Help Installing Windows 7 64 Bit on Early Mac Pro

As previously noted, Wind 7 RC 64 bit DVD will not boot on early Mac Pro. I installed Win 7 64 bit on a dedicated hard drive as follows: 1) I booted into Vista 64bit successfully 2) I installed Win 7 64 bit on a second black disk, as noted above 3)All files installed correctly I think since Win 7 will begin to boot showing the Windows 7 startup screen 4) However, the startup screen will then disappear and the screen goes black, indicating a failed boot. When I engage the option screen (with primary Mac drive installed) during boot, no Windows disk is shown, indicating that boot camp does not recognize the Win 7 disk as a valid startup drive.
Has anyone successfully installed Win 7 64 bit on an early Mac Pro?? I would appreciate any help in accomplishing this. Also, is there any reason Apple has not provided an EFI firmware update for first generation MacPros?

Burn a DVD with Windows 7 RC 32-bit which you can boot from.
Try Safe Boot also.
From Vista you can install 7 on another hard drive. You can also copy the DVD to 6GB partition and run the install setup off that while in Vista.
Mixing ATI and Nvidia probably still doesn't work (may when 7 ships).
Windows is more aware of disk I/O errors than Mac OS.
Keep your system basic, don't have anything connected or installed you don't need (like PCIe controllers).
Vista SP1 or later, 64-bit also looks for EFI64/UEFI 2.x which causes the "Choose 1 or 2" boot menu and which 2008 Mac Pro (and 2009) work with.
You aren't the first or only person to run into this, and there are people running on 2006 Mac Pro.
http://forums.macrumors.com/forumdisplay.php?f=86
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1866970&tstart=0

Similar Messages

  • Trying to install Windows 7 on my mac pro

    Trying to install Windows 7 on my mac pro.  I'm running 10.6, I have boot camp 3.04 and after I partition and install the disc (using 32bit) it restarts automatically and freezes on a black screen.  I have updated my software so what should I do?  Thanks.

    A., Use 64-bit for sure. You have too much RAM and hardware and VRAM
    B. Put Windows 7 Pro 64-bit SP1, you have a dual processor you need Pro.
    C. A dedicated drive for Windows.
    D. At least 50GB
    E. most important, pull all drives out and leave in just the drive Windows will install onto.

  • I install windows 7 on my mac pro. and participate in windows 7 to 50gb 2 disk. but now i cannot enter my mac. only windows is appearing what should i do. when try enter my mac want me to format rest of disk. how can i reinstall my mac

    i install windows 7 on my mac pro. and participate in windows 7 to 50gb 2 disk. but now i cannot enter my mac. only windows is appearing what should i do. when try enter my mac want me to format rest of the disk. how can i reinstall my mac?

    If you use Windows program to partition the Hard Drive, the Apple partition gets destroyed.
    Windows does not understand it is a guest on your Mac, and throws garabge wherever it pleases.

  • Windows 7 64 bit on Early Mac Pro

    I finally got Win 7 64 bit installed on early Mac Pro. However, I have one significant issue remaining. I have an Apple Cinema 23 connected via ADC to DVI adapter; my video card is a Nvidia Quadro FX 4500. I can boot into Safe Mode without problem since the video card is recognized as a basic VGA monitor. When I boot into "normal" startup, I see the Starting Windows logo but the screen turns black when it boots into the Win 7 OS. The boot up is successfull since I can shut down normally with the keyboard. ( I should mention I have had no problems running Vista 32 bit--no display problems.) In device manager, no problem is shown with the Nvidea driver.
    Any suggestions to solve my problem?? Thanks.

    Are you able to - and is there a Windows 7 WHQL driver?
    I know in the past automatic Windows Update wasn't trusted or the best, though I think with 7RC that is changed, but getting the standalone driver installed would be best bet.
    And, you probably want/need to uninstall any driver that was installed, whether by Apple or Microsoft, and use one from Nvidia.
    Driver Sweeper 2.0 is also strongly recommended to delete and remove drivers after uninstall, while in Safe Mode on next boot, before installing new drivers - especially if having trouble. Might even want to disconnect from 'net to prevent auto update/install for that.
    PS: what keyboard shortcut to shutdown works? I need that one.

