Help me install Windows 7 via USB Flash Drive

[Brooklyn8]

Hello, I have a Macbook Air, an 8gb flash drive, and the Windows 7 .iso. I want to do a full install of Windows without Mac OS (please hold back the flames).

I did the following:http://www.ditii.com/2009/01/13/how-to-install-windows-7-beta-1-without-a-dvd-drive-installation-guide-tips-tutorial/

Everything went ok, but when I hold down -option- when booting, the flash drive doesn't show up. Any ideas?

[bugout]

Hello, I have a Macbook Air, an 8gb flash drive, and the Windows 7 .iso. I want to do a full install of Windows without Mac OS (please hold back the flames).

I did the following:http://www.ditii.com/2009/01/13/how-to-install-windows-7-beta-1-without-a-dvd-drive-installation-guide-tips-tutorial/

Everything went ok, but when I hold down -option- when booting, the flash drive doesn't show up. Any ideas?

I've done the windows 7 install from a flash drive on a bunch of computers, but could not for the life of me get it to work on my MBP. I gave up and burned a DVD and it went off without a hitch.

I believe there's an issue with the EFI that prevents any mac from booting an MBR partition on a flash drive. I'm sure someone smarter then me will post right after with the correct reason :)

[still in school]

are these legit windows 7? where are you guys getting it from? is it by far better than vista?

[Brooklyn8]

Yes, it is a legal Beta. I don't know if you can still download it from Microsoft, but you can get it from a torrent. By far better than Vista.

[Brooklyn8]

I haven't even been able to get it to install via boot camp assistant, it doesn't regonize the windows 7 .iso

Is there any way to install windows 7 without a superdrive??

[mhnajjar]

I would like also to install my WIN7 beta on my MBA, but I didn't buy a Superdrive, so I would like to know if I can install it using a USB thumb drive or a wireless Mac.

[kinkster]

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=631901

Summary:
EFI won't recognize flash drives as USB drives. Get rEFIt and hold down option to select it. Wait a bit before selecting it to make sure there is enough time for your computer to "load up" the usb drive. rEFIt doesn't support hot swapping so the usb drive will need to be recognized before you go into rEFIt.

Also format the flash drive as fat32 with MBR partitioning either with disk utility or following the instructions in that thread to do it with windows. Make sure that you copy the .iso over to the flash drive so it has the same directories as the original .iso on your hard drive or dvd. I found this easiest following the windows command promt instructions in that thread.

and make sure you set up a boot camp partition for it first of course. i think windows 7 takes up about 6 GB installed.

Also installing windows with remote disk is impossible unless your talking about paralels/vmware.

[Brooklyn8]

I cannot for the life of me get the Macbook Air to boot via USB. I know the files are good cause the usb stick boots on my pc. I am using rEFIt.

I also tried the vmware solution that was posted in a different thread, I couldn't get vmware to detect my bootcamp partition, I think because it was empty.

I am going to just go buy a external drive tomorrow...

[Brooklyn8]

Picked up a super drive, windows install went smoothly.:)

[hab1t4t]

Excuse my naivety on the subject. I'm trying to install Windows 7 via bootcamp for a dual boot setup.

Ok, I have a usb stick with my .iso on it, I have a partition I made with bootcamp, then when I try and proceed with installing windows I get the following:

The installer disk could not be found
Insert your Windows installer disc and wait a few seconds for the disc to be recognized.


How do I get it to point to the USB drive?
Am I to mount the .iso to the drive? if so, how do I do that?

Any help appreciated, Thanks.

[Brooklyn8]

You can try burning the .iso. I was never able to get bootcamp to recognize my Windows 7 .iso on the USB disk or I think even tried mounting it and it did not work.

[mustangfan18]

You can try burning the .iso. I was never able to get bootcamp to recognize my Windows 7 .iso on the USB disk or I think even tried mounting it and it did not work.
So how do you burn the .iso onto a DVD?

[Ivan P]

So how do you burn the .iso onto a DVD?

Disk Utility. Insert the blank DVD, open Disk Utility, use it to mount the .iso file, select the .iso file, then press the Burn/Write button.