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Win 7 64-bit not booting from USB optical drive

Hello everyone.


I'm trying to install Win 7 Pro 64-bit to my early-2011 MacBook Pro and am running into some difficulties. I've recently installed a second internal HDD where the optical drive was, and put the drive into a USB case I bought from OWC. I'm thinking this may be where my problem is arrising.


After using Boot Camp Assistant to create a new partition my MBP reboots to a black screen with a blinking cursor in the upper left corner. I can hear and feel the USB optical drive spin up but after a few seconds it spins down then doesn't do anything more. The Windows installer doesn't launch at all. Am I just stuck?


I've tried imaging the Windows DVD to a USB stick but Disk Utility keeps throwing errors; I'm assuming this is because the optical disc is copy protected. I would appreciate suggestions for what my options are. Although I'm probably going to have to put the optical drive back into my MBP, arent' I?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.3), 15" 2.3 GHz Intel i7 (early-2011)

Posted on Feb 17, 2012 5:36 AM

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17 replies

Feb 17, 2012 5:57 AM in response to Michael Allbritton

Only the Air, which lacks a superdrive, gets an Apple driver to use for USB-DVD.


There is a thread with tips on how to try to add a Mac model ID to a file, but you also need the driver it would seem which BCA only downloads if it accepts the ID.


Probably not clear?


As for using Disk Utility: SLOWEST burn speeds only. Or use something else to write ISO to DVD or copy.


Copying is not an issue.

Feb 17, 2012 6:08 AM in response to The hatter

The hatter wrote:


Only the Air, which lacks a superdrive, gets an Apple driver to use for USB-DVD.


There is a thread with tips on how to try to add a Mac model ID to a file, but you also need the driver it would seem which BCA only downloads if it accepts the ID.


Probably not clear?

So what you're saying is my MBP just isn't reading the DVD?


The hatter wrote:


As for using Disk Utility: SLOWEST burn speeds only. Or use something else to write ISO to DVD or copy.


Copying is not an issue.

It's not an .iso. As I said in my original post I tried copying the Win 7 Pro 64-bit DVD to a USB stick.

Feb 17, 2012 6:17 AM in response to Michael Allbritton

Don't know if this helpful for not, but I did a Get Info on the Windows DVD from within Disk Utility and I see that the disc is not bootable.

User uploaded file

Now, I'm making an sssumption that this doesn't actually mean the disc itself isn't bootable, but that I can't boot from it with this optical drive in this configuration. Yes?

Feb 19, 2012 9:50 AM in response to dalstott

I have the printed instructions right in front of me. On the top of page 4 it says I need "A built-in optical disc drive or a compatible external optical drive."


And earlier in the thread The Hatter states "Only the Air ... gets an Apple driver to use for USB-DVD." So I'm wondering, in my case, is this accurate for all external CD/DVD drives with my model of MBP, or just with my optical drive in this particular enclosure.


The reason I'm reluctant to put the optical drive back in the MBP is because I want to avoide excessively pulling connections off the motherboard. Once was quite enough, I think, and I don't want to press my luck. If I need to find another external optical drive I can do that, but I'd rather be reasonably certain it will work before I step through the steps.

May 2, 2012 2:47 PM in response to Michael Allbritton

Ok first question.. Were u using an apple usb dvd drive? Second after reading your first ever email it seems that we've encountered the sameblack blinking cursor screen.. But then i fgured out that for me to be able toboot on my disc (installer) i need to go to my startup disk and tell my macbook air to boot up on win7 disc which i haveon my apple usb dvd drive.. How did i do that? I restarted my mac then press hold on "option" button and it will boot up on mac hd, recovery and usb dvd and from there u can choose to launch on dvd then windows installation will start... And so on.. After the installation u can install the windows support installer to install all the drivers of the mac in windows 7 world(device manager)...


I just did this to my macbook air 1 and now running os lion:win 7...=)

May 2, 2012 3:40 PM in response to Papa_A92978

The Macbook AIR is NOT a Macbook Pro. The Air is completely different from the Pro in as far as booting off a USB connected DVD drive. YES the Air's can boot off a USB connected DVD as it does NOT have one built into the system.


That is how you did that.


This thread is about the PRO models.


Apple has seen fit to limit the Macbook PRO's from booting a Windows install DVD only from a DVD drive installed INTERNALLY in the system. Since the Air does not have an internal DVD drive Apple made it to boot off one connceted by USB.


Maybe if you actually READ the begining part of this thread you might of seen that.


And you thought you were clever. Not so.

Win 7 64-bit not booting from USB optical drive

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