Mac Boot Camp question...

[dave4shmups]

Would it be possible to run Windows 10 with Boot Camp on an external hard drive, in order to save space?

[The Sloth]

not a good idea what macbook do you have? 

[DrMacintosh]

I believe so. Check around on YouTube. There are vids of guys installing Windows 10 on external SSDs for MacBook Pros. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

You can't. You need to put windows on a internal drive. You can install osx on a external drive. 

[DrMacintosh]

2 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

 You can install osx on a external drive. 

technically abasing the EULA I think. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, DrMacintosh said:

technically abasing the EULA I think. 

I don't know. I know people internally at Apple who do this and the apple repair shops also do this.  You still running it on Mac hardware. 

[DrMacintosh]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

I don't know. I know people internally at Apple who do this and the apple repair shops also do this.  You still running it on Mac hardware. 

I guess but thats not elegant at all......

[dave4shmups]

1 hour ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

You can't. You need to put windows on a internal drive. You can install osx on a external drive. 

OK, thanks.  I have a 13 inch 2016 MacBook Pro.  How much space should I allocate for Windows 10?  I still have 249 GB left on the internal hard drive.  I've been told that 60 gigs is enough.  I've also been told that VMware Fusion would be a better option then using up any hard drive space.

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 hour ago, dave4shmups said:

OK, thanks.  I have a 13 inch 2016 MacBook Pro.  How much space should I allocate for Windows 10?  I still have 249 GB left on the internal hard drive.  I've been told that 60 gigs is enough.  I've also been told that VMware Fusion would be a better option then using up any hard drive space.

30gb is the bar minnium, but id go with 60 gb so there is room for updates and programs. what are you doing in bootcamp? id give it more room if you want programs like adobe cc or games

[dave4shmups]

Some light gaming, but older games, not today's AAA titles.  BTW, I don't suppose it's possible to purchase Windows 7?  I'd like to get into office work, and I don't know any offices that use 10 yet.

[TLDR]

It is not advised due to stability, file storage and future update reasons however it should be possible. If possible I would suggest you install it on your Mac as a partition like bootcamp normally does however if you absolutely need to you can find a workaround. Have you considered virtualising it? You can probably add the virtual drive to the hard drive and have the VM run off your hard drive.

[CenturyBug]

On 4/18/2017 at 10:42 PM, dave4shmups said:

Some light gaming, but older games, not today's AAA titles.  BTW, I don't suppose it's possible to purchase Windows 7?  I'd like to get into office work, and I don't know any offices that use 10 yet.

Unfortunately, it's no longer possible to legally buy windows 7. But any office software should run on windows 10 no problem. Backwards compatibility is one thing Windows does really well. 

[DrMacintosh]

On 4/22/2017 at 10:54 AM, CUDACheese said:

it's no longer possible to legally buy windows 7

Well unless you can find a shop or get a license online. Its pretty easy to buy legally. 

[dave4shmups]

OK, so if I get Windows 10, how much can I do in it without paying the fee to activate it?  I don't mind paying that fee; I'm just curious.

[Claryn]

21 hours ago, dave4shmups said:

OK, so if I get Windows 10, how much can I do in it without paying the fee to activate it?  I don't mind paying that fee; I'm just curious.

If you don't min havin the default background and none of the "Personalize" options, you can just hit "skip" or "later" when Windows prompts you to type in the serial-key. Been running Windows that way since forever - not that I use Windows a lot. 

[DnFx91]

On 4/18/2017 at 7:09 PM, dave4shmups said:

Would it be possible to run Windows 10 with Boot Camp on an external hard drive, in order to save space?

yh totally possible, just not practical. make a windows-to-go drive, install bootcamp on it, then boot it on your mac.

[dave4shmups]

On 5/2/2017 at 0:47 PM, Claryn said:

If you don't min havin the default background and none of the "Personalize" options, you can just hit "skip" or "later" when Windows prompts you to type in the serial-key. Been running Windows that way since forever - not that I use Windows a lot. 

Could I run any gaming emulators on it, or play some older Windows games from gog.com?

[Claryn]

Just now, dave4shmups said:

Could I run any gaming emulators on it, or play some older Windows games from gog.com?

Without a custom desktop wallpaper? Yes. 

[dave4shmups]

46 minutes ago, Claryn said:

Without a custom desktop wallpaper? Yes. 

OK, thanks for all your help!