Windows 7 Drivers [MacBook Air 2011]

The 2011 models do not ship with the OS X USB key anymore as the restore partition is built into the drive now. There is also an Internet Recovery option that works even if the restore partition is damaged.

Anyway, my suggestion is to first format your external USB drive as FAT32. Then plug it in, open up Boot Camp Assistant and select the option that says "Download the latest Windows support software from Apple." If you have an external DVD drive, try that if the USB key doesn't work.

Start here...

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4818#2

If the USB was created with the Bootcamp Assitant in OS X it will have an exe program you can run that will install all the drivers.

I'm on my iPad right now so I can't post a screenshot. But you need Bootcamp 4.0 for the 2011 MacBook Air's.

TGD1 said:

Thanks for the suggestions.

I've done as advised. I formatted both USB disks as FAT32 before running the BootCamp Assistant.

Yet, each time i run the bootcamp assistant and download the "Windows Support Software", it starts by FORMATTING the USB disk AGAIN, however it stops at about 20% through the format and nothing happens. No warnings, no nothing. Just stops.
After 1 hour, still nothing.

Is this something i'm supposed to wait for and leave running through the night?

Or is there a compatibility problem with BOTH my USB drives? (One of them, i'd already used to install Win7.)

And is there any reason why apple won't just upload the drivers as an .exe file free for download from their website?

Hmmm, just read this

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/windows-7-on-a-mac-my-boot-camp-survival-guide/3446?pg=2

Says it needs to download 1.5Gb of mostly useless data. Perhaps that is what happening (through wifi (extremely slow)) - although the BootCamp assistant perhaps erroneously states that it is Formatting.

Click to expand...

It might be an incompatibility. I have the external Superdrive and just copied them onto a DVD. It took a few minutes to download, IIRC.

Apple usually only posts Boot Camp updates to their website. The main reason is that the full version is usually part of the OS distribution. For instance, Leopard shipped with Boot Camp 2. Snow Leopard with Boot Camp 3, and Lion with Boot Camp 4. They want you to buy the latest OS to get the latest versions of Boot Camp.

That said, try contacting Apple Support. Phone support is free for 90 days, and while they don't provide Windows support, they do provide support for downloading Boot Camp.

Here is the folders that should be on the USB that Bootcamp Assistant creates.



I don't know if there is another way to install windows now that the MacBook Air doesn't come with installation media.

TGD1 said:

First post here....

I'm on the road, bought a new mid-2011 MacBook Air, and have already installed Win7 x64 from a pre-prepared USB stick i made at home before leaving.

Click to expand...

I think that's the problem. The new Mac Airs come with Bootcamp 4.0. When I ran Bootcamp Assistant, it did everything for me. It asked me where the Windows ISO was, and it created the USB stick, downloaded the drivers, walked me through the partitioning, and rebooted the Air onto the stick so the Windows setup program would kick off. The only thing it didn't do for me was run the setup.exe file from the Windows Support folder to automatically install all the drivers.

As a former PC tech I was baffled. I had to do nothing. When that works, it's a thing of beauty. Sometimes it doesn't work. And sometimes we know too much for our own good and we do things / shortcuts that interfere with the way the install process is supposed to unfold.

I'd suggest rerunning Bootcamp Assistant and trying the option to download the drivers again. It's not 1.5GB. Mine was done in just a few minutes. I if takes longer there's something else wrong. Good luck!

As above post, run bootcamp assistant from within lion, and just do the download drivers part, the driver download is is just under 700mb so that will give you an idea of how long it will take on your connection.
Not to meaning to be snide but why did you not run the preinstalled bootcamp in the first place? As it really does make the process a piece of cake.

I have to confess the first thing I did was buy a SuperDrive and burn the iso image of Win7 I already had onto a CD. I mean, you need the CD to install, right?

I was quite embarrassed when I ran Bootcamp assistant and it asked for the iso. I kept the SuperDrive but I never needed it.

The other thing I did was burn some cycles trying to figure out which drivers to use. After the initial install device manager showed a lot of unhappy devices. Thankfully I was fresh from my SuperDrive experience and deduced Apple would provide a better alternative. That's when I ran the setup.exe file in the Windows Support directory and all the drivers "magically" installed themselves. All I had to do was reboot and watch in awe how easy the whole thing was.

Apple does Windows better than Microsoft...

Cynicalone said:

Here is the folders that should be on the USB that Bootcamp Assistant creates.

View attachment 299758

I don't know if there is another way to install windows now that the MacBook Air doesn't come with installation media.

Click to expand...

Is there anyway, you can zip them and share it?

First post too...

Pooran said:

Is there anyway, you can zip them and share it?

Click to expand...

Here it is...
BootCampESD.pkg

Once the drivers are initially DLed and installed, how do you ensure they are updated later on. Does the Apple Software Update Tool also update the drivers in Win7:confused