HOWTO: boot xp from USB HD (no internal drive partitioning)

[johnjeffy]

Since no one else seems to know this, I'll share what I figured out. :)

You *can* boot off an external USB hard drive and run XP from there, without doing any kind of internal partitioning.. BUT, I do not know how to make WinXP use the USB drive for a page file. This means you have no virtual memory, so this approach is only really useful for people with >=1gb RAM.

You want to partition your USB disk (via disk utility) into 2 partitions, one for windows, and one that can be very small (say 5mb). Make sure that you go into options and choose to partition using MBR.

now, copy rEFIt onto the little partition, and run the enable.sh script to bless this partition.

You need to prepare a usb-bootable version of the Windows install disk. look at http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176 if you don't know how. And yes, i know its complicated.

You will also need to pull the internal drive out of your Mac. Macbook owners will find this very easy. Everyone else.. umm.. sorry, it might be a bit more annoying.

Once the internal drive is out, boot off the Win install disk you made (hold down C at boot). In the installer, choose to delete the non-rEFIt partition, and create a new partition to install into.

During installation, you will need to reboot. Hold down Option to get the boot selection. you should see your rEFIt partition appear as a choice. Choose that, and select Boot windows from <partition n>. Finish up the install.

Now you can reinstall your internal disk if you want. (or later, doesn't matter). To boot windows, do the hold option and choose rEFIt thing.

You will not have a virtual memory page file. A side effect of this is that windows will tell you about it at every boot. An annoying quirk is that sometimes you will log in and things will appear to stall at "Loading/Applying your personal settings".(mouse still works, but nothing happens) Hit Alt-Tab to make the no-page-file dialog box appear, click OK and login will continue.

Now you can install the WinXP mac hardware drivers from the bootcamp disk. You can make that disc by running the bootcamp assistant but not choosing to partition your disc.

Go get a copy of the InputRemapper from the thread in this forum and start getting the 50+ Windows Updates from MS.

[kaidomac]

One workaround for the virtual memory might be to partition your USB drive into two partitions, one large and one small. Put XP on the large one and leave the small one for the page file. I know you can tell Windows which drive you want the page file on, but maybe there's an issue with it being on a USB drive period. It might only like ATA or SATA drives, I don't know. Details on moving the page file, as well as lots of other info on it, are available here:

http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

[seggerman]

Since no one else seems to know this, I'll share what I figured out. :)

You *can* boot off an external USB hard drive and run XP from there, without doing any kind of internal partitioning.. BUT, I do not know how to make WinXP use the USB drive for a page file. This means you have no virtual memory, so this approach is only really useful for people with >=1gb RAM.

You want to partition your USB disk (via disk utility) into 2 partitions, one for windows, and one that can be very small (say 5mb). Make sure that you go into options and choose to partition using MBR.

now, copy rEFIt onto the little partition, and run the enable.sh script to bless this partition.

You need to prepare a usb-bootable version of the Windows install disk. look at http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176 if you don't know how. And yes, i know its complicated.

You will also need to pull the internal drive out of your Mac. Macbook owners will find this very easy. Everyone else.. umm.. sorry, it might be a bit more annoying.

Once the internal drive is out, boot off the Win install disk you made (hold down C at boot). In the installer, choose to delete the non-rEFIt partition, and create a new partition to install into.

During installation, you will need to reboot. Hold down Option to get the boot selection. you should see your rEFIt partition appear as a choice. Choose that, and select Boot windows from <partition n>. Finish up the install.

Now you can reinstall your internal disk if you want. (or later, doesn't matter). To boot windows, do the hold option and choose rEFIt thing.

You will not have a virtual memory page file. A side effect of this is that windows will tell you about it at every boot. An annoying quirk is that sometimes you will log in and things will appear to stall at "Loading/Applying your personal settings".(mouse still works, but nothing happens) Hit Alt-Tab to make the no-page-file dialog box appear, click OK and login will continue.

Now you can install the WinXP mac hardware drivers from the bootcamp disk. You can make that disc by running the bootcamp assistant but not choosing to partition your disc.

Go get a copy of the InputRemapper from the thread in this forum and start getting the 50+ Windows Updates from MS.

