Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Gothbot6k

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 23, 2010
10
0
Virginia
I recently upgraded my Imac Harddrive from a standard 320 GB to a 1.5 TB Segate Barracuda 7200 Rpm 3GBS. Previously I had a boot camp partition for windows 7 ultimate. When I put in the new harddrive I decided to start fresh and do clean installs. Now when I try and install Windows 7 it goes fine until the last restart (4 total including initial restart). Then it just gets stuck at the screen where it says "Push any Key to Boot from CD or DVD". It will stay like that for a few seconds then the disk will stop spinning. So my question is now what do I do? I have to have windows for work purposes and this is driving me insane. PLEASE HELP!
 
I recently upgraded my Imac Harddrive from a standard 320 GB to a 1.5 TB Segate Barracuda 7200 Rpm 3GBS. Previously I had a boot camp partition for windows 7 ultimate. When I put in the new harddrive I decided to start fresh and do clean installs. Now when I try and install Windows 7 it goes fine until the last restart (4 total including initial restart). Then it just gets stuck at the screen where it says "Push any Key to Boot from CD or DVD". It will stay like that for a few seconds then the disk will stop spinning. So my question is now what do I do? I have to have windows for work purposes and this is driving me insane. PLEASE HELP!

i had this same problem when installing win 7 on my mates mbp, turned out that if you hover over it like a hawk and press any key as soon as that appears its fine, but if you leave it for a few seconds its as if it freezes
 
i had this same problem when installing win 7 on my mates mbp, turned out that if you hover over it like a hawk and press any key as soon as that appears its fine, but if you leave it for a few seconds its as if it freezes

I tried that it didnt work. It just went back to the the installation setup and made me restart.
 
What about ejecting the disc after the first restart, you do not need it from there after.

troutspinner
 
Did you print the boot camp installation instructions, thoroughly read them first, and then follow them step-by-step in the process? An awful lot of bootcamp issues seem to revolve around people hoping for a "it just works" experience (not reading the instructions). Often that's a safe bet with Apple stuff, but in this case, there are times when Windows is in charge of the machine and/or the screen is not available to you because you're in an in-between state (no screen means no dynamic step-by-step instructions).

I have an imac and wanted to install Windows 7 (too). I printed the step-by-step instructions and followed them. Bootcamp worked in one try. If you haven't tried that yet, maybe that will help?

Last option is to take it into an Apple store and ask for help doing this.
 
Is Boot Camp Completely;100%, if not more ;) Native for Windows???

Is Boot Camp Completely;100%, if not more ;) Native for Windows???
 
Macabit I do not understand you last response. And yes I am following the instructions. It's just weird to me because it worked before I put in this new hard drive.And I let it sit for 3 hours at the one part and nothing happened so thats how I know it is messed up.
 
Gothbot6k; My question was simply a general Boot Camp question... Sorry for the confusion/interruption...
 
Is Boot Camp Completely;100%, if not more ;) Native for Windows???

Yes, when you boot to your boot camp partition, you have a fully Windows implementation, as much as using a Dell or other PC. It will run just as fast and be just as much of a Windows machine as if you wiped OS X off the drive and made it a pure Windows computer.

This is different than running Windows through a virtual machine (like Parallels or VMware), which, while very good in many cases, can not match the fullest compatibility and speed of running Windows native or native within a boot camp boot.
 
Macabit I do not understand you last response. And yes I am following the instructions.

You're carefully following the written printed-on-a-piece-of-paper instructions right? Not the on-screen instructions? I recall that there was one little sentence in the written instructions that caught me by surprise when I thought maybe the install wasn't going right... but it did with no problems.
 
You're carefully following the written printed-on-a-piece-of-paper instructions right? Not the on-screen instructions? I recall that there was one little sentence in the written instructions that caught me by surprise when I thought maybe the install wasn't going right... but it did with no problems.

Yes I have them printed and I look at them while trying it. Now I had an Idea I wanted to ask you guys incase it would work. I have parallels 5 installed but it isnt powerful enough for what I need so my question now is can I make a boot camp partition then while in parallels do an install there? Or would that not work Im not sure.
 
I don't think that would work. I have an iMac, Parallels and boot camp partition myself. The correct way to mix the 3 is first set up the boot camp partition, then have Parallels use the bootcamp partition for the virtual machine.

Parallels otherwise doesn't care about the bootcamp partition. If you install Windows through Parallels its "partition" will be a virtual one, and Windows will count that as an installation and not allow you to install it a second time via bootcamp (as that will look very much like you have 1 license to Windows trying to be installed on 2 different computers).

Given that you've followed the written instructions, I'd suggest visiting an Apple store and see if a Genius will help you with the boot camp install. I don't know if they do that or not, but it's easy enough to call and ask.
 
I don't think that would work. I have an iMac, Parallels and boot camp partition myself. The correct way to mix the 3 is first set up the boot camp partition, then have Parallels use the bootcamp partition for the virtual machine.

Parallels otherwise doesn't care about the bootcamp partition. If you install Windows through Parallels its "partition" will be a virtual one, and Windows will count that as an installation and not allow you to install it a second time via bootcamp (as that will look very much like you have 1 license to Windows trying to be installed on 2 different computers).

Given that you've followed the written instructions, I'd suggest visiting an Apple store and see if a Genius will help you with the boot camp install. I don't know if they do that or not, but it's easy enough to call and ask.
Thanks for the advice but I might do that (About the apple store thing.) It doesnt matter though for me how many copies I have because work bought like I'm not sure but its alot I know I get atleast like 5 installs for myself so it doesnt matter.
 
Then, if you need windows before you can get help, installing it via Parallels could be a quick way. The best way is to install in boot camp, then have Parallels use that partition, but if you basically have licenses' to burn...

I would but I cant use parrells for what i need it for because it would be so awful for lack of ram on either side.
 
I don't think I understand your comment. If your computer has little ram, it doesn't take much these days to add ram. If you don't have much ram, that may be why your bootcamp install is failing. Windows likes lots of ram. Windows 7 even more so. OS X likes lots of ram too. Add ram.

If by either side you mean ram available for OS X vs. Parallels, you decide how much each side gets as part of setting up Parallels. On the new iMac, I've got 12GB of ram, and allocated 4GB to Parallels, which has proven to be more than needed.
 
I don't think I understand your comment. If your computer has little ram, it doesn't take much these days to add ram. If you don't have much ram, that may be why your bootcamp install is failing. Windows likes lots of ram. Windows 7 even more so. OS X likes lots of ram too. Add ram.

If by either side you mean ram available for OS X vs. Parallels, you decide how much each side gets as part of setting up Parallels. On the new iMac, I've got 12GB of ram, and allocated 4GB to Parallels, which has proven to be more than needed.

Ive got 4 gigs of ram and 4 gigs is what I need for the software I intend to run.
 
Is 4 Gigs your max ram capacity? Otherwise, running Windows and then your application or running OS X + Parallels + Windows + your application are both going to eat up some ram. If your application needs 4 Gigs you need more ram (if your computer can work with more).

If not, you really need to get the boot camp thing working. Take it to Apple Store and maybe they'll help you.
 
Is 4 Gigs your max ram capacity? Otherwise, running Windows and then your application or running OS X + Parallels + Windows + your application are both going to eat up some ram. If your application needs 4 Gigs you need more ram (if your computer can work with more).

If not, you really need to get the boot camp thing working. Take it to Apple Store and maybe they'll help you.
Yes 4 gigs is all i have in my machine and 4 gigs is what I need for the application (around that anyway) So yea I need to take it to the apple store I guess. Plus its a very graphics demanding application so I probably couldn't run in parallels anyway.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.