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boot camp does not recognize windows 10 iso

I am trying install a Windows 10 iso on bootcamp. However, when I attempt to create a bootable USB drive, I get the following error:


Your bootable USB Drive could not be created. Bootcamp only supports Windows 8 or later on this playroom. Please use an ISO file for Windows 8 or later installation.


Last time I looked, 10, was greater than 8. I'm running the Retina Macbook OS X 10.10.4. The iso is the developer preview, 64-bit.


any suggestions would be welcome.

MacBook, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)

Posted on Aug 2, 2015 10:39 AM

Reply
45 replies

Aug 5, 2015 9:34 PM in response to dgreencr

Had the same issue. You have to download the specific Windows 10 64-bit ISO from Microsoft. For instance, I used the Windows 10 Media Creator to make an ISO that had 32-bit and 64-bit versions on one disk and it didn't get recognized.


Here's the link on Microsoft's site...


https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO


MAKE SURE you have a Windows 10 key *FIRST*. I literally (as in the real definition of it) spent over six hours today on the phone arguing with Microsoft that I needed a key and had valid Win8.1 keys but they said no, you *have* to do an upgrade. Called back a second time (waited 2 hours on hold *again* and got the same answers.)


Another thing... if you don't have a purchased Windows 10 key and are instead getting a free update to it from Win7 or Win8x (I'm guessing not bc of wanting to boot to an iso, but just in case you think you can upgrade that way... you can't btw) the update will fail on the new rMB 2015 because of the new SSD. Specifically it will die when it's trying to reboot and say 'Something Happened' and that it failed. However... simply go to 'Reboot and install updates' and it will complete the setup that way.


Once you do get the upgrade installed, you can use Magical Jellybean's KeyFinder to get your shiny new Windows 10 key, then if you want, do a clean install that way. It's sooooo annoying that MS won't just give you a Win10 key if you give them a Win8.1 key (they even remoted into my machine to confirm it was valid and installed, but still no!)


Anyway, hope that helps and saves you the three days of hurt I've had trying to get Win10 Pro on my 2015 rMB 12".


Enjoy!

Aug 5, 2015 9:38 PM in response to BobTheFisherman

Wrong. Boot Camp absolutely supports it. You just *have* to use their Boot Camp utility to create a bootable USB stick because it installs drivers for the SSD, keyboard and trackpad needed *during the install!* If you simply create the partition, then try to boot from the Windows ISO, you'll be left a) without a keyboard and trackpad to even let you click through the installer, but even if you then connect them via USB, it will not see the SSD when choosing a partition. Actually you won't see anything in that list. Nothing. It's empty. You need the bootable media to have Windows recognize the SSD to install on. When you do, then you'll have a working keyboard and trackpad, and you'll see the boot camp partition.


Found that out the hard way. I'm actually making bootable ISO's from those bootable USB drives so they will have the required drivers should I again try to do a clean install from the CD.

Aug 5, 2015 9:47 PM in response to MarqueIV

MarqueIV wrote:


Anyway, hope that helps and saves you the three days of hurt I've had trying to get Win10 Pro on my 2015 rMB 12".

Another option is the MC Tool which will provide an ISO, that you can use to directly boot into a UEFI-compliant Mac using EFI boot, which is a much faster method of getting W10 on a UEFI Intel machine.

Aug 6, 2015 8:29 AM in response to Loner T

Few clarifications to the above and an update on my update! 🙂


One, using the ISO created by Microsoft's Win10 MC tool doesn't work for the Retina MacBook 12" 2015. Nor does using the direct ISO downloads that I mentioned. While you can *boot* from the ISO, as I said above, you can't actually do anything once you're booted in and starting at the first step of setup because the keyboard and trackpad don't work. Even if you plug in a keyboard and mouse over USB (through the USB to USB-C adapter) you still won't see the SSD when choosing a partition. The partition list will be completely blank and all buttons grayed out.

So no, simply using Microsoft's EFI-capable ISOs will not work on the rMB. That's why you need to use the Boot Camp Utility to create a bootable ISO where Apple adds in those needed drivers when creating it.

Believe me... I tried this several times (booting from EFI-compatible ISOs), even with several OSes such as Win7, Win8.1, Win10, Ubunto, Partition Magic, etc. All booted, none recognized the keyboard, trackpad or SSD, and again, even with an external keyboard and mouse, the SSD did not show as present in any of them. Only Apple's bootable USB.


Second, disregard my above statement about continuing the failed Win10 upgrade by manually rebooting and installing updates. I was in the middle of doing just that when I was writing this post, incorrectly thinking it was working. Sat there for an hour and a half, watching it install 114 updates. When it was done, I was still in Win 8.1 as if nothing had changed. *REALLY* ****** me off, especially after spending over eight hours on the phone with MS prior to that.

This rMB while cool, is a real *****. All of my other Macs worked without issue. Just this single machine.

In short, I have yet to find a way to successfully get Windows 10 installed and activated on the Retina MacBook 12". Trying MS Level II and AppleCare today. I'll post back.

