How do install Windows 7 from a USB optical drive?

I have a 27" 2013 iMac with no optical drive so I borrowed an Apple USB portable optical drive. How do I install Windows on BootCamp from the USB Optical drive?

iirc, you won't be able to or at least you shouldn't, it will take much longer than using a usb install
CHECKLIST
use only a +8gb USB2 flash drive
disconnect ALL devices except kb, mouse
STEPS
do a PRAM reset
open disk utility, confirm you have 1 partition (‘mac HD’ unless you renamed it) and repair permissions TWICE
dl a windows ISO
insert your usb flash drive and open boot camp assistant, choose all options making sure you used the new ISO just dl'd
if you get an error that the windows support software is unavailable, manually dl it here, put it on a separate USB2 drive and install by clicking setup.exe after windows is installed
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5634
w7 ISOs
http://techverse.net/download-windows-7-iso-x86-x64-microsofts-official-servers/

Similar Messages

How to install Windows 8.1 without optical drive

I just got a ZBook 14 which was preinstalled with Windows 7. I want to use Windows 8.1 Pro which was alsp delivered on DVDs in the packages. However, this machine does not come with an optical drive. How can I install Windows 8.1 on this machine?
Thanks

Excuse me for being blunt but that is simply b***hit. Windows 8.1 comes delivered with the machine which is brand new and any reasonably new PC is fully capable of running Windows 8.x. The question was just how I was supposed to load it onto the machine as it lacks an optical drive. I suggest you do not give advice unless you know what you are talking about.
For all others thatwant to the same thing.
1. Make a copy of the Windows 8.1 DVD that comes shipped with the machine. See the following guide http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-install-windows-7vista-from-usb-drive-detailed-100-working-guide/
2. Set Boot mode in BIOS to UEFI instead of legacy BIOS.
3. Boot from the USB stick and install Windows 8.1, wipe all existing partitions. Please note that this will effectively remove any possibility to revert to Windows 7 by using the recovery partition but since Windows 7 DVDs are also delivered you can use the same procedure as above to install that. I guess that boot mode in this case should be set to legacy instead of UEFI.
Of course, you do the above at your own risk but it has worked successfully for me. You could copy the content of the Application and Driver Recovert DVD for Windows 8.1 to a USB stick as well and install that afterwards.

Installing Windows from an external optical drive?

My superdrive recently died, and I replaced it with an external drive that's been able to read and burn everything I need it to without a problem, including using it to install Snow Leopard.
I tried to use it to install Windows (Vista Home Premium, if that matters) with Boot Camp, but when it comes to starting the actual installation, the computer doesn't seem to see the drive at all. It will start up, with the chime and the grey startup screen, but that's as far as it gets. It will stay on that screen until I restart it and go back into the Mac partition by pressing option at startup.
Is there a way to make it boot to the Windows disc in the external drive? Failing that, is there a way to use Boot Camp successfully with a non-disk source, like an external hard drive or flash drive with the Windows data on it? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

The Hatter:
Thanks for your reply. My purpose is temporary and to document the process of installing Windows in to a Boot Camp partition on a system that does not have an internal Optical drive.
I did this succesfully using bits of information from three documents. I want to go through the process again, this time documenting my steps for the benefit of others and me in the future. You may or maynot know, installing Windows with Boot Camp without an INTERNAL optical drive is difficult and require a hack using Parallels, copying the VM MBR, etc.
I should have documented it the first time but I doubted if it would work.
So, I want a second BC partition, on my second internal drive without touching my working BC patrition on the SSD.
Make more sense?
Thanks,
Kevin

How to install windows 7 using usb as the bootcamp doesnot have the option of creating a bootable usb. please help

I have an intel based mac with 10.6.8 mac os x. How to install windows 7 using usb as the bootcamp doesnot have the option of creating a bootable usb. please help

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
You can install Windows from a USB drive in one of these computers:
- MacBook Pro with Retina display.
- Mac mini (Mid 2010 and newer).
- MacBook Air.
- iMac (Late 2012).
If you don't have any of these Macs, you can't install Windows through a USB drive. Instead, buy Windows on a DVD. Follow Apple's steps > http://support.apple.com/MANUALS/1000/MA1519/en_US/Boot_Camp_Install-Setup_10.6. pdf

Can I switch out a hard drive for an SSD without having to clone the existing hard drive, and then install Yosemite from an USB Boot Drive onto the new SSD?

