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Cannot install Windows 7 with bootcamp

Ok, I am getting really frustrated at this point with bootcamp. I have previously installed win7 on this same computer I'm working with, I reformatted the drive and uninstalled windows with bootcamp, the reason I did this was because I needed more space on my windows drive. I have followed all of bootcamp's directions and I keep getting stuck on the same spot. After creating a win7 install usb stick (with the same oem copy of win7 I used last time), downloading the drivers, and getting thru the partioning steps, the computer reboots into windows install. I see "disk 0 partition 4: bootcamp" after clicking format (to get it to be formatted to ntfs) I click next, then I keep getting the following error. "Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition. See the Setup log files for more information."


I have tried installing with bootcamp a few different times, even with a different copy of windows 7 and keep getting stuck here. I have installed it just fine before, I dont know why this is happening now. I am on a 15" 2012 rMBP 500gb model

Posted on Oct 2, 2012 11:16 AM

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21 replies

Nov 15, 2012 5:27 PM in response to Bafrad

I have the identical issue. This poster's screen shot matches mine exactly. When you begin the process, the 4th partition has the BOOTCAMP suffix in the name. After you select it and hit "Format", the BOOTCAMP name is removed, and looks like the screen shot above. After clicking "Next", the error message is:


Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition. See the Setup log files for more information."


  • Mine is a mid 2011 MacBook Air, Mountain Lion, 4GB, 256GB SSD.
  • Bootcamp version is 5.0. I reinstalled Mountain Lion from scratch this afternoon. Super clean install.
  • Windows 7 is an Upgrade DVD from an external drive via USB, and I'm choosing the Custom / Clean Install option.
  • I have a 2GB USB stick in the machine that contains the Windows Support folder OSX BootCamp downloaded.


I'm actually just testing before attempting to install on my new MB Air, which has a 512GB SSD. I dont' care if the Windows installation ceases to work after three days or something.

Nov 17, 2012 9:37 AM in response to Austin Jay

I am having the identical issue on my Mac Mini (2011)


  • Mine is a Mac Mini (2011) with Mountain Lion (10.8.2), 8GB, 500 Gb drive.
  • Bootcamp version is 5.0..0 (444)
  • Windows 7 Ultimate ISO downloaded from Microsoft.
  • I have tried with 8GB USB stick and 160 GB USB external drive as my install Disk. Both install disks contains the Windows Support folder OSX BootCamp downloaded.

Nov 17, 2012 5:38 PM in response to Bafrad

i did eventually figure out the issue. there was actually 2 problems.


the first problem i had was using a 32gb usb 3.0 stick to load windows 7 with. the version of windows 7 (or maybe all versions, not really sure) will not properly load up when using a usb 3.0 stick. if you are using a usb 2.0 stick, then make sure you are not booting setup in "EFI mode"


the second problem was bootcamp not allowing for a 3rd partition on the system, but i figured that out too.


to get windows 7 or 8 installed on your mac with more than 2 partitions follow this procedure:


1: load bootcamp in osx and create a windows 7 (or 8) .iso on a usb 2.0 flash drive (download drivers for windows if you wish too)


2: after you wait a millenia for that to finish cause bootcamp is awful, create the partition size you want for your system drive for windows (your c:\ drive).


3: restart your mac and hold down the option key, when you the boot screen loads select your windows usb install drive (do not click the EFI option if it is available)


4: choose custom install, select your bootcamp drive, reformat it because bootcamp doesn't create the proper format for you (because bootcamp is terrible) and install windows there


5: go thru all of the install prompts with windows and get everything up and running


6: boot into osx and load up disk utility, decrease the size of your osx drive to create your 3rd partition, i personally have 100gb osx drive, 75 gb windows system drive, and 325gb on my 3rd drive (ntfs) on my rMBP, you may get a prompt about creating a label problem, ignore it.


7: now that you have created a 3rd partition, your windows partition will not boot up because it has a different drive label at this point and bootcamp refuses to let you have more than 2 partitions. boot your windows install usb again (not in EFI mode), find the option that says something like "repair my computer", let it do the auto repair and it will run for a bit and fix your drive label situtation. when everything is said and done you will be up and running.


side note, i have found a great app for osx called bootchamp to help you quickly reboot into windows


the usb 3.0 problem is windows, but osx/bootcamp causes a huge problem with partitions for a complete asanine reason.

Nov 18, 2012 4:18 PM in response to DemetriAA

I posted earlier in this thread that I had the identical problem, and was able to address the problem by removing the USB stick that contained the Apple Boot Camp drivers after the Windows installation started. I read it in another thread I beleive. It appears the Windows installer can't proceed unless the USB stick is removed. Once I did that, it worked. If you wait utnil you're presented with the disk partition screens, it's too late. So once you see Windows beginning it's boot / install, take the Apple Drivers Support USB stick out of the laptop. (Note that I was installing from an external USB DVD Drive with a physical Windows 8 installation disc.)


In the end, I was able to successfully install a clean, licensed, full version of Windows 8 Professional on my MacBook Air using Boot Camp, and everything worked fine except the track pad "tap" features. To get around that, I found a utility in another support forum thread that I was able to download and run.


As of today, 11/8/2012, Windows 8 now runs *very* well on my new MB Air. Errr.. almost too well, Apple. Mac OSX has some stiff competition on this hardware now.

Jan 12, 2013 10:06 AM in response to DemetriAA

Hi All-


I know this post is dated slightly but I wanted to chime in with some Bootcamp help on the newer vintage MBP laptops.


Just to throw it out there - nearly every Mac I purchase gets hardware hacked the minute it comes out of the box. RAM/SSD upgrades are usually the first on the agenda. The SSD/drive upgrades can tend to muck-up the process of using Apple's standard BootCamp tools for loading Windows.