Sep 23, 2015 9:05 AM in response to dgreencr

Faced both widely reported problems -


- iso file not recognized by BC Asst.

- BC Asst. gets stuck copying files


Here's what I found and successfully installed Win 10 on MB Pro early 2015


- Forget the iso from MS website

- instead make the USB installation media from MS website

- Use Disk Utils in Mac to create image .cdr from the USB installation media and rename to .iso. This iso file will be recognized by BC Asst.

- Use BC step 1 to create bootable USB stick. When it gets stuck, wait for about half an hour and stop the process.

- Now compare the contents of the iso file and the USB stick. If same, fine, use the stick to install Windows using steps 2 & 3 of BC Asst.. If they are not the same, never mind. BC Asst. has already made the stick bootable. Just manually copy all the files from the iso to the stick and proceed for installation with steps 2 & 3 of BC Asst.

- Once the 2 problems are overcome, installation is a breeze using BC Asst. steps 2 & 3.


Spent many frustrating hours. Wonder why Apple is not doing anything to sort out these obvious issues with BC Asst. I'm sure they can sell lot more Macs if Windows can be easily installed.


Hope this helps everyone else with the same issues........


Windows 10 runs like a champ on my MB Pro. Lightning fast. Very fast bootup. Edge browser is a treat to use. MS has a winner here for sure.

Nov 15, 2015 4:08 AM in response to Biswanath55

can you give a detailed steps?


1. i did this "- Use Disk Utils in Mac to create image .cdr from the USB installation media and rename to .iso. This iso file will be recognized by BC Asst."


i am not successful, I get a new error, there is not enough disk space.


2. what do you mean by this - "- Use BC step 1 to create bootable USB stick. "


3. and also this, what do you mean - "BC Asst. has already made the stick bootable. Just manually copy all the files from the iso to the stick and proceed for installation with steps 2 & 3 of BC Asst."


thanks

Nov 16, 2015 4:12 AM in response to dgreencr

Boot Camp won’t have recognized Windows 10 ISO ERROR

What you NEED to know:

  • Your downloaded ISO image from Microsoft Website maybe incomplete. Windows_10_1511_X64.iso has 3.7GB or more. if you downloaded the ISO file below than this, you will get this error.
  • Downloading ISO from MS website is such a pain, it stops at some point in time when you already downloaded 2.8GB or more but you still get the ISO, there is no way to check if the MD5sum of the ISO you downloaded is correct.

User uploaded file

Creating a bootable Windows 10 64bit USB flash drive did not work for me. I converted it to ISO file using OS X Disk Utility giving me 7.89GB file size. During the process, Boot Camp give me this error, “Your bootable drive cannot be created. There is not enough space available on the disk.” Take note that I am using Sandisk 3.0 32GB.

User uploaded file

To solved this issue, this is what I did.

STEP 1. Get the ISO file Windows 10 using Windows Media Creation Tool.

  • Download Microsoft Installation Media Creation Tool;
  • Select Windows 10 version 64bit;
  • Select “Create installation media for another PC”;
  • You will see a screen asking you to choose the media to use. Select “ISO file”;
  • Wait for your download to finish and copy to your USB.

STEP 2. Use Boot Camp to install Windows from your ISO file

  • From PC, transfer the ISO file to Mac and paste to Documents or any location;
  • Open Boot Camp and locate the ISO file created using Windows Media Creation Tool.
  • Follow the instructions Step 3-6 here: https://support.apple.com/en-ph/HT201468


STEP 3. You are done.

User uploaded file

Jan 5, 2016 6:34 AM in response to dgreencr

Hello, here's a solution

Faced the same problem, tried creating the installer using the media creation tool to use with the bootcamp assistant app. Bootcamp would reject the installer / file indicating that it required a 64k installer, finally created an ISO and pushed the file to the flash disk. Worked like a charm. Thanks to the detailed article written here;

http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-install-windows-10-on-a-mac/


Good luck

Jan 9, 2016 5:18 PM in response to dgreencr

Hey All,


Just wanted to throw my 2 cents in here. Magnus_PH identified the absolute root of this problem, which multiple hours and conversations with Apple Support couldn't flesh out. It all comes down to the size of the download; I had to download the Win10_1511_x64.iso 4 times before it completed properly without corruption. Once it did, Boot Camp had no trouble recognizing it.


I write this because while the rest of the suggestion–and CNET's article–would have undoubtedly been helpfu,l had I another Windows PC to do a proper download on, unfortunately I do not.


Persistence is the key, just be vigilant on your download and hope your internet is going smoothly, if you let the download sit it might timeout or just end early on you; you can right click the final download and "get info" it to see the size, if it's below 3.7gb there's a good chance it's corrupted. Microsoft support refused to admit any culpability of course, and said the final download size could range dramatically, but I think if it's below 3.5GB like my first 3 were, you will probably have issues and should try again. To be fair to Microsoft, my final, successful download size was just north of 4gb when I 'get info' inspected it.

boot camp does not recognize windows 10 iso

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