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Bootcamp install of Windows without using the super drive
- Thread starter BeachChair
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No need to make a cryptic thread about this though.
http://blogs.vmware.com/teamfusion/...mware-fusion-a-practical-guide-revisited.html
Does that help?
Start VMWare Fusion to get to the Virtual Machine Library.
Virtual Machine -> CD/DVD -> Choose Disk Image -> Select your ISO.
Then boot your VM.
Virtual Machine -> Start Up.
I have Fusion 3.x but I don't think any of that has changed since V1.
B
Virtual Machine -> CD/DVD -> Choose Disk Image -> Select your ISO.
Then boot your VM.
Virtual Machine -> Start Up.
I have Fusion 3.x but I don't think any of that has changed since V1.
B
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I think that's normal. Have you tried to let it do it's thing?
B
I think that's normal. Have you tried to let it do it's thing?
B
how to successfully install windows 7 on macbook pro with broken superdrive
Thanks Infrared!
Here are the steps I took:
1) Using Disk Utility, I created a 4 GB FAT32 partition on my Macintosh HDD for the Setup files and named it WIN7INSTALL.
2) I also created a 50 GB FAT32 partition on my Macintosh HDD and called it BOOTCAMP.
3) I booted into the Windows 7 Recovery Console using a Windows 7 Startup CD and opened up the Command Prompt.
4) I typed the following commands in the Command Prompt:
Source1
Source2
Source3
Thanks Infrared!
Here are the steps I took:
1) Using Disk Utility, I created a 4 GB FAT32 partition on my Macintosh HDD for the Setup files and named it WIN7INSTALL.
2) I also created a 50 GB FAT32 partition on my Macintosh HDD and called it BOOTCAMP.
3) I booted into the Windows 7 Recovery Console using a Windows 7 Startup CD and opened up the Command Prompt.
4) I typed the following commands in the Command Prompt:
5) Still inside the Command Prompt, I copied the Windows 7 Setup files from a USB flash drive to the WIN7INSTALL partition I created earlier by using the following command:
6) Since I was unable to successfully use the bootrec.exe command from within the Windows Recovery Environment, I had to use the following command to rewrite the boot sector of the WIN7INSTALL partition:
7) I booted off the WIN7INSTALL partition by pressing the ALT button during the boot sequence and ran the installer.
Source1
Source2
Source3
Boot Windows 7 Installation without DVD Drive
MacBook Pro 13" mid 2010 with SuperDrive removed
WD 750 GB HDD in Hard Drive Bay Mac OS X 10.6.5
Crucial 256 GB SSD in OptiBay Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Boot Camp
I successfully followed the above procedure to create a dual partition in the SSD, one of 8 GB size (Win7x64) to include the Windows 7 x64 installation files, the rest for the Windows 7 (Windows) Boot Camp system and programs.
The Win7x64 partition has been assigned a drive letter (W) and is listed as active in Computer Management. The Windows partition (C) is listed as a "Boot, Crash Dump, Primary Partition" in Computer Management. When I start up the computer with ALT pressed I'm given the option of starting in Windows, which starts up the Boot Camp partition, or Mac OS X, which launches Snow Leopard on the HDD.
If I now want to perform a clean installation of the Boot Camp partition how can I start up the system so that the Win7x64 partition is booted, allowing me to access the Windows setup program? I have Paragon NTFS for Mac installed, which allows me to select the Win7x64 NTFS partition as the startup disk in System Preferences, but I'm a bit afraid to actually try it. When I'd initially copied the Windows install DVD MBR to the Win7x64 partition and made it active, the system booted up into the Windows 7 setup interface, so I "repaired" the Windows installation to allow booting directly into the Boot Camp partition. For future clean installations of the Boot Camp partition without need for an external DVD drive I'd like to be able to simply boot into the Win7x64 partition and perform the Windows 7 installation from there (including a reformatting of the Boot Camp partition on the SSD).
Update: I was able to boot from the Win7x64 partition successfully by first installing EasyBCD and then adding the boot.wim WinPE entry to the list of available boot options. Now whenever I start up in Windows I'm given the option of either Windows 7 Ultimate (default) or the Windows Recovery Environment from the local partition. No more need for an external DVD drive when installing Windows! One drawback has been noted, however; Parallels 6 is no longer able to configure the hard disk and will not run. So I went back to VMware Fusion, which is working fine with this new configuration, albeit a bit slower.
