Boot Camp from OS X Mountain Lion Full Instructions

First thanks for the help! Apple does have a support page & FAQ etc articles that go unread now

Mac 101: Using Windows on your Mac via Boot Camp

Boot Camp Support:

• Installation Guide Instructions for all features and settings.
• Boot Camp 4.0 FAQ Get answers to commonly asked Boot Camp questions.
• Windows 7 FAQ Answers to commonly asked Windows 7 questions.
• Support Communities Discuss Boot Camp topics with other users.

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/boot_camp_install-setup_10.7.pdf

create a Windows support software (drivers) CD or USB storage media

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4407

Trouble downloading Windows Support Software (probably the most common complaint with no easy solutions)

Advanced Network: Proxy Settings, I uncheck "Auto Proxy detection" and make sure you have the interface you use selected and none others.

"Go into System Preferences - Network - Advanced - Proxies Uncheck "Auto Proxy Discovery", click OK, Apply"

After Unchecking "Auto Proxy Discovery" I also had to Uncheck "Use Passive FTP Mode (PASV)" and then Restart Boot Camp Assistant.

Try reboot into Safe Mode also.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1455

odiggy's comment and tried restarting Boot Camp Assistant. That did the trick, even though the Auto Proxy Discovery checkbox ended up the same as it started. Windows support software is now downloading... if you're downloading to an external drive make sure there's a least 1 GB of free space because the WindowsSupport folder is around 700 MB and presumably will grow with time.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3223773?start=15

Macs that work with 64-bit editions of Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows 7

Boot Camp: FireWire devices may affect Windows 7 responsiveness if connected to an Apple Thunderbolt display

bluetooth connection is incredibly unreliable/intermittent when in Windows (I run Windows 7 64-bit and Boot Camp 4.0, and got both devices connected without any trouble via Bluetooth).

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4079148

Successful setup of OS X Lion + Data Partition + Bootcamp Win7 Ult

Paragon CampTune

Thread with suggestions Windows backup & management methods:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3798090

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While I would not use FAT, I would use Paragon NTFS and/or HFS drivers to provide dual access and no need to be limited to an external FAT drive volume. USB flash fine. TimeMachine needs to be GPT/GUID. likely someone could just shrink the volume by x-amount instead and format a small data volume as FAT.

use one drive with both an OS X boot volume, TimeMachine, room for data most drives today are 1-3TB.

Where do you boot when you have no DVD with ML or Lion unless you install or clone your system.

have a small 30GB OS X to run, so you can erase an entire drive

not everyone made Lion/ML bootable USB flash drive.

if people don't read the Boot Camp Assistant instructions and manual and then come here asking... not sure how to get them to plan and find a tip - a good write up needs to go into the User Contributed Tips Library but which 95% fail to do and those that do probably know how. After 5 yrs dealing with Boot Camp... stick around as we need more people here to answer questions.

This is a very useful outline of exactly how to Boot Camp once upgrading to OS X Mountain Lion. Thanks for the comprehensive guide.

This is just the exact kind of guide I was looking for. I'm right now with Mountain Lion and installed Parallels 7 (only compatible version apparently), but I was having some performance issues with some 3D software which recommended using bootcamp instead. So I went ahead, but got the exact same error, as it seems, everyone gets.

My computer is backed up using Time Machine on a Time Capsule, does the reboot step work as well with this kind of backup, or will I have to use an external drive. I'm not in the economic position of buying one lately, so I could really use some help here, step by step help, since I'm new to this whole bootcamp and backup stuff... Thanks!

The trouble is no one seems to look.

From the top of the forum, click on "Overview" -

The lack of some issues though are not addressed by any support tech articles.

Andy: Start a new thread. This was a Guide I thought. Not just another "I have a question..." threads. And I can tell you just install Windows natively.

Installing Windows means read the manual, print it out but thankfully most people don't need more than that or hand holding as there are even screen shots, youtube to walk you through if that is what is needed.

Actually there is no need to erase and restore. You need to go into your Recovery Drive and click repair drive and repair disk permessions on both the Macintosh HD and the actual HDD itself. This saves a lot of hassle and will save you the trouble of restoring and reseting Mac OS X

you can't repair partition tables wtih out either a CD or another drive to boot from to allow changes the partitions and some hidden can't be in use or mounted.

First backup. And a clone or restore image for both and CCC to clone Lion / ML Recovery partition. I prefer to see that be on another drive as well as on the main drive when you are left with notebook or limited boot drives you have access to.

ML should walk through and before installing build a emergency install and restore flash drive, but there are utilities to do that for users that are looking for that. And Paragon Rescue Kit for Mac and CampTune work with boot CDs.

caroline61490, thanks for helping, but I feel I should point out several errors in your advice:

Prepare an external hard drive for back up

- it is not possible to use an MS-DOS formatted drive with Time Machine. In order to work with Time Machine, an external drive (or partition) must be formatted as "Mac OS X Extended (Journaled)" (journalling is optional).

- it is not possible to resize an MS-DOS partition with Disk Utility. If you really want one on your drive, you must first partition the drive, then format the partitions, not the other way around.

