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564 points

"Infinite Loop" of Problems

Leaving past fiasco behind, tried a USB 2 flash drive and an ISO download from Microsoft of Windows 7 Ultimate on my 2013 13" MacBook Air. On this latest attempt, have made it through the past "CD/DVD driver not found" issue and through creation of BOOTCAMP partition under Mac OS 10.13.6. Transition into the Windows installer causes a black screen with "Not a boot disk" error message. This is about the 3rd download from MS and various issues with all. Best case was with my Win 7 Ultimate installer DVD connected via an external DVD drive AND a USB 3.0 flash drive in the other USB port of the MBA simultaneously. That attempt went all the way through to this final error message: "Unable to create or locate a [usable] partition." I have tried too many approaches to list here, so let me just ask a few questions:

1. EXACTLY what needs to be put on the USB flash drive? The ISO image? Or the content of the ISO image, which is a file with a long alphanumeric string ending in "...DVD?" Or the content of THAT, which is a bunch of files? Can someone post a screenshot of the contents of a loaded flash drive that actually works?

2. EXACTLY where is the bundle of Apple-supplied Windows drivers to be put on the flash drive? (Apple says on the "root" level of the drive.) And are the 3 files Apple says to copy left as is on the drive, or do they have to be opened and their contents exposed at the root level?

3. There are several "setup.exe" files on the flash drive after the Apple bundle is copied to it. They are located in different folders. Should that arrangement be left alone or should they be somehow "prioritized?"

4. What is the correct "MD SHA" (I think that's what it is called) for the MS ISO download? My downloads have all been in the 3.32 GB region, although not all exactly the same. My Internet connection is either through a 5 GHz WI-FI (the MacBook Air) or, if I use my main computer, through a hardlined cable modem/NAT router. I don't necessarily get the same download ISO size for both link methods.

5. Does anyone have any idea why having the Win 7 install DVD directly hooked up to one USB port of the MBA, while the USB flash drive is hooked up to the other port, works "better" than using the USB flash drive by itself? (This happens whether the ISO image on the flash drive was sourced from the MS download or whether it was sourced from my Win 7 Install DVD.)

I would appreciate any answers or comments you might have, and thanks for reading!

MacBook Air, macOS High Sierra (10.13.6), Mid-2013 13" 128 GB SSD 4 GB RAM

Posted on Sep 6, 2018 10:44 AM

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59 replies

Bill Strohm Author

Level 3

564 points

Oct 9, 2018 9:22 AM in response to Loner T

"If you use Alt/Option, do both of these show up as bootable and behave the same way? If both of them show the same issues, you may want to consider Resolved - Install a Windows 7 partition on Mac OSX without Optical Drive or USB | MacRumors Forums as an option." That procedure requires me to obtain four new pieces of software, and I'm not sure I understand the process anyway.

I have a question: Did you notice in my "Disk Utility info /" for the USB flash drive "WININSTALL" that the Terminal output indicated "no file system?" How can that be? Boot Camp Assistant formatted it as FAT 32. If the MacBook Air sees it has having "no file system," how can anything work?

Bill Strohm Author

Level 3

564 points

Oct 10, 2018 8:43 AM in response to Loner T

Thanks for your reply, and your consistent support.

I have now chased this Boot Camp problem for over a month, with essentially no results. I now intend to re-format the MacBook Air with El Capitan and see if Boot Camp will work with a downgraded Mac OS. My theory is that continual OS upgrades have rendered the Boot Camp Assistant support software mostly incompatible with High Sierra. Yes, it did work once, but only once out of at least a dozen attempts, and only with the original 128 GB SSD. But the new SSD works just fine with Mac OS Sierra, so I think it is not the problem. Maybe El Capitan will do the trick. I will report on the results.

Bill Strohm Author

Level 3

564 points

Oct 10, 2018 9:57 AM in response to Bill Strohm

Okay, now I find that the App Store copy of El Capitan (and Yosemite, and Mavericks) which is in my Purchased App Store database, will not download on the grounds that it cannot "be installed on this computer." But I don't want to install it, I just want to download the "Install Mac OS X El Capitan.app" file!
[Edited by Host]

Bill Strohm Author

Level 3

564 points

Oct 10, 2018 3:33 PM in response to Loner T

"If you Option+Click on the Download/Install icon, are you allowed to download the version you need?" Nope. Same error message. Incidentally, I ran across a "Paragon" free download of an app that allows conversion of an APFS file system to HFS+ without losing data. I tried that on the grounds that maybe the file system was contributing to my issue. The conversion worked fine (I now have HFS+ on the MacBook Air running MacOS 10.13.6 with an SSD storage device). But, when I tried out Boot Camp again, the old problem of severely restricted partitioning was back! I could only choose 8 GB or 36 GB partition sizes for the Windows partition. So that was going backwards. And my previous method for installing a fresh MacOS with HFS+ using the "startosinstall" Terminal command no longer works.

