How do I install Windows from USB?

I have a 2011 MacBook Pro. I replaced the optical drive with a second hard drive. I have tried the following methods to install Windows.
Installing from an external optical drive: I created a Windows 7 install disk. The windows installer does not start. All I see is a blinking cursor. The disk is recognized when I hold option/alt at startup, but when selected it hangs at the blinking cursor.
Installing from a flash drive: I burned the image to a USB flash drive. The windows installer does not start. The the disk is not recognized when I hold option/alt at startup.
Do I have to do something to enable USB startup? Is there another installation method available?
Thanks.

On MBPs that came with built-in Optical drives, BC Assistant modifies the NVRAM settings and sets the boot option to be the Optical drive. Removing the Optical drive breaks this logic and causes a lot of problems. Modifying the Bootcamp info.plist allows USB creation workaround, but does not allow the NVRAM modification. This is derived by BCA using the Model Identifier in System Profiler.
Your situation is similar to Need help installing Win8.1 from USB on MBP. or Unable to Install Windows 8 on secondary Hard Disk.
The only solution I know is to move the drive that needs Windows to the main SATA connector, install Windows and then move the drive back to the Optibay.
If you have two Macs, one of which have the original HW configuration, than using Winclone is another option by installing it on an "unmodified" MAC and then cloning it to the "modified" Mac.

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How do I install windows from USB on Macbook pro 3,1

How do I install windows from USB on Macbook pro 3,1 ?
My Superdrive is far from super anymore, So I managed to make an extern drive with both Snow Leopard Partition, Lion Partition (Since I thought Boot Camp 4,1 would bypass my problem), and Time Machine partition, Since I got 1. USB drive that works.
- My general issue is that Boot camp Refuse to see the USB drive - (Many "how to"´s though show how they install windows perfectly through the USB port, but they use airbooks!, and somehow the Macbook will not ?)
I fix that issue with >> rEFIt <<, that suddenly makes it possible for the Mac to see the USB drive, and partitions.
Which was very strange since I could use an extern HD with the whole installation to start up wipe the whole disk, and then use my extern drive with partitions to install Snow Leopard and get everything as before with timemachine. Very smart with timemachine, but very lucky that I have a extern drive that runs the whole system and that I made the partitionsdrive before. DVD-drives are the past!
Point: So the original system could see the Snow Leopard installation USB disk, but boot camp cannot find the USB drive ?????????
After rEFIt I booted and then I got this error:
Starting bootmgr.efi
Error: Unsupported while loading bootmgr.efi
I read it could be a problem with the Windows software, so I purchased an extern DVD drive, Used Disk Utility to make an image (.DMG), then used another program to convert the .dmg to .ISO.
Then downloaded a trialversion of vmWare fusion, and installed windows from the iso. Everything worked brilliant, except and that is why I want to use boot camp, Running windows in another program while running the mac system is a little hacky and slow.
Point: Nothing is wrong with the windows software, and windows runs fine.
I then downloaded the Windows DVD / USB Tool, reformatted a USB drive as Master Boot Partition, MS-Dos Fat partition, then after lots of struggling got Vmware, windows to recognise the USB drive. And installed the windows software on the USB drive, as all the walkthroughs recommend.
Then I tried for "fun"! to just install windows form the extern USB drive, and with rEFIt it will see the drive and start to do something, but then when it starts to boot, the screen just turns into black and nothing happens, and you can see the drive does NOTHING. (I think it is because I only have 1 USB drive and the Extern DVD drive does not get enough power, but again the mac refuse to see the USB drive unless it is a Snow Leopard installation USB-drive!
Well trying to install Windows Ultimate 64 Bit, which worked great in vmware, because that program installed from the .ISO file that I had on the desktop, but trying with Boot Camp did not get anywhere, what kind of **** program is this boot camp anyway!?, but then I try the new USB disk with windows made from windows, thorugh rEFIt, it sees the disk and then starts and then I get this ERROR:
rEFIt - Booting Legacy OS
Starting legacy loader
Using load option ´USB´
Error: Not found returned from legacy loader
Error: Not found from LocateDevicePath
(x 9 times)
Error: Load Error while (re)opening our installation volume
The firmware refused to boot from the selected volume. Note that external hard drives are not well-supported by Apple´s firmware for legacy OS booting
(Hey Apple please send out a updated firmware that fix this issue?!)
So how do I do it ? - or is the only option to fix the partition running the system from the extern disk. Format the whole drive in 2 from the "bottom" and install windows and then afterwards install Mac on the other partition ? Or just run windows on the mac and forget about mac software ? What a stupid solution...

