Q: Windows 8.1 install fails on new 2013 Retina MacBook

rasel_tr: There may never be such a method, as even EFI boot does not support it now

Hello,

I have the same problem as everyone else here and I tried every tricks that seemed to work for some of us, without luck.

I don't want to do the BIOS install as I don't neew Windows that much, only for casual gaming.

Now I would like to try the WinClone idea and therefore I have a question to those who used it.

Did you buy the WinClone 4 or would the free version WinClone 2.2 be enough ?

Thank you for your enlightment.

To Saytan: I used WinClone 4.2.2

I have this same issue on my 15" rMBP; Apple: please fix this, this is ridiculous. Every time there is a new laptop Bootcamp goes down the toilet.

to jdhiro: If compiling times doesn't change too much in VM, may be I must go this way...

For what it's worth, the first solution listed in this thread worked for me...on the 3rd try. I have the 15" MBPr with all the upgrades. The only difference was in step 7 I did not hit delete; I went straight to format. Good luck to all, and thanks to everyone for sharing their information!

Same problem. BootCamp whit Windows 8.1 works fine for me. Only I´ve problems with integrated graphics (same problem like you). I haven´t tested the power of the GT-750M yet, but I hope works like a charm.

Oh, magic happend!

I didn't want to buy WinClone to do something that should work for free, so I decided to wait.

Today I downloaded a Windows 8.1 ISO (I only tried with Win7 and Win8 so far) and this time, magically, BootCamp went through the whole installation wihtout stopping on the "Windows could not prepare the computer to boot into the next phase of the installation. To install Windows, restart the installation." error message !

I can't explain why, it's been four days that I've been following this thread, trying every tricks proposed, without success.

The only difference is that I used a USB 3 stick instead of a USB 2 stick, but I can't even start to think that it matters in the least.

Thank you all and good luck.

I've posted a couple of times in here already how random this issue is, and I can add some more randomness. I'll tell you my story again.

- bought two MBRr two weeks ago when they came out, one for me, one for my dad.

- on mine, windows 8.1 installed fine, without any workarounds, fully automatic

- on my dad's, it failed to install with the error everyone here is getting

- out of curiosity I then removed my windows installation from my machine and went to try again

- it failed to install now on mine as well, like on my dad's

- I tried two more times and then gave up

- two weeks later, today I was bored and thought "oh ****, let's try again"

- popped in the same USB 3 stick with my windows files on it which the bootcamp assistant created two weeks ago

- opened bootcamp assistant, unticked the upper two boxes, assigned windows 100GB space

- MBPr rebooted into super tiny mode, I formatted the bootcamp partition and entered my key

- was holding my breath when it reached the final part where it updates the boot confit but everything installed fine to my surprise

- it rebooted again and as I'm typing this it's finishing up the installation

I have no idea why it worked now, as I changed absolutely nothing, except one thing:

Last week I did use disk utility to repair the boot volume, as it said the partition table was damaged, I had to do this from the recovery partition. Maybe this has something to do with it.

Anyway, good luck everyone, I finally got it done without any hacks or tricks.

Now the solution for installing Windows 8.1 / Windows 8 on MacBook Pro Retina Late 2013.

It worked to me. If this method appeared in this discussion, then sorry.

Note that you should have working partition (where you're going to install Windows)

1. Install latest Parallels Desktop.

2. Open it and choose install from usb/dvd (using iso), choose your iso file with Windows, then choose fast installation.

I had exactly the same problems stated in this topic (booting problem), and I am surprised now that Windows 8.1 is actually working on my mac.

Please reply if this method doesn't work.

Good luck.

After numerous installs... Finally got windows enterprise 8.1 EFI mode running on the new rMBP haswell with 750m...

The story is I always got stuck at "failed to update boot configuration", and I have tried using dism command to manually copying over windows files and using bcdboot to update boot configuration, reinstalled mac via internet recovery, but no luck ><

Finally...

Short story, Windows installs fine in BIOS mode, and once it is installed, delete MBR, fix EFI boot so it runs in EFI mode.

Steps:

1. Run through BootCamp software (created USB via ISO, download bootcamp support, install windows, partition)

2. Boot back into Mac, reformat the BOOTCAMP partition as exFAT so it would create MBR table (so BIOS mode will be enabled)

3. Boot via "Windows" with USB drive by holding option key. not the USB EFI boot.

4. Reformat the exFAT partition as NTFS (do not delete), and install windows

5. Hold option each time, and select the HDD "other" windows icon than the one selected by default (the one selected by default is EFI mode and will give BCD boot error stating missing winload.efi)

6. Until you get to "personalize", hit power button and restart into mac

7. Download and install gdisk, and recreate protective MBR mode (basically remove all hybrid MBR), via

sudo gdisk /dev/disk0;

then, ? x ? n ? w y q

8. open USB drive, rename AutoUnattended.xml to AutoUnattended.xml.back so we can open command shell on next boot

9. Reboot computer holding option key and boot into USB EFI so we can fix EFI boot. In the process, you will see only one boot option for windows.

10. Shift-F10 to open command prompt, or go through "Repair" "Advanced" "Command"

11. diskutil (enter) list volume (enter), select volume 1 (enter, make sure this is the 200MB EFI volume), assign letter=B (enter) exit (enter)

12.

cd /d B:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\

(Optionally, do:ren BCD BCD.bak)

bcdboot C:\Windows /l en-US /s B: /f ALL

When the command succeeds, it is all good. Reboot computer, it will be windows EFI 8.1

14. Install bootcamp in windows 8.1.

13. Battery life is still sad, and the trackpad still acts like a mouse (trackpad++ works better, but still not natively multi-touch windowsish) I'm still debating whether to spend the technet license in parallel desktop or in bootcamp. CUDA windows would work in native mode, but I'm not sure in parallel desktop mode...

Just... have to write it up ---

I really struggled with getting Windows 8 to install via Boot Camp on my Late 2013 15 inch rMBP. I spent an afternoon trying different combinations of Boot Camp options.

I was using a USB stick that the windows tool from this site http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/upgrade-product-key-only made for me (despite first appearances this is not just for upgrades but for fresh installs where you just buy the product key). I then used Boot Camp to add drivers and install. This didn't work.

Long story short I asked my partner and he had an actual ISO file on his computer of Windows 8 from his install. I used this and all three Boot Camp options checked to make a bootable USB drive, with appropriate drivers and install and it worked just fine. Only thing that was not absolutely glaringly obvious was formatting the partition again when installing Windows. Hope that helps someone out there. If you're still having issues try getting your hands on an actual ISO file and letting Boot Camp loose on that rather than whatever it is the windows tool makes.

PS Just FYI I checked this is using EFI.

Let us know if it works