By the way, thanks for the outstanding advice here for those searching for a method of getting around the need for an external DVD drive to boot into Windows! I have a flash USB disk which can be used for Snow Leopard installations, but booting Windows from a flash USB disk just never worked for me. Having a separate partition on the hard drive which contains the Windows 7 setup files is a practical alternative.
MacBook Pro 13" mid 2010 with SuperDrive removed
WD 750 GB HDD in Hard Drive Bay Mac OS X 10.6.5
Crucial 256 GB SSD in OptiBay Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Boot Camp
I successfully followed the above procedure to create a dual partition in the SSD, one of 8 GB size (Win7x64) to include the Windows 7 x64 installation files, the rest for the Windows 7 (Windows) Boot Camp system and programs.
The Win7x64 partition has been assigned a drive letter (W) and is listed as active in Computer Management. The Windows partition (C) is listed as a "Boot, Crash Dump, Primary Partition" in Computer Management. When I start up the computer with ALT pressed I'm given the option of starting in Windows, which starts up the Boot Camp partition, or Mac OS X, which launches Snow Leopard on the HDD.
If I now want to perform a clean installation of the Boot Camp partition how can I start up the system so that the Win7x64 partition is booted, allowing me to access the Windows setup program? I have Paragon NTFS for Mac installed, which allows me to select the Win7x64 NTFS partition as the startup disk in System Preferences, but I'm a bit afraid to actually try it. When I'd initially copied the Windows install DVD MBR to the Win7x64 partition and made it active, the system booted up into the Windows 7 setup interface, so I "repaired" the Windows installation to allow booting directly into the Boot Camp partition. For future clean installations of the Boot Camp partition without need for an external DVD drive I'd like to be able to simply boot into the Win7x64 partition and perform the Windows 7 installation from there (including a reformatting of the Boot Camp partition on the SSD).
Update: I was able to boot from the Win7x64 partition successfully by first installing EasyBCD and then adding the boot.wim WinPE entry to the list of available boot options. Now whenever I start up in Windows I'm given the option of either Windows 7 Ultimate (default) or the Windows Recovery Environment from the local partition. No more need for an external DVD drive when installing Windows! One drawback has been noted, however; Parallels 6 is no longer able to configure the hard disk and will not run. So I went back to VMware Fusion, which is working fine with this new configuration, albeit a bit slower.
By the way, thanks for the outstanding advice here for those searching for a method of getting around the need for an external DVD drive to boot into Windows! I have a flash USB disk which can be used for Snow Leopard installations, but booting Windows from a flash USB disk just never worked for me. Having a separate partition on the hard drive which contains the Windows 7 setup files is a practical alternative.
But how can you access a CD without a CD/DVD. I thought this thread was how to do it without a DVD on the MBAirs?
I've been trying to follow these instructions, but I run into a rather absolute problem: I cannot select my vmdk file during the step above. The disk is greyed out when trying to use it as an existing virtual disk.
Any ideas what might be the cause?
hmm, just read through the 3 pages, and still have this question .
how can i install windows 7 , via external superdrive as a boot camp install,
I want to install it to play some games and just use Sony Vegas every now and again. Parallels isn't really good enough to run games so thats out of the question, but if I need it to install W7 then I'll use it ,, is there a step by step guide on how to do this without using ISO's, I have a legit copy of windows and really don't want to download an ISO as Im guessing it's going to be one large file that will take some time to d/l ..
thanks
how can i install windows 7 , via external superdrive as a boot camp install,
I want to install it to play some games and just use Sony Vegas every now and again. Parallels isn't really good enough to run games so thats out of the question, but if I need it to install W7 then I'll use it ,, is there a step by step guide on how to do this without using ISO's, I have a legit copy of windows and really don't want to download an ISO as Im guessing it's going to be one large file that will take some time to d/l ..
thanks
The ISO is just the contents of the DVD. So you can use Parallels/VMWare as described earlier in the thread, but attach your external USB optical drive to the VM instead of attaching the ISO. Or you can create your own ISO from the actual DVD you have instead of downloading one.
B
ah ha , so I could install Parallels .. install with my DVD , and get boot camp to read from this partition ..
