Q: Install Windows 7 in Mid-2015 Macbook Pro
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Sep 7, 2015 12:37 PMby Taelvin,Hey Loner T,
I read some of your other posts helping people with USB thumb drive installations. I verified that it is USB2 (I will attach a picture to show as well). I also have found that when you use the OPTION key during start-up that the MBR with FAT32 is not recognized. However, when I used Rufus on my Parallels trial of Windows I made a bootable Windows 7 and specified for it to use a GUID partition with FAT32. When I used the GUID partition and used OPTION key at startup it did recognize the USB thumb drive as an "EFI Drive." When I selected it though it booted to a black screen (but I could still hear the fans running). I waited about ten minutes and finally hit a key and then it auto-booted back to the Mac OS.
Here is a picture showing is is a USB2 drive when I had it as a GPT (GUID) bootable disk using Rufus and a Windows 7 ISO:
Here is a picture of the drive after I used my friends 2011 macbook pro and Bootcamp to make the USB bootable drive:
Here is the contents of the USB bootable disk made by Bootcamp using a Windows 7 ISO on a 2011 macbook pro:
I read that Intel Macs only recognize GUID partitioned bootable USB drives so that is why I used Rufus and a Windows 7 ISO to make the GPT partitioned bootable USB drive. The bootable USB Yosemite installer I have is a GUID partition. Unfortunately, while it recognized it as an "EFI Drive" it did not lead to anything except a black screen. The "MACINTOSH H" drive you see is a FAT partition that I used Disk Utility to make. It is where I planned to install Windows 7.
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Sep 7, 2015 1:04 PMby Loner T,1. You do not want the USB2 to be a GPT with a slice being FAT32. OS X will recognize it, but Apple Bootmanager will refuse it.
2. The EFI part is bootable because Apple Bootmanager will look for a .efi file for Bootability on a GPT disk. For example on MacPro machines, you can dedicate a MBR-only (non-GPT) disk which is bootable. It uses OS X bless command with a legacydrivehint qualifier. You can read more about bless at https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/ man8/bless.8.html .
3. On your model, an external Apple SuperDrive can also be used to install Windows. When BCA no longer allows W7, instead of using a USB-based installer, burn your W7 ISO (or a commercial 64-bit DVD of W7) which will work. It also requires a legacy MBR and a DU FAT32 partition to be created manually. EFI Boot of W7 is very problematic, especially on Macs. If you can find an Apple Superdrive, we can install W7. We may also need to use W7 64-bit drivers for your Mac - Install Windows 7 and earlier on your Mac using Boot Camp - Apple Support - and use the mid-2014 drivers.
4. The GUID boot ability is used to boot OS X via the .efi file. Otherwise a GPT disk is a regular non-bootable disk.
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Sep 7, 2015 1:14 PMby Taelvin,It sounds like the only way then is to use an Apple SuperDrive and the Windows 7 64 bit install disks that I have? Can you see why in the second set of screenshots (the MBR one) the USB created by bootcamp on a 2011 macbook pro won't work on the 2015 macbook pro at startup?
How do I create a legacy MBR and a DU FAT32 partition manually? When I created the MACINTOSH H partition the only option I saw in DU was MS-DOS (FAT) and ExFat.
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Sep 7, 2015 3:31 PMby Loner T,Taelvin wrote:
It sounds like the only way then is to use an Apple SuperDrive and the Windows 7 64 bit install disks that I have? Can you see why in the second set of screenshots (the MBR one) the USB created by bootcamp on a 2011 macbook pro won't work on the 2015 macbook pro at startup?
Are you using any USB hubs? The USB should be directly connected to the Mac. Connect it directly and run diskutil list. Pick 'N' where diskN points to this USB, and then run sudo fdisk /dev/diskN and post the output. This needs to be done in OS X Terminal.
How do I create a legacy MBR and a DU FAT32 partition manually? When I created the MACINTOSH H partition the only option I saw in DU was MS-DOS (FAT) and ExFat.
You can create a MS-DOS FAT partition using Disk Utility. Once created there is a utility called GPT Fdisk (http://sourceforge.net/projects/gptfdisk/) which can be used to create an MBR matching the GPT of the internal disk. Once it is in place, the SuperDrive can be used boot W7 and install it on this machine. BCA normally keeps state in NVRAM across reboots, but manual installation requires using the Alt Key to keep selecting the DVD in SuperDRive till Windows is fully installed. Typically it requires 4-5 reboots.
