How to install Windows8 on Mac Pro 3,1

Question

Level 1

5 points

How to install Windows8 on Mac Pro 3,1

Hi Gang, I have been reading up on the difficulties of installing Windows on a Mac Pro (early 2008). The issue seems to be related to EFI and MBR conflicts that prevent Windows from loading to install after Bootcamp's partitioning.

My issue is that after Bootcamp reboots there just isn't a way to get the DVD to load and continue. I can load it trhough refit but after "loading files" completes the system stalls.

Does anyone know if there is a way to change/format the drives differently that would allow this install to succeed? In teh past I have had Win7 on thsi machine and just can seem to figure out how that worked before.

I'm pretty well stuck - I tried refit, USB sticks, ISO's and the like. But I think it will need to load and boot from the original Windows install disk to work. The image below is my current hard drive data from refit. It's a 3TB drive partitioned for 2TB (OSX ML) and almost 1TB for Windows.

I'm sure there is an expert who knows enough to make it possible. Please help and thanks for your time.

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Jan 22, 2013 1:05 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Jan 22, 2013 6:19 PM in response to jlfximedia

"In teh past I have had Win7 on thsi machine and just can seem to figure out how that worked before."

Try to remember what you did on the past.

If you can't remember, have you try to:

1) backup your entire disk with a backup live cd (so you can go back if something go wrong)

2) use a windows live disk with tools to reformat disk

3) use normal windows cd installation

...maybe will work.

Reply

Answer 2

Jan 22, 2013 6:39 PM in response to OneAnother

This may help also:

http://hintsforums.macworld.com/showthread.php?t=81817

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4375770?start=0&tstart=0

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4231328?start=0&tstart=0

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4272181?start=0&tstart=0

and

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1899

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1846

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

Reply

Answer 3

Jun 13, 2013 9:48 PM in response to jlfximedia

I'm trying to install Windows 8 on my Mac Pro 3,1 such that it boots natively with EFI not using the BIOS emulator. When I try to boot the Windows disk with the option key and choose the EFI partition, it starts to load files but then just restarts. With my current version MacBook Pro if I connect a blu-ray player I can start into to the EFI installer.

For you trying to use "bootcamp" you should just have to hold down the option key on boot and choose the legacy Windows DVD (not the EFI one). There shouldn't be any problems using BIOS emulation.

Reply