Boot Camp Windows 7 via USB Superdrive on new 27"?

[SBruv]

Hi,

The subject says it all, really: just wanna know if I'll be able to install Windows through Boot Camp on my imminent new 27" iMac using the USB SuperDrive, rather than having to put the ISO on a thumb drive.

Anyone know or done it?

Cheers!

SB

[MagicThief83]

yes, just attach the superdrive, pop in the install cd, open bootcamp utility, download support software on an external drive, and then click install Windows 7, voila!!!

[SBruv]

Originally Posted by MagicThief83

yes, just attach the superdrive, pop in the install cd, open bootcamp utility, download support software on an external drive, and then click install Windows 7, voila!!!

Hi there,

Thanks for that. Are you speaking from experience, or just assuming (as I am) that a USB Superdrive will work? I've heard it doesn't work for Boot Camp installs on all Macs, ya see.

Cheers!

SB

[MagicThief83]

Originally Posted by SBruv

Hi there,

Thanks for that. Are you speaking from experience, or just assuming (as I am) that a USB Superdrive will work? I've heard it doesn't work for Boot Camp installs on all Macs, ya see.

Cheers!

SB

No not from experience, but I don't see why it shouldn't work? If worse comes to worse, just create an iso using disk utility and then use the Bootcamp utility. It really shouldn't be all that difficult.

[toschlebelge]

Hi!
Yes, it is possible. I successfully installed Win7 on a new 27'' iMac with a SuperDrive attached. All went very smoothly.
Then I loaded the driver CD BootCamp Assistant has created with all the drivers and it loaded drivers for all the iMac devices (Camera, USB, Graphics...) for ever. After a reboot I have a perfect Win7 on the iMac.. but:

No Mouse, No Keyboard works.
It seems this driver Update has messed up the USB in Windows, so no device is recognized and any input via Keyboard (USB) or Mouse (USB) is ignored. Replugging does not help, rebooting does not help.
OS X still works nicely.

Any ideas how I can get Windows to recognize USB again??
Thanks.

[zarf2007]

Originally Posted by toschlebelge

Hi!
Yes, it is possible. I successfully installed Win7 on a new 27'' iMac with a SuperDrive attached. All went very smoothly.
Then I loaded the driver CD BootCamp Assistant has created with all the drivers and it loaded drivers for all the iMac devices (Camera, USB, Graphics...) for ever. After a reboot I have a perfect Win7 on the iMac.. but:

No Mouse, No Keyboard works.
It seems this driver Update has messed up the USB in Windows, so no device is recognized and any input via Keyboard (USB) or Mouse (USB) is ignored. Replugging does not help, rebooting does not help.
OS X still works nicely.

Any ideas how I can get Windows to recognize USB again??
Thanks.

I had the same problem and fixed it doing the following:

install windows 7, then from the bootcamp drivers install just the network driver (there is an individual setup file for this) to get yourself connected for internet access. Then run windows update to update the OS. A couple of reboots later you can then go back to the bootcamp drivers and run the main installer to install all of the bootcamp drivers...keyboard and mouse work fine after that....

[toschlebelge]

Originally Posted by zarf2007

I had the same problem and fixed it doing the following:

install windows 7, then from the bootcamp drivers install just the network driver (there is an individual setup file for this) to get yourself connected for internet access. Then run windows update to update the OS. A couple of reboots later you can then go back to the bootcamp drivers and run the main installer to install all of the bootcamp drivers...keyboard and mouse work fine after that....

So you mean start from scratch?? In there any way to run Windows Update now... (without a mouse and keyboard probably not) ?
Ok, well, will try that then.

[zarf2007]

Originally Posted by toschlebelge

So you mean start from scratch?? In there any way to run Windows Update now... (without a mouse and keyboard probably not) ?
Ok, well, will try that then.

unfortunately you have to start from scratch...as you said once you at the stage you are, you cannot do anything without a mouse and keyboard....i also use a wired mouse so not sure if a wireless mouse still cause you problems.

[seanm9]

Originally Posted by SBruv

Hi there,

Thanks for that. Are you speaking from experience, or just assuming (as I am) that a USB Superdrive will work? I've heard it doesn't work for Boot Camp installs on all Macs, ya see.

Cheers!

SB

It probably does not work on all Macs because not all Macs are supported by the superdrive, but any Mac that Apple has released without an Optical Drive seems to be supported... (right now it looks like the MacPro is the only one) so yes it will work on a new late 2012 iMac, if it would work on a 2011 model is unknown by me, but then who would need that... it has a drive built-in...

[toschlebelge]

Originally Posted by zarf2007

I had the same problem and fixed it doing the following:

install windows 7, then from the bootcamp drivers install just the network driver (there is an individual setup file for this) to get yourself connected for internet access. Then run windows update to update the OS. A couple of reboots later you can then go back to the bootcamp drivers and run the main installer to install all of the bootcamp drivers...keyboard and mouse work fine after that....

This fix worked fine for me... 129 Windows Updates and dozen reboots later I installed the Bootcamp tools and now its working nicely.
BTW: GTA IV screams on the new 27 iMac with 2 GB Graphics. Even on the highest possible settings it runs smoothly. That's actually all I wanted to test... now back to good old OS X to do some work ;-)
Thanks for your feedback. Great help.

----------

Originally Posted by SBruv

Hi,

The subject says it all, really: just wanna know if I'll be able to install Windows through Boot Camp on my imminent new 27" iMac using the USB SuperDrive, rather than having to put the ISO on a thumb drive.

Anyone know or done it?

Cheers!

SB

To sum this up:
Yes it works!
- Burn a Bootcamp Win drivers CD via the Bootcamp Assistant
- Install Win7 via the Bootcamp Assistant.
- Browse the CD to just install the Network drivers (../Drivers/Broadcom/BroadcomEthernet64.exe)
- Make sure you have an internet connection
- Update Windows all the way until it will not load any more updates
- AFTER that, run setup.exe from the drivers CD to load all the other drivers and update graphics settings and others
- Done