Installing Windows on a Mac in BIOS mode

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Level 1

9 points

Installing Windows on a Mac in BIOS mode

Hi.

I am trying to install Windows on iMac using a usb drive. When I am getting to the part where I need to restart iMac to start installing windows, I don't see BIOS boot option, there is only EFI boot which causes many problems if used. Unfortunately my optical disk drive is broken and I can't use it for installation. My question is: Is there a possibility to install windows in BIOS mode without using optical disk drive ?

P.S. iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2011)

OS: MacOS Sierra

Posted on Apr 1, 2017 8:16 AM

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Answer 1

Rudegar

Level 10

181,314 points

Apr 7, 2017 4:32 AM in response to adibudi

try asking here Boot Camp

I recall reading there that if there is an internal optical drive then the usb connected one can't be used

and only cure is to get the internal one repaired or installing windows in a virtual machine rather then bootcamp

oracle have a virtual machine called virtualbox which is free

parallels is a paid virtual machine which is pretty popular in the mac world

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Answer 2

adibudi Author

Level 1

9 points

Apr 4, 2017 6:23 AM in response to den.thed

Hmm.. Getting external USB optical drive did make the BIOS boot option to appear. I got a USB wired keyboard as well, and then tried to boot from my Windows installation DVD in BIOS mode, but after clicking on that I just get a black screen with a blinking dash on the top left corner. Any ideas why would this happen ?

Thank you in advance.

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