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Installing Mac OS (legally) on an external drive

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PrePreparedGuy

PCHF Member
Jun 25, 2021
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#1
Hey everyone. First post here, so please don't slam me if my question is dumb because I'm kind of a noob and also new to this community :D . Anyways...
I'm running Windows 10 on a reasonably powerful and new gaming laptop and recently got myself a 2 TB external hard drive for some additional storage space. Now, I've wanted a Mac PC for a while now but as much as I like the functionality of the OS, they always seemed extremely overpriced to me. So, in short.. I looked into installing the OS on a secondary partition on my laptop's HDD, but I'd rather not do that as I'm scared it might void my warranty and moreover the laptop is quite expensive so, being a noob, I'd rather not mess with it. Is there a way to install Mac OS on the external drive, ideally without losing the data that's already on it? I don't wanna change OS, I just wanna have Mac OS as the secondary OS that I can use for Logic Pro and potentially video editing. Is this doable with an external drive (without losing the data on it) ? If so, any tips? Thank you!
 
#3
while also not my area, Macs and all, I 'd be tackling the issue using a virtual machine approach myself.
something like VirtualBox or VMware Workstation Player.

due to the changes it would do to the boot record of the drive you install it on, I'd be thinking you'd lose access to any data already on the drive - so have a backup ready.

or even better, look around for a cheap, used Mac (if they exist) and have both systems on separate machines.
 
#4
phillpower2 said:
Hello PrePreparedGuy,

Not something I`m familiar with personally so can`t help but have you seen the info here
Click to expand...
Hey, thanks for replying! I've looked into the link and it seems like a very interesting option... Is this PearPC software any different than a VirtualBox ? Do you think it would run faster on this software than on a virtual machine?
Bruce said:
while also not my area, Macs and all, I 'd be tackling the issue using a virtual machine approach myself.
something like VirtualBox or VMware Workstation Player.

due to the changes it would do to the boot record of the drive you install it on, I'd be thinking you'd lose access to any data already on the drive - so have a backup ready.

or even better, look around for a cheap, used Mac (if they exist) and have both systems on separate machines.
Click to expand...
Thank you very much for replying also! Yeah, from what I've heard there's no way to install an OS without losing data... VirtualBox (or some other similar software) certainly sounds like a great option, but aren't those really slow? Do you reckon it'd be able to run the OS and some reasonably demanding software (namely I want to use the Apple-exclusive DAW Logic Pro) at some kind of bearable speed? My laptop's specs are 16 GBs of RAM, an i5 9300H and a GTX 1650. Thank you both in advance and thanks for your replies. EDIT: And yes, the reason why I haven't looked around for a used cheaper Mac is that, again, the software I wanna run on it can get fairly demanding so the computer does ultimately need to be reasonably powerful.
 
#5
And sorry if I'm being boring with all these questions, but the thought just occurred to me... Would partitioning the external drive be an option? And then using an empty partition of it to install MacOS on, as I know you can partition internal drives and install/reinstall an OS without losing data on other partitions. Again, thank you all!
 
#7
PrePreparedGuy said:
And sorry if I'm being boring with all these questions, but the thought just occurred to me... Would partitioning the external drive be an option? And then using an empty partition of it to install MacOS on, as I know you can partition internal drives and install/reinstall an OS without losing data on other partitions. Again, thank you all!
Click to expand...
You should be able to most of us are not all that Mac knowledgeable.
With Windows and Linux one could one would theorize that the same could work with Mac. The only way to really find out is to use a blank external drive and run with it.
 
#8
I've used a variety of VM's over the years *mainly VirtualBox and HyperV), to run WinXP, Win7 and Linux while running Win10 as the main OS.
and while I've never had an issue, I also haven't run anything demanding in the VM.
but the beauty is you can allocate however much resources to the VM as you want.
for example, by default, it grabs 2GB for RAM but you can allow more.
and with the VM software being free, it'll be a great option to try first. you'll just need a legit copy of MacOS to install which it sounds like you have.
 
#9
Okay, thank you everyone very much for your replies. @Bruce would it be okay if I took the liberty of letting you know how my experience with VirtualBox went and got back to you if I had some issues, since you clearly have far more experience with the software than I do? :)
 
#10
feel free, that's what we are all here for.
just don't confuse me using VM's with being an expert :)
I get by and can make them bend to my will but I'm not that naive that I don't realise there is always more to learn.
 
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