Cannot install Windows 7 with bootcamp

Question

Ok, I am getting really frustrated at this point with bootcamp. I have previously installed win7 on this same computer I'm working with, I reformatted the drive and uninstalled windows with bootcamp, the reason I did this was because I needed more space on my windows drive. I have followed all of bootcamp's directions and I keep getting stuck on the same spot. After creating a win7 install usb stick (with the same oem copy of win7 I used last time), downloading the drivers, and getting thru the partioning steps, the computer reboots into windows install. I see "disk 0 partition 4: bootcamp" after clicking format (to get it to be formatted to ntfs) I click next, then I keep getting the following error. "Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition. See the Setup log files for more information."
I have tried installing with bootcamp a few different times, even with a different copy of windows 7 and keep getting stuck here. I have installed it just fine before, I dont know why this is happening now. I am on a 15" 2012 rMBP 500gb model

Answer 1

Hi All-
I know this post is dated slightly but I wanted to chime in with some Bootcamp help on the newer vintage MBP laptops. 
Just to throw it out there - nearly every Mac I purchase gets hardware hacked the minute it comes out of the box.  RAM/SSD upgrades are usually the first on the agenda.  The SSD/drive upgrades can tend to muck-up the process of using Apple's standard BootCamp tools for loading Windows.
Here is a very simple way to accomplish the same things that BootCamp does only the right way so Windows will be happy alongside OS X.
1. Download your Windows ISO (stop making DVDs!) and make a USB bootable stick.  You can do this in a number of ways - on the OS X side use Disk Utility, on the Windows side use the Microsoft Store USB download/create tool.  Just make sure you have a -known- good working USB bootable Windows 7 install media (or Windows 8)
2. Once you've done this you will want to get the WindowsSupport folder for your model of Mac, so launch BootCamp, un-check the top and bottom options so that only the Download Support Files option is selected, indicate that you would like to copy to an external drive.  Tell it to place the folder either on your Desktop or in your Library somewhere.  Let it do its thing and then copy those files onto your newly created USB Windows 7/8 install media.  Now you have the Windows installation media as well as the Apple BootCamp drivers for Windows all on one single USB.
3. Partitioning - instead of using the flawed BootCamp software to do this, we'll use Disk Utility in OS X.  Launch Disk Utility and highlight your primary hard drive.  Click the 'Partition' button at the top.  Now click the '+' button to add a partition, name it WINDOWS or something so you can identify it easily later.  Use the slider to create the size of partition you would like for Windows - this will auto-resize your OS X partition.  On the right-hand side of the Disk Utility window use the drop-down to change partition type from Mac OS X Journaled to MS-FAT.  Once you have done all of that use the Apply button to let it do its thing and re-size/create partitions.  This takes about 3 minutes tops.
4. Install Windows!  - Be sure your Windows 7/8 USB bootable install media is inserted in a USB slot on the system.  Once you have completed the re-partitioning action, simply shut down your machine, and restart it holding the Option (Alt) button.  The alt button will cause the system to eventually show you a choice of bootable disks.  The USB disk will be easily identified because it will have an orange colored icon with the USB symbol on it.  Click this to boot from the USB Windows 7/8 install media.
5. Windows Installer - the Windows installer will launch after a period of time, use the 'Next' button and accept the license terms and you will be brought to a window to select the destination for the Windows install.  You should automatically see the WINDOWS (or whatever you named it) partition that was created during step 3.  Highlight this partition and the 'next' button should un-grey and become available, if it does, click it and the Windows installation will proceed.  If the 'next' button does not un-grey you will want to highlight the partition and select 'Format', once that completes it will un-grey the 'next' button and the install will proceed.
6. Once the installation is done it will need to reboot a few times (normal Windows install procedure at this point).  You will need to hold down the 'alt' key during each reboot and now select the 'WINDOWS' hard disk partition (not the USB one) from the boot menu to continue going through the motions of Windows installation.
7. BootCamp Driver Install - once you have finished all of the reboots and motions of Windows installation you will want to boot into Windows, and once at the desktop make sure your USB install media that was used previously is inserted into the system.  Go to My Computer, find the USB drive, open it, and navigate to the WindowsSupport folder that was saved during step 2.  There will be an application called Setup , double-click this and choose 'Allow' during any security warnings.  Click 'next' once the installer loads and it will automatically install every Mac device driver needed on the Windows side.
7 steps and approximately 45-minutes later you should be sitting with a fresh installation of Windows on a bootcamped partition. 
Hope this helps somebody out - it took me quite some time and research to figure out the "cleanest" method for bypassing the flakey BootCamp application for installing Windows.