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Sep 7, 2015 4:03 PMby Loner T,I used a friends Macbook Pro early 2011 to create a WININSTALL USB stick using their Bootcamp software (which permits Windows 7 because of his 2011 model) but when I reboot and hold the OPTION key it does not even recognize the stick.
2011 Macs do not support booting from USB, but 2012s do. By using Bootcamp info.plist modifications, the USB can be created, but is not very useful.
The Fdisk is incorrect. Can I suggest running the following steps? Please ignore the i386 MBR errors in the following steps, but not any others.
sudo fdisk -e /dev/disk2
p
setpid 1
0B
flag 1
p
w
y
Reboot and hold the Alt/Option key and check if the USB (with Windows, not EFI) shows up as a selection. Point to Macintosh H, if the installer starts, and format it and click Next.
Here is an example for a W7 Bootable USB created on a 2012 13-in MBP.
diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *256.1 GB disk0
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_CoreStorage OSY-MBP13 128.2 GB disk0s2
3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3
4: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 127.0 GB disk0s4
/dev/disk1 (internal, virtual):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: Apple_HFS OSY-MBP13 +126.4 GB disk1
Logical Volume on disk0s2
8A0116D5-7E1E-44D8-B2A0-8D4E4D48298D
Unencrypted
/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: FDisk_partition_scheme *16.0 GB disk2
1: DOS_FAT_32 WININSTALL 16.0 GB disk2s1
sudo fdisk /dev/disk2
Password:
Disk: /dev/disk2 geometry: 1946/255/63 [31266816 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
Starting Ending
#: id cyl hd sec - cyl hd sec [ start - size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*1: 0B 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 2 - 31266814] Win95 FAT-32
2: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused
3: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused
4: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused
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Sep 7, 2015 4:30 PMby Loner T,Run SMC Reset
Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support
How to Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support
and then try reboot/alt again.
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Sep 7, 2015 4:44 PMby Taelvin,Reset SMC and then NVRAM and it did not reveal the USB installer at reboot/alt.
I was looking at the GPT disk page to see if it had a guide on creating an MBR matching the GPT of the internal disk. Is this what they refer to as a Hybrid MBR? Or am i viewing the wrong thing?
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Sep 7, 2015 4:51 PMby Loner T,Yes, it is a Hybrid MBR. The steps to create them are
Rebuild MBR to match the new GPT information thus resetting the Hybrid MBR. Use defaults for other questions (like partition codes). The only values that need modifications are the Boot flags and step 10. Accept all other defaults that Gdisk offers. Please see the sample Q&A as an example. These steps can be repeated if you make a mistake before you get to Step 12, otherwise start from Step 1 for these steps. Step 6 has numbers which are typed with a space between the numbers. Please see the sample Q&A before you execute these steps.
- Sudo gdisk /dev/rdisk0
- P (Print list of parts)
- R (Recover)
- O (print current Hybrid MBR)
- H (chooses Hybrid)
- Partitions numbers to be hybridized: 2 3 4
- Y (Good for GRUB question)
- N (part 2 boot flag)
- N (part 3 boot flag)
- N (part 4 boot flag)
- O (print current Hybrid MBR)
- W (Write the new MBR)
- Y (Yes! write the new MBR)
- Reboot
Here is sample Q&A for this section. Please notice the Press Enter/Return.
Place EFI GPT (0xEE) partition first in MBR (good for GRUB)? (Y/N): Y
Creating entry for GPT partition #2 (MBR partition #2)
Enter an MBR hex code (default AF): Press Enter/Return
Set the bootable flag? (Y/N): N
Creating entry for GPT partition #3 (MBR partition #3)
Enter an MBR hex code (default AB): Press Enter/Return
Set the bootable flag? (Y/N): N
Creating entry for GPT partition #4 (MBR partition #4)
Enter an MBR hex code (default 07): Press Enter/Return
Set the bootable flag? (Y/N): N
Test 1 - Does Bootcamp Volume show up in Finder?
Test 2 - Can you see files in Bootcamp Volume?
Test 3 - Can you select Bootcamp in System Preferences -> Startup Disk?
Test 4 - If Test 3 is successful, select Bootcamp and Click Restart.
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Sep 8, 2015 9:52 AMby Taelvin,This is likely a very basic question but which environment do you recommend initiating GPT fdisk? From an emergency system disk like SystemRescueCD or installing it in MacOSX and running it from terminal while logged in to an administrator account? I was thinking the system disk would be preferable since it initiates at start-up and I assumed some of the modifications GPT fdisk is making would have to be done in an environment where the disk containing the MacOSX partition could be unmounted and modified?
