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User profile for user: Bob Owen
Bob Owen Author
User level: Level 1
19 points

How to install Windows 7 on extra Internal Disk

Apple's latest "Boot Camp Installation & Setup Guide" does not provide clear instructions to accomplish what I believe to be possible. A review of this forum for past articles provides more clues, but still leaves me wondering what are the actual steps to achieve my goal:


Install Windows 7 on my MacPro on an internal disk that is not in the first hard drive bay. I want to make the Windows disk it's own single partition, and keep my MacOS on it's own drive as it currently exists.


Here's what Apple's latest guide states:


"If you have a MacPro with more than one internal disk and you want to install Boot Camp on a disk that isn't in the first hard drive bay, remove the drives in the lower numbered bays. You can reinstall the drives after you install Boot Camp."


I have a call in to Apple Support and it was immediately bumped up to Engineering because none whom I spoke with were able to answer the question. In fact, they told me that no one had ever asked the question before!


So I would like to understand the actual steps. Could I boot from the Windows CD and choose the internal disk I want to install it? Do I need Boot Camp to load and install the Apple supplied Windows drivers?


MacPro 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Xeon, 8 GB 1066 MHz DDR3, 3 internal drives. OS X 10.9.4

OS X Mavericks (10.9.4), 8 GB RAM

Posted on Jul 31, 2014 11:05 AM

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User profile for user: Bob Owen
Bob Owen Author
User level: Level 1
19 points

Posted on Aug 21, 2014 8:23 AM

Ok, I completed the Windows 7 install. However, I did not figure out how to get the Mac to boot from the USB drive after following your instructions. I ended up booting from the Win 7 DVD loaded in my optical drive and installing the Windows support software from the USB drive. Here are the steps I used to accomplish the install. My Windows HD, the target of my Windows installation, was in Bay 3.


Steps to install Windows 7 on MacPro disk


  1. Run Disk Utility.
    1. Erase/format the additional hard drive as FAT.
    2. Erase/format USB drive as FAT.
  2. Run Boot Camp Assistant
    1. Download latest Windows support software to USB drive.
    2. Point to target hard drive and go-to next step.
    3. Exit Boot Camp Assistant.
  3. Load Windows 7 DVD (64-bit) into Mac’s optical drive.
  4. Shut down Mac.
  5. Open Mac and remove (disconnect) all hard drives except for target drive for Window 7 installation.
  6. Start Mac
    1. Mac should automatically start up from Windows 7 install disk in optical drive.
    2. [follow instructions in Apple’s latest “Boot Camp Installation & Setup Guide, Step 3: Install Windows on your Mac, p. 6” © 2013 Apple Inc.
    3. My machine accessed the Windows support software on the USB drive as part of the install process.
  7. Shut down Mac.
    1. Reinstall hard drive(s) in lower numbers bays that were removed in step 5) above.
    2. Restart Mac and follow instructions to set the default operation system; “Boot Camp Installation & Setup Guide, Step 4: Install the Windows support software, p. 9” © 2013 Apple Inc.
  8. You’re done!


Thank you for the help!


FYI - Last voice message from Apple support technician a couple of weeks ago was that they did not know how to accomplish what I was going to do. Guess they are focusing on the mobile market and don't have much experience with 'old' technology...

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How to install Windows 7 on extra Internal Disk

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