2

I am trying to install windows as a boot camp partition on my main hard drive ssd (after spending countless hours trying to get it installed on the optical bay hard drive).

I assumed this would be simple since o am no longer trying to install to an "external" hard drive. But it has turned out to be just as difficult.

The biggest problem I am encountering is that i have a 2010 15" macbook pro which originally came with an optical drive which i have replaced with a Hard disk and the main drive is now an ssd also I am trying to install windows 7. I tried modifying my info.plist so i could create a USB install of my windows iso but when I create a boot camp partition and hit install it restarts into a gray screen and nothing happens. If I attempt to force restart from this It boots into an apple logo that hangs until it goes to a black screen that says "No bootable device found - please insert a bootable device and hit any key." I then force restarted and held down option and when it loaded it didn't show my USB as a device (only my main ssd drive and my optical bay hard disk).

I found a YouTube video of a Czech guy who used virtual box to start the install and then move it to the desired disk and used refit to access it, but when I installed refit it didn't even show up in my boot devices when I held down option...

My question is how I can go about installing windows 7 on my 2010 macbook pro that has an ssd in the main hard drive and a hard disk on the optical bay drive. It can be installed to either disk but I suppose the ssd would be better since its faster to boot. I have a working ISO (showed working from virtual box installs) and a USB drive.

Improve this question
18
  • Are you using rEFIt or the newer replacement rEFInd? You should be able to get rEFInd to work from a flash drive. This is pretty simple to do. See here. This will allow you to test out rEFInd. If you like, I can help move rEFInd to one of your internal disks. Also, this rEFInd install is 100% reversible. Also, please give the link to the YouTube video (if in english).
    – David Anderson
    Commented Apr 4, 2015 at 21:03
  • Here's link to the video: youtube.com/watch?v=cG1gdImjy8k. I had no idea refit was replaced with a new thing called refind.
    – user8363
    Commented Apr 4, 2015 at 21:19
  • Shouldn't refit still work for this method since it doesn't use a USB at all?
    – user8363
    Commented Apr 4, 2015 at 21:37
  • Not a dup, I made the other thread to address installing on an external disk. Which your advice never worked. Now I'm trying to just get it on my main sdd and its still not workjng
    – user8363
    Commented Apr 4, 2015 at 22:03
  • I am not sure I understand your question. What does "this method" mean?
    – David Anderson
    Commented Apr 4, 2015 at 22:04

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
1

Since this question has been marked as a duplicate, I have moved my answer to the other question. Please see my answer posted at Boot camp install of Windows 7 issue, no bootable devices.

Improve this answer
5
  • Your dedication to this question is very admirable. I will continue checking this for the full instructions. Thanks so much for all the help, i truly appreciated it. If you are ever in the Sacramento area and want a free case of beer or burger make sure to message me.
    – user8363
    Commented Apr 8, 2015 at 21:52
  • FYI: I did succeed in installing Windows 7 Pro 64 bit on my 2007 iMac using virtual box and the windows install iso. I was lucky enough to have bootstrap code in my physical disk's MBR. This was because of a previous install of windows 8 from a DVD. I problem is others who try my solution may not be as lucky. Finding a solution has held me up a bit. I found one and I am currently updating the solution document. By the way, you will not have this problem, because your windows install will be on a different drive than OS X resides. I assume your install will update the MBR bootstrap code.
    – David Anderson
    Commented Apr 8, 2015 at 23:44
  • If its easier I aan have osx on the same main drive, I may even prefer that since its an ssd unlike my HDD which is what I gave in the optical bay. But whatever method works!
    – user8363
    Commented Apr 8, 2015 at 23:47
  • i noticed your last step is just "hi there", i assume its a place holder for more to come later but wanted to check in and see if you needed any information from me. Again i want to thank you for your hard work on finding a solution for this problem. Cant wait to try this all out!
    – user8363
    Commented Apr 9, 2015 at 14:29
  • I am basically done documenting the physical changes that need to be made. I am currently reinstalling Windows 7 to the physical partition disk0s4 using VirtualBox. The next updates should contain the virtual steps from within VirtualBox. From this point the rest of the steps are trivial.
    – David Anderson
    Commented Apr 9, 2015 at 15:02
0

Machines that shipped with a DVD drive can't install Windows using a usb device in my experience. It seems that as soon as the thumb drive is selected for booting it looses power for a second and then can no longer be found.

One option would be to use your secondary drive as a bootable installer for Windows.

Improve this answer

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .