Running Old HDD (OS - Windows 7) on my MAC???

[kcrasch]

I recently cloned my HDD over to an SSD for my HP laptop. I want to be able to run my old HDD on my iMAC (OS - X Lion 10.7.5). Is there a way to boot from my HDD via USB or to run both Hard Drives simultaneously?

 

[mac_mogul]

I haven't done this in a while but there used to be a boot disk utility in the system preferences of OS X and if you had a USB disk connected it would appear as a bootable drive and you could select it with the option of restarting and setting primary boot drive.

There's a key-command you can use after the startup chime as well but I would have to google for it, like I said it's been probably 10 years since I was booting from an external drive.

Edit: Mind you, the disk needs to be formatted for Mac OS X and needs to have the OS installed on it to boot or even be recognized as a bootable drive by the USB controller.

Edit Edit: Just saw that you are talking about running Windows 7 on an external drive which is not as straight-forward.
http://apple.stackexchange.com/ques...ws-7-on-external-drive-and-boot-it-from-a-mac

 

[kcrasch]

Thanks mac_mogul. I read the thread you posted a few days ago. So far the only easy way to do it is to clone my HDD to a thunderbolt drive and go from there . . . I think. All the posts Iv'e read talk about "installing" Win 7 onto an external drive. I have the OS and lots of other things already installed and ready to go on the HDD that I am wanting to use. If I was just trying to run Windows OS on the MAC this would be a cinch.

What I'm pretty much trying to do is use everything form my old Laptop on my MAC. The MAC has great RAM/Memory/Graphics and I don't use it as often because everything I do I use Windows. Also, all my old files are on the hard drive I am wanting to use. I am to the point of just selling the MAC and building a PC.

 

[donaldkepler]

Thanks mac_mogul. I read the thread you posted a few days ago. So far the only easy way to do it is to clone my HDD to a thunderbolt drive and go from there . . . I think. All the posts Iv'e read talk about "installing" Win 7 onto an external drive. I have the OS and lots of other things already installed and ready to go on the HDD that I am wanting to use. If I was just trying to run Windows OS on the MAC this would be a cinch.

What I'm pretty much trying to do is use everything form my old Laptop on my MAC. The MAC has great RAM/Memory/Graphics and I don't use it as often because everything I do I use Windows. Also, all my old files are on the hard drive I am wanting to use. I am to the point of just selling the MAC and building a PC.

"SELLING THE MAC",,,,,,MAC has so many good apps and built-in utilities. Good quality hardware and less prone to virus as well. and also as you mentioned above about the good configuration then Multimedia is the good point of attraction in Mac for better GUI and style performance.