Partition problem while installing Win8.1 on MacBookPro running OSX 10.9

I have the same hardware and run W8.1 on a MBR disk. Please disconnect all external drives and peripherals except your USB with Windows 8.1 ISO+BC drivers and the keyboard/mouse. A USB Keyboard/Mouse is recommended. You may run into issues using a BT device during installation.

I am having same problem.

I also did a little more :

As it claims my disk is MBR and not possible for Windows to be installed into, I wiped the whole disk (SSD as second disk replacing Optical drive) and partitioned it into GPT, by booting into another OS X (a Maverick installed in another disk). I then reinstalled Yosemite into the SDD. Re-entered BootCamp and tried again installing windows. When reached the step of choosing partition for Windows, same error pops out claiming that the disk is MBR! This is rather weird, as I can read this SSD as a GUID partition from Disk Utility.

Hope someone can enlighten me why?

Regards

MBP Early 2011 (Maverick in Disk 0, and Yosemite in Disk 1 (SSD))

Please post output of

diskutil list

diskutil cs list

sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

sudo fdisk /dev/disk1

sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk1

Thanks Loner T for your attention.

I'v done something more before I saw your suggestion, so just now my MBP is not in the same state anymore. When I replicate the problem some time later today, I'll post the output by then.

Below is what more I did so far:

I circumvented the error: "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. This disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, windows can only be installed to GPT disks." by using the tool gdisk, as suggested in another post (Link below):

http://superuser.com/questions/484495/switch-windows-8-from-a-hybrid-mbr-gpt-gpt -only-on-macbook-pro-retina/696155#696155

In short, they suggest the disk is actually some hybrid MBR and GPT partition after formated by Disk Utility (or BootCamp). So there is still MBR info in there so once it is read by the Windows Installer, the installer just gives up and pops error. The gdisk is used to remove the MBR info so circumvent the error. (something like this but I am not having the savvy to understand what is done in details)

Therefore I was able to move forward to avoid above error msg, BUT, when I clicked the next to install, another poblem came by: "We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one". The bootcamp help suggests the following:

"This can happen if any Thunderbolt or USB storage devices--other than the USB media that contains a Windows ISO installer--are connected to the computer during the install process." link below:

Boot Camp: "We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one" alert during Windows 8 install - Apple Support

This is actually not my case, as I don't have other devices other than the USB containing Win8.1 ISO installer connected.

I'm now suspecting my dual disks configuration could be the culprit. To help diagonose, below is the disk info:

Disk 0: original HDD, in GUID, containing two partitions, one with Maverick, the other is the free space left by wiping previously installed Windows 7. They both are now in Mac format.

Disk 1: SSD, replacing Optical drive. I intended to install Yosemite and Win8.1 to this SSD, after that I'll clean the HDD as storing disk.

Hope I can make it in the end... Thanks.

Regards

It seems you are attempting an EFI Boot/Installation of Windows 8.1.

This requires the designated partition to be a 'Free Space' chunk of the size you want. It will be split by the Windows installer into MSR and MSD parts. MSR is typically 128MB, while MSD is the rest of the designated Windows partition.

On Macs prior to 2013, UEFI compliance is not always the case. You can check for a list of Mac Model identifiers in the Bootcamp info.plist to ensure that you have a UEFI Mac. If you do not, which is likely the case for a 2011 Mac, you may run into Graphics and Audio issues.

If you can post the gpt output of disk0 and disk1, it can be checked to ensure that the partitions are reasonable.

the other is the free space left by wiping previously installed Windows 7. They both are now in Mac format.

Free Space and JHFS+ formatting are different. These need to be Free Space.

Disk 1: SSD, replacing Optical drive. I intended to install Yosemite and Win8.1 to this SSD, after that I'll clean the HDD as storing disk.

There may be a simpler method. Put the SSD in the main Bay, and leave the Optical drive in the Optibay. Install Yosemite and Windows. Remove the Optical drive, and put the HDD in Optibay and format it as you wish. Otherwise you are repeating this process, by doing it first on HDD and then later on SSD.

Thanks again!

