Windows 7 not Supported on Older Intel Macs? (Mac Pro 2006)

Thanks for the suggestion. I used your approach but still got the blue screen. So, I restored back to before the boot camp install. Seems to work ok without the Apple drivers but I don't use bluetooth, etc. Maybe boot camp 3.1 will resolve this for me.

I'm running Windows 7 x64 on a Mac Pro 1,1. It boots up just as fast as Vista did. I'm using a Radeon x1800.

I installed the Boot Camp drivers from the Snow Leopard disk by running the Boot Camp/Drivers/Apple/BootCamp64.msi and then chosing the compatibility mode. I was thrilled to see the eject key still works (that was an issue that took forever to fix under Vista x64).

I'm running Windows on a dedicated partition on the second hard disk. That used to be the only way to make Vista x64 work.

I had to follow the procedure linked above to make a bootable disk. Note another way of doing it is installing a clean copy of Vista and upgrading it. That never requires the disc to boot.

Strange issues were:

1) Apple bluetooth mouse wouldn't just pair. Had to right click on the mouse, go to Properties and enable HID before it would pair.

2) Bluetooth mouse would either disconnect and stay disconnected (with the Microsoft Generic Bluetooth driver), or disconnect after a few minutes of activity (Apple Snow Leopard driver). I had to install the Leopard driver from my Macbook Air (bluetooth driver v. 2.1.1.0) to get it to work right.

3) PC would randomly freeze when trying to wake and sleep. I THINK the thing that ended up solving this was disabling DHCP and setting up static IP assignments. I noticed in the logs there were error messages about DHCP not being able to obtain an IP just before the machine froze.

4) If the machine wakes itself up, one of my displays turns on indefinitely. It did this in Vista too. I ran a special script to disable wake timers to prevent scheduled activities from waking the machine.

I'm disappointed to hear Apple isn't supporting these "old" machines ... two years isn't that old, Apple! The windows benchmark scores are very high with this machine despite its age. The point of spending the big bucks for this thing was to get some longevity out of it. Fortunately I think I got my Windows 7 configuration nailed down and it's running smoothly.

Here's a couple of things I have found out about this issue. First, this problem has little or nothing to do with Boot Camp. I managed to install Windows 7 on my Mac Pro on its own dedicated drive without the use of Boot Camp.

I found some of the instructions that are our there for this problem fixer a little vague. It took me quite a bit of time and several failed tries before I was able to finally get this to work, but it does work. Now you don't have to make the same mistakes that I did, just follow this step-by-step process which is what I finally did to make it work.

This method is used to create a new install disk if you have your authentic Windows 7 disk. Don't sweat it; it's much easier than it looks.

*Note: you will need to do this on a PC*

In your C drive, create these two folders: c:\windows7exe c:\windows7dvd

Go to this link http://rapidshare.com/files/297067205/oscdimg.exe and download Oscdimg.exe. Place it into c:\window7exe folder

Insert your Windows 7 disk into your DVD drive For this example, we will refer to it as the D drive.

You need to open a DOS prompt window. Do this by going to start/programs/accessories/command prompt

Your default command prompt will look something like C:\Users>.

At the prompt type cd c:\windows7exe

Your command prompt should now look like c:\window7exe>

At the command prompt, type in exactly (or copy and paste):

oscdimg.exe -n -m -bd:\boot\etfsboot.com d:\ c:\windows7x64.iso

+Note: the letter d in the above command refers to your DVD drive, change it if your DVD drive is labled with a different letter.+

Press Enter. This will begin creating a new disk image. You should see a response in the DOS window that displays its progress.

When the process is complete, you will find a new disk image of your Windows 7 disk in the folder labeled c:\windows7X64

Now that you have a new disk image, you need to burn it onto a disk using ImgBurn. This is a free utility which you can download from here: http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download

Place a blank DVD into your DVD RW drive.