There are strings in the pliist file to add other Macs so that you can use some USB-DVD drives.
This is 5 page thread, so a little more 'meat' to it:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3410900?start=60&tstart=0
And on PC booting Windows from a USB DVD to do the install is usually a piece of cake, sometimes you just need to specify that USB in the BIOS boot order and sometimes select via F12 (or another Fkey) and that is it.
What you have here seems to be everything and everyone is excluded unless there is a mac-model device ID string that specifies yes. An unnecessary hurdle.

HT1846 gtp error while installing windows from usb! how to solve it.

gtp error while installing windows from usb! how to solve it.

Hello mmarti,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Please ensure you are following the Boot Camp installation guide, as you should be selecting the partition named "BOOTCAMP" when you are at the Windows installer screen. See page 6 of the following PDF:
http://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/1000/MA1636/en_US/boot_camp_install-setup_ 10.8.pdf
Take care,
Alex H.

Installing windows from USB MBP3,1

Hey Everyone,
I have a MacBook Pro 3,1 running 10.8. Optical drive broke so I decided to put a second HDD in its place. I can see it fine but when I go into Boot Camp Assistant the second HDD is not there for me to select where to install Windows.
Also I've tried so many ways to install Windows on an USB so I can install if from there on my MBP but for some reason i can't boot to it or boot Camp Assitant can't recognize it.
I've tried Refit version and setting my MBP as a Target so I can install windows from my MacPro at work, but that didn't work either!! I'm going crazy!! Please some one help...
I'm thinking of taking the second HDD out and putting into my MacPro at work and installing windows that way.
Thanks
Steve

Hi Chaaker,
I can't comment on installing Windows 7 to the Boot Camp partition (or on a USB stick) but I can comment on the last part of your question.
EFI-based Mac computers can definitely boot to a USB volume, assuming the volume it's booting to is configured as a start up volume. I was at a Genius Bar several months ago and saw two MacBook Air computers getting support and both of them were running off USB-based external HDs.
The only potential point of failure I see in the equation is the EFI startup sequence being unable to read the USB drive that has Windows 7 on it.

How to install windows from usb??

Ok i am trying to install windows on a mid 2007 macbook. in some forums it says no and in other it says you can . What i dont understand is how to install it if you do not have the option to click when you are going thru boot camp. The mac is running Lion so i dont understand why it would be a problem. Do i Have to have a physical disk????? If so thats trrible because my disk drive is broke.. I had to replace my harddrive awhile back and when I went to the apple store they loaded snow leapard thru the usb port. Any ideas?? Thx as always.

Try this and see if it works (using UNetbootin):
http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/install-windows-7-from-usb-drive-requi res-2-simple-steps/
If you already have the Windows 7 ISO, it's a two step process: Install UNetbootin and Burn the ISO.
I have not personally tried this (I have the DVD), but it looks promising. And UNetbootin works for Mac too.
If you DON'T have Windows 7 ISO, and your drive doesn't work, there's not a lot you can do. You have to have an ISO to make a disk or USB install.
If you bought Windows 7 online from Microsoft, you can download an ISO version from them. If you don't already have Windows purchased, that's probably your best bet.

How to re-install windows from disk

Hi
I have taken lenovo rescue recovery to my external drive sometime ago.
I am planning to upgrade my HDD to SSD and would like to re-install windows freshly from factory recovery.
However, when i tried to create rescue media, it was complaining "Only one Microsoft windows copy" in the system.
This seems due to previous factory backup taken to my external drive.
Now, i want to use the external drive to re-install windows. Please help me how do i re-install after fixing my SSD
Thanks in advance

You should have made a bootable USB in the rescue process. After installing the new SSD, boot into that USB with your external drive (with the data part) plugged in. It may also be possible that the external drive is also the bootable drive, which makes things easier.
After that, you should be in the Rescue and Recovery environment, where you can restore the factory copy of Windows onto your new SSD.
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How run live/install linux from usb/sd?

