"No bootable device --- insert boot disk and press any key" after setting up Bootcamp

1. Are you using a USB stick built by Bootcamp Assistant?

2. Are you using an EFI installation or a typical standard installation? The partitioning indicates a standard installation, but a confirmation would be good to have.

3. Is your USB a USB 3.0 or USB 2.0 device? The Windows installer cannot deal with a USB3.0 device, but a USB2.0 device works.

4. Is the error message after the installation is completed or when starting it, again, just to confirm?

5. A bit surprising that the GPT has an entry#3 (Recovery HD) but the MBR (from fdisk) does not have it.

6. Was the Optical drive removed and that slot re-used for the HDD and/or SSD?

1. Since my iMac model doesn't support installing from USB I changed the info.plist of Boot Camp and used Boot Camp to build a USB installer. When I got that error message I thought it might be because of the USB stick and bought an external DVD drive to install from DVD which resulted in the same error message.

There may not be drivers loaded by the Windows Installer for the external DVD, so it may not be recognized.

2. I would assume standard since I don't know what the EFI option is.

EFI installation can cause some driver/graphics/keyboard issues.

3. I tried several USB 2.0 devices

Is a 2.0 USB drive recognized when holding the Alt key by the iMac boot manager?

4. The error message appears after Boot Camp partitioned the drive and the iMac restarted.

It is unable to find a bootable Windows installer on the USB and/or external DVD.

6. I removed the optical drive, connected the SSD to the HDD slot and the HDD to a third available slot.

On multi-disk setups (or Fusion drives), the second drive is the usual choice, which is what you have as /dev/disk1. On a MacPro, it is recommended that all other drives except the designated Windows drive be removed, which may be an option to consider. There are also SATA speed issues if the Optical drive slot is used for Bootcamp.

jon.schneider wrote:

Thank you for your help. The USB drive is not recognized by the boot manager. When I plug the external DVD drive in, it's recognizes a "Windows" disc and an "EFI Boot" disc. If I select the "Windows" disc I get a black screen with a blinking dash.

This is the expected behavior, but there is no driver on the Windows DVD for the external drive and the internal Mac firmware has no support for the Optical drive either.

If I select the "EFI Boot" disc the iMac freezes. The screen stays the same but I can't choose a different drive anymore.

Because there is no EFI support for what Windows wants. I would suggest staying away from it.

On a different forum I read it might have to do with the USB drives that they have to GPT formatted instead of MBR.

Bootcamp always creates an MBR USB, because it also puts the Windows ISO and expects to boot from the USB. Changing the BA info.plist to get USB support will let you create the USB, but since it does not have the ISO in it you are now asking the CSM-BIOS layer to boot from the USB which has no boot loader which should have come from the ISO, which results in no bootable device errors.

The SATA speed shouldn't be a problem since System Information shows me that both the SSD and the HDD have a negotiated speed of 3 Gbit/s just like before installing the SSD to the original HDD slot.

That is on the MACOSX side. Windows drivers may behave differently. The USB/ISO will load its own drivers to install windows, it is no longer the OS X driver. 😉. I have read the Macrumours threads on this subject. Also, W7 and W8 and W8.1 behave differently.

Are you able to access the Bootcamp volume from the OS X side and check logs?

Do you mean the Windows ISO? Why wouldn't the USB have the ISO? And why does it work for so many others?

BA is aware of the capabilities of the specific device that you are running it on. When you run BA, if the standard configuration has a built-in CD/DVD, it does different things. Removing the Optical drive and changing the info.plist circumvents how BA derives the capabilities of the device.

Can you check your USB and contents? Here is what I get for W8.1 on a 15" Late2013 rMBP.

I was able to install Windows with the same external optical drive and the same disc on my MacBook Pro that also doesn't have a built-in optical drive anymore. Where is the difference?

The original configuration has no internal Optical drive on your MBP, unlike your iMac. 😉. This actually can help. If you build the USB on the MBP and use it on iMAC (with the external drive) it may work. You will still need to install the correct Bootcamp drivers from a different USB built on the iMac which reflects the iMac HW, not the MBP HW.

Let me look for specific log files, that may contain information.

jon.schneider wrote:

I can see the Bootcamp volume in Finder but I don't know how to access log files on it.

From the OSX side, in Terminal,

1. cd /Volumes/BOOTCAMP/Windows/Panther

2. Look at setupact.log and setuperr.log

Here is an example of the header of setupact.log...