Im guessing I will need to start of with getting bootcamp to set up the partition as needed, get Parallels to install the dvd, and then some how get Boot camp to see the install and then it should be complete ** easier said than done i guess **
Yes. I haven't done it myself, but the basic script is:
- Use Boot Camp Assistant to create the target partition
- Configure a Parallels/Fusion VM to use the target partition
- Install using Parallels/Fusion, stop at first reboot
- Reboot the Mac holding Alt/Option to boot natively to the target partition
There may also be a step to render the partition natively bootable.
B
I've setup a boot camp partition and installed paralles on my main hard drive, how do i get windows 7 installed on that boot camp partition and make it a bootable partition? I hve the Efi program to get the boot menu when pressing the ALT button .. is that all I have to do?
http://download.parallels.com/desktop/v6/docs/en/Parallels_Desktop_Users_Guide/23112.htm
Then proceed with W7 installation along the lines of this guide into the Boot Camp VM
http://download.parallels.com/desktop/v6/docs/en/Parallels_Desktop_Users_Guide/23112.htm
B
I'm working on installing Windows 7 without a DVD (broken SuperDrive here) using VMWare Fusion and the instructions provided by melchior.
I think I've figured out a way to make VMWare install Windows 7 to the Boot Camp partition.
I'll try and see if it works, and if it does I will post instructions.
Edit:
Great news, I got the Boot Camp partition to show up in VMWare Fusion when installing windows. I'm going to install it!
Here's what I did:
Step 1: Installed VMWare, opened up the application to make sure everything worked correctly, then quit.
Step 2: I created a folder in the root of my hard drive (Macintosh HD) entitled "Virtual Machines"
Step 3: I typed the following into Terminal:
Then..Code:cd /Virtual\ Machines
A list of my computer's partitions appeared, then I typed..Code:/Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Fusion/vmware-rawdiskCreator print /dev/disk0
Code:/Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Fusion/vmware-rawdiskCreator create /dev/disk0 3 windows7 ide
You can see a screenshot of Terminal after typing in these commands below.
After that, I opened up VMWare Fusion. I chose to make a new machine, I hit Continue Without Disc.
I chose Use existing virtual disk, then selected windows7.vmdk out of the Virtual Machines folder in root of Macintosh HD.
VMWare asked me if I wanted to convert the disk into an "updated" version, I chose not to convert the disk image.
After that, I unchecked "automatically open machine when VMWare starts", then hit finish. I opened up the settings for the newly created virtual machine, and changed the disc to point to my Windows 7 ISO file.
I started the machine, and VMWare successfully recognized my Boot Camp partition and I'm installing Windows 7 onto the partition right now.
Screenshot of Terminal after typing in commands:
![picture4cx8.png]()
Update:
Setup completed successfully in VMWare and rebooted. I'm going to try and natively boot off of this, if it doesn't work I'll try winclone (I think winclone might set the partition to active when it copies the flies to the partition, that's why that "trick" causes the partition to become bootable again).
Side note: The reason why you type disk0 into Terminal instead of the actual ID of the Boot Camp partition (usually it's disk0s3) is because the VMWare Raw Disk Creator considers the Boot Camp partition a "special" partition and tags it with a 0 rather than using the usual disk0s3 stuff.
after
Code:
/Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Fusion/vmware-rawdiskCreator create /dev/disk0 3 windows7 ideI get
Unable to copy the source files to the destination files.
?
i don't know what to do
It may just be a permissions things and you have to preface the command with sudo.
EDIT:
Just a comment to ColinEC's note I reproduced above. According to the help, this would be the case if the command read "/dev/disk0 0", but as written it says "/dev/disk0 3" which is the same as /dev/disk0s3.
B
Last edited:
I finally managed it to install Win7 on my Bootcamp partition using
Fusion (standard installation to virtual machine)
opening/mounting the windows7.vmwarevm with /library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/VMDKMounter (you have to check the Install MacFuse option when installing VMware Fusion)
creating an image of the mounted image/drive, deleting bootcamp partition, recreating it and restoring via winclone.
you can find a more detailed description here (Credits: GerritVK)
Fusion recognizes the Bootcamp Installation is able to start it, everything ok, so I deleted the initial Virtual Machine installation.
Problem is: I'm not able to boot it natively - only works through Fusion.
