Palgan's method confirmed working with Windows 8 on an Early 2011 MacBook Pro
I'd like to confirm that Palgan's method worked for me. I was able to install Windows 8 from an iso on my Early 2011 MacBook Pro running OS X 10.10.2 Yosemite which had no optical drive and was not allowing me to install from a USB drive.
I'd also like to thank him for putting this together. I found this thread on day 4 of trying to wrestle windows onto my laptop. I tried all of the other methods found on Google including using a Rufus-created USB thumbdrive, modifying plist files for Boot Camp and others. I even tried multiple USB drives having read that certain brands work better than others. This was my final attempt and I couldn't be more satisfied having finally "won". THANK YOU.
Since there is a fair amount fear, loathing and uncertainty involved here (as well as some voodoo, I suspect) I thought I'd take the opportunity to rewrite the guide to include a little more information and reduce forks in the road.
In addition to a Windows iso you will need the following:
Section 1: Download Apple Windows drivers and copy to USB drive
- Open Disk Utility
- Click on your USB thumb drive
- Choose the "Erase" tab
- Choose MS-DOS (FAT) format
- Name it (I called mine MBPDRIVERS)
- Find your model of Mac here and click the link to download the driver software: http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204048
- Copy the contents of the downloaded file to your USB drive
Section 2: Partially Install Windows using VMWare Fusion
- Open VMWare Fusion and begin creating a new virtual machine
- Choose "Install from disc or image"
- Choose your Windows iso file
- You can choose 'Use Easy Install' and enter your Windows account information and product key, and choose which version of windows you are installing
- Choose 'More Isolated' for level of integration
- On the "Finish" screen click the "Customize Settings" button
- Choose where to save your image and click "Save". It will default to your primary hard drive in ~/Documents/Virtual Machines/
- In the Settings screen that follows, choose "Hard Disk" (SCSI) and select the size that you want for your partition. I chose 60GB because I planned to install a bunch of Windows junk. Once you set your size click 'Apply'
- Once you close the settings your install will begin. If it doesn't press the "play" icon in the middle of your VMWare window
- Shut down (DON'T SUSPEND) or Force Quit VMWare before Windows reboots the first time. The Windows installer has created enough files onto this virtual machine to continue later from your BOOT CAMP disk partition. You'll know when it's time as Windows will warn you that it's about to reboot.
Section 3: Prepare a FAT partition on your Mac's hard drive using Disk Utility
- Open Disk Utility
- Click on the disk you would like to add a boot camp partition to
- Click the "Partition" tab
- Click on the partition you'd like to split
- Click the "+" button to add a partition
- Click on the new partition you just created
- Name it BOOTCAMP
- Format it MS-DOS (FAT), even if its a large partition
- Set it to the size you would like. I chose 64GB to leave a little extra room for my 60GB Windows install.
- Click Apply
Section 4: Mount your virtual machine as a "real" hard drive using VMDK Mounter
- Find your virtual machine image. If you used the default settings with Windows 8 it will be in ~/Documents/Virtual Machines/Windows 8 x64.vmwarevm
- Right-click on this file and choose to mount with VMDK mounter. You might get this error
.
VOODOO ALERT: Once I got this error I tried a bunch of things but wasn't able to determine WHAT, exactly, fixed the problem: I tried again with VMWare on and off, I tried restarting my Mac, I tried starting the virtual machine and "shut it down" via VMWare and went back to step 2:1 and started the Windows installation over from scratch. Eventually it worked and I was able to continue.
Section 5: Clone the VMWare system to your BOOTCAMP partition on your mac
- Open Winclone
- Choose to clone your mounted .vmwarevm disk to BOOTCAMP using "Restore"
Section 6: Finish the Windows install natively
- Restart your mac and hold down the alt/option key
- Choose the "Windows" disk that shows up
- Windows will boot and finish installing. If it reboots itself in the process hold down the alt/option button to ensure that your mac boots back into windows to continue
- Once all of the updates are complete insert your Apple Drivers USB drive, navigate to the BootCamp folder and run setup.exe. This will install support for the Apple hardware and make it fully functional
Section 7: Cleanup on your Mac
- Boot back into your mac and run your uninstaller for Paragon VMDK mounter
- Manually uninstall VMWare Fusion using these instructions: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/se...ype=kc&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&externalId=1017838
- Manually uninstall Winclone using
actually what the heck. You paid for this one, might as well keep it.
As a side note: there was some discussion about whether or not you need Winclone, as it is a paid app. While I'm not the most qualified person to answer this, I personally did not see any way around this. After days of time wasted on solutions that didn't work I also didn't try that hard.
When you consider that you are already buying Windows ($120) and a USB drive ($10), another $30 to finish the job is completely worth it. I value the engineering time spent by two canoes, as well as time that I saved.
Now with all of that out of the way I'm off to play with the Zwift beta which is currently only available for Windows on dedicated hardware.