Q: Windows 8.1 install fails on new 2013 Retina MacBook

For those who are doing mutiple installations of Windows 8.x you can legitimately use these product keys for the install. They do not activate windows but they will stop you killing the activation limit on your real key until you are happy with the Bootcamp installation.

334NH-RXG76-64THK-C7CKG-D3VPT for Core/Home

XHQ8N-C3MCJ-RQXB6-WCHYG-C9WKB for Professional

To Apple, these are legitimate generic installation only Windows keys. They will allow you to install Windows 8/Windows 8 Professional for a small trial period which is ample of time to activate your product with your Windows 8 product key.

@mcarriere Details work to get windows into an EFI boot.  I did have to tweak some things ( to follow ) as it was not identical to my setup.

I had to adjust this part:

cd /d B:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\ (hit enter)

ren BCD BCD.bak (hit enter)

bcdboot C:\Windows /l en-US /s B: /f ALL (hit enter)

for me I had to do the following:

Create the folder /Microsoft/Boot on the B drive as it didn't already exists.  I only had Apple showing ( wonder wether this could be the issue that BootCamp is no populating the boot area correctly with the Microsoft EFI )

I then had to move to my USB drive containing the Windows install:

cd D:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\

Then run:

xcopy *.* B:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\

Once that was done I could finish with the following:

ren BCD BCD.bak (hit enter)

bcdboot C:\Windows /l en-US /s B: /f ALL (hit enter)

I then followed the rest of the instructions an all was well.  Ti check to see what boot type windows is using you can do the following:

Bring up the Run command ( Windows Key + R )

Type in msinfo32 and press Enter.

Highlight the System Summary ( if no already highlighted ).

Look for the BIOS Mode.  It should read UEFI.  If so then you're cooking on gas.

You'll notice if you scroll down that Hyper-V - Virtulization Enabled Firmware is set to No.  This is the issue I'm having now as I need to use Hyper-V.  It seem to resolve by first booting into OS X and then restarting into Windows.  Some have also said installing Parallels Desktop also helps with the Hyper-V issue, but for me computer sleep after going into OS X and back seem to be working for the moment.

It's looking better but clearly Apple need to work on this as these issues shouldn't be happening on the top of the line MacBook.

If anybody is interested, I managed to install Windows 8.1 EFI on an external thunderbolt SSD using a Haswell rMBP.

It all works via through the Windows 8.1 EFI bootloader and requires a fair amount of fiddling because I had to create an internal bootcamp partition and delete it afterwards, keeping the Bootloader intact, since Bootcamp won’t let you install on external drives.

The end result is fairly clean though and you should be able to reverse it all by deleting a single folder in the internal EFI partition.

I documented the whole process here:

http://www.perkussionswartung.com/windows-8-1-efi-external-drive-haswell-rmbp/

Ok.  Need MUCH help... before I take ALL of my computers to the range.

I have a new mac pro.  I installed parallels, MS windows 8.0 and Office suite.  EVERYTHING worked great.

THEN, I installed 8.1.

NOW, nothing for MS works.  I click Outlook [or anything else] the icon opens on the bottom apple bar and sits there.  Doing nothing.

I cannot open the windows 8.0 pro.... nothing!

I cannot del it using the apple launchpad to reinstall it.

I even put the win 8 pro disk in thinking it will do something.... nothing.  No start up no nothing.

Help, please!

PS:  I chated with the apple chat guy.  Nothing he can do.

I have a new mac pro.  I installed paralles, 8.0 and office.

I then updated to 8.1.

Now NOTHING in windows works.  Nothing.

How do I delete windows 8.0 / 8.1 and start over.

Thanks,  Susan

I can't believe it, 8.1 pro just installed on my retina macbook pro 15 inch with 750m. A pure EFI installation, I do not know what happened, I thought I would try it for the millionth and one time and it just worked, the error message which I was expecting to come up, just didn't. The next screen after, where the error message normally comes up just said windows was restarting, I couldn't believe it, I don't know what happened, I can't explain it im sorry but I don't know why it suddenly just worked when it normally comes up with the error message. The only thing I had to do was hold down option each time it restarted and select windows so that it could finish the installation, I hope everyone else has the same luck I did, good luck guys and gals.

