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Putting Windows 8.1 on newest Macbook HELP!

M

Mormaer

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 3, 2013
4
0
Hi everyone,

First time poster, longer time lurker. I have owned Mac Books for years, and just recently bought the "newest" Macbook pro. It's stats are:

Apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display ME294LL/A Intel Core i7 2.3GHz 16GB Memory 512GB PCIe-Based Flash Storage SSD 15.4" Notebook Mac OS X v10.9 Mavericks

I have always owned a PC (still do), but considering the price and power on this system, I want to put Windows 8.1 on it (mainly for games, everything else is done in OS X). I purchased Windows 8.1, along with an external DVD drive, and hope to get some advice on how to install it on my new system. I know there are some workarounds to this, and I have searched and read several threads, but most seemed to be geared towards someone who has some experience with bootcamp, something I have absolutely no experience with. If anyone could possibly give me some step by step noob instructions I would greatly appreciate it ;-) I am also curious how large a partition I should dedicate to Windows, I was thinking 120-150 gigs, but am not sure.

Thanks so much!!!
 
Several people have had problems with getting Windows on to a 2013 MacBook Pro retina, it seems - even using Boot Camp.
I believe new support drivers are available from Apple for the latest models (though to nobody else) but the main problems seem to have been actually getting it installed in the first place.
You could give it a go and see what happens or you could possibly wait for possible updates to Boot Camp (though when those might arrive nobody knows).
 
Quackers said:
Several people have had problems with getting Windows on to a 2013 MacBook Pro retina, it seems - even using Boot Camp.
I believe new support drivers are available from Apple for the latest models (though to nobody else) but the main problems seem to have been actually getting it installed in the first place.
You could give it a go and see what happens or you could possibly wait for possible updates to Boot Camp (though when those might arrive nobody knows).
Click to expand...

Yep, and I know there are workarounds, I am just hoping someone here mitt be able to help me out with that...
 
I couldn't even get windows 8 loaded without work around help.

Essentially i started with bootcamp

Reboot pressing option, select windows disk / usb whichever applies to you.

start install process choose partition... if it doesn't work press format when selecting the boot camp partition

if that doesn't work reboot holding down option and go back to osx and disk utility

delete partition and apply

recreate partition called bootcamp and as exfat

reboot holding down option boot back into windows installer

repeat the partition selection and format the newly created bootcamp partition

following installation

it will ask you to install apple drivers after installation

that should do it

but each time windows wants to reboot interrupt boot up with option key and select the new windows partition to get back to the installation



i personally found it a nightmare and windows 8 is truly awful. In fact i CBA trying to play BF4 on it anymore, it's unbelievable.
 
Mormaer said:
Hi everyone,

First time poster, longer time lurker. I have owned Mac Books for years, and just recently bought the "newest" Macbook pro. It's stats are:

Apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display ME294LL/A Intel Core i7 2.3GHz 16GB Memory 512GB PCIe-Based Flash Storage SSD 15.4" Notebook Mac OS X v10.9 Mavericks

I have always owned a PC (still do), but considering the price and power on this system, I want to put Windows 8.1 on it (mainly for games, everything else is done in OS X). I purchased Windows 8.1, along with an external DVD drive, and hope to get some advice on how to install it on my new system. I know there are some workarounds to this, and I have searched and read several threads, but most seemed to be geared towards someone who has some experience with bootcamp, something I have absolutely no experience with. If anyone could possibly give me some step by step noob instructions I would greatly appreciate it ;-) I am also curious how large a partition I should dedicate to Windows, I was thinking 120-150 gigs, but am not sure.

Thanks so much!!!
Click to expand...


This is what I did with Windows 8 (should work the same for 8.1).

I put the disc in the external drive and connected it, and connected a USB stick. I downloaded the drivers onto that, Then I partitioned the drive (I put about 128 GB out of the 1 TB). It partitioned and went to reboot. At that point and pressed option. I selected the EFI_Boot option of the DVD drive, and from there it was all easy and mostly automated. Select language, select partition and format it, put in the serial number, and that's it. It reboots itself a few times. Boot Camp drivers installer opened automatically when all was done afterwards. Make sure you boot back into OS X and set the startup disk to the OS X partition, otherwise it automatically boots to Windows 8.1 every time you start the computer.

You can set the scaling to 200% if you prefer, as Windows 8.1 supports that much better than Windows 8 does (Perfect Retina). I kept it at 150% as I prefer the extra working space (on OS X I have it set to 3240x2400 scaled 200%, so I get the same working space).

I have since added Windows Media Center and updated my install to 8.1.

So far it's been working great for me.

Hope this helps. Good luck.
 
AnonMac50 said:
I put the disc in the external drive and connected it, and connected a USB stick. I downloaded the drivers onto that, Then I partitioned the drive (I put about 128 GB out of the 1 TB).
Click to expand...


I'm sorry, but which drivers from where? First time doing this...
 
Mormaer said:
I'm sorry, but which drivers from where? First time doing this...
Click to expand...

Boot Camp drivers. The Boot Camp Assistant should download them automatically. In fact, I don't think it will let you go on without making sure you have them. If you don't it will get them for you.
 
If you've got the appropriate hardware and use Boot Camp Assistant to download the support drivers you may get version 5.0.5411 instead of 5.0.5033.
These are the later drivers and are only available using BCA, not from Apple's Support site.
These may be better for Windows 8.1 but you'll need the latest hardware, as I understand it.
 
Quackers said:
If you've got the appropriate hardware and use Boot Camp Assistant to download the support drivers you may get version 5.0.5411 instead of 5.0.5033.
These are the later drivers and are only available using BCA, not from Apple's Support site.
These may be better for Windows 8.1 but you'll need the latest hardware, as I understand it.
Click to expand...

I have the newest gen (just bough it). Where can I download the driver?
 
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