2010 MBP, OptiBay+External DVD-RW-Cannot install Windows7 ?

[Tex-Twil]

i think that would certainly work, i can get it to boot from usb enclosure from sabrent...i cant even get osx to recognize it.

Now all the how to make a bootable usb say that I have to create a MBR on the flash disk. (I think that's the command bootsect /nt60 g:) but I don't want to have a MBR on my Optibay disk. Do I have to do that or is there another way ?

i
i can get it to boot from usb enclosure from sabrent

Can or can't you ?

 

[MacModMachine]

Now all the how to make a bootable usb say that I have to create a MBR on the flash disk. (I think that's the command bootsect /nt60 g:) but I don't want to have a MBR on my Optibay disk. Do I have to do that or is there another way ?


Can or can't you ?

seems to work on earlier enclosure's , but newer ones are not working.

they must have changed something in the enclosure.

 

[hasole]

Did you ever get this working?

I'm in the same boat.

i5 2.4 mbp
40gb ssd for osx
500gb I want to use for win7 in the optibay.

I can boot from my win7 x64 dvd and I get the choice of windows and efi disk

Windows does nothing

EFI disk runs through the first part of windows is loading files, but it never goes anywhere.

 

[Tortri]

Did you ever get this working?

I'm in the same boat.

i5 2.4 mbp
40gb ssd for osx
500gb I want to use for win7 in the optibay.

I can boot from my win7 x64 dvd and I get the choice of windows and efi disk

Windows does nothing

EFI disk runs through the first part of windows is loading files, but it never goes anywhere.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1019204/

 

[hasole]

Thanks.

Do you know if I could do this.

on the hdd, create 2 ntfs partitions and the drive as mbr.

use one partition to install to and the other one just for the install dvd?

 

[Tortri]

Thanks.

Do you know if I could do this.

on the hdd, create 2 ntfs partitions and the drive as mbr.

use one partition to install to and the other one just for the install dvd?

You don't need to make a second partition for the whole usb thumb drive deal.

Use one partition. Format the one partition to ntfs, copy over the windows 7 files to it. Reboot and hold option(use refit if needed), select the windows drive, windows setup will load, select the one partition(don't format the one partition as your files are on it), tell it to install and it'll install with no problems. Once its done just go back to the c: and delete the files you copied over.

 

[hasole]

Thanks, will give it a go shortly.

 

[hasole]

Ok, that didn't work time to d/l refit

 

[Tortri]

The drive will need to be formated ntfs because windows is installing on it, not fat32. Using disk utility won't work as it can't format to ntfs. Your gonna have to use something else to format it ntfs, either parallals 6 or some partition software (I think ubuntu install cd can format ntfs, but i'm not 100% on that)

 

[hasole]

hmm just got ntldr missing when booting off it using refit

i can in disk utility because i have ntfs for mac.

 

[hasole]

Ok, I think I'm getting closer.

Now it says missing operating system.

 

[Tortri]

let me get back to you with this, i remember reading a forum post with the same exact problem and in the end this method worked, I tried it myself as I had the same problem.

 

[hasole]

Thanks, i'm almost tempted to rip the machine apart to put the super drive back in, just to install win7

 

[Tortri]

I was almost at that point too until i did what i posted earlier. The only other thing I could think of that might work is in osx, go to apps, utilities, bootcamp assistant and see if that does something that might work for the time being.

 

[Tortri]

Here we go hasole, this was the post i used.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/631901/


this method worked for me, i take no credit for this method. Maybe the other method on there might help you out.

 

[hasole]

Thanks, I'm on a mission.

 

[Piplodocus]

I've just been trying this. Sure, same as everyone else, Bootcamp Assistant restarts the mac and it WILL NOT read the Win7 CD. After it got stuck and Flashed between the "No Entry" symbol and the . Have to hold "Alt (Option)" during turn on to choose the Macintosh HD (or whatever your main drive is), then it'll open OSX normally again.

I'm putting Win7 on my main OSX drive. The bootcamp instructions say you can only use bootcamp to put it on your primary drive (although you can swap drives round, install, then swap back again if you really want it on the other one.

I looked at all the ideas about making USB boot disks and trying this, that and the other, and came to the conclusion it was just easier and quicker to get a screwdriver, connect up my old Superdrive, and do it the easy way that "just works"!

