Windows 7 Pro on Mac Pro Cylinder???

[etudenc]

I've done a bit of searching re. installing Windows 7 on the new Mac Pro Cylinder and it seems everyone's having issues getting Windows 8 or 8.1 installed... I don't see any mention of Windows 7.

I tried installing Windows 7 64-bit thru Bootcamp but got the warning about Windows 7 not being supported.

I tried skipping Bootcamp and partitioning the HDD manually, then held ALT at restart to boot into both a Windows 7 USB drive and a Windows 7 disc on two separate attempts and in neither case did the Windows install come up as an option.

I even tried putting my current Winclone image from another 2013 machine onto the Bootcamp partition, but again no go, didn't show up in the boot table when holding ALT on restart.

Apologies if I'm missing something, but is it actually the case that Windows 7 absolutely can't be run on the Mac Pro Cylinder? It runs fine on my late 2013 laptop with fusion drive.

Thanks for any help!

 

[etudenc]

Anyone else tried installing Windows 7 on a Mac Pro Cylinder?

 

[xcodeSyn]

Anyone else tried installing Windows 7 on a Mac Pro Cylinder?

The reason there is no response is probably that there is no official Boot Camp Win 7 drivers supporting your hardware. Even if you can successfully install Win 7 under Boot Camp, it won't function properly without supporting drivers. If you're looking for Win 7 drivers, maybe you could contact the poster here to find out more info since he plans to install Win 7 on the nMP for his clients.

Drivers aside, I find it strange that you couldn't see the Windows installer icon in the boot menu when using Alt-boot. It should come up when using the DVD installer at least and I wonder what kind of DVD/USB installer you got. The poster here stated in the last paragraph that he had trouble booting into the EFI Boot option, but he had no trouble seeing the installer icons.

 

[etudenc]

I find it strange that you couldn't see the Windows installer icon in the boot menu when using Alt-boot. It should come up when using the DVD installer at least and I wonder what kind of DVD/USB installer you got.

Thanks for the reply, xcodeSyn. I agree that it's strange. Maybe I should check the USB thumbdrive again. The DVD was run from an external USB drive and was certainly recognized when I was booted into OS X. I've read that only have one drive can be plugged into the USB ports when Alt-booting, so maybe that's the problem.

We actually got two MP Cylinders and it turns out the Bootcamp options on my co-worker's machine allow for installing Windows 7, but the Bootcamp on my machine only offers options for installing Windows 8. Same specs for both machines! I've attached the pictures from both machines (even though it's not reflected in the picture, I updated my OS so it matches hers, but no change in the Bootcamp options).

 

[xcodeSyn]

I've read that only have one drive can be plugged into the USB ports when Alt-booting, so maybe that's the problem.

We actually got two MP Cylinders and it turns out the Bootcamp options on my co-worker's machine allow for installing Windows 7, but the Bootcamp on my machine only offers options for installing Windows 8. Same specs for both machines!

(1)Yes, do not attach more than one USB drive when booting the DVD installer, and uncheck the first item if you are running Boot Camp Assistant with DVD.

(2)It's very interesting that your colleague's Boot Camp Assistant has different settings than yours for whatever reason, but I think yours is the official version. I believe you can hack the "info.plist" to get the same result, but it might not be worth the time. The easiest way is to make a copy of your colleague's Boot Camp Assistant in the Utilities folder to a USB drive, then paste it to your desktop. Run it from the desktop and see if it has the same choice. If it works, then you can move it to the Utilities folder if that's what you prefer. But you still need Windows 7 drivers to make the installation work. Hope this helps.

 

[etudenc]

Thanks for the response, xcodeSyn!

The easiest way is to make a copy of your colleague's Boot Camp Assistant in the Utilities folder to a USB drive, then paste it to your desktop. Run it from the desktop and see if it has the same choice. If it works, then you can move it to the Utilities folder if that's what you prefer. But you still need Windows 7 drivers to make the installation work.

That's a great idea, will give it a try and if it doesn't work perhaps I can copy the info.plist. I get what you're saying about the Windows 7 drivers... perhaps this exercise is a bit of a time waste if I can't get W7 fully functional once installed (if I were to get that far).

Do you think Apple will eventually release nMP drivers for W7?