Holding ALT I can see my osx icon and TWO "Windows" labeled ones. No one is working though, just showing "missing operating system".
I tried to boot the win7setup ISO via Fusion (bootcamp), do a startup repair (successful) but nothing changed, fusion still boots it virtually, still two not working entries if holding ALT at startup.
refit doesn't help either.
Tried to create a bootable win7-Setup partition already before but it didn't work.
I should eventually add that i replaced my broken superdrive with a sata-pata adaptor and a 2nd HDD inside. Bootcamps works if I put it out and reattach the ODD - there is one working "Windows" labeled Icon if holding ALT at startup
Any ideas? I'm quite desperate by now...
MacBook Pro 3,1
Fusion (standard installation to virtual machine)
opening/mounting the windows7.vmwarevm with /library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/VMDKMounter (you have to check the Install MacFuse option when installing VMware Fusion)
creating an image of the mounted image/drive, deleting bootcamp partition, recreating it and restoring via winclone.
you can find a more detailed description here (Credits: GerritVK)
Fusion recognizes the Bootcamp Installation is able to start it, everything ok, so I deleted the initial Virtual Machine installation.
Problem is: I'm not able to boot it natively - only works through Fusion.
Holding ALT I can see my osx icon and TWO "Windows" labeled ones. No one is working though, just showing "missing operating system".
I tried to boot the win7setup ISO via Fusion (bootcamp), do a startup repair (successful) but nothing changed, fusion still boots it virtually, still two not working entries if holding ALT at startup.
refit doesn't help either.
Tried to create a bootable win7-Setup partition already before but it didn't work.
I should eventually add that i replaced my broken superdrive with a sata-pata adaptor and a 2nd HDD inside. Bootcamps works if I put it out and reattach the ODD - there is one working "Windows" labeled Icon if holding ALT at startup
Any ideas? I'm quite desperate by now...
MacBook Pro 3,1
You'll need a copy of your Mac OSX Install DVD (or Remote Disc) on a USB stick, but you can do it with this:- http://insidethebrackets.blogspot.com/2009/04/install-windows-on-macbook-air-with-no.html
tried to follow the guide, sudo fdisk -e /dev/disk0 or disk1 and fdisk -e /dev/disk0 or disk1 didn't work, i got
" could not open MBR file /usr/standalone/i386/boot0: No such file or directory
Enter 'help' for information"
I didn't know if it's just for informational purposes so I continued anyway with same result as before at the end: 2 "Windows" Icons holding alt, both not booting, just showing "missing operating system"
content of /usr/standalone/i386 is "Firmware.scap and boot.efi", nothing else
print gives me
Disk: /dev/disk1 geometry: 60801/255/63 [976773168 sectors]
Offset: 0 Signature: 0xAA55
Starting Ending
#: id cyl hd sec - cyl hd sec [ start - size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1: EE 0 0 2 - 25 127 14 [ 1 - 409639] <Unknown ID>
2: AF 25 127 15 - 1023 254 63 [ 409640 - 868220928] HFS+
*3: 07 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 868894720 - 107878400] HPFS/QNX/AUX
4: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused
diskutil list output: (disk0 is the 2nd hdd, data only, was disk1 before, don't know when it changed)
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *750.2 GB disk0
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS 750 749.8 GB disk0s2
/dev/disk1
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk1
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1
2: Apple_HFS OSX 444.5 GB disk1s2
3: Microsoft Basic Data Untitled 55.2 GB disk1s3
still works inside parallels/ fusion, I get an error about "not able to mount ide1:0" right at the beginning, is that my 2nd hdd, and not to mount it solves the problem?
UPDATE:
repartitioning the SECOND hdd (that had nothing to do with windows or bootcamp) and choosing mbr (master boot record) instead of gpt solved the problem for some strange reason. hope it helps someone.
