theunisk

Q: No bootable device usb 2.0 macbook pro mid 2014

Hi there

I've been tearing my hair out the last couple days trying to get windows installed. 

I have a retina macbook pro 15 inch mid 2014. Yosemite version 10.1.10.1.

Win 7 64 bit iso (sha1 - 0bcfc54019ea175b1ee51f6d2b207a3d14dd2b58).


I have tried two usb 2.0 flash drives with 'Create a windows 7 or later install disk' option in BCA. This proceeds smoothly and so does creating the partition using Install windows 7 option.  However, when it restarts, it says something along the lines of 'no bootable device'  If I hold down 'alt', the only options are to boot back into osx & the recovery disk.


I realise this question has been asked countless times - I have read a lot of them but few seem applicable to my situation and those that are have not helped yet. I have not tried another usb yet since I am bandwidth limited (both in download speed and data limit) and BCA wants to redownload windows support files every time and at this point it feels like a shot in the dark.


Any help with this will be greatly appreciated.  Some further questions:

* Is there a way to determine whether the usb drives are at fault?

* Does BCA create the bootable drive in any special way? ie, is it possible to create it by another method that will still play well with the bootcamp process?




 

MacBook Pro with Retina display, Mac OS X (10.1.x)

Posted on Jan 28, 2016 7:49 AM

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Q: No bootable device usb 2.0 macbook pro mid 2014

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  • by theunisk,

    theunisk theunisk Jan 28, 2016 12:42 PM in response to theunisk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 28, 2016 12:42 PM in response to theunisk

    Some more information: (please let me know if there is anything else that would be helpful)

     

    diskutil list:

    /dev/disk0

    #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

    0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.3 GB   disk0

    1:                        EFI    EFI                              209.7 MB   disk0s1

    2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           399.4 GB   disk0s2

    3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

    4:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP            100.0 GB   disk0s4

    /dev/disk1

    #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

    0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                     *16.0 GB    disk1

    1:                 DOS_FAT_32 WININSTALL        16.0 GB    disk1s1

    diskutil cs list

    No CoreStorage logical volume groups found

    sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

    gpt show: /dev/disk0: mediasize=500277790720; sectorsize=512; blocks=977105060

    gpt show: /dev/disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0

    gpt show: /dev/disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1

    gpt show: /dev/disk0: Sec GPT at sector 977105059

          start       size  index  contents

              0          1         MBR

              1          1         Pri GPT header

              2         32         Pri GPT table

             34          6        

             40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B

         409640  780113352      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

      780522992    1269536      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

      781792528        752        

      781793280  195311616      4  GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

      977104896        131        

      977105027         32         Sec GPT table

      977105059          1         Sec GPT header

    sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

             Starting       Ending

    #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    1: EE 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [         1 -     409639] <Unknown ID>

    2: AF 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [    409640 -  780113352] HFS+       

    3: AB 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [ 780522992 -    1269536] Darwin Boot

    4: 0B 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [ 781793280 -  195311616] Win95 FAT-32

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Jan 28, 2016 1:33 PM in response to theunisk
    Level 7 (24,307 points)
    Safari
    Jan 28, 2016 1:33 PM in response to theunisk

    Can you post the output of the following commands which should show the USB details?

     

    sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk1

    sudo fdisk /dev/disk1

  • by theunisk,

    theunisk theunisk Jan 28, 2016 1:54 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 28, 2016 1:54 PM in response to Loner T

    Thanks for the response

    sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk1:

    gpt show: /dev/disk1: mediasize=16043212800; sectorsize=512; blocks=31334400

    gpt show: /dev/disk1: MBR at sector 0

         start      size  index  contents

             0         1         MBR

             1         1        

             2  31334398      1  MBR part 11

    sudo fdisk /dev/disk1:

    Disk: /dev/disk1 geometry: 1950/255/63 [31334400 sectors]

    Signature: 0xAA55

             Starting       Ending

    #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    1: 0B 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [         2 -   31334398] 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     

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Jan 28, 2016 2:10 PM in response to theunisk
    Level 7 (24,307 points)
    Safari
    Jan 28, 2016 2:10 PM in response to theunisk

    Disconnect all external storage. Run the following two procedures.