  • Problems installing Windows 7 on the Mac Pro 3,1

    I am having huge issues intalling WIndows 7 on this Mac Pro. I bought 2 new SSDs one for OSX and one for Windows. OSX is running great and i ran bootcamp assistant and selected the second SSD and chose to use intire drive and rebooted to start the installation. Everything starts but installer gives an error saying it could not be installed on that drive. I searched the forums and found that you have to remove all ither drives while installing windows so i rebooted and tried again and everything went fine. once everything was done, all updates installed, bootcanp drivers instelled etc I shutdown and pluged the othe drive back in and windows never booted again. I removed all drives but the windows drive and same thing, no boot. I have erased the drived and gone through the whole process several times with same results everytime.

    Well I finally got it running smooth again, turns out that one of the windows updates changed the way the licensing works and for some odd reason it no longer works on Mac, go firgure lol. I ended up giving my windows 7 license to a friend who just built a PC so it worked fine for him but I am out $139 .
    To get it working again I had to take my Mac Pro to work and let the IT guys install the Enterprise Edition and activate it againist the companies activation server. Works great now but it means I will have to take it to work every 6 months now for activation
    I wish Microsft would stop making things so hard for us Mac guys.

  • Problems installing windows on a clean Mac Pro internal drive - issues and questions

    Hey,
    I have a Mac Pro mid 2010 with the following drive configurations:
    3x120GB SSD in a RAID-0 as Boot (OS X 10.8.6) and SSD Scratch (working files)
    3x4TB HDD in a RAID-0 as Master (data) and HDD Scratch (downloads)
    1x100GB SSD (Spare...to install windows on)
    I have literally tried every possible way of installing Windows 8 on that single SSD...both using bootcamp and without.
    I can get it installed and working, install all the drivers/updates/software...involving multiple reboots into windows. Everything seems fine, and i shut down and boot into OS X, which works perfectly as expected. BUT, when i try and boot into Windows again (using <option> key at startupand selecting the windows volume, called "EFI Boot" which i did not name) I can log in and start using apps and then 20-40 seconds later i get the BSOD.
    I can't for the life of me figure out why.
    It's the easiest thing in the world to partition a single OSX drive to boot windows ON THE SAME DRIVE, but i can't seem to boot stably into a standaloe internal drive.
    NOTE: I prepare the Windows drive by formatting the entire thing to "Free Space" using disk utility in Mac OS X, and can see that there are no partitions (EFI or otherwise) on the drive. Then I pull all the other drives except the target drive, reboot with a Windows 8 USB drive (created by BootCamp Assistant on my macbook air, because apparently some genius thought that task was too complicated for a Mac Pro...jks) and install from there.  The funny part is that i can pick out the target drive in the windows setup, it's registering as 1 disk/partition of UNALLOCATED SPACE, as expected, but there is a warming that windows cannot be installed on this drive because my computer does not support booting to this disk, and that i should check that it's controller is enabled in the BIOS.....which to the best of my knowledge is not used by intel-macs, which use UEFI. But i can still click "Next", so I do and install Windows and boot to this drive, restarting and installing software updates and drivers as mentioned above.
    The BSOD seems to pop up only after i've rebooted to Mac OS X and then try to go BACK to Windows 8.
    The version of windows 8 and install USB were checked using my macbook air, and they work flawlessly. ASLO that warning about not being able to boot to the drive during windows setup isn't present.
    I'm wondering if the fact the the RAID volumes are a software RAID, using Disk Utility in OSX is causing windows some issues...which makes no sense.
    I'll keep playing, but I'm not confident I'm ever going to find a solution.
    Somebody be my hero...