Through Boot Camp or not? Thanks.

I originally tried doing it initially just through disk utility, then in subsequent attemps through bootcamp assistant. 99% of the time neither worked, I tried workarounds such as exfat in disk utility and creating free space in disk utility. The last attempt which worked was just getting bootcamp assistant to partiton the hard drive (last option ONLY) as I already had a bootable USB. So then when it rebooted I held down option and went into mac osx , did a few tasks then set osx as the default startup os in system preferences. Then I turned it off, plugged in 8.1 pro bootable USB, went into EFI boot and then no error came up after install. That's about it really. I haven't done anything that others haven't done which is why I can't explain it.

nickf619

Please let me know how you did this step by step. This is what I have:

2010 Macbook pro 15inch

I upgraded to Mavericks and rebooted

I then downloaded bootcamp 5. (I do not know what to do with it. Do i just put the folder in my usb?)

I then format my 16GB Jump drive to MS-DOS format.

I then place the bootcamp 5 folder on the USB.

I then downloaded the latest windows suport from apple and placed that on the usb also.

I then open bootcamp asstistance and place my 64 Windows 8.1 pro disc in.

I Partition the harddrive and click install

Then I get an Error- " The disc can not be partitioned"

Please help as I purchased windows 8.1 fo $200 and now can not get it to work and after reading on this fourm it seems like everyone is having problems. If there is another way to do it please right a step by step for me as it will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

@saintnation

I'm assuming you have the macbook with built in drive and you also have the 8.1 DVD disc installation?

It seems your bootcamp assistant is not working, you could try partioning manually through disk utility, If you use disk utility make sure you format a new partition as exfat. Now once you have done this close all applications, then put in your windows disc then turn your macbook off. When you reboot hold down the option key, I believe you should get a option to boot windows and you should get the installer, make sure you choose to install windows on the new partition you have created and not the others, within the installer you will most likely have to format that partition again, then it should let you install, let me know how it goes?

I followed your and mcarriere's instructions and successfully installed Windows 8.  I'm trying to upgrade to Windows 8.1 now, but the upgrade fails each time.  The message says, "The app wasn't installed -- view details."  If I click on view details, I get a message that says, "Something happened and Windows 8.1 couldn't be installed. Please try again.  Error code: 0x8007001f.

If I pull the error logs from the setup, I see the following:

2013-12-01 20:21:06, Error                 MOUPG  CSetupHost::Execute(204): Result = 0x8007001F

2013-12-01 20:35:09, Error                 MOUPG  CSetupManager::Execute(355): Result = 0x800705BB

2013-12-01 20:35:09, Error                 MOUPG  CSetupHost::Execute(204): Result = 0x800705BB

2013-12-01 20:35:16, Error                 SP     SPGetCurrentOSGuid: BCD Open failed. Error: 0x0000001F[gle=0x00000002]

2013-12-01 20:35:16, Error                 SP     Cannot get the current OS GUID. Error: 0x8007001F[gle=0x00000002]

2013-12-01 20:35:16, Error                 MOUPG  CDlpTransformDU::ExecuteDriverInfoDU(1106): Result = 0x8007001F[gle=0x00000002]

2013-12-01 20:35:16, Error                 MOUPG  CDlpTransformDU::Execute(422): Result = 0x8007001F

2013-12-01 20:35:16, Error                 MOUPG  CDlpTask::ExecuteTransform(3154): Result = 0x8007001F

2013-12-01 20:35:16, Error                 MOUPG  CDlpTask::ExecuteTransforms(3327): Result = 0x8007001F

2013-12-01 20:35:16, Error                 MOUPG  CDlpTask::Execute(1550): Result = 0x8007001F

2013-12-01 20:35:16, Error                 MOUPG  CSetupManager::ExecuteTask(1158): Result = 0x8007001F

