Can't install Windows from USB Flash Drive Installer?

[wirelessness]

Can anyone help me figure out if it is possible it install Windows using a USB Flash Drive configured to function as an Install Disk? Using the generally accepted method for converting a USB flash drive to act as an installation disc my 2010 iMac 27 will not recognize this drive using the boot drive 'option' key method.

After formatting the drive as an MBR disk to act as in installer the iMac will not recognize it as a bootable drive. This works fine on other Intel based computers and my GUID USB Flash Drive OSX install image works just fine and is recognizable as a bootable drive. So, I know it's not just because it's USB. If I format a physical disk partition using the same method the iMac will recognize this as a bootable option and I can install Windows from there.

I know this is not the most common method but if anyone has some input that would be great....

 

[gugucom]

The firmware in the Mac is EFI. It has no user configurable features like USB boot support for Windows. It boots OS X via anything from fire wire, USB, e-SATA and SATA but Windows will only work from internal ODD and HDD drives.

The method you describe is for BIOS machines only.

 

[balamw]

You can use your USB installer via VMWare Fusion, even if you want to install to Boot Camp. Read here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/601414/ for more info.

Basically this emulates a BIOS based machine so you can boot from it.

B