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User profile for user: dude_from_pdx
dude_from_pdx Author
User level: Level 1
0 points

"No bootable disk" when installing Windows 7 on Macbook Pro (HDD caddy)

Here's the deal.


I have a 2011 Macbook Pro (8,1) that I bought a HDD caddy for. It's beautiful.

User uploaded file

I replaced the superdrive with a 1tb hard drive and it's wonderful. I want to install Windows 7 via bootcamp on it. I go through the steps (create install usb, download extra files, partition the drive) and once it restarts I get the following error:

User uploaded file

I press keys, reinsert the usb stick repeatably, and finally hold down the power button to restart. After holding down option to bring up the boot menu, this is what I get:

User uploaded file

Where did my other disks go?! I boot normally and check Disk Utility and, look at that, there they all are!

User uploaded file


I've gone through variations of this for 3 days now. Please help!

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.1), 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7

Posted on Jan 5, 2013 7:17 PM

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User profile for user: Ryan Ballantyne
Ryan Ballantyne
User level: Level 2
170 points

Posted on Jan 6, 2013 12:55 AM

I recently ran into a very similar issue. Windows, or at least Boot Camp, will not boot into an HDD that is installed in the optical drive bay. I do not know why this is, or if there is a way to fix it; all I know is that as soon as I moved my HDD back to the HDD bay, Windows started booting again.


Boot camp has many issues with MacBooks whose optical drives have been replaced, which are well-documented on the web. This article (and its comments) describe many of them, and the workarounds that people have found for them. That said, I think that Boot Camp has improved with Mountain Lion (or possibly with the continued proliferation of optical drive-less machines from Apple), because I was able to boot the Windows installer just fine from the optical drive that I had removed and placed in an external USB enclosure. (Not that it did me any good - I received the dreaded error 0x8030024 when I tried to actually install Windows.)


What worked for me was to install Boot Camp before removing my optical drive, use WinClone to make a copy of that installation, and then clone the image back to the drive once I'd gotten my drives in place.


So, in summary:

  1. Try putting Boot Camp on the drive that's in your HDD bay.
  2. The article I linked describes many of the issues you might run into and provides workarounds for them.
  3. Worst case, you may have to reinstall the optical drive in order to install boot camp, then use WinClone to move the installation to any drive you wish. (Hang onto this image for all future Boot Camp installations.)
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User profile for user: Ryan Ballantyne
Ryan Ballantyne
User level: Level 2
170 points

Jan 6, 2013 12:55 AM in response to dude_from_pdx

I recently ran into a very similar issue. Windows, or at least Boot Camp, will not boot into an HDD that is installed in the optical drive bay. I do not know why this is, or if there is a way to fix it; all I know is that as soon as I moved my HDD back to the HDD bay, Windows started booting again.


Boot camp has many issues with MacBooks whose optical drives have been replaced, which are well-documented on the web. This article (and its comments) describe many of them, and the workarounds that people have found for them. That said, I think that Boot Camp has improved with Mountain Lion (or possibly with the continued proliferation of optical drive-less machines from Apple), because I was able to boot the Windows installer just fine from the optical drive that I had removed and placed in an external USB enclosure. (Not that it did me any good - I received the dreaded error 0x8030024 when I tried to actually install Windows.)


What worked for me was to install Boot Camp before removing my optical drive, use WinClone to make a copy of that installation, and then clone the image back to the drive once I'd gotten my drives in place.


So, in summary:

  1. Try putting Boot Camp on the drive that's in your HDD bay.
  2. The article I linked describes many of the issues you might run into and provides workarounds for them.
  3. Worst case, you may have to reinstall the optical drive in order to install boot camp, then use WinClone to move the installation to any drive you wish. (Hang onto this image for all future Boot Camp installations.)
Reply

"No bootable disk" when installing Windows 7 on Macbook Pro (HDD caddy)

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