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neverdue1 Author

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bootcamp not installing windows 8.1

hey guys i have been trying to install windows 8.1 on my macbook pro early 2011 which is running yosemite but whenever i turn on my mac and pressing alt key for the options , the options that i get are macintosh hd(my yosemite) , revovery , efi boot(which isnt working as i am not able to install windows in the bootcamp partition as it is mbr partition table and not gpt) so i have tried many other ways to make my sd card 3.0 an bootable pendrive but everytime the result is efi boot which just doesnt work then i tried to install windows xp of which i was having an cd and the option came in the alt option menu (wint an disc icon) AND GUESS WHAT IT INSTALLED ON THAT SAME BOOTCAMP PARTITION!!!!!! which i had burnt using disk utility(i had an .iso and burnt it on an black cd and made it windows xp) ...... so my question is why the heck it doesnt work when it comes to my sd card(usb 3.0) does my macbook 2011 support only cds and dvd???? PLEASE REPLY FAST I AM TIRED OF TRYING TO SOLVE THIS.........

PS:I have seen many photos in which when they press alt key for the options there were 4 of them (macintosh,recovery,windows,efi boot)..........SO WHY THE HECK DIDNT I GET ANY WINDOWS OPTION AND ONLY GOT THE EFI BOOT

PLZ RPLY

Posted on Aug 28, 2015 9:01 AM

Best reply

Loner T

Level 9

59,477 points

Posted on Aug 28, 2015 9:11 AM

1. Do not use a SD card. It is not supported for Windows installation, because the Installer does not have a SD Card driver. The SD Card driver is installed after Windows is fully installed when BC drivers get installed.

2. WXP does not support EFI, so the partition which is a BIOS/MBR partition happily will install from DVD.

3. Your Mac is not a full UEFI-compliant Mac, which can cause partial or malfunctioning installations. Drivers may not work.

4. Since your Mac has a built-in Optical drive, Windows 7/8 should be installed using a physical DVD. Using Bootcamp info.plist modifications will lead to further issues, like black screens, no bootable device, or driver issues or BSODs.

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30 replies

Loner T

Level 9

59,477 points

Sep 12, 2015 1:44 PM in response to neverdue1

There is a Verify option when a disc image is burnt. Was that enabled/checked?

neverdue1 Author

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Sep 12, 2015 1:46 PM in response to Loner T

yes it was

Loner T

Level 9

59,477 points

Sep 12, 2015 2:37 PM in response to neverdue1

If you have a PC, can you check if the PC will boot from this DVD? Was the burn session finalized?

neverdue1 Author

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Sep 12, 2015 11:24 PM in response to Loner T

I dont really have a pc but i have parallels desktop on my mac (virtual machine) so in that my windows 8.1 dvd and the iso file bothshow up but when i choose my dvd as installation medium it does its thing and then after soke time when its done it says no bootable disc found and if i do this same thing with my windows xp disc (which i also burnt using disk utility in the past) it runs!! Like it is bootable but i did the same thing for the dvd so what i think is that there is an problem with the .iso itself

Loner T

Level 9

59,477 points

Sep 13, 2015 6:10 AM in response to neverdue1

You can use Microsoft FCIV tool or OS X openssl md5 command to generate MD5 for the ISO and match it with the source checksums.

If you have a valid product key, you can always download media from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/home .

neverdue1 Author

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Sep 13, 2015 7:11 AM in response to Loner T

So you are saying to match the md5 of the disc with the original iso so what will it prove?

Loner T

Level 9

59,477 points

Sep 13, 2015 7:51 AM in response to neverdue1

You have a ISO source somewhere and the ISO that you have on your Mac. The goal is to ensure that what you have on your Mac is an exact bit-by-bit copy of the source ISO. FCIV or MD5sum can do that.

neverdue1 Author

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Sep 13, 2015 7:59 AM in response to Loner T

So this iso source is........??

Loner T

Level 9

59,477 points

Sep 13, 2015 8:02 AM in response to neverdue1

Either you downloaded the ISO from Microsoft (or somewhere else) or used a physical DVD to create the ISO using Create an ISO image for Boot Camp from Windows installation media - Apple Support . These are the sources.

neverdue1 Author

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Sep 13, 2015 8:05 AM in response to Loner T

Actually yeah my friend had the windows 8.1 dvd and i wanted it but he gave me the .iso in a pd (cause he gave the dvd to his uncle) so i got that iso and all this discusion started from there the bootable pndrive.....eft......dvd......md5..........................future

Loner T

Level 9

59,477 points

Sep 13, 2015 8:09 AM in response to neverdue1

Is it possible to ask your friend to get the MD5sum/sha1 from the original?

The other option is to use https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/home and use your product key to download the ISO again. and compare the one from Microsoft with the one you already have?

neverdue1 Author

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Sep 13, 2015 9:00 AM in response to Loner T

Ohhhh now i get the problem(it was me) loner t could you tell me under what circumstances can the md5 change...........then the case would be solved

Loner T

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59,477 points

Sep 13, 2015 11:10 AM in response to neverdue1

Copying the ISO over the network or burning it to a DVD can cause block errors resulting in a bad block, which can cause installations to fail.

neverdue1 Author

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Sep 13, 2015 11:29 AM in response to Loner T

So okkk i would like to share my story with you (the story in which i mess up) ..............so here it is, one day my brother was using the laptop and my .iso was on desktop and it was really alot of things on the desktop so he decided to delete stuff and he deleted the iso file so then i was not knowing what to do........a moment later i thought that i haf made an bootabke sd card with that iso so i could just reverse the process and make the iso file back again and it worked i got the iso............but there was something wierd the file size was 3.99gb while i remember the original iso to be 3.9gb ...............so i am not sure but does that make a difference to md5???

neverdue1 Author

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Sep 25, 2015 6:29 AM in response to Loner T

hey Loner T , as it turns out the windows 8.1 md5 hash did change from the original (got the md5 hash from the original dvd) so what i had was an .iso with a bad block which made it non-bootable, so now i bought the windows 10 (pro) and downloaded the .iso from microsoft , so now i will try to burn this .iso to an dvd-sl........and if i have any problems......you are there to help me out

cheers! and thanks for helping me sooooo much!!!!!😁😁

bootcamp not installing windows 8.1