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Boot Camp & MacBook Pro…

V

VanTastic

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 22, 2013
14
0
France
Hi,

I have an early 2011 MBP but I switched the optical drive for a SSD, so when I wanted to install Windows 7 on the original HDD I had to improvise to get the USB install option to show in the Boot Camp options (in fact I followed this video)

So after going through the process of copying the Windows 7 iso to my USB thumb, downloading the adequate drivers and partitioning the hard drive, the MacBook reboots.

But upon restart it gives me the "No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key" message and whatever I do nothing happens. And when I shut it down and power it up while holding the Option key, it just shows the OS X partition, no mention of the Bootcamp partition or the USB thumb anywhere.

So is there a way around this problem ? I really need a Windows partition for my MBP.

And thanks in advance for any help !
 
S

snaky69

macrumors 603
Mar 14, 2008
5,908
488
VanTastic said:
Hi,

I have an early 2011 MBP but I switched the optical drive for a SSD, so when I wanted to install Windows 7 on the original HDD I had to improvise to get the USB install option to show in the Boot Camp options (in fact I followed this video)

So after going through the process of copying the Windows 7 iso to my USB thumb, downloading the adequate drivers and partitioning the hard drive, the MacBook reboots.

But upon restart it gives me the "No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key" message and whatever I do nothing happens. And when I shut it down and power it up while holding the Option key, it just shows the OS X partition, no mention of the Bootcamp partition or the USB thumb anywhere.

So is there a way around this problem ? I really need a Windows partition for my MBP.

And thanks in advance for any help !
Click to expand...
Reinstall the optical drive. AFAIK that's the only way it'll work.
 
B

blooperz

macrumors 6502
Dec 10, 2013
287
1
There should be a way to force the mac to boot from USB like on windows, I'm not familiar with how its done but I would be surprised if that option was missing on macs.
 
C

cjmillsnun

macrumors 68020
Aug 28, 2009
2,399
48
blooperz said:
There should be a way to force the mac to boot from USB like on windows, I'm not familiar with how its done but I would be surprised if that option was missing on macs.
Click to expand...

There is. Hold down Option when you get the startup chime. You can then select the startup disk.
 
D

doynton

macrumors 6502
Oct 19, 2014
299
17
My superdrive is broken so I followed the steps in the link below and it worked fine on my 2007 MBP (I installed Windows 8.1 but it makes no difference)

Essentially you partition your drive, install virtualbox and use that to install windows on the unformatted partition. When windows reboots the first time stop, use NTFS3G to delete everything from the windows partition and copy the contents of the windows ISO to it. Then just boot up the windows partition and it installs. I used rEFInd to do that.

After installation is finished you can download and install the bootcamp drivers.


http://blog.laaz.org/tech/2012/04/24/installing-windows-7-on-macbook-pro-without-superdrive/
 
V

Val-kyrie

macrumors 68020
Feb 13, 2005
2,107
1,419
doynton said:
My superdrive is broken so I followed the steps in the link below and it worked fine on my 2007 MBP (I installed Windows 8.1 but it makes no difference)

Essentially you partition your drive, install virtualbox and use that to install windows on the unformatted partition. When windows reboots the first time stop, use NTFS3G to delete everything from the windows partition and copy the contents of the windows ISO to it. Then just boot up the windows partition and it installs. I used rEFInd to do that.

After installation is finished you can download and install the bootcamp drivers.


http://blog.laaz.org/tech/2012/04/24/installing-windows-7-on-macbook-pro-without-superdrive/
Click to expand...

You were able to install Win 8 on your 2007 MBP? If so, could you give me a few tips?

Apple's support documentation seems to imply that the 2007 MBP will only support Bootcamp 4 and only Win 7 can be installed. Supposedly Win 8 is only supported by BootCamp 5.1, and then only Win 8 64 bit is supported.

So, if I may ask, which version of Bootcamp did you use? Which version of Windows? Will this work with Yosemite?
 
F

freeskier93

macrumors 6502
Jul 13, 2008
321
68
As everyone has said you're going to have to put the superdrive back in. I went through this and tried for days to get a bootable Windows USB working. Even when using a different bootloader Mac just won't recognize the USB.

It's possible if you put the original superdrive in an enclosure it might work off USB, but I haven't tried it.
 
M

Mike Boreham

macrumors 68040
Aug 10, 2006
3,724
1,733
UK
freeskier93 said:
It's possible if you put the original superdrive in an enclosure it might work off USB, but I haven't tried it.
Click to expand...

It won't, but I believe some people, as in this thread, have made the rEFIt methods work. Not for the feint hearted!

----------
alexmarchuk said:
I used a USB stick to install Windows 7 on my Boot Camp partition...
Click to expand...

Yes your MBP is one without a superdrive so that would work, as above.
 
F

freeskier93

macrumors 6502
Jul 13, 2008
321
68
Mike Boreham said:
It won't, but I believe some people, as in this thread, have made the rEFIt methods work. Not for the feint hearted!

----------



Yes your MBP is one without a superdrive so that would work, as above.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I tried rEFIt and rEFInd with no luck. Seems to work for some but not others.
 
D

doynton

macrumors 6502
Oct 19, 2014
299
17
Val-kyrie said:
You were able to install Win 8 on your 2007 MBP? If so, could you give me a few tips?

Apple's support documentation seems to imply that the 2007 MBP will only support Bootcamp 4 and only Win 7 can be installed. Supposedly Win 8 is only supported by BootCamp 5.1, and then only Win 8 64 bit is supported.

So, if I may ask, which version of Bootcamp did you use? Which version of Windows? Will this work with Yosemite?
Click to expand...
I used bootcamp 4 drivers and they all work fine with Windows 8.1 and 10 Preview. I only tried x64 so I don't know about 32 bit versions. To install them right click on the exe and run in compatibility mode. I download bootcamp 5 drivers but could not get them to install.

I've not tried Yosemite as I'm running Lion but the version of OS X should make no difference at all to the drivers you install in windows as far as I understand it.
 
V

Val-kyrie

macrumors 68020
Feb 13, 2005
2,107
1,419
doynton said:
I used bootcamp 4 drivers and they all work fine with Windows 8.1 and 10 Preview. I only tried x64 so I don't know about 32 bit versions. To install them right click on the exe and run in compatibility mode. I download bootcamp 5 drivers but could not get them to install.

I've not tried Yosemite as I'm running Lion but the version of OS X should make no difference at all to the drivers you install in windows as far as I understand it.
Click to expand...

Thanks. That is helpful. If I may ask, what are the specs on your Mac?
 
macenied

macenied

macrumors 6502a
Aug 20, 2014
637
29
BootCamp 4 drivers are rather old and can be buggy as well. I had issues with the Cirrus drivers.
 
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