Create Windows install disk option in Lion Bootcamp?

Dear people of the future, here's what I ended up doing:

(for anyone who didn't see the first post I made I have had a 2011 Mac Mini Server Edition running Lion (not server edition) )

First I bought an external DVD drive, I opted for an ASUS one because it was only 30 bucks. I was worried that it wouldn't work with Boot Camp but (as I found out later) it works just fine. After about 24 hours of struggling with Boot Camp and rEFIt in various configuration and styles I feel fairly confident in saying that the hardware on the Mac Mini Server Edition does not support Boot Camping or duel booting. I don't know why this is, but I could not get it to work with the official Boot Camp or otherwise.

In the end I bought a new Mac Mini (2011, not server style), first Boot Camp'd it with the external DVD drive with no problems and then (for the sake of testing my own sanity) again with a USB drive.

Both the DVD and USB installs worked like a dream, though I would suggest the USB install since you don't need a separate drive for the Apple drivers. I hope this helps someone.

I've found a way to manually un-grey the "Create a Windows 7 install disk" option. The greying out is a result of some 'abitrary' restrictions Apple placed on the Boot Camp Assistant. I'll describe step by step the process I went through to bypass the restriction:

1. Let's inspect where the restrictions are originating from. Open up Finder and navigate to /Applications/Utilities, right-click on Boot Camp Assistant. Click on "Show Package Contents". Proceed into the folder "Contents" where we have two .plist files. The one concerning us is "Info.plist". Use Quicklook to preview this .plist and, scrolling to the very bottom, notice the key entitled "USBBootSupportedModels". This is the root of the issue. On my machine, it contained 6 entries by default, none of them corresponding to my mid-2009 MBP.

2. These entries correspond to model identifiers of Macs. While I'm not entirely sure, it's fairly intuitive to deduce that MB is MacBook, MBP -> MacBook Pro, IM -> iMac, MP -> Mac Pro, MM -> Mac Mini, and MBA -> MacBook Air. We're going to go behind Boot Camp Assistant's back and insert another entry into this list corresponding to our machine!

3. With your mouse navigate to the Apple in the Menu Bar, click it, and hover the mouse over the first option, "About This Mac". Holding the option key changes the menu item into "System Information...". Click this item, bringing us into System Information. On the left panel you should be at the first top-level item, "Hardware". In the right panel the Model Identifier is visible. For my mid-2009 MBP it is MacBookPro5,3.

4. We need to insert this information into the .plist file from before; however, the .plist is protected. I had some trouble getting the file to be writeable, but this is the way I did it: I right-clicked on Info.plist and selected "Get Info". I clicked the lock in the lower righthand corner, and input my password to be able to change the permissions of the file. I changed all three permissions to "read and write". Back in Finder, I went up a folder, command-up arrow, and changed the permissions of the folder containing "Info.plist" as well. Only then was I able to freely modify Info.plist in Xcode, my default .plist handler.

5. Create a new entry like the others containing the model identifier information in the appropriate format. If you have a 15" mid-2009 MBP whose model identifier was MacBookPro5,3, the entry should be MBP53. If you have a 13" MacBook Air the entry will be MBA32. Save Info.plist and revert to the previous (non-writeable) permissions of anything you have made writeable.

6. Open up Boot Camp Assistant and the option should be selectable, as it 'should' be. Congratulations, you bypassed this annoying and arbitrary restriction!

NOTE: I've personally not installed Windows 7 using this method. I cannot comment on anything past this point.

I hope this method worked for you all 🙂

I have fallowed your instruction and the "Create a Windows 7" install disk option is still grey out.

Hmm, what version of Boot Camp Assistant do you have? I accomplished that on 4.0.1 on Lion 10.7.2. What model, size, and year Mac do you have?

Boot Camp Assistant Version 4.0.1 (429)

Lion 10.7.2

2010 MacBook Air 3,2

Cand you archive your boot camp assistant and upload it on http://ge.tt ?

Try adding your info to the top OR the bottom of the list, the top works for some and the bottom of the list works for others.

It should look similar to this.

<key>USBBootSupportedModels</key>

<array>

<string>MP51</string>

<string>IM130</string>

<string>MM50</string>

<string>MP60</string>

<string>MB80</string>

<string>MBP90</string>

<string>MBA40</string>

</array>

</dict>

I've added <string>MBA32</string> on every single position of the list without success. Can you please send me your Boot Camp Assistant application with <string>MBA32</string> added on list, archived and uploaded on ge.tt ?

What I did was add your entry, MBA32, as the first one to my already modified Info.plist. For the record, my entry for MBP53, as the second one now, still works in Boot Camp Assistant. It seems like maybe there are more restrictions placed somewhere else beyond the simple whitelist I edited. If it doesn't work for you, superspatial, I don't know what to tell you 😕.

http://ge.tt/8WcdAfC?c

Still not working. 😟

Just a FYI to @jacktourist great workaround,

Instead of playing with the permissions, just right click the Info.plist file and select Copy "Info.plist", then click on the empty desktop and right click again and select "Paste Item", open it, then do your changes, when your done simply drag the info.plist file back to the Contents folder, authenticate and select "Replace" and your done.

This works in Text Edit and SHOULD work in XCode also.

Usually you can just drag the .plist file to the desktop without any problems like in 10.6 but Lion seems to have changed that. I've had to do this for other apps like games and such. (actually works in Windows 7 also)

Also, if you ever get an error when saving a plist file, "Can not save as .rtf " simply save it as "Plain Text". Most .plist files are made as a Plain Text document.

Everybody managed to edit the Info.plist, the problem is that the "create a Windows 7 installing device" is still grayed out.

I managed to get this working by putting my entries in a specific place in the list,

<string>IM130</string>

<string>MM50</string>

<string>MP60</string>

<string>MB80</string>

<string>MBP81</string>

<string>MBP82</string>

<string>MBP90</string>

<string>MBA40</string>

I think the order matters, ie MBP 81>82>90(I added 2 as I wasn't sure which was mine)

Interesting tip. Although... regarding user superspatial's problem, this doesn't seem like a true fix either. Because after all, if it doesn't work as the first entry then what meaning/lack thereof does order have? Maybe later I'll compile a "universal" list with all the recent model identifiers for all Macs. Hopefully with more entries (ordered) there's a greater chance for success? 😝

I've seen another post on doing the same as you (in another forum (?)) and some users couldn't get it to work at the top but it would work with it entered at the bottom, but it did seem to work for the majority of the ones that tried it, there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it.😕

The only thing I can think of is maybe there's a space or something that got entered (or deleted) that isn't enough to crash BCAssistant but defeats the new entry?

The only thing I can think of for @superspatials issue is maybe Boot from his DVD or whatchamacallit in 10.7 and "Repair Permissions", after playing with the permissions maybe it will work. Couldn't hurt either I guess.

EDIT:

@Jakeii,

I thought of the same thing and put my entry before the other MP (mine being a lower #) in my list and it didn't work, when I put it at the top it worked fine. I didn't try it at the bottom.

Message was edited by: Jaygyver

Hello,

I'm glad I found your thread!

I can confirm that I was able to un-grey the option by putting MBP81 in the correct numerical order, as per Jakeii. Hopefully I can install Windows 7 without any issues.