jdhiro

Q: Windows 8.1 install fails on new 2013 Retina MacBook

I doubt there are many people out there who can help with this yet.  I was able to pick up my 2013 Haswell Retina MacBook Pro from my local Apple store this morning (yay!), and so far everything has been stellar.  However, I'm unable to install Windows 8.1 via Bootcamp.  I have not tried Windows 8 or 7.

 

I've tried installing both via USB thumb drive, and via DVD on external SuperDrive, with the same results.  I know that 2013 MacBook Airs have to install via UEFI so I've tried that as well.  What I've tried:

 

Booting into UEFI:

- After creating the partition in Bootcamp, I boot holding OPTION

- At the boot selection screen I select "EFI BOOT"

- I go through all the motions, including formatting the BOOTCAMP partition

- After all the files have been copied, I get a message that "Windows cannot update the boot partition and that my progress won't be saved" (not the exact message).

 

Booting via BIOS:

- After creating the partition in Bootcamp, I boot holding OPTION

- At the boot selection screen I pick "WINDOWS"

- When I get to the partition selection/formatting screen it won't let me proceed, when I expand the error message it tells me that partition can't be used because it has a GPT partition table.

 

So, I'm stuck =(  Any ideas?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Oct 23, 2013 8:56 PM

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Q: Windows 8.1 install fails on new 2013 Retina MacBook

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  • by turbostar,

    turbostar turbostar Apr 18, 2014 3:32 AM in response to forhadmac
    Level 4 (2,925 points)
    Apr 18, 2014 3:32 AM in response to forhadmac

    both forhad and tocker create separate posts, there are easy fixes here

  • by tocker100,

    tocker100 tocker100 Apr 18, 2014 4:19 AM in response to turbostar
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 18, 2014 4:19 AM in response to turbostar

    Hi,

    I really wish that is the case. Do not claim to be a techie, but experienced enough to follow instructions. Never posted here before so would appreciate your guidance/help. Are you syaing that the Senior Advisor from Apple who called me back this morning is not correct?

    Thanks

  • by turbostar,

    turbostar turbostar Apr 18, 2014 4:22 AM in response to tocker100
    Level 4 (2,925 points)
    Apr 18, 2014 4:22 AM in response to tocker100

    yes he is wrong, create a new post and be specific in your problem so (hopefully) when we solve it, others can find it easily

     

    we have 2012, early 2013 and late 2013 rMBPs all running 8.1 update 1 with no issues and used the standard steps

  • by jarvil,

    jarvil jarvil Apr 21, 2014 5:36 AM in response to turbostar
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Apr 21, 2014 5:36 AM in response to turbostar

    turbostar, I have yet to get a Windows 8.1 bootcamp install working on my Late 2013 Macbook Pro Retina. This includes PRAM full resets, diskutility repairs and even a factory reinstall of my Mac OS. It appears some systems work, some don't. I have tried a total of 12 times. I am now running Windows 7 bootcamp because I could not get OEM Windows 8.1 Professional deployed using Mac's Bootcamp Assistant.

     

    That is my experience.

  • by turbostar,

    turbostar turbostar Apr 21, 2014 5:57 AM in response to jarvil
    Level 4 (2,925 points)
    Apr 21, 2014 5:57 AM in response to jarvil

    jarvil create a new post or look here, you'd be the only one out of now probably 50 machines so i'm guessing you're skipping a key step

     

    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6101313?tstart=30

  • by jarvil,

    jarvil jarvil Apr 21, 2014 6:08 AM in response to turbostar
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Apr 21, 2014 6:08 AM in response to turbostar

    There you go turbostar.... "purchase a retail 8/8.1 license"

     

    Nowhere does it state you have to buy a retail version. If that is the case...  it means Apple have not tested bootcamp with OEM. Surprising really since the only difference is it expects to be on a new system. Entirely the case here.

  • by turbostar,

    turbostar turbostar Apr 21, 2014 6:11 AM in response to jarvil
    Level 4 (2,925 points)
    Apr 21, 2014 6:11 AM in response to jarvil

    glad we figured it out, i'll up my count to 51

  • by jarvil,

    jarvil jarvil Apr 21, 2014 6:27 AM in response to turbostar
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Apr 21, 2014 6:27 AM in response to turbostar

    Not yet, I have to download the ISO which will take another 9 hours (slow site)... then I'll try it sometime tomorrow. Let you know how it goes as its the only thing different in your procedure from what I have done already.

