GJZen
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Q: How to Install Windows via USB with iMac with No Optical Drive

I got iMac mid 2010. I replaced the Optical Drive to SSD. Now I can't install windows bootcamp. Please help.

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)

Posted on Aug 8, 2015 7:53 AM

by Loner T,Solvedanswer
Loner T Loner T
Level 7 (24,800 points)
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A:

GJZen wrote:

 

1. As I read from previous post, Is it possible to use external Mac Superdrive to install Windows CD? As normal external optical drive does not work.

On Macs whose Model Identifiers indicate a built-in Optical drive, an external OD will not work. It causes no boot device errors. You may be able to install if only one drive is connected to the main SATA bus.

 

GJZen wrote:

 

2. Can I use WinClone to clone my Windows7 of my OLD iMac and restore it to my new iMac?

 

Yes, as long as you ensure that a SysPrep is run on the OLD iMac to generalize Windows.

Posted on Aug 10, 2015 8:40 AM

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Q: How to Install Windows via USB with iMac with No Optical Drive

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  • Helpful answers

  • by GJZen,

    GJZen GJZen Aug 8, 2015 7:56 AM in response to GJZen
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 8, 2015 7:56 AM in response to GJZen

    Loner TAug 8, 2015 7:11 AM Re: Bootcamp without Optical disc drive
    Re: Bootcamp without Optical disc drivein response to GJZen

    Your environment seems different with an MBR disk. Please 'q' out of GPT Fdisk.

     

    Can you start a new discussion and post the output of

     

    diskutil list

    diskutil cs list

    sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

    sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

  • by GJZen,

    GJZen GJZen Aug 8, 2015 8:01 AM in response to GJZen
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 8, 2015 8:01 AM in response to GJZen

    MacBook-Pro:~ Daddy$ diskutil list

    /dev/disk0

       #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

       0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk0

       1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1

       2:                  Apple_HFS DaddyImac#2             399.2 GB   disk0s2

       3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

       4:       Microsoft Basic Data WIN7                    100.0 GB   disk0s4

    /dev/disk1

       #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

       0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *4.0 TB     disk1

       1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1

       2:                  Apple_HFS Data HD                 3.0 TB     disk1s2

       3:       Microsoft Basic Data WINDOWS-4T              1.0 TB     disk1s3

    /dev/disk2

       #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

       0:                            Windows_7_SP1_Ultim... *3.3 GB     disk2

  • by GJZen,

    GJZen GJZen Aug 8, 2015 8:05 AM in response to GJZen
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 8, 2015 8:05 AM in response to GJZen

    MacBook-Pro:~ Daddy$ diskutil cs list

    No CoreStorage logical volume groups found

     

     

    MacBook-Pro:~ Daddy$ sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

    Password:

    gpt show: /dev/disk0: mediasize=500107862016; sectorsize=512; blocks=976773168

    gpt show: /dev/disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0

    gpt show: /dev/disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1

    gpt show: /dev/disk0: Sec GPT at sector 976773167

          start       size  index  contents

              0          1         MBR

              1          1         Pri GPT header

              2         32         Pri GPT table

             34          6        

             40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B

         409640  779781448      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

      780191088    1269536      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

      781460624        880        

      781461504  195311616      4  GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

      976773120         15        

      976773135         32         Sec GPT table

      976773167          1         Sec GPT header

     

     

    MacBook-Pro:~ Daddy$ sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

    Disk: /dev/disk0 geometry: 60801/255/63 [976773168 sectors]

    Signature: 0xAA55

             Starting       Ending

    #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    1: EE    0   0   2 -   25 127  14 [         1 -     409639] <Unknown ID>

    2: AF   25 127  15 - 1023 254  63 [    409640 -  779781448] HFS+       

    3: AB 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [ 780191088 -    1269536] Darwin Boot

    *4: 07 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [ 781461504 -  195311616] HPFS/QNX/AUX

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Aug 8, 2015 8:48 AM in response to GJZen
    Level 7 (24,800 points)
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    Aug 8, 2015 8:48 AM in response to GJZen

    The disk0 already has the appropriate setup and I assume WIN7 runs properly.

     

    On disk1, you will run into a few issues.

     

    1. On your Mac, WIN7 is installed using a Hybrid MBR on disk0.

    2. On disk1, due to it being 4Tb, you need to put Windows within the first 2TB of the disk, due to limitations of a MBR which supports only a 2TB MBR installation with a maximum of 4 entries.

