Lion and Bootcamp. The Good and The Bad.

[DonCarlos]

As is the case with many subjects covered here; many people post because of problems encountered (me included) and are looking for a bit of help. Nothing wrong with that.

But I am also curious about the installs that have been successful.

As time goes on I am sure that a wealth of information will appear on the Forum, but why not start a thread now where we can all take a look at this information in one place.

If this is bad idea then no worry, this thread will die on its own merit.

Until then, I ask:

1) What problems have you encountered with Windows using Bootcamp and Lion OS?

and

2) Who has installed Windows successfully using Bootcamp with Lion?

And of course any added tips or observations concerning either question is most welcome.

 

[Mist80]

I have tried to install Win7 on my new Mac Mini (2011) but the windows installation fails with an error;

"Windows could not configure one or more system components. To install Windows, restart the computer and then restart the installation."

I have tried to perform the installation 3 times with the same problem. I am using Windows 7 Ultimate Edition 64-bit.

Has anyone had any success installing Windows 7 on the new mac mini?

 

[LizKat]

Bootcamp instructions at least for Snow Leopard, suggest you can only install the 32-bit Windows 7 on a Mini.

 

[Mist80]

Thanks LizKat.

I would have thought that the new mac mini could run 64-bit given its running an Intel i5 CPU. Also they seem to support 64-bit for the new MBPs also.

I will try a re-install using 32-bit version and let you know how it goes.

UPDATE: Installed Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit worked successfully. Thanks again.

 

[MJL]

Bootcamp instructions at least for Snow Leopard, suggest you can only install the 32-bit Windows 7 on a Mini.

don't know where you got that from since I read that Windows 7 64 bit was recommended. I am running Win64 bit, initally I tried my Win 7 Professional and when that worked I bought a license for win 7 64 bit home and that is running fine. (snow leopard) (mid 2010 Mac Mini)

On another note - I have had nothing but trouble trying to resize using Paragon partition manager 11 or the windows disk manager. Size bootcamp correctly right at the start. I used CopyCatx to clone the whole hard disk and used WinClone to make a backup of only the Win 7 partition.

 

[KPOM]

I've noticed that Lion requires you to insert a Windows disc or USB drive before it will create the Boot Camp partition. Snow Leopard would let you just create a partition. That sort of nixed my attempt at just creating a partition and restoring the clone of the Windows drive that I created using LapLink.

I tried getting around it by inserting the install disc and then aborting the process. My plan was to boot from the Laplink clone I made of my BC partition onto a USB drive. However, my new 2011 MacBook Air didn't like being booted into a Windows partition on a USB drive (created on my 2010 MacBook Air), so that nixed that idea. Plus, the Mac seemed to default to booting into my empty BC partition unless I held down the Option key, so I deleted the BC partition and called it a night.

I'll probably just go into reinstall Windows from the disc tonight and then try to restore it from the clone. Unfortunately, I have a Windows 7 Upgrade DVD so I need to install it twice (once on top of itself) to get it to activate. It's as if Microsoft never envisioned that those of us with Vista full editions and Win 7 upgrades might want to do a clean install of Windows 7 one day.

 

[TOYSTER17]

Darn it. I have a late 2008 Macbook, aluminum, I don't think Windows 7 64bit is supported. I got a free 'Key' from msdnaa through my school, but I don't know if the same key will work with a 32-bit installation.

Where can I download a Windows 7 iso?

 

[ayeying]

Darn it. I have a late 2008 Macbook, aluminum, I don't think Windows 7 64bit is supported. I got a free 'Key' from msdnaa through my school, but I don't know if the same key will work with a 32-bit installation.

Where can I download a Windows 7 iso?

It is supported, just unofficially. Your computer has a 64-bit processor, therefore, will be able to run 64-bit Windows 7.

 

[barleycorn]

hey ya'll. i tried to install a bootcamp array today and ran into this error.

(photo removed), text read, "Can't install Windows Support Software because it is not currently available from the Software Update server"

anybody else coming up with this?