Can I simply replace a hard drive with a new SSD and just install Yosemite from a USB boot drive onto the SSD? I recently bought a used MBP and it has absolutely no files on it except for the OS, and so I'm assuming I don't need to clone the current hard drive as I can just reinstall the OS onto the new SSD.

Honey_Revenge wrote:
Thanks.
Just a quick follow up question, is formatting the SSD with HFS+ done in Disk Utility?...
It's possible that the SSD will be set up for use on a PC, which means it will have a Master Boot Record partition table rather than a GUID Partition Table, which is what Yosemite needs. In Disk Utility, select the SSD and click the Partition button. Create a new Partition Layout and click the Options... button at the bottom. You'll likely see MBR is selected. Choose GUID instead and Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for the Format.

How to Install Windows 7 By Bootabel Pan Drive

How to install windows 7 by usp pan drive in macbook pro 13" 2011 early with mountain lion 10.8.2

Wrong forum.
Try here:
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=discussions

2011 MBP 15", how to install Windows 8 via USB?

I successfully got my Windows 8 installation files on a USB. I just upgraded to Mountain Lion and no longer have the option to install Windows from another source. How can I install Windows 8 off my USB? BootCamp Assistant only offers the CD option.
Best regards.

On computers which Apple shipped with an Optical drive, then the Boot Camp utility expects you to use that optical drive to install your Windows OS. Since the 2011 MBP shipped with an optical drive, the Boot Camp utility expects you to boot the Windows installer from that drive.

How to launch Apple Hardware Test from a USB optical drive?

Hi all!
First off, and before you guys starting proposing solutions I can't implement, I don't, repeat DON'T have a Firewire optical drive, nor am I going to buy one: I recently had to buy a USB LG optical drive to compensate for my SuperDrive going AWOL on me. I used said drive to reinstall OSX about a month ago, so this LG drive works just fine, thank you.
The thing is, I'd like to conduct an Apple Hardware Test, and I know you have to boot from OSX CD n°1 (in my case) to do that. Alas, since I can't boot from the CD in my SuperDrive by keeping the D key down, all I have is this LG thingy, and I wonder how I can conduct my hardware test with a USB optical drive.
I'll sum it up for you:
1) My SuperDrive isn't working, stopped working about the same time I installed this EFIng (guffaw, guffaw) Security Update 2009-001;
2) I don't have a Firewire optical drive;
3) All I have is a USB optical drive and MacOS X CDs.
4) Booting with the OSX CD in my USB optical drive and keeping D, C or alt keys didn't help.
I read in another forum that you could somehow copy the content of the OSX CD on a flash drive, then boot from the flash drive and conduct an AHT, but I'm not sure how it can be done.

Hi!
Looks like we posted at exactly the same time, Glynn! LOL
Anyway, I did just what you said, drag'n'drop and all. The problem is, when I boot from the USB hard drive, it's exactly as if I were booting from the CD: first I'm asked to choose a language, then the install screen appears, and I can either reinstall on my startup disk from the USB hard drive (that's kinda cool, but I don't think I leave in on my USB hard drive, which can only content 40Gb, because I've almost 25Gb worth of data to retransfer soon...
So, in a nutshell, I couldn't find Apple Hardware Test anywhere. I even explored the CD content, but there are so many files...
What's my best option now? Could AppleJack help me here? Can I install AHT on my startup disk and boot on it using a special set of keys?
Almost time to go to work. A 5 minute walk, though...

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 to install archlinux from pendrive/usb?

I downloaded archlinux-2010.05-core-i686.iso.
I unmounted the pendrive.
Would i format the pendrive with ext3/ext4 or fat32 or fat16 format?
After that i would do dd if=archlinux-2010.05-core-i686.iso of=/dev/sda
If i use unetbootin, should i format the pendrive with ext3/ext4 or fat32 or fat16 format?
Has anyone used unetbootin to install archlinux from pendrive/usb?

jasonwryan wrote:I'm pretty sure all of your questions are answered on the wiki: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ins … lash_drive
I did:
dd if=arch.iso of=/dev/sda
But after setting bios boot option to usb and reboot,it's not booting from usb.
What's the problem?
I get the normal grub menu.
Last edited by cola (2010-06-17 09:49:34)

Install windows 8.1 without optical drive?