    Hey Hatter,
    Another question for you:
    I can't seem to use system preferences>>startup disk to boot into windows. When I select windows and then restart i get a black "BIOS-like" screen which then cuts out and a message is displayed that says "there is no bootable disc"
    This stumped me, because I know i can boot into windows from the boot screen (holding down option and selecting "EFI Boot" which apparently is what my windows drive is called.
    because of my Mac OSX Raid arrays, i had to install windows by formatting a drive to HFS+ (GUID) pratition table, then repartition to "Free Space" then using an install usb that i made with my macbook air, pull all my other drives and install by selecting the usb drive to boot from.
    I went into disk utility to see if I can repair the disk, and disk utility says that the disk has to EFI partition and that we won;t be able to boot from it....which is very confusing because i can boot from it.
    Windows 8 apparentl;y uses UEFI from my research....so i'm utterly stumped.
    I beleive this is also the cause of my newly purchased graphics card Mac Edition HD 7950, throwing me a BSOD when i select to boot in windows from the boot menu...
    Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

  • Help Installing windows 7 on mini Mac 10.5.

    installing windows 7 on my mini Mac with boot Camp that doesn't work

    Doesn't work does not tell us anything by which to help or go on, either.
    www.apple.com/support/bootcamp
    there are threads from other mac-mini users
    Windows 7 needs 10.6.3+ (and actually the drivers in Lion 10.7.4 are the newest and less trouble).

  • Need help installing Windows with Parallels on Mac Mini

    I downloaded the trial version of Parallels to test it out. Everything is going fine until it asks me to restart my computer. I go through the basic setup at the beginning, it asks me to enter the Windows XP product key and then asks me to insert the disk. At that point I insert the disk and click "Finish" like it asks. Now I get this message saying to hold down the power button or press the restart button. The screen seems to freeze here since I can't move the mouse or anything.
    So I hold down the power button for a few seconds, and eventually the Mac Mini shuts down. I press and hold the power button again to start it back up.
    Now everything is restarted but the Windows is not installed. Where did I go wrong? It seems pretty straight forward, but I'm clearly doing something wrong.

    Since Parallels is not an Apple product, you should post your question on the Parallels forums: http://forums.parallels.com
    You're more likely to get the response you need there, rather than on an Apple forum.

  • Windows 7 Install fails on early Mac Pro

    Just wondered if anyone else has experienced a blue screen failure during installation of Windows 7 RC 32-bit on an early Mac Pro (pre-2008). I get almost to the very end of the install during the copy files/settings phase (last one), and after a reboot, Win7 seems to start, but eventually crashes with a blue screen.
    This is on a separate hard drive formatted to all NTFS. I've tried an install from the DVD from scratch (freshly formatted drive), and then again as an upgrade from a Vista installation (this all took many hours - and I do this for fun?). All with 32 bit since I don't have access to 64 bit drivers. But the result was uniform in both cases. The same version installed perfectly with vmWare Fusion.
    So I suspect some issue with my Mac Pro Quad, which is an early, first generation version. I know others have had success with Win7 on a Mac Pro, but maybe on 2008 and later versions?
    I have yet to try Win7 64-bit. Hopefully will get cured by final release, but would just like to know if anyone else with early Mac Pros have had success.

    I don't think you really need to worry about 64-bit drivers - I don't have any Apple software or Boot Camp.
    You don't mention RAM, disk drives, or graphics card, or any other hardware and whether you tried w/o.
    I would warn that our early Mac Pro will have to work around the EFI boot menu that Windows 7 RC x64 presents.
    I've had my 7300GT culprit; a disk drive that had to be reformatted in Vista; pull the 4 x 512MB of RAM (Apple) that was beginning to trigger a red light. So there are various items. And they all took hours to diagnose, swapping hardware; lots of head scratching.
    There is no cure except to get around hurdles. We are stuck in EFI 32-bit land. May have to / want to buy 10.6 to get newer drivers, but that won't add 64-bit support. You can if you must, get 64-bit Boot Camp. I feel it is optional.
    If you can install Vista, then install Windows to another drive, leaving Vista alone. Burn the ISO to DVD and copy the DVD back to a 8GB NTFS partition and run Windows Install Setup off that is fast and neat.
    Setup a drive with room for Vista, Windows 7 RC, 8GB ISO partition, and data partition. Or expand to multiple drives.
    Burn the DVD slower. There are other tips and ideas.
    http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1866970&tstart=0
    I've found Kaspersky 2010 beta and license from 2009 Internet Suite to probably be the best I've tested so far in that area.
    Fusion use to use Windows Server 2008, maybe it got updated to include a better profile, or it was only x64 that had any problems. Sun VirtualBox is another. With that, you can modify the DVD to allow booting easier if needed.
    I have Vista SP1, then put in Vista SP2-RC (same drive) and for Windows 7 I have one install that is for testing anything new first, and another that I use daily regularly - and prefer to use 7.7100 RC now instead of Vista.
    Installing Windows while booted in Windows is neat, can be fast, but first find the hardware issue. Most BSOD is drivers and need to safe boot and uninstall drivers, but you may not have gotten even that far. And don't until you have a restore point, and be ready to reboot from Vista or 7 DVD to repair Windows.

