Windows 7: USB/DVD Download Tool won't recognize my external HD

My external USB HD (I-O Data HDPS-U portable 500GB) that I wanna boot from to setup bootcamp on a mac will not be recognized by the USB/DVD download tool in my Parallels Windows 7. I can only select "A:\ (PRL) - 1.2MB Free". The program will recognize my USB thumb drive, but it's not big enough. Windows itself does recognize the external HD but the USB/DVD tool does not. This is all being done through mac 10.7.4. Any thoughts? This may require a broad range of experience to solve, so have at it ya'll.

It isn't a flash drive or a DVD drive, so it shouldn't be recognized. That tool is used for making bootable install media, not as a destination for the installed OS. Besides, if it is a USB device, you aren't going to be running a Windows OS from it anyway, so you'd be wasting your time in the long run.

Thanks. Sorry, my terms were maybe not clear. I want to make the external HD bootable so I can then install windows onto my mac. The mac has no disc drive so I just need a way to boot from an external source for the install. Are you saying that only small flash drives will work for this, but not larger hard drives?

It has nothing to do with the size of the drive...but the type. A 4 GB flash drive can be had for a few bucks, so if you want to install Windows to a computer without an optical drive, that's your best bet.

Hi kita,

Check whether this article helps, if you are still keen on installing from a bootable HDD for whatever reason.

That article unpacks the iso file, but Bootcamp wants to boot from it still in iso form. i guess I'll have to buy a flash drive. I didn't realize SSD versus HDD would matter. Thanks all.