Mac Pro Windows Install Hell!

thepalestblue · Oct 27, 2012, 11:55 PM

So I've been going through hell all day trying to install this fresh Windows 8 System Builder DVD on a Mac Pro early 2008.

I should note a few things about my machine. My original optical drive recently kicked the bucket so I picked up a new sata drive and attached it to one of the extra two portals. I also replaced my original graphics card with the geforce gt 120 hooked up to a mini displayport cinema display. I also have an ssd as my primary drive. I'm running the latest mountain lion with all of the updates. I reset my SMC/PRAM and even in a silly attempt reinstalled mountain lion from scratch.

I started with the bootcamp assistant, setup a new partition, reboot and it goes to a grey screen and freezes. Nothing. I reboot and hold alt and see two dvd boot options, one "Windows" and one "EFI Boot". I select "Windows" and it immediately freezes. I reboot and select "EFI Boot" and it goes to a grey screen, then the apple logo forever, then strangely boots up to osx as normal.

Knowing the potential problems with the optical drives on the extra two sata ports, I rip the dvd to an iso using imgburn in my vm as I couldn't get a good iso out of disk utility. I modified bootcamp to enable the install a bootable usb which worked fine, but when I reboot, it freezes on the grey screen and goes nowhere. I reboot and hold alt for the bootscreen and it freezes as soon as I click the usb drive which also shows up as "efi boot" In a desperate attempt I made a small partition on my ssd and copied the install files over. Strangely it showed up in the boot list also as "efi boot" and when I selected it, it was a good old freeze just like the usb and dvd. I'm really at a loss here.

I also installed rEFIT but in what seems like a dark twist of humor my bluetooth keyboard doesn't work, so I'm not sure if there's any promise there. I strangely noticed that the dvd boot option didn't show up in rEFIT but the USB seemed to show up. I'm going to try to pick up a keyboard in the morning.

I also had the same problems with windows 7 so I know it's not a windows 8 thing. My only other thought is maybe it's something with my video card?

As you can imagine, any suggestions would be immensely appreciated!

Thanks.

thepalestblue · Oct 28, 2012, 12:48 PM

So I've taken a slightly different approach and installed Windows 8 onto a bootcamp partition using Parallels. The partition doesn't show up on the boot list when I hold down alt, but it does show up as a startup disk option, which I've tried to boot into, and it just goes to a black screen on hangs at the flashing cursor. No other ideas at the moment.

spinja · Nov 4, 2012, 04:26 PM

Any word on a solution to this? I was having the same problem

thepalestblue · Nov 5, 2012, 10:37 AM

No solution yet. I've just resorted to using Parallels for now. I read somewhere that I might have to put an IDE DVD Drive back in order for everything to work. I'm going to try to find one online, but they're pretty sparse.

balamw · Nov 5, 2012, 12:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thepalestblue

No solution yet. I've just resorted to using Parallels for now. I read somewhere that I might have to put an IDE DVD Drive back in order for everything to work. I'm going to try to find one online, but they're pretty sparse.

How about a PATA<->SATA bridge?

e.g. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812232021

B

thepalestblue · Nov 5, 2012, 02:23 PM

Thanks, that looks like a good option. I'll report back once I have the drive connected to the IDE cable.

thepalestblue · Nov 6, 2012, 07:16 PM

I got the installer to work! I can't believe it but taking out the SATA DVD Drive and putting in an IDE DVD Drive worked! I hope this helps.

Oct 27, 2012, 11:55 PM	#1
thepalestblue macrumors newbie Join Date: Oct 2012	Mac Pro Windows Install Hell! So I've been going through hell all day trying to install this fresh Windows 8 System Builder DVD on a Mac Pro early 2008. I should note a few things about my machine. My original optical drive recently kicked the bucket so I picked up a new sata drive and attached it to one of the extra two portals. I also replaced my original graphics card with the geforce gt 120 hooked up to a mini displayport cinema display. I also have an ssd as my primary drive. I'm running the latest mountain lion with all of the updates. I reset my SMC/PRAM and even in a silly attempt reinstalled mountain lion from scratch. I started with the bootcamp assistant, setup a new partition, reboot and it goes to a grey screen and freezes. Nothing. I reboot and hold alt and see two dvd boot options, one "Windows" and one "EFI Boot". I select "Windows" and it immediately freezes. I reboot and select "EFI Boot" and it goes to a grey screen, then the apple logo forever, then strangely boots up to osx as normal. Knowing the potential problems with the optical drives on the extra two sata ports, I rip the dvd to an iso using imgburn in my vm as I couldn't get a good iso out of disk utility. I modified bootcamp to enable the install a bootable usb which worked fine, but when I reboot, it freezes on the grey screen and goes nowhere. I reboot and hold alt for the bootscreen and it freezes as soon as I click the usb drive which also shows up as "efi boot" In a desperate attempt I made a small partition on my ssd and copied the install files over. Strangely it showed up in the boot list also as "efi boot" and when I selected it, it was a good old freeze just like the usb and dvd. I'm really at a loss here. I also installed rEFIT but in what seems like a dark twist of humor my bluetooth keyboard doesn't work, so I'm not sure if there's any promise there. I strangely noticed that the dvd boot option didn't show up in rEFIT but the USB seemed to show up. I'm going to try to pick up a keyboard in the morning. I also had the same problems with windows 7 so I know it's not a windows 8 thing. My only other thought is maybe it's something with my video card? As you can imagine, any suggestions would be immensely appreciated! Thanks.
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Oct 28, 2012, 12:48 PM	#2
thepalestblue Thread Starter macrumors newbie Join Date: Oct 2012	So I've taken a slightly different approach and installed Windows 8 onto a bootcamp partition using Parallels. The partition doesn't show up on the boot list when I hold down alt, but it does show up as a startup disk option, which I've tried to boot into, and it just goes to a black screen on hangs at the flashing cursor. No other ideas at the moment.
	0

Nov 4, 2012, 04:26 PM	#3
spinja macrumors newbie Join Date: Nov 2012	Any word on a solution to this? I was having the same problem
	0

Nov 5, 2012, 10:37 AM	#4
thepalestblue Thread Starter macrumors newbie Join Date: Oct 2012	No solution yet. I've just resorted to using Parallels for now. I read somewhere that I might have to put an IDE DVD Drive back in order for everything to work. I'm going to try to find one online, but they're pretty sparse.
	0

Nov 5, 2012, 02:23 PM	#6
thepalestblue Thread Starter macrumors newbie Join Date: Oct 2012	Thanks, that looks like a good option. I'll report back once I have the drive connected to the IDE cable.
	0

Nov 6, 2012, 07:16 PM	#7
thepalestblue Thread Starter macrumors newbie Join Date: Oct 2012	I got the installer to work! I can't believe it but taking out the SATA DVD Drive and putting in an IDE DVD Drive worked! I hope this helps.
	0


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