stricklandc92

Q: Windows 7 boot camp help

Hey!, I've been trying for last couple of days now to install windows 7 on my mid-2010 iMac and having trouble getting passed a certain point. I did a wipe and reinstall a few days ago of Yosemite where I previously had windows 7 installed through bootcamp and it had worked perfectly fine. (with same disk I'm using now)

So the part I get stuck is when theres a restart and it tries to boot up into windows and I get message. 'no bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key'.

I've followed a number of different tutorials and always ended up here. The steps I have followed so far,

  • Made an iso of my windows 7 installation disk (64-bit window 7 home premium, OEM software) using an usb connected hard drive as the built in mac one just spits the disk back out, this disk has worked before but don't know if this is now the problem so i'll include it anyway. And i believe i created the iso correctly.
  • I had to follow a tutorial to get the 'Create a Windows 7 or later version install disk' tick box to show up in BCA. This worked fine.
  • I formatted a 32gb 2.0 usb to MS-DOS(FAT) and then through BCA ticked all the boxes, 'create windows 7 or later version install disk', 'download latest windows support software from apple' and install windows 7 or later version. I selected my create windows 7 iso and formatted usb and partitioned my hard drive so bootcamp had 200gb.

So then the computer restarts and I presume tries to boot up to install windows and then i get the message I mentioned before. I think I included all steps I took but if theres more information i need ill add it. Thanks for any help! and are there any other locations I could post this to get help if i cant get it here?

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4), null

Posted on Jul 18, 2015 6:58 AM

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Q: Windows 7 boot camp help

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  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Jul 18, 2015 7:19 AM in response to stricklandc92
    Level 7 (24,409 points)
    Safari
    Jul 18, 2015 7:19 AM in response to stricklandc92

    On Macs with built-in Optical drives, if it is not functional, you will have a very tough time getting Windows installed due to Apple restrictions.

     

    1. A USB install after modifying BC Info.plist does not work properly. This path leads to many non-working drivers, especially GPU and Audio. It may appear to work on 2011/2012 Macs.

    2. Your iMac has a knwon malady with AMD GPUs - Boot Camp: iMac displays a black screen during installation of Windows 7 - Apple Support . This article will provide a PreBoot environment which can solve this specific issue. It does not address your Optical drive issue.

    3. There are workarounds using VMware and partial installs and switching back and forth between the two to make it work, albeit with a limit success rate. If you want to try these, let me know and I will post links.

    4. You can try a manual partition, create a valid MBR and then manually install from a physical DVD using an external drive, but it does not always work, due to model-specific variations.

  • by stricklandc92,

    stricklandc92 stricklandc92 Jul 18, 2015 7:53 AM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 18, 2015 7:53 AM in response to Loner T

    Thanks for the response! The thing is I managed to install windows 7 around a year ago on this same mac with the same installation cd, I remember the process before not being simple but I managed to do it so i'm just trying to replicate that.

     

    Number 2. that you mentioned does ring a bell from when I setup before with the black screen but managed to resolve using that article I believe. With regards to the optical drive issue what does this mean? is it because my mac keeps ejecting the disk, I thought the iso and bootable USB removes that problem or does that just create another problem because i modified the BC Info.plist as you mentioned in 1.? Do I need to re-edit this file back to its original or just not tick the box?

     

    I'd also rather avoid VMware and try more with bootcamp as I know it used to do everything I needed it to when I had it working before. If possible could you expand upon 4. ? or a source where I could try this method?

     

    Thanks for your help.

  • by Loner T,Helpful

    Loner T Loner T Jul 18, 2015 8:43 AM in response to stricklandc92
    Level 7 (24,409 points)
    Safari
    Jul 18, 2015 8:43 AM in response to stricklandc92

    1. You should restore the old Info.plist and codesign (with --deep) to avoid BCA from crashing. The USB Installer creation problem is addressed by the modifications, but the NVRAM is set by BCA to boot from the internal Optical drive which will fail when USB is used.

    2. In DU create a FAT32 partition, use GPT Fdisk (http://sourceforge.net/projects/gptfdisk/) to create a Hybrid MBR to match the GPT layout, and then use an external Optical to boot from and see if your specific Mac will allow installation. This requires 4/5 reboots, and since BCA has not set any variables. You will need to use Alt key and keep booting of the external Optical drive, till Windows is fully installed. You will also need the black screen remedy in place across all such boots.

    3. I strongly recommend running

         a. Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support

         b. How to Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

    after each failed attempt to install Windows.

    4. You can also replace/repair the internal Optical drive, which is the least labor-intensive method.