MacBook Pro Retina won't install windows 7 64bit

you format the FAT/MSDOS to NTFS inside the Windows installer.

Windows installer: Advanced Options tab.

You don't create, you just use the one "BOOTCAMP" that was created by Boot Camp Assistant.

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

The Boot Camp Assistant can burn Boot Camp software (drivers) to a DVD or copy it to a USB storage device, such as a flash drive or hard drive. These are the only media you can use to install Boot Camp software.

https://support.apple.com/kb/HT4569

• 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.

http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/

yes it lets a user do what they want. Does that mean it works and is okay on a mac.

page 22 details not to delete or create but to format from FAT and of course 7&8 and Vista req'd NTFS.

So what's the problem.

You don't need the driver usb until after and that also is FAT but it should be MBR + FAT and probably best not tyo be present.

Can't burn to USB so don't have to slow down the burn speed.

I DO NOT know what you read or not seems 85% do not hence I paste some of the common links.

If you are on a PC or have a disk dedicated to Windows you can do a lot of things and in fact let Windows set up its own partitions if you delete every partition and it will set aside 350MB FAT for Windows 8 system reserved as well as set the rest of the drive how it wants as NTFS or you can create data partitiions along with system partition.

I would start completely over. remove the bootcamp partition with the bootcamp utility. Then recreate the bootcamp partition.

reboot with option key and choose windows installer.

At drive selection screen, select bootcamp partition and click format option. After format press next and installer should proceed with install.

good luck

MW

In over 5 yrs reading every thread here, there was only one otherr with something that looks//sounds like

"windows needs an ntfs partition to install"

Bing did show one helpful link.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_install/ntfs- partition/8206fa60-6fe7-42c1-bec3-fd17358ee8f8

The one person I think it was a logicboard issue. Was also rather recent in last month.

I have seen issues with SSDs. A couple people cloned Windows onto a Thunderbolt drive and go it to run off one. Having two disk drives present usually leads to problems during install though. Whether a 2nd is GPT or even if MBR that Windows would put the System Reserved on a different drive

Something about the Retina models.

Not everyone reads like you do and I just got into the habit of "here are the links" most people don't know there is www.apple.com/support - then just type in product name, or that the forum itself has "Overview" which goes to the manuals and support page with the above links and more.

All I can do is tell you what I did, because it worked like a charm for me the very first time.

1. Use the Boot Camp Assistant, not Disk Utility, to set up your drive. You will need to start with one partition (not including the 10.8 recovery partition, that's different). **** near everyone I know that's had serious issues with getting BC set up was NOT using the Boot Camp Assistant, and therefore their drive was not properly set up.
2. Windows 7 SP1 x64 .iso file, in my case, was located on the desktop of the Retina MBP, as I'd placed it there earlier.
3. Plug >4GB USB stick in one of the USB slots. Mine was a USB 2 stick.
4. After making sure that I had a network connection, I left all three checkboxes checked. The Boot Camp Assistant recognized both my USB stick and the iso image on its own.
5. After building the install iso on the stick (pretty slow process), it then downloaded the drivers from Apple and saved those to the stick. This required authentication.
6. It then let me choose the size of the partition, partitioned the drive and rebooted to the USB stick. I've seen this fail if you have two USB sticks plugged in for some reason.
7. Once it rebooted into the installer, I was eventually presented with a list of partition. Per the documentation, I selected the one named 'BOOTCAMP' and reformatted it NTFS. Once it finished that, the install did it's thing.

Really, it was that simple, and pretty much the same process for every other machine I have ever needed to run Windows on. I have heard stories of people having problems when using drives (especially SSDs) that were not factory standard.

Ah, even OS X can get into a fit with external FW and USB drives and devices (go back to 10.3.0 bug).

No we don't always mention it right up front. Yes it should be in anything calling itself an install guide <g>

May have to add to list of recommendations.

I do tell people that the presence of any other Mac formatted GUID-GPT drive IS ALWAYS an issue, internal included.

I don't understand your solution. You unplugged the install USB? When did you do that? I can't seem to do that at any point to get past this error. I have to keep it plugged in or I get other errors.

Thanks for solving my problem. I can confirm that the problem was solved for me once I removed an external USB drive that had been plugged in.

