Another Bootcamp w/o SuperDrive, 2010 MBP

Hey guys, I've been searching for the answer everywhere but it's just nowhere to be found. Anyways, like most people, I ended up replacing my DEAD SuperDrive in my 2010 MBP (MBP6,1) with a SSD (one of the best decisions I've made thus far...until now?). As of late, I've been playing a lot of games via WineSkin on my MBP, and though they work fairly well, I was thinking that it would be nice to just get Boot Camp up and running to get the full functionality of these games and their features.

What I did not realize was how much of a pain it would be to get it setup. So I understand that older Apple computers do not allow you to boot from an external drive/usb (which is very frustrating at this point), thus making it very difficult to install Windows 7 via Boot Camp. I searched around and there were some decent articles about how to get around this problem, mixed in with some terrible articles as well. However, they all were able to install Windows 7 on their MacBooks. None of the methods have worked for me.

I've read the CNet article with the MBA multiple times, and have done exactly what it says, only to find that I still cannot boot from the USB stick.

I've read an article where he tells me to use VM Ware Fusion, to try and force the computer to boot into Windows before the VM installation is complete, only to fail ~ 6 times.

I've read an article where he tells me to use Parallels and to copy/over write the MBR. It seemed like that was my chance, but the shoddy directions written did not help me overwrite the MBR at all... I would probably need clarification or something, but at this point it almost seems hopeless.

Everything that has worked for other people, has not worked for me unfortunately. Unless I am completely messing something up, but I have been at this for the last couple of days and I am not totally technologically inclined, but using terminal to overwrite MBR's seems a little advanced.

Is there any surefire way of getting this to work? Without having to go and buy a new SuperDrive, removing my SSD (which happens to be my Startup HDD), and going through that mess?

Thanks!

 

Really? I've definitely made it bootable and used rEFIt to try and boot from it... I'll give it another shot later tonight though because I've tried many, many times

 

Well that is something that I have not tried. I've made the USB install from Boot Camp Assistant and that would never let me boot from the USB.

So how should I use Disk Utility and 'restore it' to the drive?

 

Okay just to update this since I finally got it to work.

I am not 100% sure why, but whenever I tried to partition my main SSD/HDD with boot camp, I was never able to get any method to work.

I decided to partition my second HDD for boot camp and used the VM ware workaround and that allowed me to install windows without any trouble whatsoever.