MacOS – Bootcamp Assistant thinks SSD I’m booting from is an External Drive — help

bootcampmacoswindows

I'm trying to get Windows 10 on my computer but since I have a small internal storage space I want to put it on my external Transcend StoreJet 500GB SSD.

I installed OSX on this SSD and booted from it, and am now trying to use the Bootcamp Assistant to format this drive for mostly Windows, but when I try to run the program I get this issue:

Error!

I'm confused.. Since I'm actually booted on the disk that I'm trying to install Windows 10 on with Bootcamp Assistant, isn't it technically not external? Isn't this the same as trying to Bootcamp with OSX on my Internal HDD?

To clarify, I am not booted from my Internal HDD right now, I'm on a fresh OSX install on my 500GB USB 3.0 SSD and trying to bootcamp from that.

Any help would be appreciated. I'm very confused here..

Best Answer

Apple does not support running Windows from USB drives. This does not mean you can not, just that Apple does not provide a way to do so. This also does not mean you can run Windows from an USB drive. I lot depends on which Mac you own. For sure, the Boot Camp Assistant is not going to help install Windows on a USB drive.

After installing Windows (internally) using the aid of the Boot Camp Assistant application, Windows boots and executes exactly the same as if you installed on a PC. In fact, you can install Windows on your Mac without OS X installed. One user posted where the Boot Camp Assistant was used to create the USB Windows Installer. Once booted from this installer, the internal disk was wiped clean of OS X and Windows was installed as the only operating system.

The company twocanoes offer a product called WinClone. They claim it can be used to migrate Windows to an USB drive and then booted using a Mac. See the link Migrate Windows 8 or higher to an External Drive . The key word here is migration. Windows was installed somewhere else, then migrated (copied) to the USB drive.

Instructions for installing Windows 10 on an external drive can be found as several answers to the question: Is it possible to use Boot Camp with Windows 10 from an external HDD?

Personally, I prefer my answer which only requires the external drive and the Windows 10 ISO file.