mid 2011 imac; Installing Windows 8.1
I read in my travels through this mega mess created by Apple that the only way to install Windows on Boot Camp was using the INTERNAL optical drive, an external one did not work, to install. The USB requirement in setting up the installation was to download Boot Camp files and drivers for when Windows was installed from the internal optical DVD.
This turns out to be absolutely correct. I wasted LITERALLY over 120+ hours just trying various methods and various apps to make a Windows install possible using a USB drive.
My internal optical was bad as it turns out. It would work on some software ect. but would not even load Windows install disks. As a last resort I bought a used optical and installed it. It loaded the Windows install disks and I created the USB Boot Camp files. It installed right away. The only thing I had to do was reformat the Boot Camp partician in the install process.
So, FINAL CONCLUSION: If you do not have an internal optical drive in your 2011 imac don't waste your time trying to make a bootable USB installation. It WON'T work. Windows can only be installed from the internal optical drive, period.
The 21st century children programmers and engineers that work for Apple are either criminally stupid or else they have been instructed to program installs of Windows this way to make it difficult or impossible for users.
I read in my travels through this mega mess created by Apple that the only way to install Windows on Boot Camp was using the INTERNAL optical drive, an external one did not work, to install. The USB requirement in setting up the installation was to download Boot Camp files and drivers for when Windows was installed from the internal optical DVD.
This turns out to be absolutely correct. I wasted LITERALLY over 120+ hours just trying various methods and various apps to make a Windows install possible using a USB drive.
My internal optical was bad as it turns out. It would work on some software ect. but would not even load Windows install disks. As a last resort I bought a used optical and installed it. It loaded the Windows install disks and I created the USB Boot Camp files. It installed right away. The only thing I had to do was reformat the Boot Camp partician in the install process.
So, FINAL CONCLUSION: If you do not have an internal optical drive in your 2011 imac don't waste your time trying to make a bootable USB installation. It WON'T work. Windows can only be installed from the internal optical drive, period.
The 21st century children programmers and engineers that work for Apple are either criminally stupid or else they have been instructed to program installs of Windows this way to make it difficult or impossible for users.
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