[urgent]get "appleSSD.sys" error when installing windows 7 through bootcamp

Thanks IH_photo. Yes - although Viking Vol is right my USB connected keyboard and mouse were not working. I did exactly what he / she said except I didn’t use a flash drive, instead, I just used a regular external hard drive.

It was weird as my keyboard and mouse always stopped working when I got to the Windows set up page (Type a user name, Type a Computer name) - after the actual Windows installation.

Okay, so I followed Viking Vol's steps (below) and I have a MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2013) so used the following drivers downloaded from the Apple site: Boot Camp Support Software 5.1.5640

When I had to format the Boot Camp drive during the Windows set-up, I also clicked on the "Install Driver" option and installed the Apple bluetooth driver and the intel drivers in advance (located on my external hard drive). Now my USB keyboard and mouse are working and I can finally progress to the next stage. What a gong show that was - thanks to everyone who helped.

After 2 days of constant searching for the perfect solution, my Macbook finally installed windows SUCCESSFULLY!

I have been trying to install windows 7 to my 2012 Macbook Pro. I have no problems installing the IOS to USB drive and getting to the windows start up page to choose language etc. After I chose my language and windows continues to load, I will end up with a black screen like this:

I followed Viking Vol instructions without having to install the the NTFS partition (saved me 20 bucks dude) and it worked like a gem!

No problems with my mouse or keyboard, everything seems perfectly fine!

I hope this helps to ease all of your frustrations for boot camp!

Good luck 🙂

Ok I decided to do a step-by-step for getting the correct bootcamp version for your device, plus some added extras which come from Vikings earlier post.

I have a Macbook Pro 15" Retina (Mid 2014) and I used 5.1.5621 to load Windows 7 Home Premium. I have detailed the steps below which I hope are helpful in choosing the correct version of Bootcamp for your machine; It is imperative that you do this as Loner T states because it copies the drivers that correspond to your device so Windows can run correctly.

DO THESE 3 STEPS BEFORE STARTING BOOTCAMP ASSISTANT

Step 1: Use the following link and click on the correct Windows version you are looking to install System requirements to install Windows on your Mac using Boot Camp - Apple Support

Step 2: After clicking on the Windows OS version you want from the above link, on the next page scroll down to the table and find your device - see this page for the Windows 7 version System requirements to install Windows 7 and earlier on your Mac using Boot Camp - Apple I chose option 5 - for Macbook Pro 15" (Mid 2014) from the table which matched my device, and this link took me to the final page with the correct download.

Step 3: Download the file to your desktop - when you unzip this file, it will create a bootcamp folder.

Now go to Bootcamp assistant and you will see three steps:

* Create Windows 7 or Later install

* Download support drivers You are going to replace some of these files later. QUIT Bootcamp assistant after you have done this stage.

* Install Windows 7 or later - UNTICK THIS BOX, so that you only do the first two stages. You must not do this step just yet, because this is where you need to swap out your APPLESSD.SYS file. (NOTE: screen grab says Remove Windows because I have successfully created my Windows Install)

Step 4: On your USB stick where you have just created your Windows boot disk via Bootcamp Assistant, find the $WinPE$ and Bootcamp folders and delete them. Replace them with the folders from the Bootcamp folder you unzipped to your desktop in Step 3 above. This will replace the APPLESSD.SYS file etc that causes the original boot up error that started off this whole thread.

Step 5: Go back to Bootcamp Assistant - this time, un-tick the first two items as you have already done these, and make sure the last option "Install Windows 7 or Later" is ticked. Follow the onscreen instructions to create your partition etc and start the Windows install.

After creating the partition, your machine will reboot into Windows and the Microsoft Windows install process will run. Hopefully after rebooting a couple of times, it will have successfully installed Windows for you. You now need to install Bootcamp and the drives onto your Windows partition; if you cannot access your USB drive, then follow on with the next set of instructions below.

