I've read many posts here and on other forums about installing Windows 7 from a USB stick, and I really don't want to start messing about with the VM Ware Fusion or Parallels options. Last resort will be sourcing an external superdrive, but I thought I'd ask if there's an updated way to achieve this.
I'm running a 15" MBP early 2011 and have a 256gb SSD in the main drive bay, and a 500gb HDD in the optical drive bay.
I've edited Bootcamp's info.plist to enable it to create a bootable USB stick with the Windows installer and drivers on, but upon reboot, it comes up with the missing operating system error.
I've also tried creating a USB stick within Windows with Microsoft's own tool, and used rEFIt to try and boot with the same problem.
And finally I tried booting with a USB Freecom DVD drive and the original Windows 7 DVD, but that ends up just flashing a _ on a black screen.
Are my only options really either using an Apple external superdrive, or a lot of messing about with VMware Fusion and reimaging with a cloning tool?