Bootcamp windows 7 32 bit

Sure Matt,

Let me first warn you. Windows 7 32-bit is not compatible with bootcamp 5.x or 6.x (the bootcamp versions that you can use on your machine). Without bootcamp you miss some serious functions.

There are two ways to install windows on a macbook. Via bootcamp and via UEFI boot directly. Bootcamp is obviously not going to work here so there are the steps.

1. Back up all your data.

2. Get a bootable USB stick and get your windows 7 32-bit installation on that USB*.http://www.techverse.net/how-to-create-a-bootable-usb-pen-drive-for-windows-7/

3. Download the correct bootcamp drivers (either via bootcamp or from the apple website) and het them on a separate USB (roughly one GB in size)

4. open disk utilities and select your harddrive and repartition it in two partitions. one will be your mac partition. The other should be free space where you will install windows later so chose the correct size (at least 20 gb is recommended).

5. Insert your USB with windows 7, reboot your machine and holt option (alt) down.

6. If everything went correctly you can now choose your USB (most likely called windows, the name is auto generated and you should not change it) as a bootable device besides Macintosh HD and Recovery 10,10.x.

7. After you have selected your USB the windows installer will start up.

8. walk through the process of installation. When it comes to the drive selection for installation choose create new volume and increase the size to maximum (this is the volume you freed up in step 4).

9. If everything went well, the computer will start up several times during the installation.

10. once you are into Windows insert you other USB and copy the bootcamp file to windows. then open the bootcamp folder and run the setup.exe program. note here that you will run in to trouble because bootcamp will only be available with x64 drivers. You can try and find some bootcamp drivers that work with your machine but i don't know where to find them.

11. Enjoy your windows partition.

*note: you need a windows computer to make the windows 7 bootable USB.

I suggest you use a 64 bit version of windows 7. There is no need for a 32-bit version of windows. Your mac supports 64 bits and you have at least 8 gb of ram which nullifies the reasons for 32-bit versions. Installing a 32-bit version of windows will only allow the use of 2gb of ram and leave the rest of your ram unavailable. It is possible to install a 32-bit version of windows as I have accidentally done myself on the same macbook that you have. however I could only use 2gb of ram and many other functions (like the correct screen resolution) were unavailable.

If you still insist on installing a 32-bit version of windows please reply here.

Hi Matt,

Please verify that you are missing your graphics driver in the device manager of windows. If under display adapters it says: 'generic display adapter' then indeed you are missing your graphics driver. Search in the bootcamp USB for the graphics driver and install that one manually. If that still does not work go to device manager again, right click on the generic display adapter and see if your computer can install the correct driver on it's own.

If you still run into trouble, please report back here 🙂

Cheerio

HI GhonaZ,

I've got the same concern. I have an MBP Retina 2014 with Yosemite. I want to run 32 bit Windows 7 because some of the Windows programs I want to run won't run on the 64 bit application. Currently I'm using Parallels 10 which came free with my computer

You said in an earlier note, "*note: you need a windows computer to make the windows 7 bootable USB." I currently have Windows 7 32 bit running on bootcamp on an old MBP circa 2009. Will that work for a "windows computer" such that I can make a bootable USB?

Drivers for your specific Mac year/model are available at Install Windows 7 and earlier on your Mac using Boot Camp - Apple Support .

Please see https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/jj200124.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396 .