     

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

    How to Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

     

    Boot your MBP and hold the option key. Do you see the USB as a selection? What brand(s) are the USB Flash drives?

  • by theunisk,

    theunisk theunisk Jan 28, 2016 2:21 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 28, 2016 2:21 PM in response to Loner T

    Will give those a try and report back.  One is transcend, the other is strontium

  • by theunisk,

    theunisk theunisk Jan 28, 2016 2:46 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 28, 2016 2:46 PM in response to Loner T

    No I still only see mac & recovery options.

    Can I test these drives on a window machine to see if they should work?

  • by theunisk,

    theunisk theunisk Jan 28, 2016 2:51 PM in response to theunisk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 28, 2016 2:51 PM in response to theunisk

    One thing I realise I did not do is download the support software manually and replace the version that BCA downloaded (frustrating that I can't skip the download from BCA due to my b/w situation).  However, this should not affect the drive's not showing up as bootable.

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Jan 28, 2016 3:01 PM in response to theunisk
    Level 7 (24,307 points)
    Safari
    Jan 28, 2016 3:01 PM in response to theunisk

    If you create the USB Installer, it needs to be done only once if you have three option in BC Assistant. You can build the uSB once, but use the last option as many times as necessary.

     

    I use a SanDisk Cruzer USB2 which has worked flawlessly. You can test the USB on a PC, but the $WinPEDriver$ will try to load Apple drivers which can cause  unpredictable behavior.

  • by theunisk,

    theunisk theunisk Jan 28, 2016 3:08 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 28, 2016 3:08 PM in response to Loner T

    Yea I just mean if something is wrong with the usb & I have to do it again (as I have already done so twice).

    I cannot use the last option again - after the first install attempt it changed to 'Remove windows 7 or later version'

    and if I follow that it wants to merge the bootcamp partition again (I want to avoid messing with partitions as much as possible

    as I've had some bad experiences with corrupting them in the past).

    Unfortunately I'm in a small town atm and have no hope of getting another usb drive before monday, and probably no hope of getting that specific brand/model in my country.

     

    Any other options/advice?  Should I attempt to create a bootable usb by another method and try to install windows using that?

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Jan 28, 2016 3:11 PM in response to theunisk
    Level 7 (24,307 points)
    Safari
    Jan 28, 2016 3:11 PM in response to theunisk

    Do you have an external Optical (DVD/CD) which is functional and blank DVD-R media? We can burn the ISO to the DVD-R and install Windows using the DVD.

  • by theunisk,

    theunisk theunisk Jan 28, 2016 3:12 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 28, 2016 3:12 PM in response to Loner T

    Unfortunately not, would also be hard to get a hold of anytime soon

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Jan 28, 2016 3:22 PM in response to theunisk
    Level 7 (24,307 points)
    Safari
    Jan 28, 2016 3:22 PM in response to theunisk

    You can consider installing W7 using Vmware and Winclone, but it is a fairly expensive solution compared to a brand USB that will boot.

     

    We can try the following steps and see if either USB that you currently have will be bootable. Please ignore the i386 MBR error, but not any others.

     

    Connect your USB (either one), enter your password when prompted by sudo command. Disk1 should be your USB.

     

    sudo fdisk -e /dev/disk1

    p

    flag 1

    p

    w

    y

     

    This marks the only partition on the USB with MBR boot flag. Shutdown your Mac and power it up and hold Alt/Option key. Use the Windows icon from the USB, if available. Check if the installer will start. Repeat with the other USB and test.

  • by theunisk,

    theunisk theunisk Jan 28, 2016 3:26 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 28, 2016 3:26 PM in response to Loner T

    Will do, and thanks for your continued help

  • by theunisk,

    theunisk theunisk Jan 29, 2016 2:04 AM in response to theunisk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 29, 2016 2:04 AM in response to theunisk

    Unfortunately, neither of those show.

     

    Does this mean they could not be used to boot even if another method (non bootcamp) was used to create them?

     

    What other options do I have? I have seen some articles use virtualbox to install onto the bootcamp partition, is that a safe method (ie, is there any likelihood of corrupting the partition) ? I have also seen some mention that El Capitan can use a partition on the ssd to install thus bypassing the need for usb, is that correct ?

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