Why doesn't my built in super drive accept my windows installation disk?

Question

Hi there,
I have a imac mid 2010, as said im trying to install windows 8.1 onto it but my disk keeps getting spat out after I put it in when asked for via the bootcamp installation. Now I know the disk works 100% as I have put it in another computer and booted it, also this happens with a windows 7 disk i have.
I have sort of tested the super drive by putting a random music CD which gets read fine and plays fine.
Does anyone know of anything to do with this?
or how I could test the super drive further?
Thanks in advanced.

Answer 1

Hey guys,
I haven't fixed the specific problem but I found a work around. Sorry if these instructions are hard to read any questions please let me know,
I wanted to make this post just out of courtesy of chscag being the only one the has helped me across many forums.
So hopefully I can edit and paste this fix into my 1st post and maybe get the tittle change to the thread because this is actually a windows 8.1 process and I'm not sure if it will work for other versions of windows.
NOTE: I'm not sure how good I am at explaining things here I just thought I would get this info down as I found it really tough and took me some time to get windows on my machine. So if you have any question please feel free to ask.
To start off forget everything in this thread!! Also remember I have a Imac 27" mid 2010 with a super drive that doesn't seem to work.
So here is what you need according to the way I managed to do this...
1. Windows 8.1 (either a downloaded iso or a install disk)
2. USB over 4gb
3. Another windows computer with access to the internet
I think these are the basic things you will need off the top of my head right now.
So step 1
This step is if you have a windows 8.1 disk.
If you find that when you run the bootcamp your superdrive doesn't accept your windows 8.1 disk then you need to do the following.
Get your windows disk and go to another windows computer (I'm sure you could do this on a mac os as well but I'm not mac savvy so I prefer to do this on a windows computer).
Now we are trying to get the iso image and burn it on to our windows computer. So we are going to need some software for this, I used Download | BurnAware
1. Install this software which I think is pretty simple.
2. Once installed run the software, click on copy to image.
3. You need to set where you are going to copy this iso file from. So put your windows disk in and then from source please select your optical disk drive. (The disk may auto run, So just let it do it's thing and the 1st chance you get to cancel the installation do it and quit out of the application)
4. Now under destination select browse, Navigate to to where you want to save this iso file, (I made a folder on my desktop for easier finding) then name it something like windows8 and then click save.
5. Now click copy
6. Wait until this process is done, once it's done you can close the application and your iso image should be where you selected to save it when doing step number 4.
Feel free to remove the software after you have done this if you want.
Now that we have a iso image we need to get to this onto a bootable usb drive.
Lets prepare our USB 1st...
1. Plug your USB into your windows computer.
2 .Important!!! Back up everything on this USB if you have files you wish to keep on this USB, After the next step all your files will be deleted that are on this USB.
3. Now go to my computer and you should see your USB stick. right click and go to format
4. I'm pretty sure you can leave everything as it is and please make sure quick format is selected. Then hit start. This shouldn't take long.
That's our USB prepared.
Now it's time to get our ISO image to our USB stick. For this we will need some software.
I used this, get the free trial and install it. ISO CD DVD image creator, editor and ISZ DMG DAA UIF to ISO converter - UltraISO can extract/create/edit/convert CD and DVD image files directly, make bootable CDs and convert ISZ DMG DAA UIF to ISO.
Now make sure you your USB is inserted.
1. Go to the ISO file that you burned to your windows, Double click it this should bring up a dialogue box from the software we just downloaded.
2. Click continue to try.
3. Now you should see your ISO loaded into this software, if it looks confusing don't worry just do as I say and you should be fine.
4. Up the top you should see, File, Actions and Bootable.
5. Click Bootable.
6. Go down to the 4th option and click "Write Disk Image"
7. A write disk image box should pop up.
8. Under disk drive make sure your USB is selected. (Don't need to click the verify box)
9. Double check next to image file it should your image path. (CUsers\yourcomputer\desktop\windows8.iso)
10. Go to write method and make sure it says USB-HDD+
11. Then hit write, this will bring up a box saying warning all your on this drive will be lost click yes.
Now it will burn the iso image this make take some time. Wait Until it says Burn Successful.
If that confused you please watch this video on how to use the software. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApRK8av2IOI
Now you can remove the software if you wish. Also safely remove your USB stick and you also can take out your windows disk. (We won't need to the windows computer again)
Now boot up your mac.
1. Go to disk utility
2. Go to your mac os on the left hand side and make sure it is selected.
3. Go to partition hit the plus( +) button, this should make another partion maybe named like MAC OS 2 or something similar.
4. Make this partition the size you want your windows HDD to be, do this by dragging the partition.
5. hit partition
6. Now go to the partition tab again, make sure you have the MAC OS 2 partition selected and hit the Minus(-) button. Now you should see that your MAC OS 2 is deleted and it just free space.
7.Hit partition
Wait until this is done.
Now everything is prepared we can begin the windows install.
You need to reboot your computer and when you hear the chimes or see a white screen you need to press and hold your option key on your keyboard until you see your boot menu.
Should be like 3 disc. Your mac OS and a EFI disk and a recovery disk.
Select your EFI disk and Windows should start to install as normal.
And that is it. Again I'm not sure how good I am at explaining things here I just thought I would get this info down as I found it really tough and took me some time to get windows on my machine. So if you have any question please feel free to ask.