Hello,
Just bought windows 8.1 and i wanna bootcamp it. I have no optical drive on my mac. Where do i get an iso file on windows 8.1?

Excuse me for being blunt but that is simply b***hit. Windows 8.1 comes delivered with the machine which is brand new and any reasonably new PC is fully capable of running Windows 8.x. The question was just how I was supposed to load it onto the machine as it lacks an optical drive. I suggest you do not give advice unless you know what you are talking about.
For all others thatwant to the same thing.
1. Make a copy of the Windows 8.1 DVD that comes shipped with the machine. See the following guide http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-install-windows-7vista-from-usb-drive-detailed-100-working-guide/
2. Set Boot mode in BIOS to UEFI instead of legacy BIOS.
3. Boot from the USB stick and install Windows 8.1, wipe all existing partitions. Please note that this will effectively remove any possibility to revert to Windows 7 by using the recovery partition but since Windows 7 DVDs are also delivered you can use the same procedure as above to install that. I guess that boot mode in this case should be set to legacy instead of UEFI.
Of course, you do the above at your own risk but it has worked successfully for me. You could copy the content of the Application and Driver Recovert DVD for Windows 8.1 to a USB stick as well and install that afterwards.

How to install Windows on a SATA boot drive

Here is how to install Windows XP on a SATA boot drive. This procedure was first developed by syar2003 and has been used by many iusers ncluding myself. Although it was originally developed for Neo2 mb's and Windows XP Pro, it has general applicability to systems as well.
1. Have only the SATA drive you want to be the boot drive active in your system. Disconnect the power to all other HDD's if any.
2. Have only one optical drive active. Disconnect the power to the other opticals if any. (Best to have a burner optical as master on IDE1.)
3. Plug SATA drive into SATA 1 on the mb. (it may show us as an IDE drive somewhere down the list in BIOS. That's okl)
4. Enable appropriate SATA options in BIOS. Set boot order to floppy, cd, SATA drive. Set boot priority to SATA drive.
5. Partition and format the SATA HDD using the utilites CD that came with the SATA drive. (If you don't have an HDD utilities disk, download one from the website of your HDD manufacturer.)
6. Run Windows setup. No need to load drivers at the F6 promt unless you are planning to do a RAID configuration.
7. Windows XP should install without incident.
8. After you are up and running, plug the power back into your other HDD and optical drives if any.
If you have a board older than the K8 series, it may be necessary to load the SATA drivers at the F6 prompt. If the above procedure does not work, than try it again loading the SATA drivers.
If this procedure does not work for you, it is likely that your particular SATA HDD has some compatablity problem with Windows setup and/or your motherboard. The solution to this is to try another SATA drive. In general, most failures using this procedure have been traced to certain WD, Seagate and Hitachi SATA drivers of smaller capacities. Fewer problems seem to have occured with Maxtor HDD's.

Kaplan, from an earlier post of mine regarding sata2 hdds - I have them plugged into the sata1&2 ports, installed the nvidia raid first and then installed winxp (in both raid 0 and raid 1). My bios is 3.1 and its a known problem that bios 3.3 & 3.4 have nvidia raid problems but seems to be fixed in the beta bios 3.53:
I just purchased 2 hitachi deskstar sata2 80gb hdds ($60 each at zzf) and the interesting thing about them is that you have to "enable" sata2. I have been testing the performance of sata1, sata2, raid1 and raid0 and the results are below.
The drives themselves are factory default set at sata1. Since I purchased OEM, no software or instructions were included. I had to go to the hitachi website download section to download a dos based program (the features program) to enable sata2. After enabling the hdds to sata2, they were recognized in winxp in the nforce ADMA controller device driver and the screen reads with the primary channel as Serial ATA Generation 2 - 3G...and all 4 boxes below it are checked (the boxes enable bios select xfer mode, enable read caching, enable write caching and enable command queuing are checked). An interesting thing about the sata2 spec is that all sata2 hdds must come standard with NCQ...its not advertised on these 80 gb hdds on the hitachi website (unlike the larger hitachi sata2 hdds) but its a standard sata2 spec and these 80gb hitachi hdds are recoginized in winxp as sata2.
The other interesting feature about the hitachi sata2 hdds is setting them up to operate in an adjustable "performance" to "silence" mode. The hdds are default set at high perfromance but you can manually lower the performance to increase the silence of the hdds which is fully adjustable to your liking. I tested the highest silence/lowest performance setting and you cannot hear the hard drive at all.
Testing - I tested the 2 hitachi sata2 deskstars with the first result in sata1 mode, the second in sata2 mode, the third in raid1 mode and the fourth in raid0 mode.
First, a significant increase in raid0 over sata1, sata2 and raid1 with sequential reads and writes (PC Wizard).
Write: 28mb/s vs 29mb/s vs 27mb/s vs 53mb/s
Read: 45mb/s vs 46mb/s vs 43mb/s vs 83mb/s
Second, significant increase in sata 2, raid 1 & raid 0 over sata1 with buffered reads and writes (PC Wizard).
Write: 104mb/s vs 176mb/s vs 165mb/s vs 266mb/s
Read: 123mb/s vs 200mb/s vs 200mb/s vs 293mb/s
Third, significant increase in sata 2, raid 1 & raid 0 over sata1 with burst reads (HD Tach).
Burst Read: 133mb/s vs 225mb/s vs 219mb/s vs 334 mb/s
It is interesting to note that raid1 is better than sata1 but marginally slower in all tests over sata2. Raid0 is significantly faster on all tests.