I am not next to my MBP at the moment, so can't do the testing for now. However, I am pretty sure my MBP Early 2011 is not listed in the info.plist. I once tried to mofidy info.plist to un-grey the bootcamp option "create a Windows installation disk" as originally not available for MBP coming with superdrive. I didn't succeeding in modification in the end, but instead went on preparing the installation disk using my Dell laptop.

I do not quite understand much about what you said about JHFS+, MSR, MSD etc, and EFI boot etc. Just now, I am not so sure about what I can achieve given my current configuration. Do you mean that even I succeed in installation, I'll still end up with Graphics or Audio issues? Is the only way error free is to use optical drive with DVD instead of USB?

While trying to follow your advice, I am planning the two choices below, please reminde me if it doesn't really achieve the same thing you suggest:

Choice one:

1) Wipe SSD using Maverick on HDD;

2) Install Yosemite to SSD. I have a Yosemite image created yesterday, thinking just copy that image to the wiped SSD;

3) Put SSD to the main bay and put the optical drive back to the optical bay;

4) Install Bootcamp Windows 8.1 using DVD;

5) Replace optical drive by HDD.

Choice two:

Same as choice one except in the step 4), still use USB instead of DVD. I understand using USB would be actually an EFI boot you mentioned?

I wish to go with USB is because I only got a Win7 installation disc, while the Win8.1 is in an ISO file -- I don't have DVDs at hand so cannot burn any.

Not sure I captured your suggestions properly. Please advise further if possible.

Thanks!

In Choice Two, you will not be able to use USB only. You will need the Optical drive also, because BCA uses your Mac's Model Identifier to set up the Windows Installer Boot. 2011 Macs have problems with EFI Boot.

Thank you Loner T, I am buying DVD discs and have already put back my superdrive to the optical bay. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be having everything properly installed.

Regards

I've been following your thread and using El Capitan. As noted, BootCamp does create a partition, but it is not the correct format. Once the partition was created, I used DiskUtility to change the format to EXFat (which I understand will work). I have both a System 7 DVD and USB drive with 7 and the Boot Camp utilities. So, I can restart, use the option keep and elect the DVD for installation, but then the software is access on the USB drive. That is not a problem. What is a problem is that my connect mouse and connect keyboard are dead, so drivers are not loading.

Ran part of your terminal commands with the following results:

Last login: Thu Aug 20 01:37:55 on console

Pauls-iMac:~ paulklenk$ diskutil list

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *121.3 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage Macintosh HD 121.0 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 134.2 MB disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk1

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage Macintosh HD 698.3 GB disk1s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.1 MB disk1s3

4: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 301.0 GB disk1s4

/dev/disk2 (internal, virtual):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD +813.5 GB disk2

Logical Volume on disk0s2, disk1s2

80984887-B212-4573-A3EE-57D843909069

Unencrypted Fusion Drive

/dev/disk3 (external, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk3

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk3s1

2: B6FA30DA-92D2-4A9A-96F1-871EC6486200 2.3 MB disk3s2

3: 2E313465-19B9-463F-8126-8A7993773801 7.3 MB disk3s3

4: FA709C7E-65B1-4593-BFD5-E71D61DE9B02 999.9 GB disk3s4

5: Apple_Boot Boot OSX 134.2 MB disk3s5

/dev/disk5 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *2.0 TB disk5

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk5s1

2: Apple_HFS SuperDuper Backup 2.0 TB disk5s2

/dev/disk6 (virtual):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_HFS RAID Backup +999.9 GB disk6

Appears that BootCamp is apparent.

Any additional assistance would be GREATLY appreciated!

1. Remove disk 3 (external, physical) till Windows installation is complete.

2. USB2 flash disks do not work on Windows 7,8,10 installers. Use a USB2 flash disk. Do not use any hubs. USB should be directly connected to the Mac.

3. You have a Fusion disk. What year/model is your Mac?

4. ExFAT may cause problems. BC Assistant formats it to FAT32, which gets reformatted when Windows installer is run by clicking on Format and Next. (This is from an older Snow Leopard Mac which does not have Recovery HD).

I am getting close, but need a few more helpful hints. I've owned Macs for years and this is one of the most convoluted problems I have encountered. And, I do not like the new disk utility in El Capitan. First, let's examine what I am operating:

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014)

4 GHz Intel Core i7

32 GB of RAM

I will remove the external drives consisting of a RAID and a backup Seagate for SuperDuper.