     

    Here is a better link for you en_windows_8_1_pro_vl_x64_dvd_2971948 as its a much faster download

  • by turbostar,

    turbostar turbostar Apr 21, 2014 6:46 AM in response to jarvil
    Level 4 (2,925 points)
    Apr 21, 2014 6:46 AM in response to jarvil

    ok create a separate post if you still have issues

  • by shafez,

    shafez shafez Apr 21, 2014 12:37 PM in response to jdhiro
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Apr 21, 2014 12:37 PM in response to jdhiro

    I don't know if this has been mentioned before or not, But I would like to share with yuor my experience installing Windows 8.1 on my MBP 13" late 2013.

     

    After several retries and fails, I came across this thread but I used 8GB USB Stick and to my surprize everything went smooth without having to delete the Boot Camp partition.

     

    What happend was that Boot Camp Assistant downloaded the required files to the installation USB Stick and during the installation of Windows 8.1 Boot Camp software was automatically installed which made live alot easier.

     

    My recommendation is to use 8GB stick not 4GB and let the Boot Camp Assitant finish downloading while the stick is inserted.

     

    Regards

  • by turbostar,

    turbostar turbostar Apr 21, 2014 1:08 PM in response to shafez
    Level 4 (2,925 points)
    Apr 21, 2014 1:08 PM in response to shafez

    that's the issue with not browsing the directions, it explicitly states you need 8gb or larger

    shafez wrote:

     

    I don't know if this has been mentioned before or not, But I would like to share with yuor my experience installing Windows 8.1 on my MBP 13" late 2013.

     

    After several retries and fails, I came across this thread but I used 8GB USB Stick and to my surprize everything went smooth without having to delete the Boot Camp partition.

     

    What happend was that Boot Camp Assistant downloaded the required files to the installation USB Stick and during the installation of Windows 8.1 Boot Camp software was automatically installed which made live alot easier.

     

    My recommendation is to use 8GB stick not 4GB and let the Boot Camp Assitant finish downloading while the stick is inserted.

     

    Regards

  • by shafez,

    shafez shafez Apr 21, 2014 1:32 PM in response to turbostar
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Apr 21, 2014 1:32 PM in response to turbostar

    Correct, I just went through the Boot Camp Help now, I did the installation several times before on my Early 2011 MBP without the need to read instructions but aviously I was wrong.

  • by ulfkdn,

    ulfkdn ulfkdn May 27, 2014 7:53 AM in response to bertilak
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 27, 2014 7:53 AM in response to bertilak

    Yah, been there ... I went trough the same thing installing 8.1 64 bit on our old Mac Mini mid 2011 with Maverick.  I finally smarted up and realized we have a 3TB external storage hooked up to the computer so I disconnected it and removed the USB flash drive (128GB) with the windows 8.1 .iso file and bootcamp/windows drivers etc. downloads.  I used disk utility to create my .iso file, see http://kb.parallels.com/en/4917.  Just had my super drive with the Windows 8.1  64 bit installation disk hooked up; put in the windows 8.1 disk in the super drive, opened the bootcamp and selected only to install "  .. windows 7 or later ... " and off it went.  After installing the 8.1 I attached the USB flash stick and installed all the necessarfy files, including the one to update the trackpad functions.  It now works great but it took me the better part of one day to get to this point because I used the bootcamp with both the USB flash stick and the super drive, (and of course with the 3TB external drive attached) and marked off all three selections in the bootcamp menu.  The problem many times with directions of how to install something like the 8.1 on a mac is, the authors are usually computer experts; they should hire a novice to write these instructions with an expert's directives as to what steps are required.  

  • by erhan3d,

    erhan3d erhan3d Jun 30, 2014 4:04 PM in response to Dannyboy3D
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 30, 2014 4:04 PM in response to Dannyboy3D

    New mac pro ,bootcamp say : only windows 8 or 8.1 working. But no working.

    I Have  orginal windows 8.1 tr 64 bit

    Eror massage :

    windows could not update the computer s boot configuration. İnstallation cannot proced.

     

    My mac : new mac pro ,8 core 64 gb ram d700 512 gb hdd.

  • by KNNSpeed,

    KNNSpeed KNNSpeed Jul 19, 2014 2:56 PM in response to jdhiro
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Jul 19, 2014 2:56 PM in response to jdhiro

    Hi all,

    I'm just chiming in to say I was able to install Windows 8.1, using native EFI, rather easily earlier this month on my Late 2013 rMBP. I did NOT follow the solution marked "answer" in this thread because the USB installer is waaaay faster than the DVD installer.