" could not open MBR file /usr/standalone/i386/boot0: No such file or directory
Enter 'help' for information"
I didn't know if it's just for informational purposes so I continued anyway with same result as before at the end: 2 "Windows" Icons holding alt, both not booting, just showing "missing operating system"
content of /usr/standalone/i386 is "Firmware.scap and boot.efi", nothing else
print gives me
Disk: /dev/disk1 geometry: 60801/255/63 [976773168 sectors]
Offset: 0 Signature: 0xAA55
Starting Ending
#: id cyl hd sec - cyl hd sec [ start - size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1: EE 0 0 2 - 25 127 14 [ 1 - 409639] <Unknown ID>
2: AF 25 127 15 - 1023 254 63 [ 409640 - 868220928] HFS+
*3: 07 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 868894720 - 107878400] HPFS/QNX/AUX
4: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused
diskutil list output: (disk0 is the 2nd hdd, data only, was disk1 before, don't know when it changed)
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *750.2 GB disk0
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS 750 749.8 GB disk0s2
/dev/disk1
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk1
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1
2: Apple_HFS OSX 444.5 GB disk1s2
3: Microsoft Basic Data Untitled 55.2 GB disk1s3
still works inside parallels/ fusion, I get an error about "not able to mount ide1:0" right at the beginning, is that my 2nd hdd, and not to mount it solves the problem?
UPDATE:
repartitioning the SECOND hdd (that had nothing to do with windows or bootcamp) and choosing mbr (master boot record) instead of gpt solved the problem for some strange reason. hope it helps someone.
Last edited:
Anyone tried this? I feel like it just xcopy's all the Windows .iso contents to the USB drive and makes is bootable...which is exactly the same thing we've all tried before...
Also, just thought of something...if your buddy has a Boot Camp partition, couldn't you just Winclone his partition and install it on your machine?
I followed these instructions and was able to install Windows 7 on the bootcamp partition. However, when booting natively, Im getting the dreaded BSOD, in particular it is a 0x0000007B error. Apparently that can be related to having the wrong drivers for the harddrive. Has anyone seen this before?
In these instructions, does anyone know what the "ide" argument means here:
?
Is is it just some random argument or does that tell vmware to install windows while emulating an ide harddrive? My macbook pro is running off an SATA drive so may this be the problem?
In these instructions, does anyone know what the "ide" argument means here:
Code:
/Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Fusion/vmware-rawdiskCreator create /dev/disk0 3 windows7 ideIs is it just some random argument or does that tell vmware to install windows while emulating an ide harddrive? My macbook pro is running off an SATA drive so may this be the problem?
I'm working on installing Windows 7 without a DVD (broken SuperDrive here) using VMWare Fusion and the instructions provided by melchior.
I think I've figured out a way to make VMWare install Windows 7 to the Boot Camp partition.
I'll try and see if it works, and if it does I will post instructions.
Edit:
Great news, I got the Boot Camp partition to show up in VMWare Fusion when installing windows. I'm going to install it!
Here's what I did:
Step 1: Installed VMWare, opened up the application to make sure everything worked correctly, then quit.
Step 2: I created a folder in the root of my hard drive (Macintosh HD) entitled "Virtual Machines"
Step 3: I typed the following into Terminal:
Then..Code:cd /Virtual\ Machines
A list of my computer's partitions appeared, then I typed..Code:/Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Fusion/vmware-rawdiskCreator print /dev/disk0
Code:/Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Fusion/vmware-rawdiskCreator create /dev/disk0 3 windows7 ide
You can see a screenshot of Terminal after typing in these commands below.
After that, I opened up VMWare Fusion. I chose to make a new machine, I hit Continue Without Disc.
I chose Use existing virtual disk, then selected windows7.vmdk out of the Virtual Machines folder in root of Macintosh HD.
VMWare asked me if I wanted to convert the disk into an "updated" version, I chose not to convert the disk image.
After that, I unchecked "automatically open machine when VMWare starts", then hit finish. I opened up the settings for the newly created virtual machine, and changed the disc to point to my Windows 7 ISO file.
I started the machine, and VMWare successfully recognized my Boot Camp partition and I'm installing Windows 7 onto the partition right now.
Screenshot of Terminal after typing in commands:
![picture4cx8.png]()
Update:
Setup completed successfully in VMWare and rebooted. I'm going to try and natively boot off of this, if it doesn't work I'll try winclone (I think winclone might set the partition to active when it copies the flies to the partition, that's why that "trick" causes the partition to become bootable again).
Side note: The reason why you type disk0 into Terminal instead of the actual ID of the Boot Camp partition (usually it's disk0s3) is because the VMWare Raw Disk Creator considers the Boot Camp partition a "special" partition and tags it with a 0 rather than using the usual disk0s3 stuff.