2013-12-01 20:35:16, Error                 MOUPG  CSetupManager::ExecuteTask(1123): Result = 0x8007001F

2013-12-01 20:35:16, Error                 MOUPG  CSetupManager::Execute(375): Result = 0x8007001F

2013-12-01 20:35:16, Error                 MOUPG  CDlpTask::RestartTransform(2444): Result = 0xC1800107

2013-12-01 20:35:17, Error                 MOUPG  CDlpTransformFinalize::LogMachineInfo(878): Result = 0x80070002[gle=0x000000cb]

2013-12-01 20:35:17, Error                 SP     CSetupPlatform::ResurrectNewSystem: Failure: Win32Exception: \\?\C:\$Windows.~BT\Sources\newsystem.dat: The system cannot find the file specified. [0x00000002] __cdecl UnBCL::FileStream::FileStream(const class UnBCL::String *,enum UnBCL::FileMode,enum UnBCL::FileAccess,enum UnBCL::FileShare,unsigned long)[gle=0x00000002]

2013-12-01 20:35:17, Error                 MOUPG  Finalize: Error reporting downlevel time: [0x80070002]

2013-12-01 20:35:17, Error                 SP     CSqmSession::SetSQMEndTime: Failed to set EndTime for datapoint with Id = 12576. Datapoint not found

2013-12-01 20:35:17, Error                 SP     Failed to set SQM end time. hr = 0x80070490

2013-12-01 20:35:17, Error                 MOUPG  Finalize: Error reporting finalize time: [0x80004005]

2013-12-01 20:35:21, Error                 MOUPG  CSetupHost::Execute(204): Result = 0x8007001F

I'm suspicious that the SPGetCurrentOSGuid is because we converted the boot to an EFI installation.  Any idea where I can get help so I can upgrade to Windows 8.1?  This Bootcamp experience so far has been pretty painful.

Solution:

• mcarriere's response, on page 22 ( https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5474320?start=315&tstart=0 ), combined with iamakingprawnUK's response, on page 23 ( https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5474320?start=330&tstart=0 ) worked for me.

• It's worth noting you may have to do cd /d D:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\ (note the added /d) to get over to the D drive instead of just cd D:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\

Observations:

• I am now showing UEFI as my BIOS mode and I also don't seem to have any problems with Hyper-V

• From what I can tell, this seems like a solid solution (see Caveats *, **)

• @iamakingprawnUK, I believe you are right on about the issue being related to BootCamp not copying over the files from D:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\ (perhaps it is some sort of permissions issue)

Caveats:

• * It's worth noting that this solution may not work for Windows 8.1 as a direct install or upgrade (see iampastwitsend's thread above)

• ** As many of us are painfully aware, not all Windows install disks were created equally even if they're for the "same" version. Like mcarriere, I am using a Windows 8 Enterpise x64 (not 8.1) ISO that I downloaded from MSDN. I am on a new MacBook Pro Retina 15.4" w/ 2.3 ghz processor, NVidia GeForce GT 750M, 16 GB RAM, etc... (standard model that is available in stores).

Questions:

• Anyone have any luck with an 8.1 upgrade after a succesful 8.0 install?

I did an 8.0 install followed by an 8.1 upgrade without any issues. Then again I also had no issues using bootcamp assistant to install 8.0 to boot via EFI without having to go through any extra steps.

@externalhack

interesting..

• Did you do your initial install from an external DVD drive? If so, did you burn the DVD from an image?
• What version of Windows 8 are you using (Pro/Enterprise/etc.., x64/x86)?
• Did you upgrade through the Windows Store or did you upgrade from a Windows 8.1 DVD (this is required with MSDN subscriptions)?

Thanks!

@iampastwitsend

please provide some more info, if you would not mind, so we can keep track of scenarios that are succesful and scenarios that are not and correlate these to the different variables at play here..

• What version of Windows 8 are you using (Pro/Enterprise/etc.., x64/x86)?
• Did you upgrade through the Windows Store or did you upgrade from a Windows 8.1 DVD (this is required with MSDN subscriptions)?

Thanks!