     

    I know this has been said before in this very thread, but it looks like people are just glossing over the details to actually get this to work. If you try this, please read it through first and DO NOT SKIM IT.

     

    Here's what I did, starting from my factory-fresh OS X install**:

     

    1) Using an .iso of Windows 8.1 I bought from the Microsoft Online Store, I copied the .iso to my rMBP and pointed Bootcamp to it to make the USB installer. The image created is slightly over 4GB, so it's important to use an 8GB flashdrive. There have been reports of issues caused by using 4GB flashdrives, so 8GB or larger is the way to go.

     

    2) After letting the Boot Camp Assistant do its thing (I personally use a 50/50 split, but more importantly I checked all 3 checkboxes) and entering my password to install the helper tool (if you don't use a password you probably won't see the helper tool prompt), I rebooted and went right into the EFI Boot option in the boot manager (the hold-down-ALT-at-bootup menu).

     

    3) In Windows 8.1's setup, I got an error about installing over the BOOTCAMP partition. No problem, if we're installing Windows8.1 in native EFI mode, we can't use a single partition anyway since Windows needs to make an extra MSR partition. It can't do that when BOOTCAMP fills up all the empty space! Solution: delete that BOOTCAMP partition right there in Windows setup, and click "New." You should be able to make an NTFS partition that will fit right into the empty space you just made, and you'll know you're on the right track because there'll be a second partition labelled MSR that gets created, too.

     

    4) Continue to install Windows as normal in the NTFS partition you just made (the non-MSR one). This is why I used the USB method; DVDs are so slow when doing Windows setup. Anyways, you should get the classic "Could not update the boot configuration" error at the end. DON'T PANIC, the next step fixes that.

     

    5) Click OK or Continue or whatever it says (it's been a while), and wait for your MacBook Pro to reboot, and go to the ALT menu. Now turn off your computer (or boot into OS X and shut it down, whatever--just turn it off without doing anything), turn it back on and do a PRAM/NVRAM reset (Hold Command+Option+P+R until you hear the chime play a second time), and go back to the ALT menu. Try not to miss the menu and boot into OS X, since I don't know if that'll mess anything up (it might, and you'll have to NVRAM reset again). Go right back into EFI Boot and proceed with Windows setup as normal.

     

    6) Windows should install with no errors, and when you reboot you now need to go right into the "Windows" drive in the ALT boot menu, as you're done with booting from the flashdrive. Also, it's OK if you go into OS X by accident now--just don't remove the flashdrive yet. If Windows reboots during this part of the installation, just use the ALT boot menu to go back into the Windows drive (remember: this isn't the "Windows" flashdrive icon--it's the Windows hard drive icon).

     

    7) Once Windows is done installing, it'll ask you to install the Bootcamp drivers. Go ahead and do that and reboot into Windows. Now go into "This PC" or "Computer" or whatever Microsoft renamed "My Computer" to and run "Setup.exe" from the flashdrive's WindowsSupport folder to install the Bootcamp drivers again. Apparently the setup that runs earlier misses a few things for some reason.

     

    That should be all there is to it. Unfortunately it's more complex than it needs to be, but that's what worked for me. You can see that it's running in EFI mode, too, by going into the command prompt (or the Run box) and typing msinfo32. That should bring up something like OS X System Profiler, and if you look down the list of things on the right it should say BIOS MODE: UEFI on a row somewhere in there.

     

    Hope this helps (and I apologize for making this look so dense!)

    -KNNSpeed

     

    **If you've already messed with stuff trying to get Windows to install, I would recommend using Disk Utility to make your drive only OS X again and starting from scratch. Also, you should mount the EFI partition via Disk Utility, go into the EFI folder (it should be the only one), and delete all the folders in there EXCEPT the one named APPLE.

     

    To mount the EFI partition, I recommend you follow this guide:

    http://www.cnet.com/news/manage-all-partitions-with-disk-utility-in-os-x/

    Click the EFI partition in Disk Utility when it shows up, and click "Mount" on the top bar. Don't mess with anything else. Eject the partition when you're done with it, and you can remove the debug menu by using the same terminal command with a 0 instead of a 1 (or wait until the next OS X update, as they always re-hide it).

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