Booting from External HDD w/ Macbook Pro

[Huron]

Hello there, I have a Macbook Pro which is installed with Mac OS X 10.4 on it. I want to boot Backtrack operating system from an Hitachi external drive. I want to make the system triple boot using Mac OS X, Windows and Backtrack operating system. So can anybody help me in Booting from External HDD w/ Macbook Pro? Please help.

[Oswaldo]

Is the Backtrack operating system installed on the external hard drive? If yes then connect the USB drive to the computer while booting. The default priority of the USB drive is higher than the internal drive of the computer. Hence when the USB drive is connected to the computer while booting, the operating system will get booted from the USB drive. Hence try and connect the hard drive to the computer and see if the operating system boots.

[Wguy2008]

No you cannot boot the operating system from the external drive by directly connecting the hard drive to the computer. Mac system will not boot any other operating system without installation of the Virtual machine software. Install the Vmware software and then you will be able to boot the operating system from the external drive.

[Candace]

Even if you install Virtual machine software on the computer, you will not be able to boot the operating system from the external hard drive. The virtual machine software when installed on the computer will only detect the partition from the internal hard drive. Hence you will have to install the operating system on the internal hard drive of the Macbook and then you will be able to use the Backtrack operating system on the Macbook.

[Huron]

Yes I tried to connect the hard drive while booting the computer, but the macbook does not detect the hard drive and hence it did not boot the Backtrack operating system. So I can see only one way to make it work and that is to install Vmware on the macbook. But I want to know if installing Vmware software will help me in triple booting the system with Windows, Linux and Mac OS X? Please help.

[Lemog]

No installing the Vmware will not help in triple booting the system. VMware is a virtual machine software which will only help in running another Operating system while the system is working on some other operating system. Hence triple booting the system is not possible with installation of Vmware.

[Carley]

To triple boot the system, you will have to install all the operating systems on the internal drive of the computer. The following thread gives exact steps and procedure for triple booting a Mac system with Windows and Linux operating system. Hope it will help you in finding an appropriate solution for your problem.