Windows 8.1 install fails on new 2013 Retina MacBook

jarvil wrote:

I am doing a Bootcamp 8.1 install right now. Lets see if it works this time.... been waiting so long now for this to work. Late 2013 Retina MBP.

So close, yet so far. Again a failed install, same as last time. "Windows could not update the configuration for the next phase of the installation."

I have read through the FAQ, the release notes, everything. Logging a call with Apple now. At least Windows 8.1 is now supported. Will advise on outcome.

It does appear to be an EFI install. The image I am installing from is IRM_CCSA_X64FRE_EN-GB_DV5 ripped directly from my Windows 8.1 64bit OEM install DVD. Maybe it only supports full retail version?

jarvil wrote:

It does appear to be an EFI install. The image I am installing from is IRM_CCSA_X64FRE_EN-GB_DV5 ripped directly from my Windows 8.1 64bit OEM install DVD. Maybe it only supports full retail version?

Is that Windows 8.1 Pro?

I have an MSDN Windows 8.1 Pro image I can try, but I will not have time to attempt this until the weekend.

Yes that the Professional version. Windows 8.1 64bit Professional OEM disk.

You're close, try this

Run boot camp assistant to remove the bootcamp partition then restart the machine and login

Restart the machine again but this time do a PRAM reset then login

Open disk utility, confirm your boot drive is just 1 Mac journaled partition and repair permissions

Run repair permissions a 2nd time, this time you may have only a few prompts

Try boot camp assistant again

Hi turbostar, thanks for the tips. Did it again as per yor instructions

> Run boot camp assistant to remove the bootcamp partition then restart the machine and login

Done.

> Restart the machine again but this time do a PRAM reset then login.

Done.

>Open disk utility, confirm your boot drive is just 1 Mac journaled partition and repair permissions.

Confirmed and repaired.

>Run repair permissions a 2nd time, this time you may have only a few prompts.

Reparied 2nd time.

> Try boot camp assistant again

Ran boot camp assistant and this time only ticked the last box as I already have a USB stick ready for install from trying this last night.

Same error I am afraid.This leaves me with the following questions.

Do I need to create the USB stick entirely again?

Does the Apple not support OEM images? Note an OEM image is a full install.

Does Apple support languages other then EN-US? Mine is EN-GB, Great Britain.

Do I have to create an ISO using a superdrive with Apple's Disk Utility? For Licensing reasons? (Mine created using imgburn on Windows)

Does my Mac need to be replaced?

These are the question's I will ponder with my Retina Mac Book Pro Late 2013 Model (Build 13B3116)

Hello all -

I feel Jarvil's pain. I have been up literally ALL NIGHT trying to do something that ought to take no more than 20 minutes - just installing Windows 8.1 through bootcamp on my new Mac Cylinder. No matter what, I got the dreaded 'Windows Can't Modify the Boot Record' yadayadayada - and I have tried every solution on this board (and I think every other discussion board here at Apple).

Well, guess what? It turns out that there's an easy solution to this "Windows Can't Modify the Boot Record" problem, but it's not listed here. Shockingly, it's from Microsoft. The steps you need to follow can be found at this part of the Windows Knowledge base, but here are the simplest instructions I can come up with for this ridiculously complicated workaround (thanks, Apple.) This is the *only* solution that worked for me, but it did work.

Please Note: The instructions below presume that you have an actual bootable installation DVD of Windows 8.1 and a valid product key; that you've made an EFI USB stick with a Windows ISO and appropriate bootcamp files, as instructed, have partitioned your drive using Bootcamp, and have had a failed installation, with Widows returning the error that the Master Boot Record couldn't be modified and that installation cannot continue (or something to that effect).

Once this happens:

1) Click "OK" when in the error message where windows tells you that it cannot continue. This will effectively shut down your Mac.

