How do I install Windows 7 on Mavericks?
I tried using boot camp but it doesn't work .
MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)
The 64 bit version right?
17 replies
I think Windows 7 I have is 32 bit. How do I check?
It doesn't say on the installation DVD?
Try reading this:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5467714?answerId=23619173022#23619173022
And read this as well. It has to be the 64 bit version.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5639
There are other ways to do it, but it gets very involved and you'd need an older copy of OS X that supported 32 bit Win 7.
Yep. It's a 32 bit.
The current Bootcamp (Version 5) only supports 64 bit windows. You could try downloading an older version of bootcamp, but I can't tell you for sure if it'll install properly. Like I said, it gets very involved.
Why do you want Windows? Is it gaming or business? If it's business, think about Parallels. It'd be a lot easier to install and what you have would work fine.
www.parallels.com
Its both. Gaming and business. I have an old Windows Dell Inspiron computer but when I try to play a game the graphics are terrible. So I thought about running Win 7 32-bit on my Mac because the graphics may be better and I could actualy see the game I'm playing...
Yeah, I've heard about parallels... just wasnt sure about it.
It works very well for business programs, but I'm not sure you'd get the graphics you want.
Do you have an external drive available? And your old installation disks for the Mac?
My Mac did not come with any installation disk. I have a USB SuperDrive from Apple.
OK... your machine originally came with Mountain Lion, which means it was on the recovery partition. It's been overwritten now by the Mavericks recovery partition. In Mountain Lion, you could have installed your 32 bit Win 7 to a Bootcamp partition. The upgrade to Mavericks wouldn't affect it the Bootcamp partition. Now you don't have a way to install Mavericks to another drive though. The only thing you could try to do is to download Bootcamp 4 and the win 7 32 bit drivers for your machine. That should work.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4818
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1635
Keep in mind that the Windows partition is going to eat up some of your SSD space, so you might want to see how much space you have before you start this project.
I always hate putting Windows on a Mac. I feel like I'm defacing the Mona Lisa or something..
How do I download the Win 7 drivers and make a partition? Use BootCamp 5?
Use Bootcamp 4. The drivers should be part of the installation process. It's also going to ask you how big to make the partition. Remember that's eating up some of your SSD.
So that download will replace BC 5 with BC 4?
Run it from your download folder or put it somewhere other than Bootcamp 5. You better make a backup of everything first if you haven't done this kind of thing before.
How do I install Windows 7 on Mavericks?