(in general I'd recommend against using an MS-DOS partition on a hard drive, due to its serious limitations, eg. no files larger than 4gb, etc. - you're better to use Mac OS X or Windows NTFS formatting, and install appropriate software to read it from your system, such as Paragon NTFS on the Mac (included with Seagate drives) or MacDrive on Windows).

Convert USB to MS-DOS (FAT)

- your instructions assume people have a DVD drive and a Windows install disc. They aren't valid for anyone with a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro with Retina, or other computer that supports installing Windows from a USB stick; for those you need a 4GB+ sized USB stick.

- it's not called "a USB". USB is "Universal Serial Bus". You can have a USB cable, a USB connector, a USB hard-drive, or a USB flash memory stick (which is what you mean). You can't have "a USB".

"2. Restart your computer, and upon reboot press COMMAND + R. This will allow you to open Disk Utility, select your computer from the left hand side, select the Erase menu, and Erase your hard drive."

- People should not be encouraged to just casually erase their hard drive! Restoring from Time Machine doesn't always go smoothly, for example with restoring e-mail. It should be a last resort. I'd suggest they do a little more research.

I'm sure there's some helpful information in your contribution, but I hope people also go through the helpful material posted by the Hatter as well, and other threads in the forums (particularly about doing backups) before following your guide.

-joe

I just went ahead with the repair disk and repair disk permissions, then went and followed the guide on installing windows and it worked, the partition was successful, what a relief! And its been working just fine.

Peole should practice and "be prepared" and not wait for a disaster to learn what to do in an emergency either..

CCC is safe and effective and you can't know without experience. All the reading won't. And you can boot from the backup so you KNOW it worked before you erase.

And I could do it in my sleep and not worry.

But I recvommend having two backups of everything. That means three "copies." And to never ever put all your faith into TimeMachine for backup.

When we dumped to magnetic tape, tapes were so bad and unreliable that we could dump to two tape drives - concurrently - and then store each in separate room or locations. Later we went disk to disk copy and cut the time, didn't have to restore really - and pull the original and put it in a safe and use the new drive for our master.

No reason to be afraid or scared.

Fire fighters, sports, miliatary even test taking, practice drills are part of the game.

The hatter wrote:

Peole should practice and "be prepared" and not wait for a disaster to learn what to do in an emergency either..

CCC is safe and effective and you can't know without experience. All the reading won't. And you can boot from the backup so you KNOW it worked before you erase.

And I could do it in my sleep and not worry.

But I recvommend having two backups of everything. That means three "copies." And to never ever put all your faith into TimeMachine for backup.

A Big +1 to that advice.

So, what used to be a smooth, easy process consisting basically in a few clicks, and valid for almost any version of Windows, now is a boil-in-the-*** process that requires external drives, fixing ghost errors, deleting your hard-drive and reinstalling the whole system from Time Machine, new error messages and reformatting partitions manually... And this for the only version accepted, Windows 7

Great update. Thanks, Apple!

Btw, this doesn't mean the help of caroline is not appreciate, thanks to you, too, this time without sarcasm.

gwydno wrote:

So, what used to be a smooth, easy process consisting basically in a few clicks, and valid for almost any version of Windows, now is a boil-in-the-*** process that requires external drives, fixing ghost errors, deleting your hard-drive and reinstalling the whole system from Time Machine, new error messages and reformatting partitions manually... And this for the only version accepted, Windows 7

Great update. Thanks, Apple!

Btw, this doesn't mean the help of caroline is not appreciate, thanks to you, too, this time without sarcasm.

It still is, except for the people who have no backup.

This is what worked for me:

I had the exact same problem, searched everywhere, and only found one obscure little post somewhere that was my key to fixing this problem. I have a MBP Mid 2010 15" Core i7. Clean install of Mountain Lion on a brand new Crucial M4 SSD. I ran Bootcamp, followed instructions to the "T" as everyone on the forums with their RTFM responses so helpfully points out (sarcasm). I downloaded the drivers to a USB key, had my Win7 x64 install disc in the drive. Bootcamp would auto-reboot after creating the partition on my SSD, Win7 would start to install, I would get a couple steps in and get the message " no device drivers found make sure that the installation media...blah blah". I tried browsing to the USB key, which the installer could see, selected the folder on the key with the files. Every time, some message to the effect of "could not find files". No matter what, it would not find the files on the key, even though the files where clearly there. Then I tried the rEFit bootloader approach, that was a waste of time. Many searches to many different boards with no help, except for one which mentioned using a good hi-speed USB and an install disc that was BURNED AT 4X SPEED. I had tried everything else (including using a Win7 USB key install) with no results, so I took a step back, reburned my Win7 ISO onto a new DVD at 4x speed on my PC, verified it after burn. Used my best LaCie USB key (the ones that look like actual keys). I re-ran Bootcamp for about the 20th time. I re-did the step to download the Windows drivers to a USB key.

This time the install just worked, no problems at all. Win7 install got past the point where it was barking for missing drivers to the screen where it asks which partition on which to install. I selected the BOOTCAMP partition. You have to reformat it first in the installer to be the correct format. Then the install went off without a single hitch.

So to recap:

1) Use a decent USB key

2) Burn your Win7 install disc at 4x write speed, verify it to make sure it's perfect.

Not sure which one of these two things fixed my "missing driver" issue and allowed a smooth install, but one or both of them did because that's all I did differently this time.