Hi all, I'm forwarding a message I tried to send to this list last week. Please let me know if it gets through.
Begin forwarded message: > From: Gavin Grundlingh <[email protected]> > Subject: Unable To Install Windows On My Mac At All > Date: 17 December 2012 11:38:37 PM SAST > To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> > > Hi all, > > I'm not sure if I've written about this here before, but I'm having one hell > of a time trying to install Windows on my Mac, the biggest problem being that > my internal superdrive no longer works. I'll explain what I've tried so far > in more detail below: > > First, because my superdrive is broken, I tried using 2 external USB DVD > drives. One was an LG that worked with AC power, the other was powered purely > by USB, but I don't know its make or model. In both cases, I could select the > Windows DVD as a startup disk in System preferences. However, the LG AC > powered drive hung on the "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD" message, > while the USB only drive Skipped booting from the disk entirely. This > happened both when trying to install Windows to a Bootcamp partition, and > when changing the partition map scheme of my internal hard drive to MBR and > trying to install the way you would on a traditional PC, which, just so > everyone is aware, actually does work. I did it in January of this year when > my Superdrive was still functional, and had no problems. > > Next, I created and booted from a CCC backup, downloaded and installed > VirtualBox, and used its command line interface to create a vmdk file that > would give me raw disk access to my internal hard drive. I used VMWare Fusion > to create a new, custom virtual machine, then edited its configuration file > to include the vmdk file with raw disk access. I was able to boot the virtual > machine from both DVD drives, so I went through the Windows install process > until I got to the desktop. I Rebooted the Mac from the internal drive, and > got all the way to "Starting Windows" before the computer restarted itself > and went to the Startup Repair screen. I told Windows to fix whatever it > thought the problem was, but no luck. It did the same thing. So I started up > from my external hard disk, booted the virtual machine and reran the > installer from within Windows itself, thinking that my previous attempt may > have failed due to hardware changes that occur when running Windows virtually > ass opposed to natively. I hoped that, by running the first part of the > install that copies the files from the DVD to the hard drive, then rebooting > the machine completely and finishing the install on the native Mac hardware, > all the correct components would be detected. Well, that was, and still is, > merely a nice thought. I got as far as "Setup is loading files" and "Starting > Windows" when I rebooted, then got a "Windows was unable to start the > installation" error and an "OK" button. I pressed it, the computer restarted, > and came up with the same error. > > Lastly, I tried using a flash drive created with the Windows 7 USB DVD > download tool to install from, but the Mac wouldn't boot from that either. I > installed the rEFIt boot manager and used that to boot from the flash drive, > but still had no success. > > I'm at my wit's end here. Is the Mac seriously that full of crap about the > devices it boots from? I've reset the parameter RAM, reset the SMC, checked > for possible software updates, used different flash drives and Windows DVD's, > but none if that seems to make any difference. I don't have, or know anybody > who has, access to an Apple USB superdrive, so I can't confirm whether or not > that will work. Does anyone know how I could possibly resolve this? I need > the resources on this Mac for large sample libraries i want to run, and my PC > just doesn't have enough power. Thanks for all the help you guys provide. > It's very much appreciated. > > Regards, > > Gavin Grundlingh > Phone: +27 (0) 83 713-6191 > Secondary Phone: +27 (0) 79 157-2466 > Fax: +27 (0) 86 617-5792 > Email: [email protected] > Secondary Email: [email protected] > Skype: Batworx > Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/batworx > Twitter: http://twitter.com/batworx > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
