Q: Windows 8.1 install fails on new 2013 Retina MacBook

Hi JC Bond,

Thank you for the posting on Dec. 8 with the steps to install Win 8. I am trying to install Win 7 on my 13" latest rMBP, tried to follow your steps, but after step 10, I don't have keyboard or mouse control during the Windows setup, what I can do?

Thanks in advance!

Regards,

Shawn

Has anyone heard from Apple regarding this issue? So far, I've spent 5 hours getting Windows 8.1 onto my machine. Right now, I'm trying to upgrade Windows 7 to Windows 8.

Any news in Iris support?

Look at my post a couple of pages back and you will see the solution...

1. Using Boot Camp assistant select only the options to DOWNLOAD the latest Boot Camp Drivers and CREATE a WINDOWS install USB Disk from your windows 8.1 iso file.

2. Do NOT allow BootCamp Assistant to create my Windows partition.

3. Using the Disk Utility, manually reduce the MAC OS partition to allow space for the Windows partion. (do this in the partition tab, by draging the MAC OS partition smaller"

4. 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

5. Restart thr ecomputer and hold the option key

6. Select the EFI Boot option, this will boot you into windows setup

7. When you get to moment of selecting where to install windows. Click on NEW and create a partition that is 500 Megabytes SMALLER than the available hard drive space.

8. Then proceded to install windows into that partition.

9. The windows install should go on w/o any problems. Once you are in windows 8.1. Copied the OFFLINE folder you had moved stuff into on the USB drive onto my Windows Desktop and then ran SETUP.exe that is inside the bootcamp folder.

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

JC Bond: Unforunately, it does not work for me. After installation, I still get the message that Windows can't update the boot record.

I'll go back to installing Windows 7 first. then Windows 8, then upgrading to 8.1. That will still be EFI mode, right?

You must have a left over hidden partition on the hard drive. If you have a Backup of your MAC OS partition I would recomend errasing the whole hard drive and start by installing MAC OS following the full procedure of my original post.

Installing win 7 and then win 8 will leave you with a Bios install not an EFI

JC Bond: Not that I can find in diskpart at least. I'm restoring it completely now, and trying your method. If this doesn't work, I'll just singleboot windows and live without OS X until apple can get it right.

Just cleaned my macbook, did all the things JC suggested, and I still get the error at the end.

I'm getting pretty sick of this. What are the disadvantages of just running BIOS legacy mode?

The main difference going Bios will be a longer boot time for Windows. Out of curiosity what Mac do you have?

One other question... Since you hace a mac that you have cleaned installed and it seems that you are ok to test. If you turn on the machine, boot to the USB dongle that has windows on it. Once you get to the were to install windows, can you DELETE all the partitions (including MAC OS) and install windows ONLY.

This is JUST A TEST but can you configure your particular machine as a Windows ONLY system. I did mine for a bit as one of the many tests I did before getting to a procedure that worked.

At least from Windows, I can see only unallocated space. I then create a partition and try to install. But still I get the "Windows could not update the computer's boot configuration. Installation cannot proceed" error.

I'm installing 8.1 Enterprise btw. not that I think it should matter.

What am I missing by just installing Windows 7, then upgrading?

When you create the new windows partition are you manually entering a size for the partition and making it 500mb smaller than the available space... THIS IS THE KEY issue here.

Just double-checked.. It seems that after deleting all partitions in disk util from recovery mode, by the time I boot windows, 3 partitions exist (all should be unallocated). One of these is labelled EFI. I don't know if it is windows, or OSX recovery creating them.

I can try once again with no partitions (delete through windows), and with -500MB allocated to the windows partition.

Disk Utility on MAC OS will not let you see the Hidden Partitions and therefore you will not be able to delete them.

If you want to do a FULL CLEAN install Use the Windows Installer to Delete EVERYTHING you see on the drive and then use MAC INTERNET RECOVERY to re partition the drive and follow the steps on my first post.

CMD R when booting to go to INTERNET RECOVERY

>>Has anyone heard from Apple regarding this issue?

you won't hear anything from Apple on this forum - these are customer forums only.

Apple may monitor them, but won't give an official response via these forums, and they never resond on them.

If we want Apple to do something, we need to go through the official support network.

A couple of things to note first:

* Windows 8.1 is not supported by BootCamp at the mo, only Windows 8.0 - so you won't have any luck asking for help with Windows 8.1 yet.

* I had the same issues as everyone else trying to get Windows 8.1 installed, and tried everything that has been suggested. In the end though, I got my rMBP replaced, and the new rMBP has not had an issue at all - I followed the bulk-standard BootCamp install method and got EFI install working absolutely fine.

So don't be afraid of asking for a new laptop to fix this issue, you can say that others have found this fixes their issue.

So.

1) If you have AppleCare, ring them and say there is an issue with your rMBP, and you'd like it to be fixed or your rMBP exchanged/repaired. Tell them that when you follow the BootCamp install instructions as defined by Apple, Windows 8 fails to install. All rMBPs come with 90 days free phone support, so use it.

2) Got to http://www.apple.com/feedback/ and log feedback about your rMBP - let them know there is an issue.

Basically, if all we do is complain about the problems on these forums, nothing will happen, unless it gets picked up by one of the big Apple news sites (e.g. MacRumors).

But if enough people contact Apple about them problem, they'll do something.

Thanks!

Also, some info about non-OS partitions:

EFI Partition

The EFI partition is created by the OSX installer, is 200MB long and is formatted with a special version of FAT32.

Apple Macs do not need this partition in order to boot - all the Mac-specific EFI stuff is in Firmware.

Which is why you can still run InternetRecovery even after you hose your HardDisk.

The only time OSX uses this partition is during firmware updates - it stores the update file son the partition, in the Apple folder.

Windows, however, needs this folder to boot from EFI.

I haven't yet worked out if Windows would create the EFI partition for you - I doubt it though.

You can't create this partition except via command line tools as it needs a special UID in the GPT table - if you don't know what I mean, then just bear in mind that in order to create this partition manually, you'd need to use a command line tool e.g. DiskPart and specify the type of partition as EFI.

MSR Partition

The MSR Partition is usually 128MB, and is created by the windows installer in certain scenarios (generally only if you install windows to non-partitioned space, or if you create a partition with a bit of space left over in the installer). It's a placeholder partition.

There isn't anything in this partition - windows simply cerates it for future use (it's really design to hold recovery info e.g. WinPE, but I don't think it currently does)

However the partition needs to come *before* any other windows partitions.

Note that DiskUtility in OSX can't properly see this partition, and usually labels it as disk0s2 or something similar, with an OSX format. DiskUtility also won't let you modify the partition.

OSX Recovery Partition

This is usually 600MB and contains a cut-down version of OSX that can be used to re-install OSX e.g. download the OSX image, reinstall from TimeMachine, run DiskUtility etc.

If you run Internet Recovery (i.e. not booting from the OSX Recovery Partition) the first thing it does is download this cut-down version of OSX and start it.