Install No 1 : Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit on a Mac Book Pro Retina.

I Install No 2 : Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit on a Mac Book Air Retina -

I tried over and over for but couldn't get it to install. Really frustrated cos the first install was so easy.

Checked & rechecked everything over & over. No luck.

Took it to the Apple store next day & they used other methods to restore the partition & when they then ran Bootcamp & installed Windows 7 it worked first time. Didn't understand why but probably because USB wasn't plugged in anymore but neither of us realised that was the problem.

Install No 3: Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit on my daughters Mac Book Air Retina.

1st attempt - resulted in the same error I'd had with my Mac Book Air Retina.

Had one last try at finding a solution on line. Found this forum. Unplugged USB drive. Restored partition,

repeated Bootcamp & everything worked like a charm.

Thanks all for troubleshooting this - just unplugging another external usb drive did the trick for me.

Hi DruidoBianco,

I managed to install Win 7 pro 64bit with your "unplugging USB" advice, but now i can't install the windows-support-drivers from usb flash drive because the usb 3.0 ports are not working due to the missing drivers. How did you fix that?

MacBook Pro Retina does have a serious issue with Bootcamp and the installation drivers. There are may home remedies and work arounds that have worked for some but not others.

The below steps work for sure for a MacBook Pro Retina. For this procedure to work you need to have a DVD Drive and a Win 7 64 bit DVD (Pro or Ultimate). You will also need to be willing to learn a bit more about your Mac and Win 7.

This is for someone who knows their way around a Mac and Win 7 as you will have to move files, adjust settings, run commands, and run executable files.

The only reason to have the Bootcamp USB drive is to have the Apple Drivers. We can boot from a Win 7 DVD and then run the Bootcamp setup.exe command to install the apple drivers after Win 7 is installed.

1. Run Repair Disk Permissions prior to running bootcamp. Don't bother to run the Verify.

2. Restart the Mac and press Command+S to start single user

3. Type /sbin/fsck -fy (notice the space between the k and the -f. This command will fix any issues with permissions, free space, fragments, etc that the disk utility does not see or is unable to fix. Run this command regardless of the results in permission repair. Steps 1-3 will prevent errors during Boot Camp Assistant.

4. Type reboot to reboot the Mac.

5. Run Boot Camp Assistant and follow the steps. You need the ISO image file from Microsoft. The ISO image file needs to be the same edition as the Win 7 DVD. You can also make an ISO of the Win 7 DVD (this is the preferred method). Make sure that you increase the size of the Windows Partition to at least 50 Gig. Windows needs virtual memory and will be sluggish with 20 Gig.

6. The Mac will restart automatically after the partition process is complete so don't panic. Make sure that the Win 7 DVD is in the drive and the drive is connected to the Mac.

7. THIS STEP IS CRITICAL. Press any key to boot from CD or DVD. If you screw up then you need to restart the Mac and press the Option key to get to the selection menu. Select the DVD drive NOT the USB that you made with bootcamp, and again Press any key to boot from CD or DVD. Using the USB to boot Win 7 will give you errors and won't allow you to install. Bootcamp formats on FAT 32 and we need NTFS for Win 7. Something is wrong with the NTFS format command in the Bootcamp USB drive or is a Mac Retina issue, I don't know.

8. Go through the menus. When you get to the partitions you will see the Bootcamp partition at the bottom. Highlight it and press Format from the Advanced choices. This will convert it to NTFS. Don't worry about the name change. If you get an error then you are not using the Win DVD for installation and must refer to step 7.

9. Finish installing Win 7 by following the instructions.

10. Login to Win 7 and open a window that shows Computer. If you don't see the USB drive then unplug it and plug it back in to be recognized.

11. Go to the Bootcamp folder and click the setup.exe this will install all the drivers dowloaded during the Boot Camp Assistant set up. Restart Windows after its done.

12. If you notice that a device is not functioning properly then go to the USB Drive and the $WinPEDriver$ folder. There you can run each of your devices installation program individually by just clicking on it and following the prompts.

13. You will need to tweak the windows hardware settings afterward. The display settings are usually off initially.

This will work. If you have issues then retrace your steps and make sure that you are booting from the Win 7 DVD.

Good luck!