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

Are you able to create the BC USB on this one?

Mortandos wrote:

 

How is that supposed to work theoretically? Windows 7 and 8 both have an installation file that's too big for FAT32.

This is not true. If you look at https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc938937.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-21472 17396 the largest file size on FAT32 is 2^32 -1 bytes which is 4294967296 = 4 GB - 1 byte. My example shows a 3.6G file. This is not a FAT32 issue.

Can you check Applications -> Utilities -> Console logs for any errors related to the USB?

You can ask your Windows support team to recreate the .wim file for just the version of windows you want. Currently, you have a .wim file which covers several variants of windows which is causing the size to be over 4GB.

Yes. It will take a couple of days to find a machine and installer to create a Winclone image. If you can, please post a dropbox link which has your installation media.  I can use it and create a Winclone backup for you much quicker and it will save you time. If your installation media is a Volume License, then I do not recommend you putting it in dropbox.

Mortandos,

I have the exact same problem that you have ( Mid-2011 iMac ith dead superdrive, can't get sound and more than 2.x Gb mem on Windows 7 ).

I am in the process of following all the ideas here, so if you finally found something that works, let us know (currently I am copying a sysprepeed partition from a VirtualBox install directly into the boot camp partition and using ReFind to boot it, but I only get the black screen with blinking cursor...)`

The EFI method will cause problems because it does not expose devices via CSM-BIOS, which is the correct method in preUEFI Macs.

Mortandos wrote:

 

Any news in the meantime?

I am unable to find the appropriate hardware to create a Winclone for you. I am still looking.

This was my suspicion , and yes, that was it.

Reporting success, guys !

I was not trying to fix the exact issue that the original reporter had, but is pretty close. The main differences are : a) I use Win7 (not sure if this is important), and b) I don't care about OSX, and ended up wth a single 2Tb Win7 partition. I suspect the process would work with Win8, but I haven't tried. The process I used would NOT work for dual boot on the internal drive.

As pointed, the major problem in a "normal" install is that the Mac EFI BIOS does not pass correct information to windows, with the net result of not having access to the full 16Gb, and having no sound.

An addtional problem arises when windows is booting and is trying to get back to its own partition: there seems to be some misunderstanding about where to boot from, and it seems that part of the Boot Camp Assistant.app is to manage this magic, which seems to be somewhat relying on the EFI boot process (and very badly implemented, as most things around the boot process on this mac). I tried to use refind at some point, but it didn't really helped (I looks like it may work and may be the safest bet for someone that needs a dual boot.)

At the end, this is what worked for me (there have been many additional steps, but were dead ends. Here is a step-by-step guide)

* Created a external OSX boot disk, and rebooted on it

* Downloaded the "Boot Camp 5" drivers on an USB Key

* Installed Virtual Box

* Installed Windows 7 on the virtual box, using a fixed size 10Gb disk and Sysprep'ed the Win 7 installation.

I followed this http://huguesval.com/blog/2012/02/installing-windows-7-on-a-mac-without-superdri ve-with-virtualbox/ guide, part 1 (for the XML file, you may want to use explorer from with the virtual machine to go to the article and get the file). Note that all this is quite slow and painful due to the emulation. (Note that I did the whole proces twice [I didn't realize the 10Gb size was important], and the second time the sysprep failed, and I had to run the same command twice. SO YMMV.)

* Umounted all the /dev/disk0 partitions

* Copy the full windows 10Gb raw drive (not partition) onto your internal drive:

dd if=windows_copy.raw of=/dev/disk0 bs=1048576

Note the lack of disk0s1, which means we override the partition table of the drive, and we end up with NO GPT partition. This will trickle the boot process to boot windows in BIOS mode. Also, windows will easily find its partition, as it is going to be active and the first and only partition on the MBR.

Shutdown. Remove external drive. Boot. Windows installation appear. Wait for install to complete, check you have access to 16Gb. Use diskmgmt.mcs to extend the partition to the full drive. Reboot. Insert USB key with boot camp drivers. Run setup.exe. Reboot.

Many many thanks to ALL the posters in this thread, and let me know if anyone needs additional info.

Consider the following

1. Go to the nearest Apple Store, if possible, talk to the Manager, and get a MBP in the store (even if you have to buy it). Take your installer media, and a USB2 flash drive. Install Windows on this brand new Mac.

2. Run Winclone (or similar) with Sysprep.

3. Copy this 'generalized' Windows image to your 2011 Mac (or a portable disk), which is hardware agnostic and restore it on your Mac with a  broken optical drive.

4. Return the new Mac and ask the store to ensure they wipe it, which is within the 14-day Apple Return policy in the US or applicable local policy.

5. If you run into any issues, please post back here.