Hi
I had a plethora of issues on a older MBP to install Win7 so here is what I can confirm works
First off MacBook Pro 15 early 2008 2.4 Ghz, 4 GB mem, Lion 7.4
Here is what you will need:
USB key
Windows Vista Bootable DVD
ISO of whatever version of Windows 7 you plan to use
BootCamp 3.0
BootCamp 4.0
BootLoader V0.14 =
http://refit.sourceforge.net
Read ALL the steps first before proceeding
1.) Go to the Mac's Disk Utility and partion your drive to whatever you want as a size for Windows install (I used 100GB) and make sure to use the option to format it as FAT. Note use a unique size this will be IMPORTANT later
2.) Download and install Bootloader
http://refit.sourceforge.net on the Mac
3.) Use BootCamp assistant to
ONLY!! download BootCamp 4.0 (Windows Support Software) save the files to a USB key.
4.) Download BootCamp 3.0 and save that to your USB key (Google is your friend)
5.) Boot up to the bootloader screen on the Mac
6.) You need a copy of Windows Vista bootable (this is critical) I used Windows Vista Ultimate 64. If you have it as an ISO burn it out to DVD.
7.) Boot up your Mac with your Windows Vista DVD to the bootloader screen and select the option to boot off the Windows DVD
8.) At the partion selection screen select the partition you created in step 1 (you took note of the size....right?)
9.) Use the format option which should format the partition as NTFS and continue with the install
10.) Now you have Vista running, insert the USB key and run BootCamp 3.0 if you are running 64 bit you will need to do the following:
In the Start Menu Type "cmd", then right-click on the program that appears and choose "Run As Administrator". From the command prompt change to your USB key navigate to BootCamp 3.0 and:
cd "\Drivers\Apple"
msiexec /i BootCamp64.msi
11.) Now that all your drivers are up to date, go to control panel and under uninstall programs uninstall BootCamp
12.) Now either create a folder on the root of C:\ and extract your Windows 7 iso (UltraISO is your friend) to a custom directory or burn the iso to a DVD and let it autorun
13.) Now you just do a in-place upgrade (Don't bother with the connect online for updates option)
14.) Grats you are running Windows 7, now just run BootCamp 4.0 from your USB key and let it update your Mac drivers...your done!!
Hope the above helps others
~Metalmyth
P.S.
For those interested:
USB install option enabled for BootCamp as described here:
http://www.examiner.com/article/make-usb-windows-7-installer-from-any-lion-macbook
Just a side note, the terminal window description I couldn't get to work... but clicking the BootCamp icon once so it is selected and then using the gear icon in the top menu and selecting "Show Package Contents" and navigating to the file directly and altering it worked for me