Q: How to download Windows?
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Feb 28, 2015 2:40 PMby Loner T,1. M$ only lets you download a .exe file which is a Download Manager. This needs to be run on a Windows machine. It establishes a secure connection to M$ servers, which will then download a ISO to a USB or DVD (based on your choices). Your Product Key is required.
2. You should download only single versions of Windows 7, 8, 8.1 - either 32-bit or 64-bit, but not both on the same media. Bootcamp Assistant will not allow such mixed media to create a Windows Installer. Unfortunately M$ insists on giving you both 32-bit and 64-bit versions, which cause problems for BCA.
3. If you have a 2013+ Mac, which is UEFI-compliant, then Bootcamp Assistant is not required, but Bootcamp Drivers are. These can be downloaded from Boot Camp: System requirements for Microsoft Windows operating systems - Apple Support (except for the Retina iMac 5k).
4. It may also be beneficial to look at https://help.apple.com/bootcamp/mac/5.0/help/#/bcmp173b3bf2.
5. I am more than certain that you are extremely familiar with How to install Windows using Boot Camp - Apple Support, so apologies for the redundant link.
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Feb 28, 2015 5:28 PMby thomas_r.,Thanks for the info. I think I've finally gotten an ISO file for Windows 8.1, though the process was so convoluted that I'm not sure it's what I think it is. We'll see tomorrow, when I try the next step of the process.
It's been very frustrating, and has taken me most of the day - what with researching how to buy and download Windows, realizing that I couldn't easily get a copy of Windows 7 and then researching how to get Windows 8, purchasing, calling Microsoft, and waiting for a download to complete, in between other things I needed to do. It's really no surprise that Apple is spanking Microsoft these days when this is an example of the process required to give Microsoft my money!
Anyway, I'll follow up tomorrow after trying the partitioning and install process. Apple's documentation is much clearer on that part of it.
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Feb 28, 2015 5:37 PMby Loner T,If you post the model/year of the destination Mac, it may be helpful when you start to install. Please make sure that you verify the MD5/SHA1 of the ISO with M$. There have been several instances of partial downloads, and the ISO looks normal. There is a M$ tool called FCIV (and it is free). Please see https://support.microsoft.com/kb/841290?wa=wsignin1.0.
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Mar 1, 2015 10:22 AMby thomas_r.,Okay, we're stuck again. We've used Boot Camp Assistant to partition the drive equally, and went through the process of installing Windows... which failed. We're getting an error message at the bottom of the window where we select the volume that "Windows can't be installed on drive 0 partition 4." When I click on this for details, the message reads:
"Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style."
Some details on the hardware... this is a brand-new (purchased on Friday) MacBook Pro 15" with 1 TB solid state drive. No modifications have been made to the drive's partitioning scheme other than what Boot Camp Assistant itself did.
What's going on? Shouldn't Boot Camp Assistant have partitioned it correctly? How can we proceed?
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Mar 1, 2015 11:57 AMby Loner T,There are two partitioning schemes used on the Macs. The first is the usual GPT-style partitioning. The second is a Hybrid MBR, where there is a 1:1 match between the GPT and MBR. The BCA can sometimes fail to create the Hybrid MBR (especially in the newer versions of BCA 5.1.x).
You have two options.
1. Download GPT Fdisk (http://sourceforge.net/projects/gptfdisk/) and create the Hybrid MBR. Since this is missing, you get the error message about the missing MBR because the Windows Installer in legacy BIOS mode cannot handle a GPT-only disk. You can check if the MBR exists by running the following Terminal command - sudo fdisk /dev/disk0. If it returns a single entry which encapsulates the entire disk, then BCA failed to create the MBR.
2. Remove the partition created by BCA (using BCA), which will restore the disk to a GPT-only disk. Run Disk Utility and create a partition with Free Space format. This will get split by the Windows installer into MSR (128MB) and the remainder (this will be converted to NTFS by the Windows Installer). W8+ supports this very well, but W7 has some challenges in the EFI support area.
The legacy MBR method does not allow any resizing of partitions, but the EFI is much more flexible. On Macs (2013+), the compliance to UEFI supports the EFI method. Prior Macs can only support pre-UEFI CSM-BIOS method.
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Mar 2, 2015 3:41 PMby thomas_r.,Loner T wrote:
1. Download GPT Fdisk (http://sourceforge.net/projects/gptfdisk/) and create the Hybrid MBR.
We tried that previously, following instructions I found on another site. It made no difference.
2. Remove the partition created by BCA (using BCA), which will restore the disk to a GPT-only disk. Run Disk Utility and create a partition with Free Space format.
We did that, and Boot Camp Assistant wanted to split the remaining 500 GB partition, effectively ignoring the free space. Further, we were unable to remove the free space, and ended up having to repartition the entire hard drive and restore the system from a Time Machine backup. After doing that, I tried to repeat the process of setting things up in Boot Camp Assistant, and just ended up in the same place... a partition was created, but the Windows install failed again.
I guess we'll have to make an appointment at the Genius Bar and get them to help with this. The fact that a very experienced Mac OS X like me will have to resort to going to the Genius Bar over something like this is a tremendous failure on Apple's part, IMHO! I mean, if BCA can't create the partition on a brand-new, barely touched machine, what freakin' use is it?
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Mar 2, 2015 4:14 PMby Loner T,You should not use BCA if you choose Option 2. This is a pure EFI/GPT installation. Once the Free Space is created you run the Windows EFI Installer and point to this Free Space chunk. Once the installation is completed, install BC drivers after you log in to Windows the first time. BCA 5.1+ has become painful compared to previous versions.
Option 1 and Option 2 are mutually exclusive.
Further, we were unable to remove the free space, and ended up having to repartition the entire hard drive and restore the system from a Time Machine backup. After doing that, I tried to repeat the process of setting things up in Boot Camp Assistant, and just ended up in the same place... a partition was created, but the Windows install failed again.
Wish you had posted this earlier when you ran into this issue.
