Issues with OptiBay + Bootcamp Questions

[scotty588]

Yesterday I installed a MCE OptiBay into my mid 2012 Macbook Pro 15". I ordered the kit from MCE that included a 1 TB 7200 rpm HDD. Install went fine, but I had a few issues trying to format it.

First I wanted to make a 100 GB partition for Windows 7. Boot camp assistant would not do this. It spit out an error which I can't recall. So I decided to re-format the drive in journaled (as it already came in journaled). Boot camp assistant still did not work, but then it randomly decided to allow me to make the partition. Rebooted and went through the install via a bootable USB stick made with boot camp assistant. When it got to the part to choose the partition I couldn't select the one labeled "BOOTCAMP" so I tried to format it in the setup. This did not work. Tried deleting the partition, remaking it in the Win7 installer and still nothing worked.

At this point I thought I would just keep the bootcamp parition on my main SSD boot drive. So I went to start fresh and format the OptiBay drive again which sometimes works and other times it doesn't. I noticed if I run 'verify disk' or 'repair disk' it spits out a bunch of errors posted below.

I've read some posts that say you can't install a boot camp partition on the OptiBay without swapping around the drive to the primary and jumping through some hoops.

On the other hand I'm wondering if I have a bad drive or what's going on with this?

 

[yusukeaoki]

If I remember correctly, Bootcamp cannot be installed in a external drive.
Only the main drive with the OS installed.

I know there are work arounds but you cant just install them to a blank external.

 

[Yahooligan]

Just wanted to add that I'm unable to install Windows via Bootcamp when using an external CD drive and a 2nd drive in the optibay, something about this setup makes it angry.

This same laptop had no problem with Bootcamp/Win7 prior to installing the optibay and no, I wasn't trying to install Win7 on the optibay drive but on the SSD that's in the primary drive location.

I'm debating removing the optibay and putting the ODD back as a) I have used the external optical drive a number of times and b) the external drive doesn't provide the same functionality as the internal (DVD playback is "broken" among other things).

Perhaps this will be tonight's experiment...

 

[yusukeaoki]

Just wanted to add that I'm unable to install Windows via Bootcamp when using an external CD drive and a 2nd drive in the optibay, something about this setup makes it angry.

This same laptop had no problem with Bootcamp/Win7 prior to installing the optibay and no, I wasn't trying to install Win7 on the optibay drive but on the SSD that's in the primary drive location.

I'm debating removing the optibay and putting the ODD back as a) I have used the external optical drive a number of times and b) the external drive doesn't provide the same functionality as the internal (DVD playback is "broken" among other things).

Perhaps this will be tonight's experiment...

Everyone has the same problem because Windows cant recognize external USB drives during setup.
There are work arounds but the fastest way is to put the ODD back into the bay.

 

[scotty588]

Well I found out my problem with MCE's help. Basically my mid 2012 MBP doesn't like having a Sata 3 hard drive in the optical drive spot. So they sent me a Sata 2 1 TB 5400 RPM drive and it works.

I tried installing Windows 7 x64 and it's still a no go. Boot camp assistant partitions it, reboot and the Win 7 installer launches from my USB stick, get to the part where it asks me to select the partition and it errors. Trying to format the partition labeled BOOTCAMP works but then if I try to continue with the install I get error 0x80300024. No way around it. Read some threads that say if you disconnect your OSX drive the Windows install will work, but once you reconnect your OSX drive you can't boot to Windows. So I guess at this point I'll just reinstall Win 7 on my boot drive, which sucks since I wanted to free up space on my SSD.

 

[dusk007]

Think about it this way. Having windows on the HDD will mean it takes forever to reboot into windows or launch a VM.
Try installing through a VM like virtual box. You need to mount the partition as a raw vdsk and then you can just do everything from within the the VM. Works best imo and doesn't show any driver nonsense problem. The drive will still boot natively if you actually install it on the raw partition and not a virtual disk file.

 

[scotty588]

Think about it this way. Having windows on the HDD will mean it takes forever to reboot into windows or launch a VM.
Try installing through a VM like virtual box. You need to mount the partition as a raw vdsk and then you can just do everything from within the the VM. Works best imo and doesn't show any driver nonsense problem. The drive will still boot natively if you actually install it on the raw partition and not a virtual disk file.

I hardly ever use Windows so I wouldn't really mind if it's slow.

So are you saying make small partition on the 1 TB drive and try to install with Vmware? Hmm I thought I remember reading something about this, but didn't look into it too much.

 

[dusk007]

Yes basically. Making a small NTFS partition with disk utility.
Then you need to create a virtual disk that is linked to the raw partition. So it basically isn't a virtual disk only appears such for vmware. There are tutorials. It is what vmware does automatically when it makes you native install bootable as a vm.
Once you got the working virtual disk it is really easy, simple and convenient to install windows.

 

[Yahooligan]

Everyone has the same problem because Windows cant recognize external USB drives during setup.
There are work arounds but the fastest way is to put the ODD back into the bay.

That's actually not the problem I was running into. Couldn't boot the Win 7 DVD, couldn't boot the Bootcamp-created USB stick which negates the need for a CD drive, and when I did manage to get to the point where I could install Windows it said the partition I wanted to install to, on the SSD in the main bay, wasn't found/supported even though it was right there in the list and I could format it right there in the installer.

So there's not just a single issue with Win7/Bootcamp with optibay MBPs, there are multiple potential issues.

I pulled the optibay out, put the ODD back in, and viola...installed Win7 no problem. I may eventually miss the extra space from the 2nd HDD, but I missed a properly-functioning Mac more.