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I have to install Win 10 onto my mid 2011 MacBook Pro (El Capitan) using Boot Camp.

I have two SSD on my machine (one was switched with the SuperDrive) and they works greatly normally.

This morning I woken up and I wanted to install Win 10 onto one of my SSDs. I use yet VirtualBox and tried also Parallel Desktop. But today I want to use Boot Camp.

The situation is:

  1. my Mac doesn't support USB boot to install Win
  2. I have already installed the drivers (via Boot Camp) on a pen drive
  3. I have a beautiful DVD RW (that I burned at least 6 times only today)
  4. I can use the Superdrive externally
  5. I don't know how to burn correctly the Win10.iso

Step 5.: why?

Because Boot Camp doesn't recognize the Win10 DVD (message: "The installer disc could not be found"). I tried many DVD burning formats such as:

  • HFS+ (okay, this option failed obviously, t's my fault: it's an Apple format)
  • DVD UTF
  • PC (Joliet)
  • ISO9660
  • Joliet 103 characters (solo)

using Burn.

I tried also to burn the ISO via El Capitan's Disk Utility. Same error.

The destination disk is correctly formatted Ex FAT Master Boot Record.

I don't know to do.

UPDATE

I noticed that the error message The installer disc could not be found was referring to the USB Boot Camp Drivers.

So, it was not a DVD problem. I didn't plug the USB drive with the drivers. My fault. Now I plugged both Superdrive and the USB with the drivers.

Finally Boot Camp Assistant now is happy and left me to continue. After click Continue the Mac rebooted automatically, but... I seen a black screen with a intermittent underscore at top left of the screen (this is a little good sign: it was the Windows boot).

But the BIOS (?) seems to be locked, no messages, no alert, nothing... only this intermittent underscore. I waited 15 - 20 minutes and nothing changed. I tried to press Enter, Space without any result. So I have to reboot the machine.

From the Mac OS X partition I can see:

enter image description here

So I think the DVD results bootable.

What could be the problem now? :(

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  • See if you can boot from the DVD without the use of the Boot Camp Assistant. Some Macs can not boot from DVDs using external optical (DVD) drives. Restart the Mac and hold down the option key. If a DVD icon appears with the label "Windows", select the icon and try to boot the Windows installer. Report back the results in the form as a comment. At this point, I would not try actually installing Windows.
    – David Anderson
    Aug 30, 2016 at 0:27

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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The correct way to burn the Windows iso file to a DVD using El Capitan would be to do the following.

  1. Find the iso file in the Finder.
  2. Right click on the file and select Burn Disk Image "File name" to Disc....
  3. Follow the instructions given in the pop up window.

If the Boot Camp Assistant application will not recognize the external DVD drive, then you can try the following.

  1. Insert the burned DVD in the external DVD drive.
  2. Restart type Mac and hold down the option key.
  3. See if the DVD icon appears with the label "Windows" in the Startup Manager.
  4. Select the icon and see if you can boot from the DVD.

If you can boot from the DVD, you probably can use the external DVD drive to install Windows. First, you will need to create a MSDOS (FAT) formatted partition to install Window on to. This usually is the 4th partition on the drive.

If you can not boot from the external DVD drive, the one possible option would be to install directly from the Windows iso file. See web sites here and here for some examples of how to do this.

By the way, how did you acquire the Boot Camp Support Software? Did you use the Boot Camp Assistant to download or did you download from a web site?

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  • I am trying to do all that. However, I have already tried burn the disk via Finder (the first three steps), El Capitan recognizes the DVD, but Boot Camp Assistant doesn't. The Boot Camp Support Software was downloaded via Boot Camp Assistant
    – kitsune
    Aug 29, 2016 at 8:04
  • You downloaded the correct Boot Camp Support Software for a BIOS boot method install of Windows 10. Now, it is only a question of whether you can or can not use the external DVD drive.
    – David Anderson
    Aug 29, 2016 at 8:51
  • Question updated.
    – kitsune
    Aug 29, 2016 at 9:33
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According to Apple the earliest MacBook Pro that supports Windows 10 is the Mid 2012. Which means that Apple does not officially support Windows 10 on your computer.

However I have heard (oh... here and there.) that you can often get Win 10 installed by installing the latest supported Windows OS, which in your case is Window 8.1. And then upgrading to 10 within Windows 8.1 itself.

Do remember though that some drivers may not work, so some devices may not work or work well. note that people have had success updating/installing drivers from the manufacturers website (video, audio, etc.) after sleuthing out the make and model that Apple used in their system, rather than using Apple provided drivers from Boot Camp.

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  • I have installed Window 10 Pro 64 bit on both 2007 and 2011 iMacs without having a previous version of Windows installed. Although Apple does not officially support Windows 10 on these older models, Microsoft does. In fact, I am typing this message on a 2007 iMac with Windows 10 installed. This Mac will not be able to run the new Sierra from Apple, but the Windows 10 support from Microsoft will continue. Although I do admit, I did not use the Boot Camp Assistant to install Windows 10, so maybe you are right about having to start with Windows 8.1.
    – David Anderson
    Aug 29, 2016 at 17:45
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The problem is hardware.

After many frustrating tentatives finally I installed successfully Win via Boot Camp.

How?

First, my MacBook Pro 2011 doesn't supports DVD booting form any external drive, this due to EFI firmware and some hardware. So my situation was:

  1. on my Mac I have SSD 1 500GB with El Capitan and SSD 2 250GB empty, future location of Win
  2. install El Capitan on SSD 2 (to use Boot Camp) in a smallest partition possible (30GB El Capitan + 220GB empty)
  3. open the Unibody
  4. unplug both SSD drives
  5. restore the Superdrive in his proper slot
  6. put the SSD 2 in the SDD proper slot
  7. left SDD 1 outside the Mac for a moment
  8. remount the unibody
  9. boot the Mac with the new El Capitan (from the 30GB partition of SSD 2)
  10. follow the standard Bootcamp procedures to install Windows (all versions are OK, I tried Win 7, Win 8 and Win 10, all them worked) in the 220GB partition on SSD 2
  11. open the unibody
  12. unplug the Superdrive
  13. put the SSD 2 in the Superdrive slot (with the proper adapter)
  14. put the SDD 1 in the HDD slot (with the 2.5 inches adapter)
  15. the end

PRO:

A. Now Mac boots magnificently both from Win 10 and El Capitan.

CONS:

A. Installation very long and boring

B. Bad partition situation

  1. SDD 1 500GB with my Old El Capitan

  2. SSD 2 250GB partitioned as follows:

    2.a) 30GB partition with a new El Capitan

    2.b) 220GB partition with Win 10

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