I did install the Bootcamp drivers into my XP install and I believe there is a serious trap here. Macintosh Drivers (and the USB trap)Īt this point, I must confess that I cheated. Now you are running Windows from the USB drive. Answer yes to any questions about unsigned drivers. Follow the Windows graphical installer.Tell rEFIt to boot Windows from the USB drive.Step through the Windows text-mode installer until your system reboots.Start your Mac, holding “c” to boot from the XP install disc.Follow the link, complete steps 1-9, then come back here. Create a modified Windows XP install CD with support for USB installation.It was produced by some serious Windows Wizards and is the core of what we are doing here. Step two is a pretty complex sub-procedure. I used MagicISO (a commercial Windows application sadly). A tool for extracting and editing ISO images.

A Windows XP install CD (SP1 or higher).rEFIt – A boot manager for EFI computers (like Intel Macs).

A USB2 hard drive – I used a Welland “Sun Bright” chassis with a Samsung IDE disk inside.

An Intel Macintosh – This procedure was tested on a first generation MacBook.

It turns out that it is possible to install Windows to a USB disk without using Bootcamp at all. The brave souls who made this work in the past still needed to re-partition their disk with Bootcamp though, something that wasn’t an option for me. Windows is not supposed to run from an external disk but it has been done before. Sadly, Bootcamp refused to partition my internal disk so I was stuck with no Windows and no San Andreas.Ī ray of hope was the idea of installing Windows onto a blank external disk. Bootcamp and Windows should have had me playing Windows games on the Mac. OSX can do everything I want from day to day, but occasionally I want to play some San Andreas.

2006 macbook pro boot from usb