I'll show you the script I've been following . . . just found it online.:

-Create USB stick using Apple Bootcamp Assistant. This procedure only works with it.

-When it Bootamp assitant reboots your machine you need to interrupt the installation.

-When you hear the startup sound, hold option until it presents you with login options.

-Select your Macintosh HD to boot back into OSX.

-Run Disk Utility, select the Macintosh then choose the partitions tab.

-The BOOTCAMP partition should be at the bottom. Select this partition by clicking on it. Ensure it is the highlighted partition then press minus to remove it.

-Click apply on the bottom right to make the changes.

-Now press plus to add a new partition which will likely be names Macintosh HD2

-Select this new partition then you can define the settings on the right.

-Rename this to BOOTCAMP.

-Change the type to ExFAT.

-Now click apply on the again to make the changes.

-Reboot you Mac, press option again during the boot and this time select the Windows device with the USB logo on it. Its orange.

-Now it will start the install process. When it gets to the list of partition you should see four of them. You want the last one. It will say it cannot install on this.

-Make sure the fourth partition is selected then click format. When it is done the error message should be gone and you should be able to continue.

-During install it will suggest turning on auto updates. I recommend you turn this off until the bootcamp drivers are installed. When it is finished prepping the install it will reboot.

-Each time it reboots you will need to intervene by pressing option but from now on select the Windows device with the picture of the hard drive. It is a silver color

-It will reboot two or three times during the install. Each time you will need press option during boot to reselect the Windows device on the hard drive.

-At the end of the installation it will prompt you to install the Apple Bootcamp Drivers.

I am using USB2 thumb drive and it is directly connected to iMac via an external port and not through the keyboard.

I have also used the exFAT format, but I'll try FAT with an attempted Windows 7 installation.

Problem before this writing is reaching the installation screen, but not having use of the wired keyboard and wired mouse. One user had luck just waiting for a period of time; he thought that the drivers took that long to load.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated. I'm an old goat and BF4 awaits! Been running on Windows 10 and seen a tremendous improvement in game play.

So, I can restart, use the option keep and elect the DVD for installation, but then the software is access on the USB drive. That is not a problem. What is a problem is that my connect mouse and connect keyboard are dead, so drivers are not loading.

BC Assistant does the following...

1. Creates a USB Installer, if you Mac supports it (and your model does).

2. Download the latest BC Drivers from Apple Servers.

3. Ask you for an ISO and/or DVD based on the result of step 1.

4. Create a $WinPEDriver$ directory which is a Windows Preboot Environment. This directory contains all drivers that are needed by your specific hardware to build an environment which supports the necessary peripherals used by your specific model, for example, BT Keyboard/Mouse, USB2 drivers (no USB3 at this stage), GPU, Intel Graphics. You can see each of these folders in the directory. Here is an example of the directory structure for a 13-in 2012 MBP using BC 6 drivers.

5. Integrate the DVD and/orISO on the USB.

6. Prompt for partitioning and create a FAT32 partition.

7. Create an MBR, if necessary.

8. Boot from the USB in step 4.

9. Windows installer discovers the partitions.

10. Choose the Bootcamp partition and format it because it needs to be converted to NTFS (from FAT).

11. Install Windows.

The procedure you have now is trying to install W7, which is no longer supported on your specific Mac now. The exFAT and other gyrations are working around some of the issues which can normally be solved, if BCA is used.

Yes, I am aware that the drivers are installed on the USB, that's why I was concerned that the keyboard and mouse were not available. In addition, originally I was using an extraordinarily large USB drive (128 GB), so that contributed to the problems. That's been rectified and I am now preparing a Windows 10 USB drive and will attempt installation without the digital gymnastics. Will get back to you with my experiences and I think we're headed in the right direction.

What perplexes me is that I've created so many BootCamp partitions in the past and this one seems extraordinarily troublesome. However, the proof of the pudding . . .

Watch for my next post!

Cannot believe how much time I wasted trying to install Windows 7 on BootCamp and it's because I didn't do my homework. Thanks to Loner-T, got back on the right track immediately. Installation followed protocol as it should.

Thanks!

Very 😀 . Please make sure you create baseline backups of OSX and Windows to external disks formatted appropriately for future recovery.