Boot Camp install - no bootable device

[melbri]

I have been trying very hard to install win7 on my iMac with no success. I keep getting the "no bootable device" error. I have a mid-2011 imac with the latest Mavericks. I am using an aftermarket OWC SSD with 2TB HDD. I tried installing with a disc via the superdrive and an external drive. I have also tried from a USB flash drive. I created the flash drive using Boot Camp and windows. No success. Can someone please help.

 

[xcodeSyn]

I have a mid-2011 imac with the latest Mavericks. I am using an aftermarket OWC SSD with 2TB HDD. I tried installing with a disc via the superdrive and an external drive.

You can only use the internal SuperDrive to install Windows on your iMac and thanks Apple for this restriction. If it didn't recognize the Windows installer with the internal DVD drive, I'd suspect it is not a bootable installer. Did you use an official Windows DVD?

 

[IlikeMacsSoMuch]

Have you tried installing windows without bootcamp?

 

[melbri]

I do have an official win7 DVD.

The best result I have had is installing without boot camp.

It got to a point while installing where it said something like "insert CD ir DVD", that's all I recall.

 

[jenzjen]

disconnect all USB devices from the machine except the one that contains the windows support software

 

[blueroom]

You can only use the internal SuperDrive to install Windows on your iMac and thanks Apple for this restriction. If it didn't recognize the Windows installer with the internal DVD drive, I'd suspect it is not a bootable installer. Did you use an official Windows DVD?

This is the reason it won't install. It's expecting to see an internal DVD Superdrive and that's the only place it'll look. Recent iMacs will install off a USB key as they have no internal DVD.

 

[melbri]

I have an official Win7 dvd in the stock super drive. No go. It seems to install but gets to 100% and then gets to black screen asking for "insert cd or dvd". This is with installing via cmd-r selecting win 7 dvd and installing onto win NT formatted partition.

 

[SaSaSushi]

I have an official Win7 dvd in the stock super drive. No go. It seems to install but gets to 100% and then gets to black screen asking for "insert cd or dvd". This is with installing via cmd-r selecting win 7 dvd and installing onto win NT formatted partition.

I do believe the installation needs to be started from the Bootcamp Assistant in OS X. It will create create the necessary partition, verify your installation media and then reboot to continue the process.

Have you tried this, or did you just use cmd-R to boot to the Windows DVD?

If that doesn't work, the only thing I can surmise is perhaps a bad DVD or problems with the Superdrive.

As mentioned, any iMac with a Superdrive will only install from the drive and not using any other methods.

 

[jenzjen]

This is with installing via cmd-r selecting win 7 dvd and installing onto win NT formatted partition.

this is the issue if this is a partition that you've created yourself

google boot camp instructions and follow along

 

[melbri]

I have followed boot camp and it is very straight forward, just not working on this iMac. I have done it on a mac book, no problems. I am assuming there might be something wrong with my superdrive, as I have tried pretty much everything.

 

[jenzjen]

I have followed boot camp and it is very straight forward, just not working on this iMac. I have done it on a mac book, no problems. I am assuming there might be something wrong with my superdrive, as I have tried pretty much everything.

I don't recall ever seeing manually creating the partition and having to hold alt to boot CD part of the steps

 

[melbri]

I don't recall ever seeing manually creating the partition and having to hold alt to boot CD part of the steps

It isn't part of bca, it is an alternative to bca.

 

[puffo25]

Installing Bootcamp 3.x on MacBook 5,1 (Snow Leopard and Windows 7)

Hi, I have a MacBook Pro 15 inches 5,1 model, I think made in 2009. I have for now only 1 single internal HD not partitioned yet. I have around 20GB of free HD space. I am confused! When I run Bootcamp to start the whole process (creating the partition HD, getting the proper Windows drivers and so on), I get in the bootcamp menu a message that I do NOT have enough HD space (I need 10GB).
How come as I have in fact 20GB free? Maybe I have first to partition my HD?

 

[jenzjen]

Hi, I have a MacBook Pro 15 inches 5,1 model, I think made in 2009. I have for now only 1 single internal HD not partitioned yet. I have around 20GB of free HD space. I am confused! When I run Bootcamp to start the whole process (creating the partition HD, getting the proper Windows drivers and so on), I get in the bootcamp menu a message that I do NOT have enough HD space (I need 10GB).
How come as I have in fact 20GB free? Maybe I have first to partition my HD?

no, you should not manually create the partition, and yes you have too little space. are you going to game or just use windows for some school/work apps? if game, you need at least 60gb ideally 80gb or 100gb. if you will rarely use windows and are willing to make some mods to the install, you could get by with 30gb.

 

[puffo25]

Dear jenzjen, thanks for the reply.

So first I have to create a clean HD with 2 partitions, 1 for OSX and 1 for Windows, using DiskUtility, and than use bootcamp to download the necessary drivers and go ahead with the installation?

Andrea

no, you should not manually create the partition, and yes you have too little space. are you going to game or just use windows for some school/work apps? if game, you need at least 60gb ideally 80gb or 100gb. if you will rarely use windows and are willing to make some mods to the install, you could get by with 30gb.

 

[jenzjen]

Dear jenzjen, thanks for the reply.

So first I have to create a clean HD with 2 partitions, 1 for OSX and 1 for Windows, using DiskUtility, and than use bootcamp to download the necessary drivers and go ahead with the installation?

Andrea

no, don't create anything at all. boot camp assistant will do everything including partitions. your drive just needs to be stock apple, ie only 1 partition right now usually called 'macintosh HD' but you may have renamed it. if you have more than 1 partition, bca will not work until you collapse your drive back to a single partition.

