the Empty DVD Icon.
- Select the CD Icon side by side to the Optical Drive, Cull Virtual Optical Disk File and select the Windows 10 ISO file.
- Select OK to salvage the new settings.
Run the Normal Windows 10 Installation
Follow through the standard screens to begin the Windows x installation.
Clicking next and like-minded to the terms and weather is all y'all really need to practise here except for the following points:
When you meet the installation blazon screen, select " Custom ".
When you are asked where to install Windows, merely delete any existing partitions and select " Next ".
Don't worry, Windows can only encounter the USB SSD bulldoze you assigned by VirtualBox, your Mac's existing partitions are not accessible here.
Of import! Don't let windows restart!
This is the virtually crucial pace to successfully installing Bootcamp on an external USB 3.0 SSD
When Windows 10 is restarting, brand sure you prevent Windows restarting inside the Virtual Machine and completing the installation.
- When you see the VirtualBox BIOS screen select the Red Shut Button
- Cull " Power off the motorcar ".
- Cull OK to power off the Virtual Car.
That's enough Virtualisation!
Now that we've completed the first stage of the Windows 10 installation, we don't demand to utilise VirtualBox anymore.
This completes all the steps required on the Mac Bone X side of the installation.
Reboot your Mac into Windows
It's at present time to restart your Mac and kicking into Windows ten. Ability off your Mac and agree the Option cardinal until deejay icons appear onscreen.
Let Windows 10 install
If everything went well Windows 10 should commencement booting and begin the initial installation.
Just follow through the screens and make full in your details as required.
Windows 10 may reboot during the installation. If this occurs, brand sure you press the Option Fundamental and select the Boot Army camp Drive to go along the installation.
Install Bootcamp Software
Plug in the spare USB Drive we copied the Bootcamp Software to earlier and run " AppleBCUpdate.exe ".
This will beginning the Bootcamp installation software to install drivers for the Apple Keyboard and Mouse, Wireless, Graphics and other devices in your system.
That's information technology!
If everything went according to programme y'all should now be able to boot directly into Windows 10 whenever the USB SSD is continued to your computer!
My experience has been rock solid, and I can savour all the benefits of running Bootcamp on my Mac to run Windows Applications and Games without sacrificing the valuable storage infinite of the internal SSD.
Did y'all find this article helpful? Let me know in the comments section below!
Proceed in mind Microsoft and Apple never intended for you to run Bootcamp this way. Brand certain you never disconnect the USB SSD from your organisation while Windows is running!
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Source: https://hackernoon.com/how-to-run-bootcamp-windows-10-on-a-usb3-86551dc3def8
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