I've just tried this guide on an 2007 Alu iMac with leopard to no avail. I get the "Error: Not found while loading legacy loader" message. The refit site refers to an upgrade of the firmware, but I'm running on a higher version. Has naybody gooten this to work on a new iMac ??

Opps, forgot to mention that I created the bootable WinXP version on a windows machine, and the external boot of the dell work like a charm.

Thx

Alexander

[lotu49]

I have also been trying unsuccessfully to do this on my MBP.

I created the CD and it worked fine on two different laptops (although curiously only when the CD was in an external USB CD drive) but not on my MBP (whether I used an internal or external CD drive).

When I tried booting the successful installation on my USB HDD in the MBP I got the same "Error: Not found while loading legacy loader".

When I tried to do a full installation, I got as far as selecting my USB disk in the XP installer, but at the next screen I got this error message:

Your computer's startup program cannot gain access to the disk
containing the partition or free space you chose. Setup cannot
install Windows XP on this hard disk.

This lack of access does not necessarily indicate an error condition.
For example, disks attached to a SCSI that wasn't installed
by your computer manufacturer or to a secondary hard disk controller,
are typically not visible to the startup program unless special
software is used. Contact you computer or hard disk controller
manufacturer for more information.

On x86-based computer, this message may indicate a prolem with the
CMOS drive type settings. See you disk controller documentation
for more information.

Press ENTER to continue.

I didn't remove the internal HDD as it is pretty painful and I would much rather avoid doing this if possible.

@seggerman: did you remove the HDD from your iMac? AFAIK that's a painful process too.

[seggerman]

@seggerman: did you remove the HDD from your iMac? AFAIK that's a painful process too.

Since the "external XP" works on my dell laptop (I removed the internal drive during installation) it wasn't necessary to open up the iMac (since this is only needed during the installation of XP ... or not?)
If I look at the refit site it seems as if the newer firmwares seem to be the problem, this is my assumption.

@lotu49 ... how new is your MBP ?

I've now created a bootcamp partition, and my next try will be to clone (carbon copy cloner) this complete partition. Maybe Bootcamp puts something into the partion ??

Merry Christmas

Alexander

[lotu49]

My MBP is a year old but has the most recent firmware and this seems to be what is causing the problem. People with older firmware seem to have been able to do this fine.

I assume that this is a bug rather than a deliberate plot by Apple but I haven't come across anyone who has had their external XP installation working, upgraded the firmware and then had it stop working (this would be good evidence that it's the firmware).

What I would like to know is whether the shortcomings in the firmware can be overcome by rEFIt. If not, this may never work on my machine :(.

[seggerman]

My MBP is a year old but has the most recent firmware and this seems to be what is causing the problem. People with older firmware seem to have been able to do this fine.

I assume that this is a bug rather than a deliberate plot by Apple but I haven't come across anyone who has had their external XP installation working, upgraded the firmware and then had it stop working (this would be good evidence that it's the firmware).

What I would like to know is whether the shortcomings in the firmware can be overcome by rEFIt. If not, this may never work on my machine :(.

I'm using the current version of refit ... it still doesn't work. So I presume that maybe the next ?? version might fix it. Hopefully.

I've tried to mirror the complete bootcamp sector onto an external drive. But that doesn't work either. So it looks as if we have to wait for refit.

Alex

[lotu49]

Having looked around the net at some length now, I have come to the conclusion that this just doesn't work on the MBP C2D at all, regardless of firmware version.

There seem to be very few people who have managed to get any Mac to boot any OS from a USB HDD and none of them have a MBP.

I read something in the rEFIt mailing list that suggested that rEFIt is powerless to do anything about this. It is a limitation of the firmware and cannot be overcome by rEFIt unfortunately.

[cjsveningsson]

Wow, this was amazingly complex, lost me half-way or something. :-)

Pulling the internal hard disk is for the purpose of avoiding installing Windows onto it, or? So if I'm attempting to boot Linux off a USB stick like I do in the thread linked below, I don't have to bother with that?

Please comment if you have any suggestions: Failing to boot Incognito (Gentoo) off rEFIt on a USB stick in a MacBook (http://forum.onmac.net/showthread.php?p=13184#post13184)