boot camp

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boot camp

I have an early 2014 Macbook Air. I'm attempting to install Windows 8.1 but Boot Camp Assistant keeps failing.

My first three attempts all crashed at 89% of installing windows with an Error Code 0xC0000005. The consensus appears to be that the Boot Camp created USB can be problematic and so I created the USB with Microsoft's own USB creation tool, and downloaded the support drivers to a separate USB key (since the Mac can't write to the NTFS formatted install drive).

When I went back to try again windows refused to format or install to the Boot Camp partition because it was GPT type. The only option Boot Camp Assistant offered after reboot was to remove the partiion, which I did.

From that point on, every attempt to partition the drive results in a reboot back to the OSX login screen, and the only thing I can do is remove the Boot Camp partition.

I have run the disk repair from the recovery console (boot with option-R) but no errors were detected, and there's plenty of room to create the 40 GB partition, so I'm stuck. What am I missing?

I assume I can manually partition the drive and then install windows, but can I also install the nice boot menu manually (as opposed to having to hold ALT every time I boot)?

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on Aug 13, 2015 4:50 AM

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Answer 1

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 13, 2015 5:01 AM in response to Opus33

1. Your Mac suports EFI boot (direct Windows install without BC Assistant).

2. If EFI Boot direct install is used, you still need BC Drivers. EFI Boot can be used by creating a Free Space partition using Disk Utility and booting directly from the Windows Installer and using EFI Boot. This also requires that BCA should be used to remove any previous partitions, if the prior attempts using BCA have failed.

3. If you want to continue using BC Assistant, then

a. Try Safe Boot - Try safe mode if your Mac doesn't finish starting up - Apple Support and then boot normally and test with BCA.

b. Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck - Apple Support and then try BCA.

d. Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support and How to Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support and try BCA.

e. Try the following steps

1. Back up OSX using Time Machine - Mac Basics: Time Machine backs up your Mac - Apple Support.

2. Boot into Internet Recovery - OS X: About OS X Recovery - Apple Support.

3. Erase your internal drive and restore from the TM backup in Step 1 - OS X Yosemite: Recover your entire system.

Please be aware that TM does not backup Bootcamp partitions.

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Answer 2

Opus33 Author

Level 1

0 points

Aug 13, 2015 5:36 PM in response to Loner T

Thanks so much for your help. I removed the aborted Boot Camp partition, double checked the drive for errors, then partitioned in Disk Utility and rebooted and installed Windows directly via USB (strangely it took a few times to recognize the USB drive and start the boot process, but eventually it worked). I ran the Boot Camp setup.exe after that and all is working well.

I did have to tweak the power settings to get full brightness back on battery power as it aggressively dims the display otherwise, and the Boot Camp control panel let me get the Windows Function keys working.

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Answer 3

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 13, 2015 5:47 PM in response to Opus33

Good to see it working. Please ensure you can switch back and forth and make backups of both OSes to separate disks.

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