Restricted Partition Sizes for Windows

"From your post, create the USB Installer using the method you like. Create a FAT32 partition of the size you want Windows to be, and then boot from the Installer and install Windows."

If I understand you correctly, you are telling me to leave "Boot Camp" out of the process entirely. But if Boot Camp is not involved, the option of using the Apple files in Windows (i.e. the "BootCamp5.1.5640" drivers) is lost. This means that the functions provided by those drivers and used by the MacOS will not be available.

Loner T wrote:

One option to consider is an upgrade to Mojave.

Also, I though you had W7 installed as noted in "Infinite Loop" of Problems .

Indeed I had installed W7, as I wrote there, using the "36 GB" partition size. At that time, I was using the 128 GB OEM SSD. But 36 GB is only enough room for the 27.4 GB of an updated W7 install, plus (as I wrote above) only 8 GB of available space for anything one might want to install under W7. Not enough. However, my point is that Apple needs to fix either Boot Camp Assistant or Mac OS 10.13. Maybe 10.13.7? Or a Boot Camp Assistant patch? The partition sizes need to be adjustable, as apparently they once were under earlier OS X versions.

I created a FAT 32 240 GB partition on the MacBook Air SSD ("WIN 7 U"). But I have no idea how to use the "WININSTALL" flash drive without the use of Boot Camp. And if I do open Boot Camp Assistant, the picture below is what I get.

• Disconnect all external storage, and run SMC and NVRAM Reset.
• Check.
• Connect USB Installer (this must be a USB2 Flash drive, others will not work)
• Check. (This is the identical flash drive used to get a Win 7 install on a 36 GB partition per Boot Camp.)
• Reboot and hold Alt/Option.
• Check.
• Select the orange Windows icon (do not not select EFI Boot)
• Check. (That selected the "WININSTALL" flash drive.)
• If the Windows Installer comes up properly, select the 240GB partition. It should be the fourth in the list.
• Nope. The computer display went from black to almost black, but stayed there. Nothing else happened. No activity on flash drive. If Boot Camp Assistant is called up, activity on the flash drive is shown on its LED, but nothing happens on the screen.
• Try to install Windows. Post any errors.
• Nada. No activity. Should I buy "Parallels?"

"Can you fall back to Sierra temporarily, install W7, and then upgrade Sierra to HS or Mojave, as necessary?"

Tried that. Downloaded the "Install Mac OS Sierra.app" from Apple, but even though I formatted my SSD first in FAT 32 and then switched to GUID (Mac OS Extended, journaled), I could not open the installer. I got the message that the installer was too old to open (probably because during erasing, the EFI and Recovery HD partitions are made with HS's Disk Utility and cannot be erased). So I CCC'd High Sierra back onto my SSD and tried a new ISO download of Win 7. I chose a 36 GB FAT 32 partition in Boot Camp Assistant, re-created my (same) USB2 install USB drive, and got as far as selecting and opening the Win 7 installer, which sort of worked, except I got a blank screen and no action from the USB drive. So I went back to the Mac OS.

"If you erase the entire disk, Sierra may work." That's just it; I don't know how to do that. At least not from High Sierra's Disk Utility. It only erases "disk0s2" but leaves "disk0s1" (the EFI partition) and "disk0s3" (the Recovery HD partition) on the SSD.

"One option is to install Sierra on an external disk, boot from it, run BCA and remove the Sierra disk physically from the Mac before you proceed with the Windows installer." Not clear on what you mean by that, but i think before I did that I would buy a Windows computer.

Not my first choice... I think I'll check out Parallels, thanks!

Will Boot Camp work any better in Sierra than in High Sierra?