  • HT3986 I installed windows 7 to my macbook pro, but my mousepad does not work in windows 7 and also i can not connect my windows 7 to projector, but i can use my macbook's mouse pad and i can connect my mac to projector,so please help me for windows 7 pro

    I installed windows 7 to my macbook pro, but my mousepad does not work in windows 7 and also i can not connect my windows 7 to projector, but i can use my macbook's mouse pad and i can connect my mac to projector,so please help me for windows 7 problem

    i try to download now, do you think when i download and install the windows support software, can i fix the problem?

  • Hello I am in Afghanistan i searched that in realtek but that told me you coulde not use this sit   I writ again my problem    i installed win 7 32 bit in my mac pro 13-inch, Late 2011  Processor  2.4 GHz Intel Core i5

    On Thu, Jun 14, 2012 at 12:54 PM, mahdi ehsani <[email protected]> wrote:
    On Sun, Jun 10, 2012 at 7:29 PM, Apple Support Communities Updates <[email protected]> wrote:
    Apple Support Communities
    Re: after install windows 7 32 bit there is no sound my mac is os x 10.7.2
    created by The hatter in Boot Camp - View the full discussion
    This solved my question 
    This helped me
    you have RealTek on your workstation and just download the current driver which is easy to findwww.realtek.com
    This solved my question 
    This helped me
    Did this help? Go to the message, sign in, and reply or mark the response as correct or helpful
    Start a new discussion in the same community/choose-container!input.jspa?contentType=1&containerType=14&container=2143&ac_ci d=op123456
    You are receiving this email from Apple Support Communities. You can change your email preferences in your Apple Support Communities Profile.
    © 2012 Apple Inc. 1 Infinite Loop, MS 303-3DM, Cupertino, CA 95014.
    All Rights Reserved | Privacy Policy | Apple Support Communities Terms of Use | Apple Support
    hello I am in Afghanistan i searched that in realtek but that told me you coulde not use this sit 
    I writ again my problem  
    i installed win 7 32 bit in my mac pro 13-inch, Late 2011  Processor  2.4 GHz Intel Core i5   Software  Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2 (11C74) 
    but there is no sound in windows 7  please send me a address sit for downoad driver that i can use in Afghanistan 
    believe it is confus me and other friend that bought 5 mac's that are the same and i serched a lot of site without result
    please help us by address site please please .....
    <Edited by Host>

    hello I am in Afghanistan i searched that in realtek but that told me you coulde not use this sit
    I writ again my problem 
    i installed win 7 32 bit in my mac pro 13-inch, Late 2011  Processor  2.4 GHz Intel Core i5   Software  Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2 (11C74)
    but there is no sound in windows 7  please send me a address sit for downoad driver that i can use in Afghanistan
    believe it is confus me and other friend that bought 5 mac's that are the same and i serched a lot of site without result

  • Early Mac Pro EFI and 64 bit Question

    I have an early Mac Pro 2006 and have been unable to successfully install Windows 7 64 bit due to EFI incompatibility (after installation was able to boot to safe mode but unable to otherwise boot; device manager shows that MacPro incompatible).
    My question is why Apple has not provided a firmware update for the early MacPros that includes the newer EFI version present in current generation MacPros??

