Install Windows 7 in Mid-2015 Macbook Pro

There is no support on 2015 or later models for CSM-BIOS, hence legacy BIOS OSes can no longer boot. If you need W7 on a 2015 or later model, use virtualization software (Parallels, VMWare Fusion or VirtualBox).

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)

One option you have is, to use this 2011 and install W7 on it and then use a 'cloning' solution like Winclone, Camptune or CloneZilla, and restore the clone to your 2015 Mac. Remember to use SysPrep if you use this method. Once you have W7 installed on your 2015, you can remove it from the 2011 Mac.

The boot manager is blocking legacy BIOS installation, which is why the USB modifications did not work either. The bootable USB is MBR as you verified with fdisk.

You should remove the MBR by creating a new protective MBR using Gdisk to avoid complications with cloning.

Taelvin wrote:

The Windows 7 clone on the new 2015 Macbook Pro would recognize the change in hardware and it would lose its activation.

Yes, but a legitimate copy of Windows can be moved from one machine to another. Call Microsoft via phone. I had to move my son's Active W8.1 from a 2012 to a 2014 MBP. One phone call covered it.

If I got my hands on a 2012 Macbook Air and made a thumb drive using bootcamp on it with a Windows 7 ISO would that fix the issue we are having?

No. You will run into the same issue. The underlying Bootmanager is disallowing it.

However, one option to consider apart from cloning, is an external Thunderbolt drive/enclosure. USB/FW are not valid destinations for Windows, but TB (which behaves like PCI) and SATA are valid. You can install it on a 2012 MBP using an external TB disk and use it on the 2015 MBP. The hardware change will require a re-activation anyway.

Can you verify that the USB is a USB2 and is MBR with FAT32? Can you post the file structure from Finder for this USB?

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 ** FAT32 partition manually? When I created the MACINTOSH H partition the only option I saw in ** 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.

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 ** 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.

The tests are typically used when a lost NTFS partition is located. In your case, Test 2 shows expected result. Since there is no NTFS yet, Test 3 will fail.

The W7 EFI should not work, because we created a MBR, and the PreBoot is missing ($WinPEDriver$ on the USB).

You should try the USB and test if the Windows Installer comes and your keyboard/mouse/monitor work properly.

Run the Highlighted commands shown in the link on the 2011 MBP.

Additional information can be found by starting Boot Camp and view sector info with

fsutil

. Running Windows 8.1 on a pre-2015 MacBook Pro and 2015 MacBook, we find the bytes per sector (device block size) differences as well as master file table (MFT) size shown by bytes per file record segment differences.

pre-2015_MacBootCamp> fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo c:

Bytes Per Sector : 512

Bytes Per Physical Sector : 4096

Bytes Per Cluster : 4096

Bytes Per FileRecord Segment : 1024

Clusters Per FileRecord Segment : 0

2015_MacBootCamp> fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo c:

Bytes Per Sector : 4096

Bytes Per Physical Sector : 4096

Bytes Per Cluster : 4096

Bytes Per FileRecord Segment : 4096

Clusters Per FileRecord Segment : 1

W7 is not officially supported on newer Macs (2015 models). You can always use a Virtualization engine, if you do not need native hardware access.

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

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 thesample 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.

1. Sudo gdisk /dev/rdisk0
2. P (Print list of parts)
3. R (Recover)
4. O (print current Hybrid MBR)
5. H (chooses Hybrid)
6. Partitions numbers to be hybridized: 2 3 4
7. Y (Good for GRUB question)
8. N (part 2 boot flag)
9. N (part 3 boot flag)
10. N (part 4 boot flag)
11. O (print current Hybrid MBR)
12. W (Write the new MBR)
13. Y (Yes! write the new MBR)
14. 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.

The Hybrid MBR on the Windows destination disk allows a legacy BIOS installation of Windows, provided the BIOS installer is visible in the Apple Bootmanager.

The SuperDrive is being used to work around the issue with the USB which does not have a valid installer for the 2015 UEFI Mac to work with.

Is there a specific reason for W7, or is W8.1 an option?