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How would we install Windows7 on a (hypothetical) DVD-less iMac?

D

DeF46

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 9, 2012
122
0
Belgium
I'm curious: if the new iMac had no DVD drive, how would we install Windows7 ?

I know there are no substantiated leaks on that, but I'm still curious as to how it would work, has anyone experience with this?

Is this something you could do with another laptop ready, or would you need a preinstalled Windows7 to create some sort of flash drive installer ?
 
DeF46 said:
I'm curious: if the new iMac had no DVD drive, how would we install Windows7 ?

I know there are no substantiated leaks on that, but I'm still curious as to how it would work, has anyone experience with this?

Is this something you could do with another laptop ready, or would you need a preinstalled Windows7 to create some sort of flash drive installer ?
Click to expand...

Get a external ODD
 
You folks all know that RIGHT NOW there is no DVD drive on MacBook Airs and Mac Minis, right?

There's no need to speculate. Bootcamp assistant already supports it. Look on the Apple website for the answer.
 
Occamsrazr said:
Just buy an external drive. I've already got one anyway. They're cheap.
Click to expand...

No lol, if Apple removes the DVD drive and continues to maintain Bootcamp surely there would be another way? :)

----------
NewbieCanada said:
You folks all know that RIGHT NOW there is no DVD drive on MacBook Airs and Mac Minis, right?

There's no need to speculate. Bootcamp assistant already supports it. Look on the Apple website for the answer.
Click to expand...

Oh, good point, thanks.

Very helpful post here:
ZBoater said:
Installing BootCamp on a 2011 MBA is one of the easiest things I've done. Im not sure how it was before, but with BootCamp 4.0 all you do is run BootCamp Assistant. It takes your Win7 ISO image and copies the install files onto a USB key, makes it bootable, and connects to Apple servers to download all the Win7 drivers for your MBA. All this while you make yourself a sandwich. It reboots from the USB key and kicks off the Win7 install process off it. After its done, you reboot into Windows, and then go into the USB key, look for the WindowsSupport folder, and run the setup.exe file that you find there. That loads all the Win7 drivers.

Reboot once more. Done.
Click to expand...

Okay so my next question would be: what is the easiest way to make that Windows7 ISO image? (because... I bought it o_O)
 
Last edited:
DeF46 said:
Okay so my next question would be: what is the easiest way to make that Windows7 ISO image? (because... I bought it o_O)
Click to expand...

If you already own the DVD, someone already posted the Unix command to extract the ISO. I recall "dd" was involved.
 
DeF46 said:
Weird, this May 2012 article mentions that Bootcamp requires an optical drive.

http://www.ksptechnology.com/blog/2...with-boot-camp-without-an-external-dvd-drive/

Is the ISO option only in Bootcamp on Lion perhaps?
Click to expand...

All I know is that when I wanted to install W7 on my Mini, Boot Camp asked me for the iso and offered to write the image onto USB.

According to the official guide, it is a feature available to Boot Camp on certain Macs:

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/boot_camp_install-setup_10.7.pdf

I imagine they would release similar versions to non-ODD iMacs or MBPs.
 
adnbek said:
All I know is that when I wanted to install W7 on my Mini, Boot Camp asked me for the iso and offered to write the image onto USB.

According to the official guide, it is a feature available to Boot Camp on certain Macs:

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/boot_camp_install-setup_10.7.pdf

I imagine they would release similar versions to non-ODD iMacs or MBPs.
Click to expand...

Thanks that's a bit weird it says:

You may be able to install Windows 7 with a USB flash drive that contains a Windows 7 ISO
image downloaded from Microsoft. To check whether you can do so, open Boot Camp
Assistant, click Continue, and see if the option “Create a Windows 7 install disk” is available.
Click to expand...

I guess that's enough hypothetical for now. But it's nice to know the option is there :)
 
adnbek said:
What's so weird about that? It does work that way already on Macs like mine that have no optical drive.
Click to expand...

That it's not 100% always there. Seems un-Apple like that you have to open the app and check if the option is there.

I mean, why would they not leave the option to install from ISO on any Macs?
 
seems they keep the option hidden on Macs other than minis and airs. I think its possible to unhide the option, I remember seeing it on another site (cant remember the name). any1 know how to do this? cheers..
 
thomasfrdavis said:
seems they keep the option hidden on Macs other than minis and airs. I think its possible to unhide the option, I remember seeing it on another site (cant remember the name). any1 know how to do this? cheers..
Click to expand...

If you right-click the Boot camp app and choose "Show package contents", there is an info.plist file and there's an attribute called "USBBootSupportedModels" at the bottom with a list of models that support creating a USB stick. I bet editing that file by adding your model to the list (backup the original just in case) might just do the trick.
 
adnbek said:
If you right-click the Boot camp app and choose "Show package contents", there is an info.plist file and there's an attribute called "USBBootSupportedModels" at the bottom with a list of models that support creating a USB stick. I bet editing that file by adding your model to the list (backup the original just in case) might just do the trick.
Click to expand...

thanks for the info.. :)
 
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