I would like to run windows on my MacBook Air with Mavericks 10.9.3. I currently have a Windows 7 64 bit ISO I can use. The problem is that my MacBook does not have enough space to install windows and be able to install the things I need. I have an external hard drive with 750 GB of space and if needed an external CD drive.
3 Answers
Short answer:
No. While the Mac has no trouble at all booting off just about anything that can be plugged into it, the issue is what Windows 7 supports, and Windows 7 does not support booting from external media.
Long answer:
Yes you can, but it's a total hack, only works with Thunderbolt drives (not USB drives), and is not supported by either Microsoft or Apple.
It must be done in EFI mode. Here's a link to instructions: Is it possible to install and boot Windows on a Thunderbolt drive?
On a side note, it IS possible to boot Windows 8 from USB drives, but it too is not supported by Microsoft unless you have the Enterprise edition and a USB 3.0 flash drive from a very short list of supported flash drives
2Sure, Why not
Even though Mavericks has it's own set of issues compared to previous versions
You can Run Windows 7 in OS Mavericks
Just Make sure you have the External Hard drive Connected
Run the Installation of Windows 7 and tell it to install it on the 750GB Hard Drive
it should go smoothly from there
You just need to remember that when you want to boot into windows, You need to have that Hard Drive Connected
Your other option is a Virtual Machine within Mavericks that Installs Windows and Accesses it from that External Drive
Hope that Helps Let me know if you need further help
In your case you can not run windows natively on your MacBook Air unless:
- You use the hack described by Wes in one of the other answers.
- Or if you manage to get a direct SATA or eSATA connection and use that.
This would probably involve connecting an inside SATA cable to an external drive. Workable but not neat and I would not use that if you plan to move the macbook air around. If you treat it as a desktop then this would be fine. (Then again. MBA's make very expensive desktops).
However you can run windows in a VM. As long as you OSX OS recognizes the storage then you can put the VMs files on that. This might be the easiest solution.
And other option would be to free up some space on the internal drive. E.g. by moving rarely used data to an external drive. Then use the now free internal space to install windows.
