MB AIR W7 64 USB & rEFIt Error

[englishman]

I am trying to get W7 64 on my MBA from a bootable USB.

I have the bootable USB OK

I have Bootcamp partition 32 FAT

But rEFIt is giving me an Error: Not found returned from legacy loader

 

[balamw]

This is a common problem. See the big thread for other options that might work. Macs have trouble booting legacy OSes from USB even with rEFIt.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/601414/

Use a VM to get the files onto your partition or create a throwaway partition to install from.

B

 

[englishman]

That's quite an old thread but I don't have VMWARE.

I can create a throwaway partition and copy the files there but how do I make it active and bootable without VMWARE?

 

[balamw]

That's quite an old thread but I don't have VMWARE.

I can create a throwaway partition and copy the files there but how do I make it active and bootable without VMWARE?

VMWare Fusion has a free trial or you can try to make it work with Virtualbox (free).

B

 

[englishman]

Thanks for the pointers, got VirtualBox now but is there an absolute idiots guide to making an existing partition active and bootable. I can't find anything from Googling.

 

[balamw]

Thanks for the pointers, got VirtualBox now but is there an absolute idiots guide to making an existing partition active and bootable. I can't find anything from Googling.

They're in the other thread I pointed to. Unfortunately that's about as detailed as I know.

B

 

[gloryunited]

This is a common problem. See the big thread for other options that might work. Macs have trouble booting legacy OSes from USB even with rEFIt.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/601414/

Use a VM to get the files onto your partition or create a throwaway partition to install from.

B

Does it mean we cannot follow Microsoft's "install Win7 using a USB" guide on any Mac?

It is a bit disappointing, especially for MB Air. Steve Jobs suggested a SuperDrive or the remote disc method, but since Microsoft has released the USB guide AND MB Air has no optical drive, being able to boot it and install it from USB would be an ideal method...

 

[balamw]

Does it mean we cannot follow Microsoft's "install Win7 using a USB" guide on any Mac?

You can follow it, it just isn't guaranteed to work.

I don't have an MBA to try it myself, but so far the track record isn't good. Macs will generally boot OS X and Linux from USB, but Windows not so much.

Pre-W7 the main issue complicating Boot Camp is that Windows still relied on BIOS/MBR to boot, but W764 finally brought native EFI boot to Windows. (Unfortunately, not the same version of EFI that was on many pre-existing Macs). I am not sure, but my suspicion is that part of the reason "install Win7 using a USB" doesn't work reliably is that it is still essentially BIOS/MBR based.

Finally, you can boot from the USB in a VM which is one of the workarounds. Do the boot and initial install in a VM, targeting the Boot Camp partition and then boot from the partition at first boot, and the other workaround basically follows the guide but copies the W7 installer to an internal partition.

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