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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!
same error
If you power down Mac, power it backup and hold Alt/Option, what selections do you get?
-mac os
-efi boot (shows the same icon disk like mac os)
What is the bless command used?
sudo bless --folder /Volumes/WINDOWS --legacy --legacydrivehint disk0s4 --setBoot --verbose
Can you run the following highlighted command?
sudo systemsetup -liststartupdisks
/Volumes/BOOTCAMP/WINDOWS
/System/Library/CoreServices
/System/Library/CoreServices
it doesn't see the windows disk in system preferences / start up disk either
What are the files in /Volumes/Windows?
Can you run the following two commands and post the output?
sudo systemsetup -setstartupdisk /Volumes/Windows
sudo systemsetup -liststartupdisks
Not a System Folder: /Volumes/Windows/System/Library/CoreServices
/System/Library/CoreServices
Bless the entire device and test.
sudo bless --device /dev/disk0s4 --setBoot --legacy --verbose
sudo systemsetup -setstartupdisk /Volumes/Windows
EFI found at IODeviceTree:/efi
Firmware feature mask: 0xC003FF37
Firmware features: 0xC001F537
Legacy mode suppported
Got IODeviceTree:/rom
Got start address ff981000
Got size 30f000
Found SATA interconnect in protocol characteristics
IOGUIDPartitionScheme
Hitachi HTS545032B9A302 Media
IOBlockStorageDriver
IOAHCIBlockStorageDevice
AppleAHCIDiskDriver
IOAHCIDevice
PRT0
AppleIntelPchSeriesAHCI
SATA
AppleACPIPCI
PCI0
AppleACPIPlatformExpert
MacBookPro8,1
Root
Setting EFI NVRAM:
efi-boot-device='<array><dict><key>MemoryType</key><integer size="64">0xb</integer><key>StartingAddress</key><integer size="64">0xff981000</integer><key>IOEFIDevicePathType</key><string>HardwareMem oryMapped</string><key>EndingAddress</key><integer size="64">0xffc8ffff</integer></dict><dict><key>IOEFIDevicePathType</key><strin g>MediaFirmwareVolumeFilePath</string><key>Guid</key><string>2B0585EB-D8B8-49A9- 8B8C-E21B01AEF2B7</string></dict><dict><key>IOEFIBootOption</key><string>HD</str ing></dict></array>'
Setting EFI NVRAM:
IONVRAM-DELETE-PROPERTY='efi-boot-file'
Setting EFI NVRAM:
IONVRAM-DELETE-PROPERTY='efi-boot-mkext'
Setting EFI NVRAM:
IONVRAM-DELETE-PROPERTY='efi-boot-kernelcache'
NVRAM variable "boot-args" not set.
sudo systemsetup -setstartupdisk /Volumes/Windows
Not a System Folder: /Volumes/Windows/System/Library/CoreServices
Can you check if disk0s4 is the correct location of Windows (use diskutil list)?
Bootcamp without Optical disc drive
