Level 1

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Install Windows 7 in Mid-2015 Macbook Pro

Good Afternoon All,

I am trying to install Windows 7 onto a Macbook Pro that bootcamp no longer supports putting Windows 7 onto. I have a Product Key for 7 and want to upgrade to Windows 10 but, unfortunately, Windows 7 has to be on the machine first. 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. The only thing that is there is my Mac HD. Does anyone know of a method to get Windows 7 onto one of the new Macbook Pro's? I have moderate computer skills and can do some things in command line, use Xcode to modify files like bootcamps .plist, etc.

Thank you for your suggestions,

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015), OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Sep 7, 2015 9:13 AM

Top-ranking reply

Loner T

Level 9

59,636 points

Posted on Nov 9, 2016 2:56 AM

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).

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64 replies

Taelvin Author

Level 1

2 points

Sep 12, 2015 3:32 PM in response to Loner T

I successfully followed Winclone's guides for migrating a Bootcamp partition and brought the Windows 7 64 bit Partition from my 2011 Macbook Pro to the 2015 Macbook Pro. Since Windows 7 doesn't support EFI booting though I used Parallels to boot into the bootcamp partition, activated Windows 7, then upgraded to Windows 10 using the Windows 10 Upgrade tool. I booted back into MacOS and noticed even with Windows 10 installed on the partition it wouldn't show Windows on the ALT/Option menu. So I selected the bootcamp partition in Winclone and used the "Make EFI bootable" tool. After that I rebooted and in the ALT/Option menu is "Windows" now and "Mac OS." But when I click on the "Windows" partition it switches to a black screen. I waited for ten minutes and finally hit a key and it booted back into the OS X partition. I thought maybe it was a display driver thing so I installed the bootcamp drivers using Parallels to get back into the bootcamp partition. I'm at a loss to know whats going on now....

Loner T

Level 9

59,636 points

Sep 7, 2015 4:30 PM in response to Taelvin

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.

Loner T

Level 9

59,636 points

Sep 8, 2015 5:20 PM in response to Taelvin

From the SuperDrive, do you see a Windows selection?

EFI boot would fail because we created a Hybrid MBR and W7 EFI is problematic on UEFI Macs.

Loner T

Level 9

59,636 points

Sep 8, 2015 5:55 PM in response to Taelvin

If you insert your USB, do you see any additional selections? The USB also has $WinPEDriver$. If you do not see any additional selections, select EFI Boot after the USB is plugged in. If you see the Installer startup, it will still fail due to a Hybrid MBR that we created.

Taelvin Author

Level 1

2 points

Sep 11, 2015 8:55 AM in response to Loner T

https://twocanoes.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/204433039-Winclone-Image-Compati bility-with-512b-and-4K-Block-Size-on-20…

The weird thing is I have a 2015 Macbook Pro and when I ran the command they did in the article mine shows:

MacBook-Pro-2:~ cb$ diskutil info / | grep "Block Size"

Device Block Size: 512 Bytes

Allocation Block Size: 4096 Bytes

So maybe it would still work?

Loner T

Level 9

59,636 points

Sep 12, 2015 5:34 PM in response to Taelvin

When you make Windows EFI bootable, there should be an MSR pointing to the NTFS Bootloader or there should be information in the EFI partition for Windows to boot. Please see Can't resize Macintosh HD partition for the EFI-related Microsoft parts. Please check if you have any Microsoft parts in the EFI partition by mounting it manually and looking at the directory structure as discussed in the link.

Nov 9, 2016 1:22 AM in response to Loner T

Hello Loner T.

I read carefully everything you wrote in this thread and tried a lot of solution to get windows 7 working with my macbook air 2015, on an external usb3 drive without BCA.

My problem never was to get windows instal on the external drive (got an other macbook 2009 running windows 7 and a other windows machine, toshiba):

- I instal it with imagex or using wintousb or with the DVD with one of the two machines I had. I clone my partition to.

