Hi everyone. I want to install windows 7 on my iMac 24'' (mid 2008) but my optical disc drive is broken. I tried to install it with an USB flashdrive, but the system don't recognize it as a bootable device. I have the windows 7 ISO, vmware fusion, refit (i searched on the interet for the solution but i couldn't find any). thanks for help !
iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
***Solution That Worked for ME***
I had a similiar problem where I wanted to install windows on a macbook pro (early 2009) that had a broken optical drive, using a bootable windows 7 USB, but the mac wouldn't recognize the USB because it only checks in the optical drive.
Solution:
1. Download the Windows 7 ISO file here: http://www.w7forums.com/threads/official-windows-7-sp1-iso-image-downloads.12325 /
2. Use Windows 7 USB DVD Download tool (found here http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool to make a bootable windows 7 USB. (this has to be done on an exisiting windows machine, but there are googable solutions to do this process using just a mac)
3. Also transfer a copy of the ISO file to the mac
4. Use Daemon Tools Lite (free, found here: http://www.daemon-tools.cc/products/dtLite) to mount the ISO file thats on your mac. (open daemon tools, click quick mount, click the iso file, very easy!) This tricks bootcamp into thinking that a windows 7 install disk is inserted.
5. Run Boot Camp, I chose to skip downloading the drivers and did that separately here: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5634 by cliking on the macbook pro model and then the number in the grid to download the boot camp drivers to a separete usb. Once windows was installed, it was easy to open the USB and run bootcamp settup.
**THE TRICK**
6. When the computer restarts after bootcamp finishes, insert the bootable windows 7 USB into the mac when the screen is black, and then hold down the C key as soon as you hear the mac turning on sound. This command tells the mac to boot from USB.
I did not find any discussions of simply pressing the C key to boot from USB in similiar threads, and people just said that you need the disk if your mac has an optical drive. I finally found this trick out here: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1533
The windows installation should now be running, and all thats left now is to choose the Bootcamp partition when it asks, and to click on it, click drive options, click format, and then click next to continue on with the installation.
Hope this helps anybody that had the same problem as me, I did a lot of googling!
The boot ability on this screen is EFI-based boot ability. MBR-based boot ability is determined by the CSM-BIOS layer. Can you try to power-cycle the Mac and hold the Alt/Option key. Do you see a Windows selection?
no, not yet appeared the option of initialization for windows .. = (
There is still something I can do?
I need to install a boot loader?
No. The Apple Bootmanager should allow you to boot from the partition.
- Do you think it did not work yet because I'm doing something wrong?
- Repeat the steps again to see if it's wrong?
- To boot the installation you need only copy the files inside the .ISO into the NTFS partition created?
Hey, for the people out there who are having trouble with this subject, I'll give you my solution. I have an early 2006 iMac that I installed bootcamp on by creating a bootable usb on a windows computer and holding down the c key when my mac turned on. One day, that didn't work. It really sucked. I has been months now, but from other forums, I got this figured out. First, download this file from my dropbox https://www.dropbox.com/s/rekxut9ogimv7z6/refind-bin-0.8.7.zip?dl=0 Then, unzip it. Then, open Terminal and drag the file to the terminal window until a green plus appears and release. Then, hit enter. It will begin installation. After that, reboot your Mac and the bootmanager will show up!
Can you please provide us the installation procedure on this? Any command on the terminal we should use after we drag and drop your file? Do we need the USB Win7 bootable disk ready?
how can I do this? 5. Use GPT Fdisk to mark the NTFS partition as bootable.
GJZen wrote:
how can I do this? 5. Use GPT Fdisk to mark the NTFS partition as bootable.
Please see the second set of Gdisk steps in the solved section Windows 7 Vanished after Yosemite update... help? .
This is what I got from my terminal window. Seems I can't go any further?
