Why can I only use 2.48 GB RAM in Boot Camp (Win 8.1 Pro, 64-bit)?

unfortunately I don't know what you're talking about. Is that regarding the terminal command? Can you please post the correct command?

And regarding the question on the Windows laptop?!

1) this still results in "Boot Camp Assistant quit unexpectedly." Any idea why?

I'll look in to #2 and #3 later, thank you.

This still results in "Boot Camp Assistant quit unexpectedly."

About the sysprep procedure. It requires to get the hard disk out of the laptop which I would prefer to not do.

I was wondering whether I can install a second Windows on the laptop on the external USB drive and then sysprep it and then connect it to the MAC afterwards.

I am sorry, that was my bad, obviously it's not a good idea to leave a copy of the original info.plist in that folder, in terminal it said:

/Applications/Utilities/Boot Camp Assistant.app: unsealed contents present in the bundle root

After removing the file it works fine. So I will continue experimenting but if all else fails - are you using Boot Camp on your computer? Or would you be willing to install Windows / Boot Camp on your MAC and then Winclone it and send it to me (I have a pretty big Dropbox for example)? I'm out of options, it's nice to try and learn new things but at some point I would actually get it done.

oh, whatever time you need.... that would be awesome, no rush please, I appreciate all the time and effort you spent to help. I found many other of your comments and help in different threads, thank you for your time.

Trying to understand the Boot Camp Assistant, now that through modifying the info.plist I can actually let the BCA create a bootable USB stick I am surprised that the operation fails. While copying the Windows files it eventually results in an error message and when I look at the stick then it's not wonder why. BCA formats the stick as FAT32 so when it's time to copy the Windows installation file it fails because of the file limitation. I have the original Windows 7 and Windows 8 DVD's, no downloaded copies, just as they come from Microsoft. How are other people doing that using the BCA? Shouldn't they run into the same problem?

Here it is:

diskutil info disk2

Device Identifier: disk2

Device Node: /dev/disk2

Part of Whole: disk2

Device / Media Name: Kingston DataTraveler 2.0 Media

Volume Name: Not applicable (no file system)

Mounted: Not applicable (no file system)

File System: None

Content (IOContent): FDisk_partition_scheme

OS Can Be Installed: No

Media Type: Generic

Protocol: USB

SMART Status: Not Supported

Total Size: 15.6 GB (15610576896 Bytes) (exactly 30489408 512-Byte-Units)

Volume Free Space: Not applicable (no file system)

Device Block Size: 512 Bytes

Read-Only Media: No

Read-Only Volume: Not applicable (no file system)

Ejectable: Yes

Whole: Yes

Internal: No

OS 9 Drivers: No

Low Level Format: Not supported

The other one is a TrekStor:

Device Identifier: disk10

Device Node: /dev/disk10

Part of Whole: disk10

Device / Media Name: USB Stick 2.0 ME Media

Volume Name: Not applicable (no file system)

Mounted: Not applicable (no file system)

File System: None

Content (IOContent): FDisk_partition_scheme

OS Can Be Installed: No

Media Type: Generic

Protocol: USB

SMART Status: Not Supported

Total Size: 8.0 GB (8019509248 Bytes) (exactly 15663104 512-Byte-Units)

Volume Free Space: Not applicable (no file system)

Device Block Size: 512 Bytes

Read-Only Media: No

Read-Only Volume: Not applicable (no file system)

Ejectable: Yes

Whole: Yes

Internal: No

OS 9 Drivers: No

Low Level Format: Not supported

I can pick up s San Disk from the Store but like I said - at this point I would prefer the Winclone partition upload if that's not too much too ask (doesn't depend on a couple more days).