Things Not Quite Working?

Once the Microsoft element of the installation had finished, my video was stuck at 800x600 and my bluetooth mouse and keyboard, USB ports and wi-fi connection were not working because I still needed to complete the Bootcamp process and install the required drivers that I downloaded earlier. However, you can't run the SETUP file from the USB stick because Windows doesn't even know about those ports yet. CATCH22!!

If you have the same problem, try the following to get around this problem:

Step 6: Download a trial version of this product which will allow you to access your NTFS partition from within OSX https://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/

Step 7: Copy the bootcamp folder from your desktop where you unzipped it in Step 3 above into the NTFS partition, then reboot into Windows.

Step 8: Once you are back in Windows, go to the Bootcamp folder you copied in Step 7 and run SETUP.EXE. This should now install all the relevant drivers for your device; NVIDIA, bluetooth, Wireless and so on. (That's why it's important you have the correct Bootcamp version)

After I did this, my screen refreshed into some ridiculously high resolution ( 🙂 ) and eventually the bluetooth picked up my keyboard and mouse. The USB ports worked and I also connected to my Wi-Fi router.

And finally, go and make yourself a cup of tea and sit back whilst 200+ updates are applied to Windows 😉 For me, the above worked great, so I hope it works for you too 😀

Good luck!

Toosh

You still need to pick the right bootcamp file for your MAC - see the list at the bottom of that link just in case you need a different copy. I also found an earlier version of bootcamp for Windows 7 from 2013

Boot Camp Support Software 5.0.5033

I'm just trying the process with the 5.1.5621 version first, if that doesn't work, I'll try the older one above

You are downloading a version of BC drivers which are not intended for your specific Mac model. Download the correct drivers using Windows 10 Apple Software Update.

The recommendations to use a specific version like 5.1.5640 or 5.1.5621 are incorrect and will further aggravate problems.

Please see Use Windows 10 on your Mac with Boot Camp - Apple Support and Use Windows 8.1 on your Mac with Boot Camp - Apple Support depending on the current version of Windows installed on your Mac.

AppleCare is correct, they have no idea what you are doing to your Mac. Please be very specific with your Mac year//model for further assistance.

I'm not an expert, but I would think if you have a newer model, you would use the latest boot camp software available 5.1.5762 or 5.1.5769. You can find them here: Apple - Support - Downloads

Only the older versions of boot camp from what I can tell specify model numbers.

- How I fixed ALL of the Windows 7 installation errors in one swoop on a Mac Mini (Late 2014) for a Windows 7 64-bit install.

(Might help with other models as well)

(This is long, but it's worth it so people now what I did and how I fixed everything with one fix)

Hi Everybody! I'm new to this forum and to the Apple Mac world. I'm typing this up to hopefully help people who need it all in one big bang story.

I've been a Windows I.T. guy my entire career but moving over to Mac for audio/video editing.

I just got my (first, ever) Mac a few weeks ago. I have some feedback with BC on this system I want to share.

Something changed between August 29th and September 3rd with the Boot Camp auto download support file package like people have stated. I am 100% sure of this.

I'll get to the fixes first, and then you can all read the story behind it, if you wish. 🙂

This solves all of the problems I've read about. The "A Valid Windows 7 image is needed" error thing, the "Windows cannot install because it can't find a valid partition" or whatever error that is trying to select the 4th partition on the drive in the Windows setup screen, the mouse and keyboard not working, the AppleSSD.sys file not being signed, all of it.

If you want to do this right, one time on a Mac Mini and not have to mess around for days like I did, do this:

(And thank you all because this was a culmination of all of your forum posts from various articles on here)

1) Use Boot Camp Assist to create your bootable flash drive (16GB or higher (read the story for more info on this one) from your ISO, but uncheck the selection that creates the Windows partition (not yet).

2) Download the appropriate Boot Camp support package from here: Install Windows 7 and earlier on your Mac using Boot Camp - Apple Support

3) Unzip the files to a folder somewhere but keep them together.