 

[puffo25]

Sorry but I am confused. Currently I have a 250GB HD with 20GB free of HD space using Snow Leopard 1.6.8.

If I run BootCamp 3.x within then HD (not from the OSX DVD), BootCamp will immediately tell me that i do NOT have enough HD space....Mmmm, how come? I have 20GB free!

I am puzzled!
Andrea

no, don't create anything at all. boot camp assistant will do everything including partitions. your drive just needs to be stock apple, ie only 1 partition right now usually called 'macintosh HD' but you may have renamed it. if you have more than 1 partition, bca will not work until you collapse your drive back to a single partition.

 

[SaSaSushi]

Sorry but I am confused. Currently I have a 250GB HD with 20GB free of HD space using Snow Leopard 1.6.8.

If I run BootCamp 3.x within then HD (not from the OSX DVD), BootCamp will immediately tell me that i do NOT have enough HD space....Mmmm, how come? I have 20GB free!

I am puzzled!
Andrea

Use Disk Utility to resize the Macintosh HD to use all available space on the HDD and then use the BootCamp Assistant. You can then choose to make the Windows partition 20GB or whatever size you like and it will automatically be repartitioned for you.

 

[jenzjen]

Sorry but I am confused. Currently I have a 250GB HD with 20GB free of HD space using Snow Leopard 1.6.8.

If I run BootCamp 3.x within then HD (not from the OSX DVD), BootCamp will immediately tell me that i do NOT have enough HD space....Mmmm, how come? I have 20GB free!

I am puzzled!
Andrea

i think you're not reading the posts completely. you have too LITTLE space. 20gb is not enough. see what i wrote before, you need to figure out how you'll use windows then delete files on your mac partition to free up more space.

yes you have too little space. are you going to game or just use windows for some school/work apps? if game, you need at least 60gb ideally 80gb or 100gb. if you will rarely use windows and are willing to make some mods to the install, you could get by with 30gb.

 

[puffo25]

Thanks for the reply. I read all comments and thanks everyone for their support, however as said before I do NOT understand why I have 20GB of free HD space and although BootCamp is asking me to have at least 10GB free, even with 20GB free it will NOT proceed with the other steps?

I need bootcamp because I will have to run Office and other app under Windows and the company is specifically asking for a native Windows 7 OS.

i think you're not reading the posts completely. you have too LITTLE space. 20gb is not enough. see what i wrote before, you need to figure out how you'll use windows then delete files on your mac partition to free up more space.

yes you have too little space. are you going to game or just use windows for some school/work apps? if game, you need at least 60gb ideally 80gb or 100gb. if you will rarely use windows and are willing to make some mods to the install, you could get by with 30gb.

 

[jenzjen]

Thanks for the reply. I read all comments and thanks everyone for their support, however as said before I do NOT understand why I have 20GB of free HD space and although BootCamp is asking me to have at least 10GB free, even with 20GB free it will NOT proceed with the other steps?

I need bootcamp because I will have to run Office and other app under Windows and the company is specifically asking for a native Windows 7 OS.

Find a solution and post back when you do, but it will not proceed with even 20gb free. Happy to be wrong.

 

[SaSaSushi]

I clearly misunderstood. I was thinking that somehow your HD had gotten repartitioned.

Yes, as jenzjen informed you, 20GB will not be enough and if you're already using 230GB of the available 250GB on your Macintosh HD, you wouldn't want to do that anyway.

As mentioned, you need to find some way to reduce the amount of data on the Macintosh HD. Why not get an external HD and move over as much as you can. For example, all iTunes music, media files, etc.

 

[puffo25]

OK, 1 more question before proceed....

I currently have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 with BootCamp 3.0.4.

I want to partition my internal 1TB HD on my MacBook Pro 5,1 model 15 inches (mid 2008) with disk utility and than install Windows 7 (I must use Windows 7 for my work).

By reading the Apple support forum I am NOT sure if I can install however Windows 7 if I have created first bootcamp 3.0.4? On apple the minimum system requirements might be bootcamp 4.x...? Or it is not true?

I already download from the apple support the .exe update for bootcamp 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3. but obviously I cannot install them if I have not installed Windows 7 first!

My Mac bootcamp is 3.0.4. How come I cannot update the Mac version of it through the apple update? (there are ONLY .exe updates...)

Andrea

 

[SaSaSushi]

By reading the Apple support forum I am NOT sure if I can install however Windows 7 if I have created first bootcamp 3.0.4? On apple the minimum system requirements might be bootcamp 4.x...? Or it is not true?

Apparently, Windows 7 requires BootCamp 3.1 which can be installed in Snow Leopard. See this page.

Use the BootCamp Assistant in OS X to repartition and begin the Windows installation. The BootCamp Software update can be downloaded and applied from Windows after the installation is completed.

 

[puffo25]

Thanks for your time to reply to me.
I have looked the page http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3986

However as said before, currently when I run Apple SW update from Snow Leopard 10.6.8 will NOT detect any update for my current BootCamp 3.0.4, so I do NOT know where to find a Mac based update to update Mac BootCamp to 3.1 (as said before, the Bootcamp updates that I can get through Apple update center appear to be ONLY for the windows system as they all are .exe files).

Where I can get a Mac bootcamp update?
Andrea

Apparently, Windows 7 requires BootCamp 3.1 which can be installed in Snow Leopard. See this page.

Use the BootCamp Assistant in OS X to repartition and begin the Windows installation. The BootCamp Software update can be downloaded and applied from Windows after the installation is completed.