Trying to install Windows with Bootcamp

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Level 1

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Trying to install Windows with Bootcamp

Hello. First, I do know this has been a recurrent trouble for a lot of Mac user who have tried to install Windows using Bootcamp. Believe me, I've looked it up both here in the Apple Communities and in saint Google. My situation is, however, that I have replaced my optical drive with a SSD, and now my optical drive works externally, via USB. Everytime I try to install Windows in a dedicated partition in the SSD, it just stays forever in a blank screen with blinking cursor.

Apple's troubleshot won't work for me, and I'm beginning to think that the issue has more to do with the optical drive itself. I tried:

To install Windows on the HDD instead of SSD.
To unplug every USB (even mouse), except for the optical drive with Windows 7.
To install it via USB stick (creating a bootable .iso with Disk Utility). In this case the usb stick does not even appear when holding option key.
To try another Windows 7 version (32/64 bits).
...

I have even read it might be because of a bad installation of the RAM memory... this makes no sense?!

If anyone has encountered this same situation, I'd appreciate some help. Hope I can get this done, because Steam's Age Of Empires won't ever work in OS X :S

Thank you all for reading and helping!

MacBook Pro

13-inch, Early 2011

2,3 GHz Intel Core i5

8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

OS X 10.9.5

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion

Posted on Sep 24, 2014 6:55 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Sep 24, 2014 7:56 AM in response to cwasdqwe

If your Mac was originally configured with a built-in Optical drive, and it was later replaced, Bootcamp knows your original configuration and will not work properly in the modified configuration, because it uses your Mac's model string (found in About This Mac -> More Info -> System Report -> Hardware) for example, MacbookPro 11,3. The only supported method to install Windows is to restore the original HW configuration and install it and then move hardware around.

Please see Unable to Install Windows 8 on secondary Hard Disk .

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Answer 2

cwasdqwe Author

Level 1

5 points

Sep 24, 2014 8:03 AM in response to Loner T

Ouch! I guess this was something I should have expected... Thanks for your answer, I'll end up replacing temporarily the optical drive to install Windows, the thing is OS X is installed on the SSD, which will make me change HDD as well. Dammit.

Thanks again!

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Answer 3

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Sep 24, 2014 11:40 AM in response to cwasdqwe

The disk you want to install Bootcamp/Windows on should be in the main SATA bay, the Optical needs to go back into its original slot. If the disk that is removed has your OSX boot drive, OSX can be booted from an external enclosure, if needed.

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