2) BEFORE you restart your machine:

a) Make sure you have a DVD of the Windows 8.1 installation disc (iso will not work; you need the actual DVD)

b) Make sure you have a DVD reader of some kind attached to any USB port, with the Windows installation disc in the DVD drive.

c) Remove the EFI USB stick you just used that resulted in the failed installation.

3) Turn on the computer, hold down 'option' and select the 'EFI' image of the DVD that will appear to the far right of your screen. You'll get a black screen with the 'Press any key to boot from CD / DVD message.' Press any key and windows installation will begin again.

4) Follow the prompts until you get to the screen that says 'Install Now.'

5) Do not click 'install now.' Instead, on the 'Install Now' screen, look to the left corner to find the option 'Repair Your Computer.' Click that.

6) Select 'Troubleshoot' from the "Choose an Option" screen

7) Click 'Advanced Options' from the 'Troubleshoot' Screen

8) Click on Command Prompt

9) Execute the following commands, one at a time, making sure that each command returns 'Completed Successfully' (and they all will):

Bootrec /fixmbr

Bootrec /fixboot

Bootrec /scanos

Bootrec /rebuildbcd

10) Once you've executed these commands successfully, 'back out' of the Windows 'Repair My Computer' menu until you see the option 'Quit and return to Windows 8.1' Click that. Installation will resume immediately, and - shockingly - you will see Windows installation move to the next phase of installation, 'looking for devices.'

From that point, installation will work just as you'd expect it to. There's just one thing. As others have pointed out, each time Windows asks to restart, you need to be standing by to hold down the 'Option' button. At this point, until Windows installation is completed, be sure you select the Windows drive (and not the EFI installation disc) every time Windows requires restart.

Fifteen minutes later, you'll have Windows 8.1 up and running. Install the latest bootcamp drivers from the USB stick you created earlier, restart one last time, and finally, you're all set.

I really hope this saves someone the (nearly) fourteen hours it took me to complete this installation properly. Let me know if it helps.

Cheers, Keith

jarvil's luck was better than mine:

---

> Run boot camp assistant to remove the bootcamp partition then restart the machine and login

Done.

> Restart the machine again but this time do a PRAM reset then login.

Done.

>Open disk utility, confirm your boot drive is just 1 Mac journaled partition and repair permissions.

Confirmed and repaired.

>Run repair permissions a 2nd time, this time you may have only a few prompts.

Reparied 2nd time.

> Try boot camp assistant again

Ran boot camp assistant and this time only ticked the last box as I already have a USB stick ready for install from trying this last night.

Same error I am afraid.

---

At this point I decided to just give up and launch Boot Camp Assitant to remove the Boot Camp partition. It failed while removing the Boot Camp Partition. Running Disk Utility and verifing the disk now showed an issue with the EFI blocks. Repaired that, Disk Utility now says the disk is fine but:

I no longer have a recovery partition (if I boot with option key held down, no recovery partition appears, booting with command-R fails over to internet recovery).

I have a free block where the Boot Camp Partition was.

Disk Utility will not let me modify the partitioning in any way - I cannot grow my main partition to reclaim the free space.

I'm backing up now (a second backup, I already have a TM backup), then I'll boot with internet recovery, erase the volume entirely. I'm hoping a fresh install will recreate my recovery volume. Before I do a full restore (at least my main partition appears fine) I may try BootCamp again, perhaps these machines had some issue with out the factory laid out the partitions...

Let boot camp assistant do everything especially taking your ISO onto the USB. I'm not sure what you mean by an OEM image (like a Dell OEM disk or a retail Windows copy?) If you're trying to use an OEM disk for another machine, that IIRC will not work - you need a retail source for the ISO like a retail DVD or download the ISO from the web.

I'm not using an OEM disk - only full iso's direct from MS. I'd love to let Boot Camp do everything - but it doesn't work. I'll post back after my backup/restore "experiment".

Hi Keith:

Thanks for posting this. I see you have the cylinder Mac. I have a MacBook Pro Late-2013 which may explain the difference between our results. I have been trying all the variuos suggestions on this thread for going-on-four months now. This included re-downloading Mavericks for a clean install: this after one of the proceedures, after faling, would not let me get back the partition with BootCamp, Disk Utility or any other way I could figure out.