Here is a very simple way to accomplish the same things that BootCamp does only the right way so Windows will be happy alongside OS X.


1. Download your Windows ISO (stop making DVDs!) and make a USB bootable stick. You can do this in a number of ways - on the OS X side use Disk Utility, on the Windows side use the Microsoft Store USB download/create tool. Just make sure you have a -known- good working USB bootable Windows 7 install media (or Windows 8)


2. Once you've done this you will want to get the WindowsSupport folder for your model of Mac, so launch BootCamp, un-check the top and bottom options so that only the Download Support Files option is selected, indicate that you would like to copy to an external drive. Tell it to place the folder either on your Desktop or in your Library somewhere. Let it do its thing and then copy those files onto your newly created USB Windows 7/8 install media. Now you have the Windows installation media as well as the Apple BootCamp drivers for Windows all on one single USB.


3. Partitioning - instead of using the flawed BootCamp software to do this, we'll use Disk Utility in OS X. Launch Disk Utility and highlight your primary hard drive. Click the 'Partition' button at the top. Now click the '+' button to add a partition, name it WINDOWS or something so you can identify it easily later. Use the slider to create the size of partition you would like for Windows - this will auto-resize your OS X partition. On the right-hand side of the Disk Utility window use the drop-down to change partition type from Mac OS X Journaled to MS-FAT. Once you have done all of that use the Apply button to let it do its thing and re-size/create partitions. This takes about 3 minutes tops.


4. Install Windows! - Be sure your Windows 7/8 USB bootable install media is inserted in a USB slot on the system. Once you have completed the re-partitioning action, simply shut down your machine, and restart it holding the Option (Alt) button. The alt button will cause the system to eventually show you a choice of bootable disks. The USB disk will be easily identified because it will have an orange colored icon with the USB symbol on it. Click this to boot from the USB Windows 7/8 install media.


5. Windows Installer - the Windows installer will launch after a period of time, use the 'Next' button and accept the license terms and you will be brought to a window to select the destination for the Windows install. You should automatically see the WINDOWS (or whatever you named it) partition that was created during step 3. Highlight this partition and the 'next' button should un-grey and become available, if it does, click it and the Windows installation will proceed. If the 'next' button does not un-grey you will want to highlight the partition and select 'Format', once that completes it will un-grey the 'next' button and the install will proceed.


6. Once the installation is done it will need to reboot a few times (normal Windows install procedure at this point). You will need to hold down the 'alt' key during each reboot and now select the 'WINDOWS' hard disk partition (not the USB one) from the boot menu to continue going through the motions of Windows installation.


7. BootCamp Driver Install - once you have finished all of the reboots and motions of Windows installation you will want to boot into Windows, and once at the desktop make sure your USB install media that was used previously is inserted into the system. Go to My Computer, find the USB drive, open it, and navigate to the WindowsSupport folder that was saved during step 2. There will be an application called Setup , double-click this and choose 'Allow' during any security warnings. Click 'next' once the installer loads and it will automatically install every Mac device driver needed on the Windows side.


7 steps and approximately 45-minutes later you should be sitting with a fresh installation of Windows on a bootcamped partition.


Hope this helps somebody out - it took me quite some time and research to figure out the "cleanest" method for bypassing the flakey BootCamp application for installing Windows.

Mar 9, 2013 11:04 AM in response to DemetriAA

Hi everyone. I had the exact same problem, with a late 2012 imac 27". I also had some trouble getting a windows iso to be accepted by bootcamp, because apparently only 64-bit versions are allowed. I downloaded a legal iso for 64bit and i could create a bootable USB stick. After downloading support drivers, bootcamp nicely split up my fusion 1gig disk into 2 partitions, and then restarted.


Next, windows installer wouldnt install on any HD partition, so i found the new partition, hit format, then it gave the exact same error as above poster. I fixed this by booting into mac OS again, and using disk utility to erase the new windows partition into MS-DOS FAT. after another reboot, i again got the error that windows can only be installed on NTFS formats. But now, after again hitting 'format' on the windows partition, i did not get the error and windows installed normally.


Hope this helps, greets P

Mar 26, 2013 5:10 AM in response to DemetriAA

Hi people,


I found an easy way to fix this issue and reinstal Windows withough much work.


1: you unmont the partition where you want to isntal your windows.

2: open Disk Utility and you format this partition in FAT

3: open bootcamp and click the option to instal windows

4: instal windows.


It sounds crazy but with thse simple steps I really made it work. Previusly I used to reinstall my whole mac OS. The trick is just to make bootcamp recognize the available partition where you can instal the Windows.

May 10, 2013 9:08 PM in response to DemetriAA

OK, do what I did after trying multiple Windows 7 full version disks and downloads. give it up with bootcamp and install the trial version of VMware Fusion. This worked perfectly for me and I was able to install windows with no problems and seems to be much easier than using bootcamp in that I can use Mac and Windows programs simoutaneously. I spent I don't know how many hours over many days trying to get Bootcamp to work for me but unfortunately since Windows is not supported by Apple and windows installed on a mac is not supported by Windows I found very little help and just gave up. I googled installing windows on a Mac and came up with other options supported in PC magazine and went with Fusion. Although I will pay at least $50 after the trial period this is minimum in consideration of my time and efforts in installing windows through bootcamp.

Oct 20, 2013 11:53 AM in response to DemetriAA

Just thought I'd add, I've installed win 7 and 8 numerous times on my Mac mini and always get the exact same issue mentioned above.


However, the fix for me is very easy, format the drive again in windows setup, then just reboot, hold alt to get the drive selection, select your windows usb/cd drive and go through the process again and it will work.


Works for me every time, no need to do anything else.

Cannot install Windows 7 with bootcamp

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