Win7 sans OS X on a MBP

[nza]

Hey guys,

I've been searching for about 30 minutes with no luck -

Does anyone know if it's possible to install Win7 on a Macbook Pro (2.2ghz, I believe it's considered an Early 2008) fresh? I would like to completely remove OS X from it and have it running only Win7. I assume that it's possible as people have referred to it in numerous threads, but no real guide or instruction as to how it's done.

Before anyone gets it twisted, this is the oldest of the three MBP's I have, so I'll still be using OS X primarily, but I need the full 120GB for Windows for my needs/wants.

Thanks in advance for any help!!

Mike

 

[r.j.s]

You can ... just use BC to create a large partition, then during the install, erase the entire drive.

 

[nza]

Well that sounds simple enough..

.. simple enough that I'm a bit embarrassed I haven't tried that yet.

Thanks.

 

[Winni]

You do not need Boot Camp for this. In fact, you shouldn't even use the Boot Camp assistant at all.

Boot from the OS X DVD and let its Disk Utility create one MBR partition for you - the Master Boot Record part is important; Vista and 7 will refuse to install on a GUID partition table.

Format the MBR partition using the FAT file system. Windows 7 (and Vista) cannot be installed on a FAT partition, but they can re-format it to NTFS and then use it as their system drives.

Important: I don't know about Windows 7, but for 64-Bit Vista you needed to create a special boot DVD because 64-Bit Windows only supports EFI 2.0 and most Macs only have EFI 1.1 on them.

Oh: And make sure that you install 64-Bit Windows on your Mac. Don't use a 32-Bit version unless you still have a 32-Bit CPU (Core Duo, Core Solo).

 

[Darth.Titan]

Just skip Bootcamp altogether and boot the install disc by holding 'C'. Then you can erase the whole drive and format during the install. I never use the Bootcamp Assistant and I have a Windows install on all my Macs. I just use a separate drive for windows. (Even on my MacBook Pro)

I would recommend for the OP to keep a small OS X partition available for any firmware updates, but since OS X can be booted from an external you could put that on a thumb drive.

Important: I don't know about Windows 7, but for 64-Bit Vista you needed to create a special boot DVD because 64-Bit Windows only supports EFI 2.0 and most Macs only have EFI 1.1 on them.

That's only an issue with the first Intel Macs BTW (CoreDuo MacBooks and first-gen Mac Pros)

 

[nza]

Posted from a MBP using Win7 with no OS X parition.

Thanks to everyone!