How to install Windows 7 on new hard drive?

I have changed the old hard drive (500 gb) with a new hard dirve (1 Tera), and now I have two problems: -
1. How do I install Windows 7 on new hard drive?
2. My laptop was pre-installed Windows 7 Pro, but all the DVD kit (Application & Drives Recivery Disc + Operating System Revocer), which was provided (by Lenovo) for the laptop is in the Windows 8 Pro. So how do I install Windows 7 Pro, in my laptop while all DVD kits are in Windows 8 Pro?
by the way this is my laptop spec (for reference) ; -
* Note *
I plan to install Windows 7 Pro in my new hard drive using another Windows 7 DVD (Not DVD provided by Lenovo), but how do I get all the Leveno program which found within the 'Application & Drives Recivery' disc (such as ; - Lenovo System Health and Diagnostics, Lenovo Power Control,Lenovo's Fingerprint Reader) to install in that hard drive? (as I tell you before, all the DVD kit is in or only for Windows 8 Pro)
I hope somebody will help me answer my question,
Thank You
Solved!
Go to Solution.

I got the solution;
Answer to question 1 ; using a backup & recovery software to clone my current OS, then transfer to my new hard drive.
Answer to question 2 ; download all the Drivers and software ( all the application that located on the DVD kit that I have) on Lenovo Official Website.
or other solution, send it to a computer service shop and let the experts ( the workers) install it for me ( the most simple and safe way).

How to install Windows XP into a Flash Drive?

I would like to install Windows XP into my flash drive. Not boot from the flash drive and install into my PC. I've searched extremely hard on the internet and found the other thing around and I tried what I could. Any suggestions? (Here's what I tried: Creating partition tables. Install using VMware. Using different formats.

Thanks for the tips. I was able to install Windows XP and boot from the SATA drive by using these options and setting the appropriate boot device selections...
Legacy Mode
ATA Configuration - PATA only
SATA Keep enabled - yes
PATA Keep enabled - yes
PATA channel selection - both
Combined Mode Option - S-ATA 1st Channel
S-ATA Ports Definition - P0 - 3rd./P1 - 4th.
I just wasn't sure if I was really getting "SATA" performance, etc. without specific drivers.
Thanks again.
Bob (ll1951md)

How do I boot from a USB flash drive?

I have two different Toshiba laptops. In the BIOS settings I only see the following options.
Laptop 1:
CD/DVD
FDD
LAN
HDD1/SSD1
Laptop 2:
HDD1/SSD1
HDD2/SSD2
eSATA HDD
CD/DVD
FDD
LAN
Is it possible to make either computer boot from a USB flash drive?
Thanks in advance for any help,
yeto

FDD (Floppy Disk Drive) equates to USB in my Toshiba laptops. Seems like it's taking some BIOS designers a long time to catch up with the rest of the computer world!
C.B.
Toshiba Sat. C75D-B7260 Win 8.1 64 Bit--Toshiba Sat. L775D-S7132 Win 7 HP SP1 64 Bit and Win 10 PRO Technical Preview--Toshiba Sat. L305-S5921 Win Vista SP2 32 Bit

How do install Windows 7 from a USB optical drive?

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