 

[shyam09]

hey ya'll. i tried to install a bootcamp array today and ran into this error.

anybody else coming up with this?

hmm ill try my best to help you, but keep the following in mind please:
[*] I already had a Windows 7 partition on my drive when i had Snow Leopard [do things might be waay different. Ill provide my own advice, but i will greatly appreciate others checking my post

ok let's begin:
i am guessing [and am almost 99.99% sure] that the reason why you cannot do this is because you need a windows partition.
what i mean is, install Windows on your computer [i believe OS X Lion removes support of Windows XP] and then after the installation of windows, go back into lion, fire up bootcamp, and then select the option for windows support software. you should be able to download it.

best of luck!
Backup and proceed with caution!!

oh and as a personal advice, you should black out your Serial Number, fyi.. just to be safe

 

[barleycorn]

thanks shyam. will report back soon!

 

[DonCarlos]

Finally took the plunge and installed LION.

Initial results: Repeated Error Failed Installation Recovery System Cannot Be Created

Apparently this has to do with Lion's need to create a 2 GB recovery partition. And having windows partition there is not allowing for that recovery partite to me made.

What Did Not Work>

Repeated install attempts failed (5)
Install with a newly made dmg Lion DVD failed
Install with a newly made dmg Lion USB stick failed.

Plugging in a 16GB Flash drive that is HFS formatted (thought that the installer might see that to put the recovery on....silly but I thought I would try)

What worked>

Removing the Windows partition. Success. The down side I had to reinstall W7.

Also, what did not work after I had Lion installed for trying to recover the W7 with external winclone copies :
Winclone "Error message saying that could only be used with Leopard or SL" I tried the 4 versions of winclone that I have...on external drive.


On a side note regarding the attempts to install Lion to begin with I did read somewhere that one way around that No Install Error, was to create a third partition on the HD to put Lion on separately, so you have a three OS.....but I see no point in that since I want Lion as the mac OS with a full amount of my GB.

I kept wondering if it was even worth all that....but by today after playing with new newly installed LION OS I am greatly peaked that I did it. It is so much easier to move about the pages in desktop and the browsers.

 

[Koffie]

I just installed Windows 7 using bootcamp
with so many troubles I actually forgot I had some Lion related troubles

1) the common not being able to burn DVD-R problem
-solved with a cleaning disc
2) While I had troubles burning the disc, I tried to do it directly from the ISO, which proved to be too hard, and caused me to tinker with the created Bootcamp partition -> Could not install on partition 4 (?) because it had to be NTFS (question mark because I should only have the mac partition, bootcamp partition (and recovery partition)must be the SSD part of my Hybrid drive?)
-returned to mac, ran Bootcamp again, removed the windows partition. Ran Bootcamp Again, made a new partition.
3) Still the same problem with partition 4 (note: none of the partitions would work for all the same reason: not NTFS)
-Drive options->format while directed at the bootcamp partition. then the install went perfect.

 

[aperturevx]

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So I installed Lion the day it came out and so far have had no troubles. I was previously running Snow Leapord and a Windows 7 64-bit partition using bootcamp on my mid 2010 15" MBP and since installing Lion I haven't noticed any problems booting up either Mac or Windows. Interestingly though, when I hold the option key on start-up, it displays 3 disks (one is the 2GB Lion backup partition) whereas before it only showed "Macintosh HD" and "Windows." guess I got off lucky.

 

[johnc22]

Brand new MBA 13" + Win7 home premium x64. Once I realized my original ISO download from Microsoft was corrupt, I re-downloaded it and the Bootcamp install was seamless from there using an 8GB thumb drive.

With the corrupt ISO the install would quit at about 42% of expanding files.

 

[DonCarlos]

Glad others are able to install easier than I did.

I am wondering what the issue could be on some macs.

Perhaps it's because I am running an older c2d Mini circa 2008 (but then again others at the Mini forum have installed with no problems).

One of the mysteries of what I have or have not, that caused such an error, until windows was deleted?

Perhaps balamw has some insight on this.

Mine is a nontech's stab in the dark....but could it have anything to do with how my windows was last installed over the past two HD and OS upgrade; using a cloned copy via winclone. Probably not but there must be some reason Lion installs with an intact bootcamp and others it does not and requires a deletion so Lion can make a 2GB recovery partition.

I forgot to mention in my earlier post, that I did speak to an Apple tech and later followed by email echange, on that error. He seemed concerned but basically said that he personally had not heard of that error before. I don't doubt that since Lion is still so new. But I did mention that a check over the internet came back with multiple people resorting the issue; so hopefully it will be addressed and resolved other that having to delete windows as the first step, or having to create a third partition to put Lion on.

I am enjoying the input and dialog on this thread....so hopefully it proves of value to others as well.

Best Regards