    Let's see, different motherboard and you don't think that matters? the front side bus and memory operate differently, the PCI slots are configured different.
    You can't just "update" firmware to cross those bridges. And I'm sure there is even more involved between EFI32 and UEFI 2.x (EFI64).
    Vista SP1 wasn't out in 2006, and UEFI wasn't finalized and supported yet.
    Apple never provided 64-bit drivers for Windows on the 1st generation Mac Pro, and none of the iMac series has had UEFI or 64-bit endorsements.
    You figured out how to install Windows 7 from inside Vista, and probably how to get Boot Camp 64-bit. All you probably need is a small Vista or Windows 7 32-bit system partition to carry you forward.

  • Installing Windows XP on your Mac. PLEASE HELP!!

    So I am trying to install windows xp on my macbook pro and I am having difficulty doing so. To begin with I do have Parallels already installed on my computer. However I do not have a windows XP cd. My school currently offers a free download of windows xp and other programs to students and what not and I downloaded it from there and received a working product key. Now when I go to open the program its a bunch of grey boxes and when i double click on them it asks what program I would like open them up with.
    Can anyone help me out with this? Thanks

    Wow. The "papa smurf always says..." attitude is amazing.
    You must work for Apple. The condescending attitude is unmistakable and I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say go crawl back under your "did you try holding the shift key down" rock.
    Theop: Installing WindowsXP on your mac requires you to have Bootcamp, which comes with OSX 10.5.6.
    Instructions here: http://www.askdavetaylor.com/howdo_i_install_windows_xp_on_my_mac_using_boot_camp1.html
    Installing with Parallels info is here: http://www.askdavetaylor.com/howdo_i_install_windows_xp_on_my_mac_with_parallels_desktop1.html
    Suggestions for handling people that are rude to you for no reason can be found by watching Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal.
    Sorry for the attitude, but we aren't all unhelpful.

  • After installing windows 7 on my macbook pro, i cannot access my mac

    After installing windows 7 on my macbook pro late 2011, when I try to access the mac side of the computer it just stays in "thinking" mode and will not open up the mac. Windows side opens and works ok.
    I only know enough to try to uninstall windows 7 then hopefully open the mac and possibly reinstall the windows 7.
    PROBLEM: I only know how to uninstall windows 7 from the mac side (in the bootcamp) BUT cannot access it??
    Any help. Thank you
    <Edited By Host>

    Hi craig1045,
    It is possible that the file system for the volume containing the Mac operating system, or the OS itself has become damaged. I suggest that you follow the steps in this article to try to repair them -
    A flashing question mark or globe appears when you start your Mac
    http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1440
    Specifically -
    If your installation of OS X needs repair
    If you don't see your startup disk displayed in Startup Manager, or if you see a prohibitory symbol (⊘) appear, your startup drive may need directory repair, or OS X may need to be reinstalled.
    If you only see a disk named "Recovery HD" in Startup Manager, select it instead. You can also start from OS X Recovery by holding down Command and R on the keyboard at startup.
    From the Utilities menu, choose Disk Utility.
    In the Disk Utility window that appears, select your startup disk (usually named "Macintosh HD") from the left side of the Disk Utility window.
    Click the First Aid tab.
    Click Repair Disk to verify and repair any issues with your OS X startup disk.
    After repairing the disk, try to start up normally. 
    If none of these steps resolve the issue, start from OS X Recovery and reinstall OS X.
    Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
    Best,
    Brett L

  • HT4407 I have already installed Window-7 in my Mac (64 bit). When I downloaded window support software I every time saw network error option on my screen. But network working very well and I can brows webpage. Will someone suggest me support for OSx Lion

    I have already installed Window-7 in my Mac (64 bit). When I downloaded window support software I every time saw network error option on my screen. But network working very well and I can brows webpage. Will someone suggest me support for OSx Lion .

    If I remember right there "may" be a problem if you have a proxie settings enabled.
    System Preferences/ Network/ Advanced/ Proxies. Can't remember which one or if it was an issue in 10.7 or 10.6. Just make sure their all unchecked and try again.
    You might try a search in these forums for more information. Different fix's for different issue's.
    Sorry I can't help more.........

Maybe you are looking for