Launch ImgBurn and select "Write image file to disc". In the Source window, find your newly burned image in the c:\windows7X64 folder. Click on the disc icon at the bottom of the window to begin the burning process.

Voila! You have a new Windows 7 installation disk which will install with no problems.

Thanks flickguy,

Your method is very detailed and AFAIK right on the mark, though it must be acknowledged that there are several paths to the ultimate goal and therein lies some of the confusion.

To bad your post came too late for me, as I spent a bunch of time pouring over the forums last week to gather info for my install this weekend. I agree that many earlier posts weren't as detailed as they could be, but I managed to figure it out without too much trouble (not a wiz by any means) and got 7 x64 running! So did you, and you are better for it.

I'm now in OS nirvana, well, for time being...

There were/are multiple places that this was posted, and links

http://sergiomcfly.blogspot.com/2008/04/select-cd-rom-boot-type-when-installing. html

http://jowie.com/blog/post/2008/02/24/Select-CD-ROM-Boot-Type-prompt-while-tryin g-to-boot-from-Vista-x64-DVD-burnt-from-iso-file.aspx

http://www.imgburn.com/

Also in "how to install Windows 7 Beta."
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1866970

Lots of useful info in this thread, butI am still a bit unclear about one or two things:

If I install Win 7 x64 on a bootcamp partition of my MP 2006 using the methods in this thread, what is the future outlook?

Apple are not going to be supporting in the imminent Bootcamp update. Does this matter? can I expect to be able to stay up to date by hunting down drivers etc?

What apologies/deficiencies would my Bootcamp partition have compared to the imminent Apple update for the supported models?

or....

perhaps I am misunderstanding something. Is it that Apple are not going to address the EFI 32/64 bit issues for the older macs, hence it i will not be possible to install Win7 64 via Bootcamp, and what the methods in this thread do is get round this one problem, so that things like driver updates via Bootcamp will be applicable.

Sorry for rather poorly formulated questions?

No one to hold your hand.

Oh, but wait! no one has been anyway!

Tea leaves don't read the future. And seriously, I don't recall Boot Camp installing properly to begin with on Vista, BC 2.1 added nothing, and there were no updates other than buy Snow Leopard to get 3.0. Still no thermal fan control.

Thanks Hatter,

I think I am interpreting your reply to mean:-

1. Apple's statement that the older intel macs will not be supported is referring to the initial install issues.

2. Once installed on an unsupported Mac (by burning a new Win 7 install disk as in this thread) a Win 7 partition on an older Mac will be no worse off than a supported newer mac.

I know no-one can know what Apple will do till they do it, but is the above current best guess?

Thanks

Thanks from me too, Flickguy,

Although the instructions are elsewhere, yours is the only version which is specific enough (=idiotproof) for me to actually follow and succeed, mainly the command line stuff bits.

Win7x64 running on my MBP, everything working.

I can report that this worked well for my Mac Pro 1,1 running 12GB of RAM. Boot times are actually fine for Windows - less than 1 minute. It has been running for at least a month now. Of course, it trundles afterwords to load all DLLs for Office, Visual Studio etc.
I am using Snow Leopard drivers.

I have not been able to get the BT keyboard to work on this configuration, even using the "Properties: trick, where you right click on the device to be installed in the BT panel, select Properties, and let it install the HID services first. But I also have the full sized USB keyboard, so not trouble there.

I am dual booting it with VMWare Fusion 3.

Clearly, Windows 7 is nicest Windows yet, although still a distant follower of OS X. Themes are a little garish, but still nice. Got my German home town in one of them!

Just wanted to say that I used a different brand of DVD and I got the 64bit Win7 installed without a hitch. (Had to change the disc image because I had that common 'Select Boot Type' or similar screen -- but there was lots of info on fixes for that and it easily worked)

I was using TDK DVD-R and I a friends Imation DVD+RW worked (32 bit)

I bought a Maxwell DVD+RW and burnt the 64bit windows, and that disk also worked.

Good luck,