When I follow you instructions as well as adhering to the other comments that should have no negative effect on your procedure: starting with a single mac volume, resetting PRAM, repairing permissions and restarting befor trying.

After going through the normal BootCamp installation with an ISO file I created with my Windows machine and coming up on the error. If I follow your Step 1, clicking OK does not shut down the computer but brings me back to the install screen (and having cycled through this several times in the past). I forced the Shut Down, pulled my USB stick and picked up on your instructions from there.

Everything went as you described up to Step 9. After I typed in those commands, I closed the dialog/command box, but it did not take me to the screen that allowed be to "Exit and return to Windows 8.1" Then I did it all again, and when I cam to here I typed a "y" in answer to the question that came up after the fourth (last) command I typed, and now it did take me to the screen that offered "Exit and return to Windows 8.1" which I selected. Then I was back to the first install screen (only full size not: not shrunk down like the first time).

But then when I got to the familiar screen that says "Windows cannot be installed on drive 0 partition 4." I hit the Format button as I always do, yet it still said "Windows cannot be installed on drive 0 partition 4." That being said, it seems to me if I did sucessuflly format that partition again, I'd have lost whatever I changed in running those commands.

Message was edited by: donpaluh

65s - I was replying to jarvil, but in your case, I would do exactly that ... boot into internet recovery, launch the disk utlity and delete/erase all partitions so that you only have 1 mac journaled partition.

Yes, do NOT not restore anything from time machine just yet, get your OSX installed and fully updated (only any system updates) then try boot camp

Then start at my PRAM reset step (yes, even though you have a clean install, the PRAM seems to do something) at least both PRAM + repairing got both my late 2013 nMP and rMBP beyond the various install errors

Okay - after erasing the drive (not just the main partition) from the network recovery boot. Then creating a single partition and installing a fresh OS X, then I ran Boot Camp and had zero issues installing Windows 8.1 - sailed right through and Windows 8.1 seems to be running fine. No hackery required.

I verified that the reinstall of OS X gave me back a recovery partition, now I'm booted into recovery and restoring my main partition (I had a TM backup and I made a seperate image of the partition before wiping the drive, restoring from that second backup now).

Everything looks good. I strongly suspect that the early 'Retina 15" Late 2013 MacBook Pro' had something funky with the factory disk image.

I don't know that I would have chosen to take this route to fix the issue - I probably would have just lived with VMWare. But since Boot Camp managed to pretty seriously hose my partitioning beyond disk utilities ability to repair I didn't have much other choice.

For the record I had reset the PRAM per this thread and it did change the install behavior so that may also have been part of the solution. And I installed from a clean, release iso of Windows 8.1 from Microsoft (from an 8GB USB2 memory stick).

If you want to give it a try, make sure you have redundant backups, a decent network connect that is supported by network recovery (wouldn't work at my office, I had to take my machine and backup disks home), and an entire 12 hour day to kill...

If I find anything amiss I'll report back - otherwise thanks for the many suggestions.

solution for you here: http://www.fshare.vn/folder/TR963DWRAT/. it is already integrated source drivers to avoid crashes keyboard, mouse while installing! pass: xuancuonghcm

I apolgize if I missed it in the thread somewhere. But can I ask how you got a Windows 8.1 .iso file from Microsoft? I purchased the 8.1 Pro version from their website (along with the DVD) and it only gives me the option to download an .exe file. For Windows 7, which I purchased the same way, it offered-and still does-an .iso file. I have been using Windows to make an .iso file by downloading the .exe with a Windows machine and checking the box to save for later installation (or something like that.

You run the setup.exe file on a Windows machine (or VM). If you want 64 bit then you need to run it on a 64 bit Windows system.

Once the download is completed you are given the option of creating install media and then the option to create an .iso file.

Voila! Windows.iso