vsbalint Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 Dears... I hope somebody can quickly answer to me.... I would like to install Lion to an external USB HDD attached to my laptop. I wish, that if I attached my USB external HDD and set the boot sequence in BIOS to boot from usb, my laptop would boot into Lion. If I remove my external USB HDD and/or set the boot sequence in BIOS to boot from internal HDD, my laptop would boot into Windows 7, without any visible sign that I have ever installed Lion onto the external USB HDD. It means that I wouldn't like to have any selection screen while booting from internal HDD to select Windows or Lion. Can you help me? I have already a boot usk stick made with UniBest, my laptop is able to boot from it but I am afraid to start the installation to the external USB HDD. Thanks a lot..... Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/272026-install-lion-to-external-usb-drive/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Boy Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 Yes, you can do that. I use external drives all the time. And OSX runs quite fast on USB 2.0, once it gets loaded. All you need to do is make sure that the boot loader (Chameleon) is also installed to the external USB HDD. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/272026-install-lion-to-external-usb-drive/#findComment-1770132 Share on other sites More sharing options...
vsbalint Posted November 12, 2011 Author Share Posted November 12, 2011 Yes, you can do that. I use external drives all the time. And OSX runs quite fast on USB 2.0, once it gets loaded. All you need to do is make sure that the boot loader (Chameleon) is also installed to the external USB HDD. Yes, but how do I make sure? When is Chameleon installed? I suppose it is installed by [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] for example? If I select the external HDD when starting [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] (never tried yet), can I be sure that the bootloader will go there and somehow not to the internal HDD? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/272026-install-lion-to-external-usb-drive/#findComment-1770215 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Boy Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 It should go to the selected drive. Give it a try. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/272026-install-lion-to-external-usb-drive/#findComment-1770371 Share on other sites More sharing options...
vsbalint Posted November 19, 2011 Author Share Posted November 19, 2011 Hi. I tried to install Lion to the external USB HDD. After completion, I need to boot from the USB stick and would need to select the external USB HDD to boot. The problem is that even when I have during computer start-up both USB devices plugged in (the install stick and the external HDD) on the Chimera screen only the stick is visible, plus the internal HDD but not the external USB HDD and therefore cannot continue to boot from it.... :-( Do you have any idea what can be the problem? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/272026-install-lion-to-external-usb-drive/#findComment-1771876 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Boy Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 The external hdd will not ever show up if chameleon has not been installed on it. This seems to be your case. 1st: swap the external hdd and the stick -- sometimes different ports have different effects. On my old motherboard, for example, usb devices would only boot from the right usb port. 2nd: eliminate the stick. Just use the external hdd and make two partitions, install [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] on the 1st, then boot with it and install Lion on the 2nd partition. This is how I installed. 3rd: you can manually install chameleon to the external hdd that already has Lion on it. To do this you need to boot from the stick and start the terminal, then check if the external hdd shows up with the diskutil list command. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/272026-install-lion-to-external-usb-drive/#findComment-1772505 Share on other sites More sharing options...
vsbalint Posted November 26, 2011 Author Share Posted November 26, 2011 Hi I try also the 2nd. What format type have you set for the external USB HDD? If I set GUID, I cannot boot from the external HDD. If I set MBR, I can boot but cannot install Lion on the other partition of the external HDD..... Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/272026-install-lion-to-external-usb-drive/#findComment-1773772 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Boy Posted November 27, 2011 Share Posted November 27, 2011 I used GUID. What is the exact error when you boot? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/272026-install-lion-to-external-usb-drive/#findComment-1773773 Share on other sites More sharing options...
vsbalint Posted November 27, 2011 Author Share Posted November 27, 2011 Sorry, I was not clear. After I have prepared the install partition on the USB drive with GUID partition set with [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] I try to boot, but my laptop (Dell) cannot. If the format is MBR, it boots with the install without any problem. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/272026-install-lion-to-external-usb-drive/#findComment-1773858 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Boy Posted November 29, 2011 Share Posted November 29, 2011 This is most likely a BIOS issue with GPT disks. The best solution is to use gdisk (http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/bios.html) to create a hybrid MBR, then it should boot. Use a command such as: sgdisk -h=2,3,4 /dev/disk1 That always works when my BIOS hangs. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/272026-install-lion-to-external-usb-drive/#findComment-1774564 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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