Hi there, im trying to run in live mode a linux distro (e.g. Backtrack or Ubuntu) from usb key but im experiencing issuess...
i tried Uinetboot usb creator and even partitioning the removable drive in hfs and ext4 with rEfit installed in the first one and the linux image in the latter but i always see something like "no bootable disk"...
which is the best way to do it?
im using a macbook air 2012 with 4gigs
thanks,
Enrico

There are strings in the pliist file to add other Macs so that you can use some USB-DVD drives.
This is 5 page thread, so a little more 'meat' to it:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3410900?start=60&tstart=0
And on PC booting Windows from a USB DVD to do the install is usually a piece of cake, sometimes you just need to specify that USB in the BIOS boot order and sometimes select via F12 (or another Fkey) and that is it.
What you have here seems to be everything and everyone is excluded unless there is a mac-model device ID string that specifies yes. An unnecessary hurdle.

How do I install windows 7 from a USB on start up?

I hold alt when I hear the start up sound and select the usb. As soon as I hit enter, the cursor freezes and it remains on this screen for a long time. Is there a way around this?
I tried to install it through bootcamp assistant, but it doesn't give me the option to install it, only partition the drive.
Sorry about the photo being upside down. I couldn't do anything about it.

Will the option appear if I put a windows 7 installation disc into the dvd drive?
I followed these steps that would allow me to boot from a USB with my version, so I do see the option there.. is it still not possible?
Lior’s solution to no-bootup option for your USB drive Windows installation disk in Bootcamp Assistant (thanks Lior!):
If you have only 2 options in the boot camp assistant, or if bootcamp doesn’t recognize the windows installer disk when its on a bootable usb, it’s because bootcamp doesn’t recognize your macbook as a model that should install windows from a USB, its actually quite easy to fix, just follow these simple steps:
1. go to Applications>Utilities> right click on boot camp and click Show Package Conents, you’ll find a folder inside called Contents (If i remember correctly, not on my Macbook atm). Inside that folder exists a file called info.plist.
2. Right click on the folder containing the file > get info > change permissions so any user can read & write. Do the same for the file itself (right click > get info…).
3. Right click on info.plist and choose Open with > Text Edit.
4. at the end of the document theres a list of strings that contain different versions of Mac computers, the list is titled something like: “USB boot Versions”, add your Mac’s version to the string list ( MB40 ) if your version is Macbook 4,1 (you can see this by clicking on the System information App in the Utilities folder).
5. save the file and change back the permissions on the file and folder.
Now open boot camp and you should see the option to create a Windows 7 installler on a USB, and also bootcamp will look for a windows installation on any USB’s after you partition the hard drive.

How can i install windows 7 on macbook pro lion from usb?

hello am sorry to disturb you
i would like to know the above question since i have looked almost everywhere and i have received no answer
i have a macbook pro i5 with lion
i have been trying for month to install windows 7 as a secondary boot to my mac
but i haven't been able to
things that i have done
-i had downloaded win7 iso
-using another computer i installed win7 on the usb { win to flash }
-i have used bootcamp assistant but apparently i need a dvd of win7 which i currently don't have
-i have installed Reffit but i always get a flashing screen when try to load windows
please i hope you can reply me back if possible
my thoughts are
is that apple disabled the efi on lion to not be able to boot from usb flash drive
my reasoning to this is that is used to work on leopard but not lion
again am trying to boot from usb not burn a disc
please help att alcidio

Rule #1 that TP missed: ISO have to be burned at SLOWEST 2X burn speed to work.
There is/was a long thread but booting Windows from USB-DVD or flash is hit or miss, it may work. USB-DVDs often do not but it is possible to edit the plist to add the Mac ID string to it.
Boot Camp Assistant -
create a partition (done)
download Windows Support Software (drivers to install after Windows is running) (done)
Start the install and boot process - not really needed or essential
And you can use Paragon, you can use Windows 7 or later DVD and do entire install (but on a dedicated 100% Windows hard drive).
Flash drive: has to be MBR and FAT or NTFS (I think, sounds right) same for putting Apple drivers on flash card for which there is an Apple Tech Article.

