MBA2013 Bootcamp USB Install - Keyboard not detected

Hi,

I'm at this all day and it's been one problem after another, I'm close to breaking point. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I have a macbook air 2013 model,
I purchased a new 8gb usb, it says it's 3.0 but 2.0 compatible too or something like that.

Then using bootcamp assistant I created the install drive & downloaded latest support software (all on the 1 usb)

Next I got to the partition stage, and even though I had 40gb free it wouldn't let me create a windows partition greater than 23gb. I made the stupid mistake of clicking "back" to see if I missed something and then realised I had to wait another hour to create the install drive again

Eventually I made a partition and it rebooted.

Got a black screen with some sort of error message, I think it was something along the lines of "unable to boot from device" ... it definitely said "press any key to continue" ... tried that but nothing was happening so I restarted, held down the alt key and booted directly into windows..

Progress! or so I thought..

Got to the install windows/language selection screen, but my trackpad & keyboard weren't being detected. Tried restarting, no luck. Tried going back to bootcamp assistant and downloading the windows support software, still no luck.

I came across this http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4599 but it seems to be specific to usb optical drives, whereas I'm doing everything from my flash drive.

I've also been trying to follow https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5100623?start=45&tstart=0 but everyone seems to have a different answer and none work for me.

I think this guy has the right idea

Yes, the whole story behind this issue is usb3.0 driver missing from Win7 install image. Some of you guy may thing that how it magicaly work if you boot from Boot camp assistant? Because when boot camp send restart command, it also send parameter to setup.exe of Win7 installer too. If you make Win7 install usb with Boot camp assistant, you will find additional file called Autounattend.xml and additional folders, $WinPEDriver$ and Bootcamp. In $WinPEDriver$ contain usb3.0 drivers in it.(also other 2 drivers) This Autounattend.xml will tell installer where to find usb3.0 and load them during boot. So, it doesn't matter which usb port are you use. It will work but you need to make Win7 install usb with Bootcamp assistant and reboot from via boot camp.

In fact, I mod install.wim and boot.wim in sources folder by add usb3.0 drivers in. With the mods, now I do not need to care about boot camp any more (only need it to download drivers).

Click to expand...

Can anyone explain what he means by modding to add usb 3.0 drivers?

Or is there any other way to get around it?

(As a side note, my usb drive was in the port on the right side when I tried to install windows via bootcamp, does that make a difference?)

Thanks,

Okay I think I may have found my problem

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/07/15/review_apple_macbook_air_2013_13in_base_model/?page=1

Where this leads to is perhaps an explanation as to why the old Boot Camp 5.0.5033 drivers didn’t work: namely, no SPI driver support. The freshly downloaded version reported it was installing Boot Camp 5, build 5241 and all seems happy now. Oh and if you were curious as to how this came about, the answer is simple: be sure to plug in your designated Boot Camp drivers USB stick into the left port of the MacBook Air before downloading the new batch and keep it there. Overlook this seemingly inconsequential detail and you’re stuffed.

Click to expand...

It seems using the usb port on the right was my fatal flaw.

So before I go removing the partition and doing everything all over again, is there a quick way to make windows detect my keyboard & trackpad?

That seemed to get me one step further alright. After it partitioned the drive it rebooted into windows on the language selection screen. I went into advanced and formatted the drive.

Now I'm stuck at 50% on expanding windows files

One problem after another, this is the reason I left windows in the first place!...ugh.

Any ideas?

Yay not frozen!! Just took ages to get past 50%.. Looks like I'm in the clear now

Success!

Used Autohotkey to enable reverse scrolling and I'm good to go.


So for future reference, if you've got a macbook air 2013 and want to install windows via bootcamp, use the left usb port!