4) Delete the BootCamp, $WinPEDriver$ folders and the AutoUnattend.xml file from the bootable USB Windows install flash drive Boot Camp just created.

5) Copy these same folders/file from the Boot Camp support package you just downloaded/unzipped to the same bootable USB flash drive Boot Camp created.

6) Run Boot Camp Assistant again, but this time, do not check the options to create the bootable USB drive, nor download the Boot Camp support files. With your bootable USB drive inserted (so it can verify you have one), continue to create the Windows partition.

7) The PC will reboot automatically afterwards, boot into the Windows setup, mouse and keyboard working and all, install Windows, reboot with no AppleSSD.sys error and all is grand in the world.

8) After you get through with your initial Windows setup, install the Boot Camp drivers from the Boot Camp folder on your bootable USB flash drive you copied over previously.

And by the way, the package downloaded automatically through Boot Camp Assistant was 2.9GB as compared to the one I downloaded manually off their site which was around 910MB. That was part of this mess of a problem, as someone mentioned, BCA downloading the WRONG package/drivers, etc.

- Story -

The weekend of August 29th is when I first used Boot Camp and it worked beautifully with zero problems with Win 7 Pro 64-bit. I did exactly what I was supposed to; used BCA to image my 8GB bootable USB 2.0 flash drive, download the support files and create the Windows partition, etc. The install went perfectly, after which point I installed the Boot Camp support package I downloaded off the site, and everything was fine.

I then upgraded to Windows 10, and after a few hiccups with trying to get the Bluetooth drivers working, I figured it out, using the Win 7 driver packages manually from the Boot Camp support file folders.

Windows 10 worked flawlessly, by the way.

I had a memory leak issue with Windows 10 and Avid Studio Pro so I went to downgrade back to Win 7 (which I did successfully with my Windows laptop), and Windows 7 died an unrecoverable death. RIP

That was September 3rd.

I then said, OK, I'll just do this all over again, the same exact way, using the same flash drive, same process, same ISO, etc. This turned into a major cluster, to say the least.

First off, Boot Camp kept giving me my first problem which was that I was required to have a Windows 7 ISO compatible boot image, etc., blah blah blah and that my ISO apparently wasn't that. It didn't give me that error the first time and I was using the exact same ISO. The only change was that the newer version of Boot Camp had installed on OSX since I did the initial setup the first time around.

After days of scouring the forum trying to fix THIS problem, it turned out that the fix was moving from a 8GB USB 2.0 drive to my 32GB SanDisk USB 3.0 drive (I don't think the USB version mattered as much as the size). Mind you, it worked fine with the 8GB flash drive before.

I'll get to what I found about that in a bit.

After that, it did it's thing, downloading the support files it needed via Boot Camp Assist, but now after the initial Windows install, I saw this new message about the AppleSSD.sys file. After reading through this thread, I downloaded Paragon NTFS and got passed that by deleting/renaming the file as you all have recommended. I knew something was off considering I don't have a SSD in this box.

Well, then I had the problem of the mouse and keyboard not working post-Windows 7 install. I fixed this by deleting the auto-downloaded BCA support package, ie: USB Installed BootCamp, $WinPEDriver$ folders and the AutoUnattend.xml file and replacing them with the package I downloaded from the site, as suggested by all of you. I then ran ONLY the BCA partition creation part and let it reboot, as in my steps listed earlier.

No more AppleSSD.sys problem and no more keyboard/mouse not working problem. The install ran perfectly.

Here's the thing; these original folders downloaded by BCA on the flash drive were 2.9GB! The package I manually downloaded from the support site was around 910MB uncompressed. VERY odd. That was a red flag right there that it's not downloading the right files for my Mac.That's also why it probably needed a larger flash drive now, moving from the 8GB to my 32GB one, but BCA didn't tell me that. I had to figure that out on my own. It just gave me errors that I didn't have the right Windows ISO. Funny how it told me that with my 8GB drive but that went away with my 32GB drive. It obviously wasn't/isn't the ISO file.