So now my wife says it's just too much trouble; she will learn to use the MBA with MacOS.

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Oct 10, 2018 5:47 PM in response to Bill Strohm

Bill Strohm wrote:

"If you Option+Click on the Download/Install icon, are you allowed to download the version you need?" Nope. Same error message.

Interesting.

Bill Strohm wrote:

Incidentally, I ran across a "Paragon" free download of an app that allows conversion of an APFS file system to HFS+ without losing data. I tried that on the grounds that maybe the file system was contributing to my issue. The conversion worked fine (I now have HFS+ on the MacBook Air running MacOS 10.13.6 with an SSD storage device). But, when I tried out Boot Camp again, the old problem of severely restricted partitioning was back! I could only choose 8 GB or 36 GB partition sizes for the Windows partition. So that was going backwards.

Your issue is unrelated to APFS. It is related to the BC drivers.

Bill Strohm wrote:

And my previous method for installing a fresh MacOS with HFS+ using the "startosinstall" Terminal command no longer works.

You will need to erase the whole disk to try it.

Bill Strohm wrote:

So now my wife says it's just too much trouble; she will learn to use the MBA with MacOS.

Did you take a look at the MacRumours link I posted earlier? The process is to clone an unfinished installation partition from a virtual disk to the physical partition and continue.

Bill Strohm Author

Level 3

564 points

Oct 11, 2018 10:10 AM in response to Loner T

"Did you take a look at the MacRumours link I posted earlier? The process is to clone an unfinished installation partition from a virtual disk to the physical partition and continue." Yes, I read that. Thought I posted an answer earlier, but don't see it now. Essentially over my head and also requires that I obtain four new pieces of software. Not worth the trouble. I have always been exclusively a Mac user since 1986, and have no desire to use Windows. I thought if Boot Camp worked (which it hasn't), my wife (who is a Windows user only) could have a notebook computer of her own. But now I (and consequently she) give up.

I thank you for your unexpectedly consistent help and guidance, but this is just no longer worth the time and effort to investigate what looks to me very much like a dead end.

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Sep 13, 2018 5:47 PM in response to Bill Strohm

Excellent.

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Oct 2, 2018 6:35 PM in response to Bill Strohm

I suspect the Kingston's boot-ability.

Bill Strohm Author

Level 3

564 points

Oct 3, 2018 11:52 AM in response to Loner T

"Can you try a different USB2 Flash drive? Personally, I find the Kingston USBs erratic." Hey, Fry's is practically next door. Can you recommend one? Like a brand, and maybe an optimum storage size?

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Oct 3, 2018 10:44 PM in response to Bill Strohm

I will assume that you are using W7 and the correct BC drivers package. Can you post the listing of the USB disk file structure?

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Oct 4, 2018 6:49 PM in response to Bill Strohm

Can you post the listing of contents (similar to the image I posted earlier) which shows the contents of the USB?

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Oct 5, 2018 10:27 AM in response to Bill Strohm

You can edit Bootcamp.XML in TextEdit and look for the line with Product Version.

Bill Strohm Author

Level 3

564 points

Oct 5, 2018 10:54 AM in response to Loner T

Attached screenshot; version is as advertised, BootCamp5.1.5640

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Oct 5, 2018 1:26 PM in response to Bill Strohm

Both these files look fine. The AutoUnattend.xml is only used to setup the BC drivers for PreBoot.

From the macOS side, can you look at System Report and check the specific Intel GPU you have?

Bill Strohm Author

Level 3

564 points

Oct 8, 2018 4:17 PM in response to Loner T

Yes, that was the Kingston Traveler. Speed: "Up to 480 Mb/sec." The SanDisk Cruzer Dial: "Up to 480 Mb/sec."

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"Infinite Loop" of Problems