Can't Install Windows 7 Using Bootcamp Under Mac OS X Lion

[shreds87]

anyone tried rEFIt?

Was having the same issue (can't install bootcamp on 2011 MBP with 2nd HDD) and found this thread. Did some digging in google and found a few other threads that have used the program rEFIt to assess the EFI issue in Snow Leo, but not sure if it will help us in Lion...

Here are instructions for using rEFIt to install windows from USB in SL:
http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/9136...with-boot-camp-without-an-external-dvd-drive/

And a thread exploring how we might get rEFIt working in Lion:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1151242/

Seems a few folks have been able to get it working in Lion, but it looks to be hit and miss.

Has anyone else explored this idea? I'm currently at a conference and can't fiddle with all this till I get home, but it seems like it might be worth looking into. If anyone's tried this, it would be nice to know--I'm a bit nervous about fiddling with the EFI, wondering if some of you guys would volunteer to be guinea pigs and try this out before I do.

 

[Freyqq]

Yeah. I think I had about 4hrs of total sleep from Fri to Sun. I tried so many different solutions... refit, boot usb, and a whole bunch of other crap. My brother did it on his MBA without issues and it that even frustrated me further. Yeah i think its in the EFI somewhere... MBA knows theres no superdrive, while a MBP expects there to be 1.

for mbp, you have to install win 7 via dvd. Only mba have support for installation via usb atm =\

 

[sehnsucht77]

did you eventually go with Parallels? I am considering getting Parallels to run Win7 on a partition for medical school so I have the flexibility of both platforms on one machine. how is that working for you?

 

[Prodo123]

Just a question: do you write in Comic Sans on PURPOSE?

You cannot install Windows 7 via USB without some serious hacking. rEFIt does not work well AFAIK.

 

[shreds87]

Parallels works ok if your computer is powerful enough and you don't need it to run any high end software. The major downside is that for some reason you can't install Direct X, and so anything that needs any sort of graphics support does not work well if at all.

 

[shreds87]

Been playing around some more, with limited success.

http://studyblast.wordpress.com/201...sb-drive-how-to-update-any-ocz-ssds-firmware/

I tried making a usb using the following directions, but using the windows iso as boot.iso. The Grub efi is recognized and seems to boot fine, but I don't know how to get the windows installer to boot up from there.

Maybe one of you is more familiar with how grub works, but then maybe I am trying something that cannot be done by trying to boot a windows installer with efi.

 

[nitalice]

My first post here. I just want to share some idea regarding install windows without DVD for my mbp13 (mid2009) as I have replace my dvd drive with OWC optibay (my dvd drive is dead).

So what I had done was by using vmware fusion to clone the partition to bootcamp partition.

1. Create you bootcamp partition
2. Install Windows 7 into Vmware fusion ( make sure windows 7 installed into only 1 partition without recovery partition otherwise you will have a problem when cloning)
3. Quit vmware at first boot to stop windows from finish installation as we want Windows to finish install in bootcamp partition instead (to prevent drivers to be messed up between system).
4. use vmdkmounter (available in vmware fusion 3) to mount vmware disk
5. use winclone to clone vmware disk into bootcamp partition.
6. restart the machine and boot into bootcamp partition (press option key at start up to change boot drive)
7. finish installation of windows 7 in bootcamp partition and bootcamp driver.
8. it is done.

Note: you may use parallel to install windows 7 and clone later as well as long you can mount the parallels desktops disk.

Hope this help everyone who have problem with dvd drive in mbp and can't install windows via usb boot device.

 

[JHZR2]

I am having the same problem.

I have a late 2008 (non-unibody) MBP 4.1, with 2.6 C2D - internal DVD drive works perfectly. HDD was showing signs of going bad, so I installed a Samsung 830 SSD.

Did clean install of 10.7 from a lion USB stick - worked perfectly.

Did bootcamp, downloaded/installed Apple support SW onto a USB stick with MBR setup in the fat partition, like it should. 8 GB Kingston stick that I've read others have had success.

I have a W7 DVD, system builder 64 bit home premium - never used. I can open the DVD and browse it under Mac, see all the files, etc., so the DVD cannot be that bad, since it doesnt seem to be corrupted or blank...

So go through bootcamp, make the partition, it reboots and then black screen with cursor. I hear the DVD spin up, do some reading, then spin down, so something fails.

Booting with option pressed doesn't show a bootable USB (not sure if it is supposed to be), but the funny thing is that besides the Macintosh HD and Recovery HD, it shows two DVDs that I could boot to - one called Windows, one called something like boot - MCI. The odd thing is that trying to boot to either DVD option from the option screen doesn't do anything.

So the first question might be why can I not boot from a w7 install DVD by itself, not even under bootcamp? That is odd and may be related.

Any thoughts that it might be related to having an ssd installed? Can't see why since lion installed perfectly and ssd should be natively supported in w7.

So, any ideas? C2D should support 64 bit on all accounts, lion is fully updated, etc.

Thanks!

 

[jon08]

So is it possible AT ALL to install Bootcamp through an external Superdrive?!