Something with the files Boot Camp Assistant downloads during the prep process had to have changed between August 29th and September 3rd. Maybe it was the updated version of Boot Camp that caused the issue or maybe that's when they put their support for BC 6 and Win10 up, I don't know.

I appreciate ALL of your posts and pages of feedback.

At the end of the day, I fixed the "You need a Win 7 image...." error by using a larger flash drive, and fixed the AppleSSD.sys & non-working keyboard/mouse issue by replacing the flash drive auto-download BC package with the manual package I downloaded off the site.

I really hope this helps people fix and avoid all of these messes.

Hi CofC-Tech,

As I did like your suggestion, I got the same problem with rcantwell07 "Im having the same KB/Mouse issues. After removing the AppleSSD.sys files, I was able to get through most of the installation (with Wireless USB KB & Mouse working just fine). After restarting and getting to the Set Up Windows screen, to enter Username & Computer name Mouse and KB no longer work. I tried unplugging and replugging in to the back of my computer (27" iMac -Late 2014) but no changes"

I am using Macbook Air early 2014 and installing Windows 7 Professional. I bought product key and have tried to install it for days. Could anyone help me with this problem?

About Viking suggestion, could anyone explain clearly for me?

SUCCESS AT LAST!! Here's what you need: Windows 7 image, a USB 2.0 flash drive (someone said it made a difference), and the old Boot Camp drivers 5.1 something. They are hardware specific and available for download somewhere on the Apple Site. Here's what I did:

1. Using Boot Camp Assistant, prepare the USB flash drive. Select the first two items and prepare the disk. Quit Boot Camp Assistant.
2. From the Finder, delete the $WinPE$ and Boot Camp folders from the FLASH DRIVE.
3. Expand the old Boot Camp drivers (they are a zip file) on your desktop.
4. Copy the $WinPE$ and Boot Camp folders to the FLASH DRIVE.
5. Reopen Boot Camp Assistant and select only the third option, install Windows 7.
6. Sit back and relax as the installation proceeds.

After deleting "$WinPE$ and Boot Camp folders", will we only copy folders inside theses folders? Or what do you mean with "Expand the old Boot Camp drivers (they are a zip file) on your desktop." I have no idea about that because on "$WinPE$ and Boot Camp folders", folders already expanded.

I am so tired with installing windows 7 on mac. Please, help me.

Thank you so much

• I'm lost. Installing Win7 Home Premium 64 bit using the latest Bootcamp on iMac 21" (2015) causes the applessd.sys issue.
• Then I downloaded an older bootcamp and installed windows - but now I cannot use my keyboard and mouse when I try to enter the username on my freshly installed Win 7. Any idea guys ?

I am having this issue just right now.. Macbook Pro Retina 2013 with 1TB storage.. very alike to yours. As you said I could not find anything on this error. Its weird we are having the same problem at this very moment when no one else in the world has had it and reported it.

Im having this issue too. Trying today to install Win7 on my Macbook Pro 13" Late 2013 doesn't work. Getting same error message.

I never was running Windows on bootcamp before because of having some other trouble while trying to install Win7 a few months ago.

I've been trying to instal since last night. I was getting error messages when trying to install windows on the boot camp partition. I downloaded a different image and tried again.. finally the setup went through. However, after installing and trying to run windows for the first time this error comes up and I can't get into windows.

Same issue for me too. I have a 15" Retina Pro from Mid 2014, so a newer model, but exactly the same message that you took a screenshot of. Fed up now; have tried various methods of running the install - original disk in cd drive, using an ISO to create bootable USB2.0 stick and still the same.

Would really appreciate some assistance as I've been told "Using Bootcamp is so easy!" and I've been working on this for almost a full day now 😟