- but never get the disk in the boot menu holding down alt other than as efi boot (with black screen after)

- I tried with GPT and MBR table (with the EFI FAT 32 partition set as active in this case).

- I tried by formatting in windows or in osx environnement

- I tried to do the EFI partition myself or let it do it by diskpart or **

- I tried to fix or check the BCD store

- In the pref pane form osx, I always have seen the windows system I installed, but never succeed to boot on it

What i understand over the whole thing:

- osx doesn't use EFI partition but to store a copy of the firmware

- in my 2009 macbook, there is nothing in this partition too for windows so I guess it runs in BIOS emulation mode

- windows 7 64 bits works with EFI firmware but windows use a "trick" to boot in EFI mode and in this case use the EFI partition

- BCA only partitions the internal hardrive and create an entry in the mac bootloader to choose which system we want to launch

So here are my questions

- what's the difference between windows 7 et 8 that makes the instal ok pour one via BCA and not for the other ?

- Could it be something in the efi firmware of the macbook that block windows 7 ?

- if yes, can it be changed ?

- for you, in my case, what method and partition table would you use to instal windows 7 on my external drive and get my macbook to boot sucessfully on it ?

Nov 9, 2016 9:44 AM in response to Taelvin

Try this:

Ok, Its very easy to solve.

-Problem: MacBook,MacBook Air brings USB3.0 and windows 7 does not recconize Usb3.0 natively.

-Is USB 3 supported by Boot Camp 5.1?

Yes. See Using USB 3 devices on Mac computers.

--Read this Article:Install Windows 7 and earlier on your Mac using Boot Camp - Apple Support

1- Make sure Correct Version of BootCamp for your MacBook

2- After BootCamp assistant finish , copy these files/folders

Partition : WININSTALL

2.1- Check this folder: $WinPEDriver$

and subfolder: "IntelxHCISetup" MUST BE COPIED.

2.2 Remove this folder : "AppleSSD64"

User uploaded file And Done.

Obs: IntelxHCISetup on BootCamp 5.1

Notes:

If the keyboard and mouse are not recognized, re-execute the boot camp assistant and undo the boot camp partition and redo.

Nov 10, 2016 4:02 AM in response to elricfromstrasburg

Hello Elric, sorry but the post title is: "Install Windows 7 in Mid-2015 Macbook Pro "

But, I cant try to help you.

Sorry my english I am from another country.

First: What is you MacBook model?

Second: Can you explain your problem with moredetail?

Third: Do you already try do this steps:

1-Reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support

2-How to reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

See you 🙂

Loner T

Level 9

59,636 points

Sep 9, 2015 7:20 AM in response to Taelvin

For 2, please see https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/Cc721940(v=WS.10).aspx . It is very comprehensive.

Taelvin Author

Level 1

2 points

Sep 7, 2015 1:14 PM in response to Loner T

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 ** FAT32 partition manually? When I created the MACINTOSH H partition the only option I saw in ** was MS-DOS (FAT) and ExFat.

Taelvin Author

Level 1

2 points

Sep 7, 2015 3:47 PM in response to Loner T

I did not use any USB hub. The USB2 bootable thumb drive was directly connected to the Macbook Pro and there were no other devices connected to any of the other ports.

Here is the screenshots from the OS X Terminal following the commands you recommended:

And then:

Taelvin Author

Level 1

2 points

Sep 7, 2015 4:44 PM in response to Loner T

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?

Taelvin Author

Level 1

2 points

Sep 8, 2015 9:52 AM in response to Loner T

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?

Loner T

Level 9

59,636 points

Sep 8, 2015 10:02 AM in response to Taelvin

You can use the 'b' command to backup the GPT and then make changes in OSX. The 'b' command will not work from the System RescueCD because a writable file system is not available in most cases. Once you backup, store it externally on a different external disk.

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Install Windows 7 in Mid-2015 Macbook Pro