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Boot Camp format problems...

D

dkaff

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 22, 2010
8
0
Hi All,

I'm new to this forum and have had a chance to look around a little bit, but haven't really found an answer to the problem that I'm having.

I have an imac and I'm attempting to use boot camp. I have used it in the past, with prior versions of mac os x, but this is the first time that I have tried it with 10.6.8. The first thing I found out is that I can't use Windows XP, even with service pack 2 installed, because it doesn't find the "boot camp" partition. So, I recently obtained a full retail copy of Windows 7 and have been trying to install it. I have no problem with the boot camp assistant creating the new partition, 200 GB. However, when I insert the Windows 7 DVD and the computer restarts in the Win 7 install screen it tells me that I cannot install Windows on the selected partition (which I expected to see.) So I choose "format" the further format the partition. It doesn't ask me how I would like to partition this, but just seems to start. All seems to go fine until it finishes and i see the same message of "Windows cannot be installed in the selected partition." I can click on the format tab endlessly but it still doesn't seem to work. Does anyone have any ideas? I've called Apple and their technicians keep telling me that I need to reinstall the Mac OS again, which I've tried. It doesn't seem to help either.

Thanks in advance for your help,

DTK
 
Boot Camp Problems....solved

Hello all,

Just thought that I would let everyone know what I found out. Apparently the problem I am having is caused by a limitation in Windows. It cannot see a hard drive larger than 2.2 TB. So, by having a 3 TB drive in my iMac, even thought the Windows partition is only 150 GB, it will not work. So much for "bigger is better" when it comes to Windows. Thanks all for your help....


David
 
That is generally a BIOS/MBR limitation, and I would have expected that it would not affect an EFI/GPT Mac. W7 64bit should support an EFI boot on the most recent Macs.

Were you installing 32 bit or 64 bit?

B
 
I actually tried both 32 and 64 bit installs. I found the same error message on both attempts.
 
It might have something to do with the way Boot Camp Assistant partitioned the HDD. Apple and Microsoft do some slightly different things with GPT formatted discs.

If I had to venture a guess it's probably related to the way BCA usually does a hybrid GPT/MBR partition scheme to "fool" older Windows OSes.

IIRC Windows 7 doesn't like that:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/gg463525

NOTE: That most older Macs have an incompatible EFI version to boot W764.

EDIT: Here's some additional reading info: http://darobins.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/native-uefi-windows-7-boot-on-mac-mini/

B
 
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