Q: Windows 8.1 install fails on new 2013 Retina MacBook

Follow "option 2" here: http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/29504-bios-mode-see-if-windows-boot-uefi-le gacy-mode.html . Also, when people are posting please be specific as to which model of MBP you have. Go to system information and list the model identifier shown there. For example, mine is 11,3 which is a late 2013 15" rMBP with NVIDIA GPU.

So after days of trying many things suggested on this tread. I finally got my Windows 8.1 install to work. I can't confirm that this will work for other people but this worked for me.

My current theory as to why so many people are having problems is because when Windows is installing itself it needs a bit more UN-PARTITIONED space on the hard drive than what Boot Camp gives it. So my whole premise during this install was to allow some un-partitioned space to remain on the drive.

I have a late 2013 Macbook Pro 15" model. Because I had tried so many things w/o them working I decided to start fresh.

1. Started my Mac with CMD R held. This booted the Internet Recovery mode.

2. Using the Disk Utility I erased the disk, by creating a single partition that occupied the whole hard drive.

3. Then I reduced the MAC partition to the size I wanted it to be leaving empty space on the drive for my windows partition.

4. Installed Mac OS 10.9

5. Applied all updates available to Mac OS

6. Using Boot Camp assistant I selected only the options to DOWNLOAD the latest Boot Camp Drivers and CREATE a WINDOWS install USB Disk from my windows 8.1 iso file.

7. What I did NOT do is allow BootCamp Assistant to create my Windows partition.

8. I wanted to install windows clean and then manually install the Apple Drivers, so I went into the Windows Install USB drive that I had just created and moved some files into a folder that I called OFFLINE.

- - I Moved a folder called $WinPEDriver$; a folder called BootCamp, a file called AutoUnattended.xml, and a file called bootmgr

9. I then restarted my computer and held the option key

10. I then selected the EFI Boot option, this booted me into windows setup

11. When you get to moment of selecting where to install windows. I clicked on NEW and created a partition that was 500 Megabytes SMALLER than the available hard drive space.

12. I then preceded to install windows into that partition.

13. The windows install went on w/o any problems. Once I was in windows 8.1 I copied the OFFLINE folder I had moved stuff into on the USB drive onto my Windows Desktop and then ran SETUP.exe that is inside the bootcamp folder.

I finally now have a new Mac Book Pro with Windows 8.1 installed and working in EFI boot mode.

In my opinion what made the difference was:

1) not allowing boot camp to create my windows partition.

2) when I created the partition with the windows installer I purposely made the partition a bit smaller therefore allowing some space on the drive to remain free.

Knowing these two caveats. It would be interesting to see if others have luck installing windows 8.1 w/o having to do a complete clean install like I did.

Thank you very much! I'm in UEFI mode (rMBP late 2013).

Still confirm that integrated IRIS pro Graphic is not "seen" by system...

Still have problems with some application, such as Chrome, that looks very blurry

@robygen, disable your windows screen dim option , in

control panel, power options, advanced settings, etc

follow the below link

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-performance/turning-o ff-windows-7-auto-dimming-on-desktop/4954ba46-27a3-4415-9f00-d76056694334

then you should have a clear display

JC Bond could you do me a favour please?

In Windows could you go to device manager and open up the display adapters and double click on the Nvidia adapter then have a look which driver is being used on your system (the number will do)?

I'm assuming you downloaded the support drivers through Boot Camp and that you got the newer ones (5411 iirc).

Many thanks.

Thank you very much

Nvidia is notorious for using diferent version numbers for each portion of their driver. If I go under the properties of the NVidia driver in the Device Manager (as you sugested) the version number listed is 9.18.13.2716.

If I go to the NVidia Control panel and select system information the Driver Version listed is 327.16

Thanks JC Bond, that's a version I haven't seen before. I thought it might be

Those numbers are the same (almost). If you ignore the first 4 digits in the device manager display you are left with 3.2716 which as you can see is the same number portrayed differently. That seems to be how they do it.

I previously had Nvidia driver 327.23 (think it was) but in Windows it became x.xx.x3.2723

One other point if you will did you download the Boot Camp drivers through Boot Camp Assistant and did you get version 5411 (or maybe 5421, can't remember)?

It appears that these drivers are only available in this way - ie not available on the Apple Support page for BC downloads.

Many thanks!

I downloaded the BootCamp drivers using the BootCamp assistant. they are version 5.0.5.5411. From the download site I only see 5.0.5033

Yes that's correct. They seem to be available only through BCA if you have the latest hardware.

Thanks for your time 

mmmmmh it's not a problem of brightness...

Some applications still looks blurry...

Update - this method works and UEFI is verified HOWEVER I now have an "extra" partition on my drive that I am afraid to remove.  It is reported at either 600mb or 132 mb depending on whether I view it in Windows or OSX.  Strange...

I suspect the 132MB one is the Microsoft Reserved partition (which EFI installs insist on creating) and the 600MB (or maybe 650MB?) is the OSX recovery HD.

Windows may see one but not the other and OSX may see them both.

that partition is what Windows was trying to create and was not being able to. Do not delete it or you will loose the ability to boot one OS or the other.

There are several hidden partitions that each OS needs.

For instance the 620 MB partition is the MAC OS Recovery partition. There is also a 200MB partition that OSX uses when it needs to do updates to the computer Firmware. Then there is a Windows EFI partition that is needed to boot the Windows OS.

All these small partitions are needed by one or the other OS. The issue why installling windows 8.1 EFI via BootCamp was failing is because BootCamp was taking the whole hardrive and not allowing space for windows to create these small hidden partitions that are needed.

Thanks all!