Boot Camp with no DVD

[LouisC]

Alright, so I need some help. I have Windows Server 2008 R2, but it is only an img file, not on a DVD. Before you ask, no, it is not pirated, I got it through Microsoft's DreamSpark program since I'm a student and I'm eligible. I've found tons of threads that just end in "so you're trying to install a pirated copy of windows" and nobody offers help. That isn't the case here. For the record, I can also get Windows 7 through MSDNAA but I'd have the same problems, and I want to try Server 2008 R2, since a friend told me it runs better in most cases.

The issue here is that my superdrive rejects a lot of DVDs. My Mac OS X Snow Leopard DVD works fine, but my Windows Vista install DVD (retail, not burned) doesn't work, and some burned DVDs don't work either. I initially tried burning my img to a DVD, but once it burned, it ejected and the drive is unable to read it.

So I'm looking for a way to install Windows Server 2008 R2 on bootcamp.

Things I have tried:

I've used dd to duplicate the image onto a partition on my external firewire drive. After it clones over, I cannot mount the partition, and my mac doesn't recognize it as bootable when I reboot holding option. It does recognize my little utility partition which contains useful programs like Drive Genius, iDefrag, and Diskwarrior.

I've tried using VMWare Fusion to install windows to the partition, but it is not bootable (complains that there's no bootable disk found when I try to boot into it). When I tried doing the same thing in Parallels, I noticed that it came up with an error saying that Mac OS X prevented the installer from writing to the MBR. I'm assuming that this is what is keeping it from booting.


Now here's what I'm thinking I could do. What if I put Parallels on my utility partition, and try installing Windows on my internal harddrive from there? Will Mac OS prevent Parallels from writing to my MBR if it's not running from the internal drive, but the external. And also, would the installer write over the Mac bootloader, making me unable to boot into Mac OS X? I'm guessing it won't, but I don't want to risk it just in case.

Please, help me out! I have no external USB DVD drive (also no money to buy one anyway), and in past experience, I can't boot from USB devices on this mac anyway (late 2007 Macbook Pro).