boe_dye

Q: I have a mid 2010 Macbook Pro, How can I install Windows 7 without an Optical Drive?

For clarity:  I have a mid 2010, Macbook Pro.  I recently decided to upgrade to a Crucial SSD drive, double the ram (8 gigs), and remove the optical drive in favor of using my old drive as a back up.  I am also currently running Yosemite.

 

I want to install Windows 7 onto my SSD, using bootcamp.  Unfortunately I no longer have an optical drive installed, which makes things difficult as Bootcamp does not even give me the option to create a bootable USB.

 

Now, this is where things get kinda fuzzy:

 

MId 2010 macbooks use EFI, and are quite capable of booting from USB.  How do I know?  Because I booted from a USB drive in order to do a fresh install of Yosemite on my SSD.

 

I have read mutliple forums and threads with claims that folks have had no problems doing this on 2008 Macbook Pros running Snow Leopard.  However, what seemed to be required was some clever .plist modding.  I have used both text wrangler, and x-code to do this, unfortunately upon booting of bootcamp, bootcamp instantly crashes.  Naturally, I can restore bootcamp because I made backups of the .plist file.

 

It would seem that modffying the .plist file assumes that the option to create a bootable USB device is grayed out.  In my case, it is non existent.

 

I have also read that folks have had success using rEFIt, however rEFIt has been forked to rEFIned, and the developer of rEFIned made mention on his site that Yosemite handles booting differently than previous versions of OSX.

 

WIth that, I was hoping that some kind person could explain to me whats going on, what I am missing, and what I can do to make this happen just shy of tearing down my MBP and reisntalling the Optical Drive and dusting off my Win 7 disc.

 

Also, my Model Number/Bootrom is MBP 6,2.

 

Thanks in advance!

MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2010), OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Oct 27, 2014 7:20 AM

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Q: I have a mid 2010 Macbook Pro, How can I install Windows 7 without an Optical Drive?

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  • by boe_dye,

    boe_dye boe_dye Oct 28, 2014 9:12 AM in response to Loner T
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    Oct 28, 2014 9:12 AM in response to Loner T

    Okay, so this is what I have so far:  I figured out that one of my issues was that file vault was causing a hiccup, so I disabled that.  I also decided to use another USB drive, a newer one.  Everything seems to be working fine, right up until the restart.  After the restart (and because I have Verbose Mode enabled by default), I am able to see that right where it tries to boot in EFI mode, it hangs.  I tried using targeted disk mode, however the bootable drive simply does not show up at all.

     

    I also tried manually selecting a boot order, by hitting "C" after the chime.  The screen when gray for a bit, then came up with the error "No Bootable Device Found, press key when disk inserted", or something to that effect.

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 28, 2014 9:20 AM in response to boe_dye
    Level 7 (24,344 points)
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    Oct 28, 2014 9:20 AM in response to boe_dye

    Bootcamp has set the NVRam to boot from a Optical Drive. This is the issue everyone with a broken Optical drive runs into. The Inof.plist edition gust works around to give you a USB, but it does not address anything with the BC NVRAM settings.

     

    On older Macs with broken ODs, I created a partition on the internal disk and burned an image via DU and selected it using Alt, which used to work. You can try that option if you want to.

  • by boe_dye,

    boe_dye boe_dye Oct 28, 2014 9:46 AM in response to Loner T
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    Oct 28, 2014 9:46 AM in response to Loner T

    I'm guessing resetting Pram/NVRam won't have any real effect on the issue...

     

    Not familiar with what you mean by "DU" (Still learning!)

     

    Do you think that I might have greater success with something such as rEFIt?

     

    Lastly:  Thanks so much for all your help and advice on this matter!  It would seem that this one has beaten me.  I can't imagine why something so easy should be made so difficult...  I would love to know and understand why others have had success on older and similar machines, and why I am having such problems...

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 28, 2014 11:41 AM in response to boe_dye
    Level 7 (24,344 points)
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    Oct 28, 2014 11:41 AM in response to boe_dye

    If you have another Mac, which will support non-Optical Drive install, you can use Bootcamp/Windows installation and use Winclone to move it.

  • by boe_dye,

    boe_dye boe_dye Oct 28, 2014 5:53 PM in response to Loner T
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    Oct 28, 2014 5:53 PM in response to Loner T

    I don't, and unfortunately I don't believe I am going to solve this one..

