"Infinite Loop" of Problems

OK, folks, I finally was able to install Windows 7 Ultimate on our Mid-2013 MacBook Air 13" computer. The procedure below, and ONLY this procedure worked for me after weeks of failed attempts.

1. Via an Ethernet hardline connection through our cable modem/NAT router to the Internet, and using my Hackintosh Mini-ITX computer, I downloaded a Windows 7 Ultimate ISO image from the Microsoft website, directly onto a 16 GB Kingston USB 2 flash drive. (Note: this specific method was the only one that worked to get a "good" ISO image for me.)

2. Plugged the flash drive into the MacBook Air's right-side USB port.

3. Downloaded the Apple "Bootcamp5.1.5640" Windows drivers and dragged the 3 files therein to the root level of the flash drive.

4. Very important: Copied the contents of the flash drive to the desktop of the MBA. (Trying to use its contents directly in Boot Camp as an installer didn't work.)

5. Ran Boot Camp starting with formatting the flash drive (ie. checking all 3 boxes). The flash drive is erased and then Boot Camp chooses the ISO image (on the desktop) and re-loads the ISO image onto the flash drive. (Now it will work!) Once this was done I ran just the 3rd checkbox in Boot Camp ("Install Windows.")

6. Pressed "Continue" as instructed by Boot Camp. Eventually, after partitioning 36 GB for Windows and 84 GB for the Mac, with my authorizations, the computer restarted on the Windows installer. Agreeing to the license then took me to the window "Which version of Windows 7 do you want to install?" I chose "Ultimate," and then chose the "BOOTCAMP" (disk 0s4 on my MBA) partition as the install target. Of course Windows told me it could not install there, so I clicked on "See details" where I was told that the format had to be NTFS (not MS-DOS FAT 32). Clicking "Drive Options" brought up icons one of which was "format," which I clicked for the BOOTCAMP partition. The installer re-formatted disk 0s4, but lost the "BOOTCAMP" name. Nevertheless, the rest of the Windows 7 install went smoothly.

7. When the "Boot Camp" app comes up in Windows, I followed the instructions to install the Apple files that Windows needs to run Apple stuff. Eventually the installation completed and now Windows runs on the MBA.

"Expand $WinPEDriver$ and display it's contents

What is the Product Version in Bootcamp.xml"

"If you have the FAT partition manually created, connect the Kingston USB2, reboot and hold Alt/Option. Do you see any selections from the USB2 Flash drive?"

The FAT partition was created in Boot Camp Assistant, but for the rest of it, rebooting and holding Option (there is no Alt) shows the options "Windows" (I presume the USB2 drive) and "MBA SSD" (the internal 480 GB SSD). But I believe this Options window is all strictly Mac OS. Although Mac OS sees the USB2 drive as a boot choice, selecting it is what does what I described above. The Options window disappears, and the MBA restarts but gives only a very dark screen with no activity shown on the USB2 drive's LED. The computer is "on," the correct boot device is picked, but nothing happens.

Are you suggesting I should use Disk Utility to partition the drive like Boot Camp Assistant does, but without using Boot Camp Assistant? I can do that, but the problem seems centered on missing USB2 controller firmware, or something similar. Is there a USB2 controller on the flash drive (or in the Windows installer firmware)?

You might also be interested in the "AutoUnattend.xml" file; please note that the "processor architecture" listed is "amd64" which is incorrect. The Intel processor is generally described as "x86." Maybe this is a problem, but I don't know.

to LonerT:

Thanks much for the jpg of a working installer listing. In response, I also uploaded screenshots here. The first one is of the contents of a recently downloaded Microsoft ISO image. The second is of the contents of my original Win 7 Ultimate Install DVD. I find no significant difference between the two. From this I conclude that either should work as advertised, but neither does, in fact. However, there are significant differences between these matching installer listings and the screenshot you posted, leaving aside the addition of the Bootcamp driver bundle from Apple. The differences might be due to different installers for different versions of Win 7 (Home, Professional, Ultimate, etc.) or maybe not.

For clarity, I have also uploaded my installer listing after addition of the Apple driver bundle "#5." This would represent the current contents of my USB 2 flash drive. As far as I can tell, this is the version of the installer I have been using when attempting to install Win 7 Ultimate on my 2013 13" MacBook Air. I can only assume it will fail again.

Microsoft IOS Image Contents Downloaded Recently

Original DVD:

With Added Apple Contents of "BootCamp5.1.5640"

Your screenshot:

If you do a line item comparison you will see what look like significant differences (to me). For one, you show the efi/boot and efi/Microsoft folder at the same level indenture. On my installer(s), the boot folder is inside the efi/Microsoft folder. Also, your screenshot shows a "memtest.exe" file of 1.2 MB, whereas mine shows "memtest.exe" of 486 KB, and a "memtest.efi" file of 611 KB. And of course all the dates are different. Sizes are different too; my "setup.exe" is 107 KB, yours is 77 KB.

I could try another installation, but I would prefer to hear from you first.

Thanks for your previous attention and help!