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WINDOWS ISOs and BOOT CAMP : PERHAPS A SOLUTION ?

Hello to everybody,

I think, after searching a lot, that it is not an ISO that you have to burn on a DVD, so that Boot Camp recognizes it as a Windows Installation DVD. An ISO is an uncompressed image, that contains files, folders, etc.

Here's what I found last night :

* http://www.poweriso.com/download.htm*

and on bottom of page :
"PowerISO for OSX -- This is a free utility for Mac OSX which can extract, list, and convert image files (including ISO, BIN, DAA, and other formats). Type " poweriso -? " for detailed usage information. File Size: 243KB Download Now".

So did I, and obtained that file : "poweriso-1.3-osx.tar.gz".

Clicking on it to uncompress it, I had this result in a folder :
"poweriso", which is an Unix Executable File (791 KB)

You only have to place any ISO at the same place as "poweriso", click on ISO,
and all files contained in it (which is an uncompressed image) appear.

In my case, I clicked on my "WINDOWS 7 ENTERPRISE VL ENGLISH RTM X64.iso",
and here are the 9 main items I obtained, and I think that's what is needed by Boot Camp
to recognize a Windows Install DVD :

— 1 : "autorun.inf" (4KB) ;
— 2 : "boot" (folder, 16.632.708 B for 15 items), containing 9 main items ;
— 3 & 4 : "bootmgr" and "bootmgr.efi" (Unix Executable File(s)) ;
— 5 : "efi" (folder), containing "microsoft" (folder), containing "boot" (16.062.724 B, folder), containing … etc.
— 6 : "setup.exe", 111 KB (Windows Self-Extracting Archive) ;
— 7 : "sources" (3.026.787 B, folder), containing 166 items (in Finder window bar) of all kinds, 923 items in Get Info ;
— 8 : "support" (33.804.337 B, folder), containing 3 folders, 105 items in Get Info ;
— 9 : "upgrade" (42.107.825 B, folder), containing 1 folder, 5 items in Get Info.

Unfortunately, I can't succeed, after burning under different settings (with Toast 10.0.7 Titanium)
5 DVDs with those files on them, to obtain a Windows 7 Installation Disk
that Boot Camp would recognize, IN THE END.

Am I using the right application ? I've a lot of other burning DVDs apps,
and I've also seen somewhere that Disk Utility could be used, but does it open ISOs, because I think it's the contents that matters.

I've only tried, for the moment, ISO 9660 settings (several options). Does anyone have any idea(s), suggestion(s) ? Is there a file that you think could be MISSING ? Of course, I tried not to bore you with all details of the contents of files.

Please, tell me if you have ANY info about how I must do, which ISO 9660 options I have to choose (Joliet, Mac names),
am I right using ISO 9660 rules, do I have to REMOVE or ADD anything etc. ? Should I (and could I, under OS X) MODIFY any text as we use to do sometimes in Terminal ?

I wonder also having found Mac stuff in different places : "bootfix.bin" _(MacBinary Encoded File)_ was in "boot" folder, and "efisys_noprompt.bin" and "efisys.bin" _(MacBinary Encoded File(s)) were in "efi"/"microsoft"/"boot" folder.
Why are these files in a Windows ISO ? Were they created by poweriso (for OS X) when opening ISO ?

Do I have to burn Boot Camp 3.1 for Windows (provided by Apple) on the Windows Install DVD ?
I think it serves AFTER installation, or do I make a mistake ?

*Another question :* why should I let Boot Camp create a (FAT32 formatted) 32 GB partition (in fact, it creates more if you verify, and it shouldn't), when I know that, when installing, Windows 7 Enterprise will format his space with NTFS ?
Wouldn't be more clever to afford it 50 GB, for example, and what exactly does Boot Camp when you decide the Windows partition to be greater than 32 GB ?

Thank you very much in advance for any help, even the shadow of a clue !

With my kind regards,

Olivier Herrbach

PS : I hope this text will not be considered as an already posted problem. If it is so, I sincerely apologize.

MacBook Pro 15" 2,53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Mac OS X (10.6.3), Memory 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3

Posted on Jun 7, 2010 12:08 PM

Reply
5 replies

Jun 7, 2010 12:33 PM in response to Olivier Herrbach

Simple answer: Boot Camp will not install Windows from anything except a proper bootable Windows installer CD/DVD. If you obtain Windows as a .ISO disc image then you need to burn the image to a CD/DVD.

Windows XP supposedly cannot be installed on a partition larger than 32 GBs due to the limitations of the FAT32 filesystem. Later versions of Windows can use NTFS partitions that can accommodate much larger partitions. Therefore, if you expect to install XP then you need to limit the size of the partition to 32 GBs. Otherwise, you can create larger partitions for, say, Windows 7 using NTFS formatting.

Jun 7, 2010 1:55 PM in response to Kappy

Thank you Kappy, for your fast reply.

Do you agree with me, when I say that is not the ISO i have to burn on DVD,
but the files and folders that are inside ?

I would like to install Windows 7 Enterprise x64, so I think I must allow it about 75GB.
I know I can do it using Boot Camp.

How do you explain that Boot Camp doesn't recognize the DVD, to let it install Windows ?
What is missing on the disk, that doesn't allow it to be bootable ?

Have you read all my questions ?

Thank you anyway for your answer and further help !

With my kind regards

Olivier Herrbach

Jun 7, 2010 2:24 PM in response to Olivier Herrbach

It's a simple matter to burn a bootable .ISO image to a DVD using Disk Utility or Toast.

if Boot Camp fails to recognize your DVD then it's either not a bootable disc or the DVD was not created properly. I've burned Windows 7 disc images to DVD several times and they have always worked. But if you have an upgrade image then they are not bootable. You must instead have a previous version of Windows - Vista or XP - installed in order to use an upgrade disc.

To properly burn an image file to a DVD using Disk Utility do the following:

1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
2. Select Burn from the Images menu.
3. Locate the .ISO file you want to use in the File Open dialog.
4. Click on the Burn button.

You will be prompted to insert a blank disc if one is not already in the drive. When the blank DVD is recognized the Burn button in the DU window will activate.

Jun 7, 2010 3:38 PM in response to Olivier Herrbach

{quote}I wonder also having found Mac stuff in different places : "bootfix.bin" (MacBinary Encoded File) was in "boot" folder, and "efisys_noprompt.bin" and "efisys.bin" _(MacBinary Encoded File(s)) were in "efi"/"microsoft"/"boot" folder.
Why are these files in a Windows ISO ? Were they created by poweriso (for OS X) when opening ISO ?{quote}

I have an authentic Windows 7 install DVD and those files are on there. I don't know what they do or why they are there, but Microsoft put them there. So the mac is not putting them there.

WINDOWS ISOs and BOOT CAMP : PERHAPS A SOLUTION ?

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