    3. One option is to disconnect the 500GB disk0, re-install your Optical drive, install Windows on the 4TB disk1 with proper partition based on item #2, and then reconnect the 500GB disk back to the SATA bus.

    4. You can also use Virtualization if you do not need native hardware access for this installation of Windows and workaround item #2.

    5. disk1 should be connected to the main SATA bus for Windows to be installed. The Optibay SATA bus throttles SATA speeds onto optibay connector. You can look at the SATA speeds in System Report -> Sata and look for disk1 and look at link speed and negotiated speed. If you can post a screen shot, it would be very helpful.

    6. SATA IO may be unstable when a HDD is used on your specific model in the Optibay and may cause unpredictable behavior.

  • by GJZen,

    GJZen GJZen Aug 8, 2015 6:39 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 8, 2015 6:39 PM in response to Loner T

    FYI, my set-up right now is:

     

    1. 500G SSD (replaced the optical drive)

    2. 4T HDD (replaced the broken HDD)

     

    Now, my plan is to install Windows on 500G SSD not on 4T HDD. WIN7 is the partition I did with SSD but as I mentioned last time, still does not work as per below:

     

    5. Use GPT Fdisk to mark the NTFS partition as bootable. - OK

    6. Power cycle your Mac and hold the Alt Key and select the NTFS partition and test. - OK

     

    But after reboot with Alt/Option key on hold, I can select the NTFS partition it boots to just black screen (with blinking underscore at the upper left corner.

     

    In addition, my diskutil list have changed order?

     

    MacBook-Pro:~ Daddy$ diskutil list

    /dev/disk0

       #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

       0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *4.0 TB     disk0

       1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1

       2:                  Apple_HFS Data HD                 3.0 TB     disk0s2

       3:       Microsoft Basic Data WINDOWS-4T              1.0 TB     disk0s3

    /dev/disk1

       #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

       0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk1

       1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1

       2:                  Apple_HFS DaddyImac#2             399.2 GB   disk1s2

       3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk1s3

       4:       Microsoft Basic Data WIN7                    100.0 GB   disk1s4

    /dev/disk2

       #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

       0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *15.5 GB    disk2

       1:               Windows_NTFS Untitled                15.5 GB    disk2s1

    /dev/disk3

       #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

       0:                            Windows_7_SP1_Ultim... *3.3 GB     disk3

    MacBook-Pro:~ Daddy$

  • by GJZen,

    GJZen GJZen Aug 8, 2015 6:58 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 8, 2015 6:58 PM in response to Loner T

    Screen Shot 2015-08-09 at 9.54.29 am.png

  • by GJZen,

    GJZen GJZen Aug 9, 2015 5:01 AM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 9, 2015 5:01 AM in response to Loner T

    Hi Loner,

     

    I got 2 related questions if you won't mind.

     

    1. As I read from previous post, Is it possible to use external Mac Superdrive to install Windows CD? As normal external optical drive does not work.

     

    2. Can I use WinClone to clone my Windows7 of my OLD iMac and restore it to my new iMac?

     

    Thanks.

  • by Loner T,Solvedanswer

    Loner T Loner T Aug 10, 2015 8:40 AM in response to GJZen
    Level 7 (24,800 points)
    Safari
    Aug 10, 2015 8:40 AM in response to GJZen

    GJZen wrote:

     

    1. As I read from previous post, Is it possible to use external Mac Superdrive to install Windows CD? As normal external optical drive does not work.

    On Macs whose Model Identifiers indicate a built-in Optical drive, an external OD will not work. It causes no boot device errors. You may be able to install if only one drive is connected to the main SATA bus.

     

    GJZen wrote:

     

    2. Can I use WinClone to clone my Windows7 of my OLD iMac and restore it to my new iMac?

     

    Yes, as long as you ensure that a SysPrep is run on the OLD iMac to generalize Windows.

  • by GJZen,

    GJZen GJZen Aug 10, 2015 5:12 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 10, 2015 5:12 PM in response to Loner T

    Thank you for your reply as always.... I was inclined to use the WinClone solution (though it did not work with migrating from my OLD bootcamp for some reasons)... I did the VMware, Daemon, Paragon VMDK, Winclone solution and it works!...

     

    I just wonder and hope I could still solve the issue without going to this Winclone solution.