Q: Boot Camp Assistant Issues

What year/model is your Mac?

Models up to 2011 do not support USB installation of Windows, they need a physical CD/DVD. 2012 models support both USB+ISO or DVD. 2013-2014 model support USB+ISO, and 2015 and later models use an internal partition called OSXRESERVED.

Windows Media Creation Tool running on Windows will let you create a USB and/or DVD. A BCA-created USB has Mac-specific drivers in $WinPEDriver$ and will have issues in resurrecting a Windows PC.

If this Mac has an Optical drive and you have blank media, you can download the appropriate ISO from Microsoft and burn it to a physical DVD.

Please post back if you run into any issues.

Hi, I have this question too. But all my boot camp assistant shows is this:

and then when i click next, i just see this, followed by this error message

w4rden wrote:

 

Hi, I have this question too. But all my boot camp assistant shows is this:

Your specific Mac has a built-in Optical drive is 2011 or older Mac. Such Macs require a physical CD/DVD to install Windows. In most cases, neither do such Macs officially (per Apple) support Windows 10. The USB will only contain the  Bootcamp drivers for Windows, but not a USB Windows Installer. Modifying files to work around this causes further problems during or after installation.

So what can I do? Is there a way for me to install windows 7 or 10?

Check Install Windows 7 and earlier on your Mac using Boot Camp - Apple Support or Use Windows 8.1 on your Mac with Boot Camp - Apple Support for your specific Mac year/model.

If you need W10, you need to first install W7/W8.1 (as appropriate) and then an in-place upgrade to W10, but be aware that there are no W10-certified drivers available from Apple. If your Mac has AMD GPUs, you will need to be extra careful with W10. The nVidia and Intel GPUs have better support.

The thing is that the only options available in Boot Camp Assistant are the ones in the first image. I don't get have the option to install windows 8 or earlier

Are you on OS X Sierra?

yes

If you have a physical DVD of W8/W8.1, create a FAT32 partition using Disk Utility, insert the DVD, reboot your Mac and hold Alt/Option key. Do you see a Windows icon from the DVD?

I don't have a physical copy. I only have the iso for W7 Pro and W10 Edu. Will restoring my MacBook back to Yosemite or Lion help? I have everything backed up just in case it's the only way to do this.