2014-02-10 01:55:57, Info IBS InstallWindows:Successfully loaded resource language [en-US]

2014-02-10 01:55:57, Info [0x0601c1] IBS InstallWindows:Install Path = X:\Sources

2014-02-10 01:55:57, Info [0x0601c2] IBS InstallWindows:Setup Phase = 2

2014-02-10 01:55:57, Info [0x0601e9] IBS CheckWinPEVersion:Compatible WinPE Version 6.1.7600 sp 0.0

2014-02-10 01:55:57, Info [0x0601c9] IBS InstallWindows:Starting a new install from WinPE

2014-02-10 01:55:57, Info IBS InstallWindows: Setup working directory = X:\windows\panther

2014-02-10 01:55:57, Info [0x0601ce] IBS Setup has started phase 2 at 2014-02-10 01:55:57

2014-02-10 01:55:57, Info [0x0601cf] IBS Install source is X:\Sources

2014-02-10 01:55:57, Info [0x0601d0] IBS Build version is 6.1.7600.16385 (win7_rtm.090713-1255)

2014-02-10 01:55:57, Info [0x06403f] IBSLIB CreateSetupBlackboard:Creating a new persistent blackboard. Path is [X:\windows\panther\SetupInfo] Setup phase is [2]

2014-02-10 01:55:57, Info [0x090008] PANTHR CBlackboard::Open: X:\windows\panther\SetupInfo succeeded.

2014-02-10 01:55:57, Info [0x064043] IBSLIB CreateSetupBlackboard:Successfully created/opened Setup black board path is [X:\windows\panther\SetupInfo]

2014-02-10 01:55:57, Info IBS InstallWindows:No UI language from a previous boot was found on the blackboard. Using selected language [en-US].

2014-02-10 01:55:57, Info IBS InstallWindows:Setup architecture is [x64]

So, when I started my iMac yesterday morning it couldn't boot into OS X anymore either. Several hours of restoring later I am back to square one. I tried installing Windows 7 via Bootcamp again but got the same error message. This time I noticed though that Bootcamp asked me to remove the bootable option from the USB drive with the support drivers in order to install from DVD. Does that ring any bells? I am building another USB drive right now, hoping it would ask me again but this I will decline and try to boot from it.

When you restored, was a Time Machine restore used? TM does not backup Bootcamp and does an erase of the partition. It may also erase the entire disk (including the Fusion drive) if the specific backup of the volume layout of the disks indicates a pre-Bootcamp layout.

My MacBook Pro is a 2009 model and also once had a built-in optical drive. I have no idea why it would work on there but not on the iMac.

You also wrote

When I plug the external DVD drive in, the boot manager recognizes a "Windows" disc and an "EFI Boot" disc. If I select the "Windows" disc I get a black screen with a blinking dash.

The blinking dash indicates that it is working, but does not have the requisite drivers to enable the GPU/Mouse/Keyboard on the media being used.

In the MBP case, did you have two drives installed in the MBP, a Fusion configuration, and then were able to successfully install Bootcamp?

For example on a Mac mini I have a DIY Fusion drive, but the sequence was done differently. Bootcamp was installed using a USB stick+Windows 7 ISO.

1. The two disks are not in a CoreStorage set up initially.

2. The second disk is partitioned (64Gb) and a Bootcamp W7 install completed via USB (this is different HW as compared to IMac, because it has no Optical drive).

3. After the HDD is partitioned, the first partition and the SSD are then used to create a CoreStorage volume.

4. Here is the working version and disk layout. (I plan to erase both disks, put W7 on a partition on the SSD, and make the non-Bootcamp+entire HDD in a CoreStorage volume).

diskutil cs list

CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)

|

+-- Logical Volume Group A8C00490-0E14-401F-AB69-59F37724E8C4

=========================================================

Name: Fusion

Status: Online

Size: 1190201270272 B (1.2 TB)

Free Space: 0 B (0 B)

|

+-< Physical Volume 4772013B-5520-4801-9BE5-BCAEF4AEDAB3

| ----------------------------------------------------

| Index: 0

| Disk: disk0s2

| Status: Online

| Size: 255716540416 B (255.7 GB)

|

+-< Physical Volume A679A101-3C78-4A59-B5EE-A4339210CFAD

| ----------------------------------------------------

| Index: 1

| Disk: disk1s2

| Status: Online

| Size: 934484729856 B (934.5 GB)

|

+-> Logical Volume Family 5EF5C7CA-0B9C-4169-82A1-41C84F206672

----------------------------------------------------------

Encryption Status: Unlocked

Encryption Type: None

Conversion Status: NoConversion

Conversion Direction: -none-

Has Encrypted Extents: No

Fully Secure: No

Passphrase Required: No

|

+-> Logical Volume 1512657C-ED13-4B31-82C6-7AECBBCA7F98

---------------------------------------------------

Disk: disk2

Status: Online

Size (Total): 1185508581376 B (1.2 TB)

Conversion Progress: -none-

Revertible: No

LV Name: Fusion HD

Volume Name: Fusion HD

Content Hint: Apple_HFS

diskutil list

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *256.1 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage 255.7 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 134.2 MB disk0s3

/dev/disk1

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk1

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage 934.5 GB disk1s2

3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 650.0 MB disk1s3

4: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 64.9 GB disk1s4

/dev/disk2

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_HFS Fusion HD *1.2 TB disk2

Let me build a W7 USB. I will post its directory.

I have the same set of files. Can you use the DVD and leave the USB plugged in, do you still get the "hanging" cursor?

Also, please see - Boot Camp: iMac displays a black screen during installation of Windows 7.