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Can't install windows 8.1 on early 2011 MBP

Hey all,


I'm having problems installing Windows 8.1 on my Early 2011 MBP (MacBookPro8,2). When my superdrive died I installed an SSD for the boot drive and kept the original hard drive as a secondary drive. I used BCA (modified to support USB) to create a USB 2 Windows 8.1 install drive from an ISO I previously created. I also had it partition the hard drive. When it reboots I get the "no bootable device found" and blinking cursor issue. I've tried holding down option and choosing EFI, but i've picked up during the last week that installing through EFI on my MacBook Pro isn't possible. Does anyone have any ideas on how to solve this?

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on Apr 22, 2015 2:56 PM

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8 replies

Apr 22, 2015 4:19 PM in response to jared.hendrickson

1. Do you have an external Optical drive? If you already have a partition on the designated drive, remove the other internal drive and test with an external Optical drive.

2. BCA sets the boot arguments to the internal Optical drive based on your Mac's Model Identifier. There is not much you can do to alter such behavior.

3. You can use http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=20584499#post20584499 as an option.

4. If possible, you can install/replace your internal Optibay with an Optical drive, and put the designated Windows drive in the main bay.

Apr 22, 2015 4:52 PM in response to Loner T

I don't have an external currently. So if I'm understanding properly you are saying to remove the internal hard drive I installed in place of my SuperDrive?


Actually the reason I'm being so stubborn is due to the fact that I don't want to have to remove one of my drives I have installed. I hava a small SSD that is the boot disk, with the other drive housing my home folder, music, pics, etc. That's the drive I partitioned to use Windows with.


I've stumbled across that MacRumors discussion before, and a few others like it as well. I'm not sure I tried this exact method yet so I will later tonight.


I'm glad this post caught your eye. I've read a lot of different posts you've been a main contributor in.

Apr 23, 2015 10:36 AM in response to Loner T

I ended up coming across this last night:

http://malwaretips.com/threads/installing-windows-on-a-mac-with-a-damaged-superd rive.32474/


I am in the process of testing this out, but currently I'm stuck with an issue with winclone not expanding the image of the usb install disk to use all the space in the partition. However I did boot into the Windows installer and didn't run into the "couldn't find partition" , "no bootable disk", or "not an MBR" errors I've seen before.


I Think the key for non supported hardware and Windows 8 or later is to create the bootable usb in windows and not through BCA. I actually used the VMWare Fusion trial and a windows 10 technical demo image to do the monkeying around in windows. Hope this helps someone else. I'll keep updating.

Can't install windows 8.1 on early 2011 MBP

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