Can't convince my 2011 i7 MBP to boot from USB?

[zerodb]

Currently using an SSD and HD combo so I have no optical drive, obviously.

My SSD is split into 2 partitions - one has Windows 7 on it, but I need to upgrade it to Win7-64.

I've made a GUID USB drive and restored the W7 install image onto it but can't get it to boot from this drive no matter what I do! Have tried using rEFIt as well as regular boot device selection on startup, no luck.

Anyone else dealt with this?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Windows can't be booted from an external HDD, though Windows 8 shall include that feature, finally.

 

[zerodb]

Windows can't be booted from an external HDD, though Windows 8 shall include that feature, finally.

Not trying to RUN windows off the USB drive, just install it onto my Boot Camp partition FROM a USB drive.

 

[Bill Gates]

Try this: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3435734?start=15&tstart=0

Also, I'm fairly certain your flash drive must use the MBR partitioning scheme, but I believe Boot Camp Assistant will take care of that detail, too.

 

[zerodb]

Try this: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3435734?start=15&tstart=0

Also, I'm fairly certain your flash drive must use the MBR partitioning scheme, but I believe Boot Camp Assistant will take care of that detail, too.

Thanks, trying now!

 

[zerodb]

This seems to have done the trick to create the boot media, but when I actually attempt to boot from the USB stick generated this way, it just sits at a black screen with a flashing cursor in the upper left corner indefinitely.

 

[snaky69]

This seems to have done the trick to create the boot media, but when I actually attempt to boot from the USB stick generated this way, it just sits at a black screen with a flashing cursor in the upper left corner indefinitely.

MBP's will utterly refuse to boot windows from USB, only the MBA can do it.

 

[MonkeyBrainz]

This seems to have done the trick to create the boot media, but when I actually attempt to boot from the USB stick generated this way, it just sits at a black screen with a flashing cursor in the upper left corner indefinitely.

What version of OS X are you using? Older versions of Boot Camp didn't let me install 64-bit Windows 7, only 32-bit. Which is utterly annoying.

 

[Bkraft]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

Is your hardware setup running OSX split across both hard drives (OS on one drive, user files and storage on second drive, etc.)? If so your bootcamp install probl isn't going to work, unfortunately.

If that's the case then both your drives are most likely formatted as OSX Journaled (Extended) on a GUID partion scheme. Your Windows installer is on a drive formatted in FAT or NTFS with an MBR partition scheme, and the installer only recognizes and can install onto the same type of volume.
If you're booting and running storage on your mac install you won't be able to reformat either drive to accomodate the windows-friendly volume requirements (even if you make a separate partition on one of the drives, it's still going to be GUID partition scheme even if you write to it in FAT/NTFS). However, if you have a completely unused internal drive you can format it to MBR using FAT/NTFS and you should be able to rock and roll.

If this is incorrect or someone knows something I dont, feel free to advise.

 

[zerodb]

MBP's will utterly refuse to boot windows from USB, only the MBA can do it.

Well that would certainly explain my problem! Ridiculous of course, but at least I can stop banging my head into it.

Guess I need to pop the bottom off and temporarily put the optical drive back into service.

----------

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

Is your hardware setup running OSX split across both hard drives (OS on one drive, user files and storage on second drive, etc.)? If so your bootcamp install probl isn't going to work, unfortunately.

If that's the case then both your drives are most likely formatted as OSX Journaled (Extended) on a GUID partion scheme. Your Windows installer is on a drive formatted in FAT or NTFS with an MBR partition scheme, and the installer only recognizes and can install onto the same type of volume.
If you're booting and running storage on your mac install you won't be able to reformat either drive to accomodate the windows-friendly volume requirements (even if you make a separate partition on one of the drives, it's still going to be GUID partition scheme even if you write to it in FAT/NTFS). However, if you have a completely unused internal drive you can format it to MBR using FAT/NTFS and you should be able to rock and roll.

If this is incorrect or someone knows something I dont, feel free to advise.

Interesting info. I had already been running boot camp, with Lion on one partition of my SSD and Win7-32 on the other partition, AND the second HD split into storage partitions for OSX and Windows. But now that I think about it, I set up both Lion and Windows with the 2nd drive disconnected (optical still in) and then added the other drive for storage when my optibay arrived.

Sounds like I've got a fight ahead of me.

 

[SimonUK5]

MBP's will utterly refuse to boot windows from USB, only the MBA can do it.

Lies. I booted a Live Linux Distro off a USB Key moments ago...

Just Hold option at boot and select the USB key

 

[zerodb]

Lies. I booted a Live Linux Distro off a USB Key moments ago...

Just Hold option at boot and select the USB key

I could always do it on my previous MBP but on this one it fights me every step of the way (2011 I7-quad core)