Currently it's most of the way through install, balanced on 2 screwdrivers and some wire cutters, cuz the bottom's still off and it's a nice turkish brass tabletop!

So, IMHO, the easiest way is to put the drive back in for an hour or too. It's a lot quicker and easier once you've fitted an optibay once, and a lot less scary poking around inside your expensive toy when you know exactly how to put it in or out. If you've lost your original drive or it's broken, good luck!

 

[hasole]

I gave in, in the end.

I put the superdrive back in and the 500gb into the stock hdd location and installed win7 on a mbr/60gb ntfs volume.

I've kept the hdd in the stock location because I'm more likely to change that drive in the near future, and I put my ssd into the optibay. Performance is exactly the same as it should be.

Playing bad company 2 and f1 2010 now Time to buy an xbox controller.

 

[Twowildman21]

I gave in, in the end.

I put the superdrive back in and the 500gb into the stock hdd location and installed win7 on a mbr/60gb ntfs volume.

I've kept the hdd in the stock location because I'm more likely to change that drive in the near future, and I put my ssd into the optibay. Performance is exactly the same as it should be.

Playing bad company 2 and f1 2010 now Time to buy an xbox controller.

How did you go about installing windows to that 500GB HD? Did you boot from the windows 7 disk and just select the 500gb to install it? or did you install mac os x then use bootcamp? I am in the process of doing this, and want to know the best method, thanks!

 

[hasole]

Just booted off w7x64 and installed it fresh.

 

[Twowildman21]

Just booted off w7x64 and installed it fresh.

Thanks so much!

Will be taking out my internal 256GB SSD and putting the 500GB HD in and installing windows 7 then taking it out and putting the 500GB in the optibay then reinstalling the SSD, hope it works.

 

[hasole]

Yep worked fine for me. Just hold down option when you want to select windows to boot.

 

[Digital Fury]

Thanks so much!

Will be taking out my internal 256GB SSD and putting the 500GB HD in and installing windows 7 then taking it out and putting the 500GB in the optibay then reinstalling the SSD, hope it works.

Had the same issue and tried everything, which didn't work.

Just put back the machine as it was (HD + optical), it will just take you a few minutes anyway. Once Windows is installed (I'm using Win 7 Ultimate x64), just move the HD to the optical bay and install your SSD.

 

[johnnyturbouk]

Then try with the flashdrive, it works great on netbooks...

i got this working last thurs.. i had a win 7 iso, and used my dads spare s/n as he has win7 family back

what i did was burn the iso to disk,, which i had kept safely from a while back

formatted my stock hdd which was placed in optibay- GUID + hfs,
ran bootacamp assistant, partioned 120gb for win7 - the win7 drivers for mac osx where saved to a usb formatted to fat-32... and the win 7 iso burnt to dvd was in the superdrive, attached via x2 usbs

system did it thing, osx shut down, re-started and logged into windows install setup.. i used disk utility to ensure that the win partition was in NTFS

 

[seek3r]

Ok, I think I'm getting closer.

Now it says missing operating system.

Sorry to resurrect what's getting to be an old thread, but I have something of an update.

Ran into this problem recently and have a solution that's better if you don't want windows on the optibay drive.

Some background: I have a 2.33ghz 2006 first gen core 2 duo MBP. I have an SSD as the main drive and a larger drive in the optical bay using one of the cheap chinese optibay SATA-->PATA optibay adapter.

I upgraded to a bigger SSD recently and when I went to install windows 7 on the second partition I created on the SSD a couple days ago I ran into some.. problems. I wanted windows on the SSD because it, on SATA, is *far* faster than the spinning disk on PATA.

With the optibay pulled I installed windows on the SSD.

I discovered that with my optibay HD in I got the error described above "missing operating system" and with it out windows booted just fine.

I wondered if the partition table on the optibay drive might be throwing EFI off, as it sees the PATA bus first, so I pulled the data off the drive, reformatted it as MBR instead of GPT, and dropped my data back on.

Voila, it works! Windows on the SSD boots fine!

(also, I suspect, though I never bothered to test it since the above method works, that tossing grub or another boot loader on the optibay drive and pointing it at the windows install would also solve this problem)