Installing Win7 on 2010 Macbook Air with bookcamp on Lion OS X

[deafgoose]

I obviously do not have a CD/DVD in my MBA so I need to install from a flash drive.

When I go into bootcamp, the option: Create a Windows 7 install disk is greyed out. WTF?

I was able to create a bootable copy of Win7 on my flash drive using the "Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool" but with the USB stick inserted, it gives me an error: The installer disc could not be found.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[liudekhua]

well, i'm guessing ur flash drive is not bootable?

 

[deafgoose]

well, i'm guessing ur flash drive is not bootable?

It's bootable.

I installed rEFIt and was able to boot into it no problem.

 

[orfeas0]

It's bootable.

I installed rEFIt and was able to boot into it no problem.

Format it and let boot camp create the windows usb.
Or was it grayed out before you made it bootable?

 

[monkeybagel]

I think you will need for format the USB drive in Disk Utility as an MS-DOS/FAT32 drive, and then the Bootcamp wizard will see it and configure it appropriately. I am pretty sure it will need to be empty to proceed, and then you will need to point the wizard to the ISO for the Windows 7 installer/image. I am not sure that the native Windows boot scheme will work with a 2010 Air (it does on the 2011, but I don't have a 2010 to test).

 

[Misaksen]

Follow this guide: http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-20020513-285/install-win-7-on-macbook-air-from-a-usb-drive/

 

[snowwhite007]

sorry to hijack but does everything work well running win7 via bootcamp?

 

[deafgoose]

Format it and let boot camp create the windows usb.
Or was it grayed out before you made it bootable?

The stick is formatted with nothing on it. The option is grayed out no matter what I do.

I ended up removing Lion, and installing Snow Leopard so that I could get the old bootcamp version. I installed rEFIt, rebooted twice. Then started bootcamp and cancelled out of the installation process after my partition was complete.

After restarting, rEFIt allowed me to access my bootable USB flash drive and I was able to install windows on the bootcamp partition.

I then did a Time Machine restore to get Lion back and everything is working perfectly now.

----------

Follow this guide: http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-20020513-285/install-win-7-on-macbook-air-from-a-usb-drive/

So many of those steps are completely unnecessary. What a mess. lol

sorry to hijack but does everything work well running win7 via bootcamp?

Yes, everything is working perfectly. Even the buttons to increase/decrease volume and screen brightness.