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Windows 8 install crash

Hello all, I've got an early 2011 MacBook Pro with 10.8.4 and I'd like to install Windows 8 (retail 64 bit) using Boot Camp.


I'm currently using OWC's data doubler bracket so I have two interal SSDs. I've already used the Boot Camp Assistant to make a partition on one of them for Windows.


The internal optical drive that I removed to make room for the second SSD is in an external USB powered enclosure (also from OWC). It works just fine.


After the Boot Camp Assistant does it's thing it restarts the Mac and I get a black screen with a blinking "_" character. At this point nothing happens unless I reboot and hold down the option key and then I'm able to select from four choices, two hard drive partitions, the DVD for Windows and one called EFI.


If I select EFI it will boot and bring up a windows 8 "hit any key to boot..." prompt.


From there it quickly shows a windows 8 splash screen with some information. It dissapears pretty fast but from what I could gather it says, "Windows 8 has encountered a problem and must restart. Please wait while we gather some information..."


Not sure where to go from here. Any help?

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)

Posted on Jun 21, 2013 8:24 PM

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2 replies

Jun 22, 2013 9:32 AM in response to Coopxx

I worked around the issue by reinstalling the optical drive into the MacBook, rather than using it externally via USB. For whatever reason there was an issue with using it externally.


Since the secondary SSD already had a Boot Camp partition on it, I used a USB to SATA adapter to connect it to the MacBook.


I was able to boot from the Windows 8 DVD, get into the setup, and view the list of available partitions.


I attempted to install to the Boot Camp partition but Windows warned me that the computer was unable to boot from a partition located on a USB/FireWire device.


I then removed the primary SSD, replaced it with the secondary SSD containing the Boot Camp partition, and rebooted.


I was able to boot from the Windows 8 DVD, and since now the partition was located on an internal drive, install Windows 8.


Boot Camp Assistant created a Windows Support Software USB disk for me, however windows couldn't read the disk.


After removing the optical drive, reinstalling both the primary and secondary SSDs back into the MacBook, and booting into OSX, I realized that the Windows Support Software USB drive was formatted for OSX rsther than FAT.


I used disk utility to format the drive correctly and went on Apple's download page and grabbed the zip containing the Windows Support Software.


After installing the drivers provided by Apple, I started the Windows Update process. Unfortunately now I'm stuck in a failed update/please wait while Windows reconfigures updates loop. It just keeps rebooting over and over.

Windows 8 install crash

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