MacBook-Pro:~ Daddy$ sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0s5
Password:
gpt show: unable to open device '/dev/disk0s5': Resource busy
MacBook-Pro:~ Daddy$ Sudo gdisk /dev/rdisk0s5
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.0
Partition table scan:
MBR: MBR only
BSD: not present
APM: not present
GPT: not present
***************************************************************
Found invalid GPT and valid MBR; converting MBR to GPT format
in memory. THIS OPERATION IS POTENTIALLY DESTRUCTIVE! Exit by
typing 'q' if you don't want to convert your MBR partitions
to GPT format!
***************************************************************
Exact type match not found for type code 7000; assigning type code for
'Apple HFS/HFS+'
Exact type match not found for type code 4300; assigning type code for
'Apple HFS/HFS+'
Exact type match not found for type code 7200; assigning type code for
'Apple HFS/HFS+'
Warning! Secondary partition table overlaps the last partition by
3576515959 blocks!
You will need to delete this partition or resize it in another utility.
Command (? for help):
I got stuck here:
GPT partition #4 does not exist or is too big; skipping.
Unused partition space(s) found. Use one to protect more partitions? (Y/N): N
Recovery/transformation command (? for help):
Your environment seems different with an MBR disk. Please 'q' out of GPT Fdisk.
Can you start a new discussion and post the output of
diskutil list
diskutil cs list
sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0
sudo fdisk /dev/disk0
Thank you for your kind assistance.
BTW, I was able to successfully:
5. Use GPT Fdisk to mark the NTFS partition as bootable.
6. Power cycle your Mac and hold the Alt Key and select the NTFS partition and test.
But after reboot with Alt/Option key on hold, I can select the NTFS partition it boots to just black screen (with blinking underscore at the upper left corner.
BTW, where do you live? I live in HK.
I'll do what you ask for in a separate discussion. Please go to this link: How to Install Windows via USB with iMac with No Optical Drive
If the output of
sudo dd if=/dev/rdisk0sN count=1 2>/dev/null hexdump -C
shows a valid NTFS header, and you can see files in the Bootcamp volume, then you will needs Windows Startup repair.
The value of 'N' in the command must point to the disk which has your Windows partition. You can find it using diskutil list command in Terminal.
hey Loner,
Im trying to install windows 8.1 next to os x. Since I have an early 2011 bca to usb windows results in no audio. So I am trying this method.
I have followed the step you described but havent been able to boot to the ntfs parition. output of my gdisk is the following:
gpt show: /dev/disk0: mediasize=320072933376; sectorsize=512; blocks=625142448
gpt show: /dev/disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0
gpt show: /dev/disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1
gpt show: /dev/disk0: Sec GPT at sector 625142447
start size index contents
0 1 MBR
1 1 Pri GPT header
2 32 Pri GPT table
34 6
40 409600 1 GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
409640 426197600 2 GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
426607240 1269536 3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
427876776 1624
427878400 197263360 4 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7
625141760 655
625142415 32 Sec GPT table
625142447 1 Sec GPT header
output of gpt:
Warning: Devices opened with shared lock will not have their
partition table automatically reloaded!
Partition table scan:
MBR: hybrid
BSD: not present
APM: not present
GPT: present
Found valid GPT with hybrid MBR; using GPT.
Command (? for help): p
Disk /dev/rdisk0: 625142448 sectors, 298.1 GiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 00000D0A-2283-0000-CE4F-00003A540000
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 625142414
Partitions will be aligned on 8-sector boundaries
Total free space is 2285 sectors (1.1 MiB)
Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name
1 40 409639 200.0 MiB EF00 EFI system partition
2 409640 426607239 203.2 GiB AF05 Macintosh HD
3 426607240 427876775 619.9 MiB AB00 Recovery HD
4 427878400 625141759 94.1 GiB 0700 BOOTCAMP
Command (? for help): r
Recovery/transformation command (? for help): o
Disk size is 625142448 sectors (298.1 GiB)
MBR disk identifier: 0x000017B3
MBR partitions:
Number Boot Start Sector End Sector Status Code
1 1 409639 primary 0xEE
2 409640 426607239 primary 0xAF
3 426607240 427876775 primary 0xAB
4 * 427878400 625141759 primary 0x07
Can you tell me what I did wrong?
Thank you in advance
Bootcamp without Optical disc drive
