Installing Win 7 Bootcamp on 2012 iMac

[AnTaR3s]

Hey

I have done a lot of reading on this, but I still don't know if I can get Win 7 installed with the equipment I have.

What I have got:
latest iMac with no optical drive
Win 7 ISO file
1 USB hard drive

Short question:
Can I do it with just these things?

I am worried because:

a) Apple only mentioned USB flash drives to create a bootable disk image
b) I would need to save the drivers also on this external disk

any help?
thanks
Antares

 

[AnonMac50]

Hey

I have done a lot of reading on this, but I still don't know if I can get Win 7 installed with the equipment I have.

What I have got:
latest iMac with no optical drive
Win 7 ISO file
1 USB hard drive

Short question:
Can I do it with just these things?

I am worried because:

a) Apple only mentioned USB flash drives to create a bootable disk image
b) I would need to save the drivers also on this external disk

any help?
thanks
Antares

Believe that you could be able to use it with a USB hard drive. There would probably be no problem saving the drivers on this disk.

 

[SueG]

Doubtful. I struggled to install windows for three days when we got our imac 2012 via usb flash drive.
Bought the superdrive locally. And installed easily.

 

[AnTaR3s]

Just in case people have the same question in the future:

I managed to do it and it was quite simple
Here my steps:
1) download all boot camp drivers you need:
http://www.cafe-encounter.net/p682/download-bootcamp-drivers

Store them wherever you want so you find them later

2) run boot camp assistance and let it create a bootable windows install disk on the external drive but don't download the drivers.

3) divide your hard drive however you want and then the boot camp assistance should automatically launch the installation

4) when the windows installation finishes just go back to Mac OS and copy the drivers on the external drive so that you can access them in windows

5) simply install the drivers directly in windows.

Done!

Very simple.

 

[chrfr]

2) run boot camp assistance and let it create a bootable windows install disk on the external drive but don't download the drivers.

There's no reason to not let the Boot Camp Assistant download the drivers for you if you have a USB flash drive. If you do not, you can just download the drivers for your computer from Apple directly, after you install Windows: http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/downloads/

The process at the link you posted is obsolete now that Apple has made direct downloads of the drivers available.

 

[AnTaR3s]

This was the first link I found for the drivers and for me the download of them via the Bootcamp Assistant did not work. It simply stopped after a while which seems to be a problem quite some people share.

Good to know that you can get the software from Apple directly though!