Q: Enable Bootcamp to install from usb for OSX 10.9**WORKS**

Fantastic; flawless hack, thanks a lot.

Well, I gave up on it.  It's either something in the flash drives that prevent it or something else but, I will just use the optical drive.  All this trying to figure it out isn't worth the small gain in speed when installing from a USB.

Tried again yesterday, tried rebooting but the only drive detected was Macintosh HD and Recovery something. I wonder how to make my USB drive active? I tried using fdisk on Terminal, but it says "fdisk illegal option". Thanks!

I gave up too...

Too bad it doesn't work for you guys.

I'm guessing the people that only saw the EFI Boot option were trying to install Windows 8?

R3mot3r, Bootcamp Assistant reformats the drive, so using that you probably reset the changes you made in Diskpart before.

For those only seeing the EFI Boot option (and using Windows 8), it means that the drive is recognized properly, but the partition is most likely not Active. Booting into EFI Mode doesn't require an active partition as far as I can tell.

JNov92, I'm not 100% sure but what I gathered up until now is that using fdisk to make the partition active doesn't work for Windows USB installers. If you do want to use fdisk, try sudo fdisk instead of just fdisk. You will have to enter your password after using the sudo command, but that should fix the "illegal option" problem. Still, using fdisk may not work.

For those still trying and wanting help, please let me know the following:

- Did you use Diskpart to clean, create, format, & make the partition active?

- Are you installing Windows 7 or Windows 8?

- Did you copy the content of an ISO to the USB drive, or did you use Bootcamp Assistant?

If you use Diskpart for the partition creation and copy the content of a Windows ISO over to the drive, it should show up as a Windows bootable device without any issues..

Just to make things extra clear I compiled the information I provided so far, and placed it into this reply:

===============

The following worked on my Macbook Pro mid 2012:

1. Use Diskpart to clean, create, format, & make the partition active on a USB drive;

2. Copy the content of a Windows install ISO over to the drive;

3. Copy the content of the Bootcamp Support Software over to the drive;

4. Don't use Bootcamp Assistant;

Diskpart is a Windows command-line tool. To use Diskpart you need to have access to a Windows PC or a Windows Installer (where you can open the commandline prompt by pressing Shift+F10)

How to make a partition active in Diskpart:

1. Open a command prompt (type CMD in the Start Menu search bar, press enter);

2. Type diskpart;

3. Type list disk;

4. Look for the entry of your USB drive and remember it's number (checking disk sizes usually helps in spotting it);

5. Type select disk x, where x is the disk entry you checked in step 4;

6. Type clean;

7. Type create partition primary;

8. Type format fs=FAT32 quick;

9. Type active;

10. You're done, type exit twice. (once to exit diskpart, again to exit command prompt);

To add the Windows Installation files:

1. Mount a Windows ISO (in OSX or windows, doesn't matter);

2. Select all files on the disk;

3. Copy;

4. Open your freshly made USB drive;

5. Paste;

To add Bootcamp Support Software:

1. Download and unpack the Bootcamp Support Software (v5.x for 64-bit)

2. Select all files (Folder: $WinPEDriver$, folder: Bootcamp, file: AutoUnattend.xml)

3. Copy;

4. Open freshly made USB drive that contains Windows Installation files;

5. Paste;

Done.

If this doesn't work, logic has left this universe.

HI Jognt, sorry for asking so often. I finally decided to make a .iso of the file I gave you a screenshot of. And then using Bootcamp Assistant, I chose to create an install disk to my USB drive. It worked fine, was able to partition, etc. But then I stumbled upon the black screen with the blinking cursor. Just now I tried rebooting while holding the Option key, but the Windows drive is not there. Any auggestions? Or does the USB drive still need to be made active in Windows? Thanks!

I didn't use Bootcamp Assistant for nerd reasons. Let me check how my Macbook Pro reacts to a USB drive created by Bootcamp Assistant and I'll get back to you.

m8s... look for my first post and you will simply execute things with usb flash and without dvd disc with standard bc assistant.  modify info.plist for your machine like i do and you will have standard boot camp assistent with all options.... including win 8 install. of course, you can not boot with efi if the machine is old but mbr is foolproof.

btw, yesterday i install win 8.1 pro and for the first time bluetooth apple keyboard driver works excelent... no more renaming keyboard, deleting keyboard on the mac side to be recognisable on the win side... win 8.1 tell you (macmini3,1-2009) that drivers are no good because they are for win 7,  but  all of them works perfect. first bc instalation i have no regret spending time.

Just removed the partition on one of my USB drives, downloaded the official Windows 7 ISO from Microsoft, used Bootcamp Assistant to create a bootable USB drive, pointed it to the ISO and USB drive, and let it do it's thing.

The resulting USB drive showed up as a Windows bootable device in the Option boot menu just fine.

If it doesn't for you, it's something else going wrong. Instead of using your homemade ISO, try downloading the official ISO for your license at http://www.w7forums.com/threads/official-windows-7-sp1-iso-image-downloads.12325 /

One more reply: I kept forgetting to post this:

If you get "no boot device" errors or blinking underscores, try a PRAM reset:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5524707?tstart=0

Could be the quickest fix ever.

I tried downloading a new .iso. Same thing. No USB drive on Options. I give up. Either I buy a CD or use the campus beat up old computer. Thanks a lot for the help. Really appreciate it.

your macbook pro mid 2012, this already available to install from usb on bootcamp requriments

mine is late 2011, maybe thats y i cant install from usb, and my DVD eject all discks without reading it, i don't know what to do

I'm not quite sure if that is the problem. As far as I remember it also worked on my '06 black macbook..

Here's the Apple support doc on booting from USB: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1948?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

It says that all intel based macs support booting from USB as long as it is GUID partitioned and contains OSX or an installer for OSX. It doesn't say anything about Windows and FAT32, but I don't have the exact knowledge of what happenes at boot to say if it should or should not work.

My guess is that it should work though.. I'd love to play around with your Mac and see if I can get it to work properly using my previously posted methods, but I doubt that is possible due to distances etc xD.

R3mot3r, maybe this is an obvious thing, maybe not, but have you tried creating a bootable disk using the bootcamp assistant using an ISO or DVD?

If your mac ejects dvd's without reading them, that could also imply a problem elsewhere.. You could try going by Apple to see if it's a hardware problem? If you live in the EU you have at least 2 years of warranty, if you live in the netherlands, you can probably get away with 2,5 years as well..

i live in egypt, am out of warranty