OS X/ Windows external problems

[Space Opera]

hey there.

well i have a Macbook and an 80 Gb external hardrive.
i wanted to install windows on the external drive and be able to boot from it, and have OS X on the internal hardrive.

i booted from the windows xp cd and installed it on the external drive after formatting it (which didnt work for some reason) so i wanted to revert back to osx, so i unplugged the external from the usb and tried to reboot. then a message came up saying that windows cannot boot because of disk problems. which is obvious because there's no hardrive for it to locate after i unplugged it. am i able to revert back to os x at all? do i need the install disk to reboot from os x? im also not sure if it had corrupted any data on my internal HD, so any help would be great.

 

[Ric]

Hi there,

what happens if you boot up holding down the option key, does it give you a choice of drive to boot from ?

Can you boot using the OS X install disk ?

regards

Ric

 

[Space Opera]

well i tried booting with the option key and the icons came up. one icon was the hardrive icon (internal) that had 'windows' written underneath it and then the other icon was a cd icon that also had 'windows' underneath it. i dont know how the heck windows could be on my internal, i partitioned the external not the internal. but it wont even boot in the internal drive either. i dont have my install disc because apple lost it when they fixed my computer so theyre sending me a new one in the mail, but here's the funny part; i popped in the install disc #2 and it didnt even recognize it existed in the boot menu, then i popped in the install disc for my old ibook g4 to see if thatd work somehow and it didnt recognize that either. so hopefully it will recognize the install disc #1 that im getting or im FUBAR. do you know why it would partition my internal when i directly asked it to do it to my external? unless i screwed up somewhere. ugh.. i loathe windows...

 

[Ric]

Hi there,

you need a bootable OS X disk, then you can boot from it, and reselect the internal drive to boot OS X and not windows.

Hopefully you drive should still have all the data on it, but BootCamp is still beta...

The only other thing I can think off is to plug the external drive back in and try to reinstall windows on the external drive, then if it will boot into windows, you will then be able to go to the Windows control panels and use the startup disk to reselct OS X as the boot volume.

regards

Ric

 

[Space Opera]

what defines a bootable disc? why then didnt my ibook disc work?

for some reason windows wont install either so i've got a lot of work to do.

oh and i didnt use bootcamp because i didnt think i needed to because its an external hardrive.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Go

You need to use Boot Camp...it is the "link" that allows your Mac to install/boot using WinXp Home SP2/WinXP Pro SP2. In adition, it will create the proper partition or use an internal HD. Externals aren't supported for Windows booting at this time.

 

[Space Opera]

actually it can:
http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176

this is still alot of work though and i dont feel like doing it ever. so you suggest partitioning my internal and using my external for extra space...?

 

[Cory Cooper]

Go

I meant booting from externals is not supported using Boot Camp.

Interesting article.

I have Mac OS X/Boot Camp/WinXP Pro SP2 on my internal, and my "normal" everyday install of Mac OS X on an external FW drive.

C