vista with bootcamp and an external partition

[Mr_PieChee]

firstly can it be done? can you select an externally connected source to install vista to? i'm getting a mac soon (its in the post) and i want to have a usable windows OP. since the uni give me Vista this makes my life a whole lot easier. i If i can install vista on an external source could i do this on a usb drive, and is so how big is vista? it would be nice to just have vista on a flash drive. then i get the problem that i won't have much room for files. from my limited knowledge macs and PC's can share files on the same disk if they are using the same filing system, is this correct and if so how easy is it to change the filing system of a mac, or a partition on a mac and what's the system i should use? also is 480mbs fast enough to run vista well? or could i run it over a 'network' (a gigabyte Ethernet connection from a NAS)?

and finally how effective is bootcamp? are there any better ways to use windows on a mac?

any help you be greatly appreciated.

(i tried searching for some threads on this and i got "sorry but this thread doesn't exist when i clicked on both of the results)

 

[mightyfifi]

i was curious about this too as i used to use my pc basically just for gaming and wanted to know if i could continue with my new macbook pro. I asked about it to this guy i know at geek squad and he said that you cannot install things on external hard drives. Ive been able to install a small game onto a 2gig flash drive but nothing other that. what you can do is install the Windows OS of your choice with the minimum amount of space to hold only the OS and one game and some extra space for speed. then when you want to install new games transfer all the game files onto you external hard drive when you arent using the game.

so basically don't uninstall the games, but move their files onto you external hard drive for storage and bring them back to your internal hard drive when you want to play.

since game files are big i would suggest getting a external hard drive that has at least 7200rpm and has a firewire connection because they are faster than USB and Macs are built to use them.

I have an Iomega UltraMax 750GB external hard drive that has a firewire 800 connection that I can connect to my MacBook Pro

-fifi

 

[Zoron]

Windows will not install to a removable drive... you can probably install FROM a USB drive, but you definately can't install TO a USB drive.