How to Create a Windows 7 USB install disk

If you want to install Windows from a USB drive, you'll need the Boot Camp Assistant (version 4.0.1) and a MacBook Air. I don't know why it won't let you do it on other Macs and MacBooks (the option still shows up, only it's greyed out) - if you made it work on anything other than a MacBook Air, let me know how you did it. So, besides that, you also need an empty USB drive and a genuine Windows ISO file.
However, if in your case the Windows USB creation option is greyed out, this is what you can do:
You create the Windows installation USB, using one of these two ways (I used the first one):
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd535816.aspx
http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool
You create the Windows partition with BCA.
In System Settings, you choose the newly created BOOTCAMP partition as the startup disk and restart your Mac.
Have your Windows USB inserted before your Mac restarts.
As soon as your Mac boots from the BOOTCAMP partition, it should start loading Windows Setup from the USB drive.
I have an early 2009 MacBook and these steps worked for me. It's a workaround... but it works. Let me know if it worked for you.
* If none of this works for you, there is another workaround, using 3rd party software (rEFIt). However, I don't recommend using it, unless you know what you're doing.
* Disclaimer - This info comes as is and I do not guarantee that it will work for you. Nor do I guarantee that it will not cause any malfunction to occur on your Mac computer.

you restart your mac and as soon as it boots up (usually you hear the dvd making a noise, or the gong sound), you hold down the Alt key until you see a screen that shows you all the partitions/drives you can boot from. you select the boot camp one, while the windows usb installation disk is inserted and it should boot up from the usb. it worked for me, but I can't guarantee it will work for you too... depending on your model. mine is an early-2009 macbook.

How can I install Windows 8.1 using a USB Pen Drive in Late 2011 Macbook Pro with DVD R/W given.

How can I install Windows 8.1 using a USB Pen Drive in Late 2011 Macbook Pro with DVD R/W given.
I have Boot Camp 5.1.2 (497) and there is no option for installing using USB. I have downloaded an image of Windows 8.1 already.
I can't install using DVD R/W because it's not working.
Please help me.
Thank you.

unlocked by myself
thanks

How can I install windows 7 in bootcamp from the install CD using superdrive

Hey Guys.
I'm a pilot and want to use flight simulator X which is a windows only program. So what I want to do is use bootcamp but when I go into bootcamp assitant I cant partion or install windows from the install CD its asking for a ISO file the following error occurs. "There is no USB drive connected to the system. Please insert a USB drive to continue " but the thing is I dont want to install from USB I want to install from USB Super Drive with the Installation Disk
Thanks

Make sure that the option to create a USB installation drive is unticked. Also, Boot Camp Assistant allows you to download the Windows support software onto a USB drive, that you will need after installing Windows to make the computer run correctly. You should do that.
Apart from that, you should be able to continue with the Windows installation. Follow the Apple's steps > http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/boot_camp_install-setup_10.8.pdf

How can I install Windows 7 by USB? MacBook late 2008 10.6.8 Boot Camp 3.0.4

Someone please help...
I have tried software update and no luck. I think my Boot Camp on Mac 3.0.4 is not showing me the right option on creating a USB installation. It asks me to load Windows 7 CD when I don't have it, I bought it online... Every download I tried from Apple is .exe and I am losing hope on this one...

You can only install Windows from a USB with one of these Macs:
- MacBook Pro with Retina display.
- Mac mini (Mid 2010 and later).
- iMac (Late 2012).
- MacBook Air.
If you bought Windows in Internet and you got it in a ISO image, you can burn it into a DVD. Simply double-click the ISO image, open Disk Utility, right-click the ISO image in the sidebar and burn it

Re: How to install Windows from recovery media on a new hard drive?

Immediately after a Windows update, my computer would not restart. It said disk error.
I could not start it from the recovery media and F8 would not work. I bought and installed a new hard drive. Now when I put in the recovery media to install Windows on the new hard drive, it gives an error message.
What can this be? Should I be able to install Windows from the recovery media?
It is Windows 7 and the laptop is Satellite A500, 64 bit.

Hello
Generally speaking you can install recovery image on every compatible HDD so thee should not be any problem about it.
Please tell us what happen when you start recovery installation. Which error message is shown?
Is new HDD recognized in BIOS. Before you start recovery installation set BIOS to default settings.

How do I install windows 7 on a macbook pro mid 2009 using bootcamp and no optical drive?

How do I install windows 7 on a macbook pro mid 2009 using bootcamp and no optical drive?
My optical drive is non-functional and I want to dual boot with win7. The only problem is my macbook does not boot from USB at all, even when I hold th ALT key down when it is starting up.
-I have a flashdrive with win7 on it.
-I mounted the ISO of win7 with toast for bootcamp to do its thing.

Good luck.
Consider this a bump so that hopefully someone with better news spots your thread.
Allan

How do I install Windows from USB?

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