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I have been trying to install windows 8 by using USB flash drive, I found this "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table.....

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MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.1)

Posted on Feb 1, 2014 6:09 AM

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Posted on Feb 1, 2014 6:20 AM

see this thread:


https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4303490?answerId=20056907022#20056907022

13 replies

Feb 1, 2014 7:42 AM in response to BestCup

First what model and what model year Mac do you have?


Second it looks like you have not used Boot Camp as BC only works when there is only one OS X partition, excluding the EFI and recovery HD partitions. You seem to have a second OS X partition of 241GBs.


If you had used Boot Camp the partition name would be BOOTCAMP.


So please answer the question above.

Feb 1, 2014 8:11 AM in response to BestCup

Can you please post a screen shot of the Disk Utility window. I suspect you are having problems because of that other 241GB partition.


And it seems you have no OS X Recovery HD partition as that should be 650MB in size.


What I would try at this point is to make a Time Machine backup of your Boot OS X partition, that is IF all your DATA is contained on the OS X Boot partition. Then Wipe out the drive by Repartitionin it as One Partition, you'll need the Original System Reinstall disc do do that or if you updated the firmware you can try to connect to the Online Internet Recovery system by holding down the Command + Option/alt + r keys at startup and keep them held down until you see a globe on the screen.


Once you wipe out all of the partitions use that same Mac OS X Ubntilities screen to Restore from the Time Machine backup you made. Then try installing Windows.


But that still leaves you with No Recovery HD partition, which you will need if you ever have to Repair your OS X Mavericks install. So once you restore from the TM backup you might first want to redownload Mavericks and do an Over the Top install to recreate the Recovery HD partition.

Feb 1, 2014 9:46 AM in response to BestCup

Are you trying to install Windows to an External drive? You can't do that and Boot Camp would not partition an External drive for Windows. It only works on the internal drive and only if there is only One internal drive installed in the system.


No version of Windows can be installed to an External drive. With Win 8 there is a process to install Windows to an external but it is a Cut down version.


You'll need to use Boot Camp Assistant to partition your Internal drive for installing Windows.

Feb 1, 2014 9:49 AM in response to BestCup

Also on your model Macbook Pro Windows, any version of Windows, can only be installed from the built in Superdrive. It can't be installed from any USB drive. Apple has restricted all Mac computer that come with a built in DVD Superdrive from only installiing Windows from that DVD drive, IE with a DVD disc of the Windows install files.

I have been trying to install windows 8 by using USB flash drive, I found this "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table.....

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