Installing XP with external DVD
My MBP DVD drive is broken for the time being, I have an external USB DVD drive which works perfectly for everything when I'm in os x, but when I tried to install windows onto my new partition it won't recognize the external dvd. I've read somewhere that this has to do with the windows BIOS settings which prevent you from booting from an external dvd. I was wondering if there is any possible way to install XP onto my machine without an internal dvd.
Comments
It's a Windows problem as it doesn't officially support booting from external devices. This is why some computer manufacturers have the BIOS setting but you can't modify this AFAIK on a Mac as there's no access to BIOS settings - I don't think there's access to the EFI settings either.
I think it's a security measure as some settings can prevent the computer working.
What you can do is install Windows in Parallels using an external drive. Then you can try this set of instructions for cloning the Parallels install to your Bootcamp partition:
http://forums.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=6433
Seems to be quite involved. I'd just get the internal drive fixed or use Parallels or VMWare on its own.
that's a great help, thanks a lot. I think I'll have to fork out for a new drive as I intend to use windows for games, which apparently run significantly slower in parallels.
Yeah, Parallels isn't very good for gaming at all. It makes sense to replace the internal anyway if you plan to sell the machine in future.