     

    The worst part, the part that I cannot reconcile is the "why?".  On the surface level, there is no foreseeable reason as to why it shouldn't.  I installed OS X Yosemite, cleanly on a brand new SSD Drive with NO optical drive with a USB Thumb Stick.

     

    Why I cannot do the same for ANY operating system is beyond me.  The most I can gather is that it has to deal with UEFI booting which makes no sense either, because supposedly I can easily create boot disks with Windows 7 on it that will support UEFI!  Loner T suggests that the NVRam is "locked" somehow to optical booting, which is an even bigger mystery as to how and why!  That's like making your dvd drive to be locked to a certain region in order to prevent piracy... However, it doesn't answer the question as to why can (supposedly) do it with an older Mac, and most certainly do it with a newer mac provided it has no Optical Drive.

     

    More so, why in the world would ANYONE require an optical drive to boot post 2003/5???

     

    I hate to say it kids, but I I am tossing the towel in on this one.  If anyone can come up with a method to getting this to work, please share your thoughts or solutions, I'd love to hear it even if it is "X" years later...

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 28, 2014 6:14 PM in response to boe_dye
    Level 7 (24,344 points)
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    Oct 28, 2014 6:14 PM in response to boe_dye

    boe_dye


    The worst part, the part that I cannot reconcile is the "why?".  On the surface level, there is no foreseeable reason as to why it shouldn't.  I installed OS X Yosemite, cleanly on a brand new SSD Drive with NO optical drive with a USB Thumb Stick.

    You are installing using EFI 1.1 on a GPT partition.

    Why I cannot do the same for ANY operating system is beyond me.  The most I can gather is that it has to deal with UEFI booting which makes no sense either, because supposedly I can easily create boot disks with Windows 7 on it that will support UEFI!

    Because W7's EFI support and device discovery on Mac's EFI 1.1 does not work properly. So CSM-BIOS is used. You can try EFI, but you may have Graphics/Audio issues.

     

    Loner T suggests that the NVRam is "locked" somehow to optical booting, which is an even bigger mystery as to how and why!  That's like making your dvd drive to be locked to a certain region in order to prevent piracy... However, it doesn't answer the question as to why can (supposedly) do it with an older Mac, and most certainly do it with a newer mac provided it has no Optical Drive.

    To allow Windows to reboot and stay within Windows, the NVRAM is set by BA to point to the Optical drive, because Bootcamp's logic is driven by the Mac hardware identifier. See the Bootcamp's Info.plist file for reference.

     

    From Boot Camp 5.1: Frequently asked questions

     

    Can I use a downloaded (ISO) version of Windows with Boot Camp?

    MacBook Air (Mid 2011 and later), MacBook Pro (Mid 2012 and later, including Retina models), Mac mini (Mid 2011 and later), and iMac (Late 2012) can install downloaded (ISO) versions of Windows 7 and 8.


    More so, why in the world would ANYONE require an optical drive to boot post 2003/5???

     

    Because Windows is sold on DVDs even today. There is no DVD for Mavericks or Yosemite. Because Windows has no concept of a Network boot from M$ servers.

     

    I hate to say it kids, but I I am tossing the towel in on this one.  If anyone can come up with a method to getting this to work, please share your thoughts or solutions, I'd love to hear it even if it is "X" years later...

     

    The quickest method is to replace the OD in the Mac. The second method is Winclone. The third method is using ISO burnt on the internal drive. The fourth method is to use a USB of W7 downloaded from MS. The fifth method is EFI boot, but you take chances with drivers. 

  • by AlekseyK,

    AlekseyK AlekseyK Jul 9, 2015 3:01 PM in response to boe_dye
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    Jul 9, 2015 3:01 PM in response to boe_dye

    boe_dye wrote:

    And now... Macbook freezes after it reboots... Any ideas?

    I have same thing: freezes. Sometimes loads fine. Loads in safe mode fine always. Any ideas?

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Jul 9, 2015 3:22 PM in response to AlekseyK
    Level 7 (24,344 points)
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    Jul 9, 2015 3:22 PM in response to AlekseyK

    AlekseyK wrote:

     

    boe_dye wrote:

    And now... Macbook freezes after it reboots... Any ideas?

    I have same thing: freezes. Sometimes loads fine. Loads in safe mode fine always. Any ideas?

    Please start a new discussion (Find answers and ask new questions) . You are posting an old discussion.

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