[SOLVED] Boot Camp

[halcyon]

I'm using a 2011 15" 2.3Ghz MacBook Pro and have replaced the optical drive with 750GB hard disk. For some reason I seem to be unable to install Windows for BootCamp from either a USB SuperDrive or USB DVD-RAM drive.

Has anyone been able to install Windows from an external optical drive on a recent MacBook Pro?

 

[JustSomeJoe]

Windows What? Current Apples will only support installing Windows7.
Are you using the BootCamp Assistant and if so how far does it get, where and how does it fail?

 

[halcyon]

I didn't know that current models only supported 7...but I was indeed trying to install 7...first 64-Bit Ultimate and when that didn't work I tried 32-Bit. They both fail during the boot process. I apologize for not noting that earlier. The installations fail at the point where the DVD should begin to be read. They spin up but then nothing happens and the cursor just sits there flashing.

However, I know the DVDs are good because I can use them to create Parallels VMs and on other machines. ...so it seems like the BootCamp installs simply won't work from an external DVD drive.

 

[kajabla]

The external drive should have nothing to do with it. It doesn't matter to the computer how it's getting the DVD information.

 

[Ijack]

Well, of course, it my well matter to the computer. The two drives use different interfaces and so require different drivers.

You may want to have a look at this article, where a possible solution to your problem is discussed.

 

[acron1]

One more thing to note is that you need the full version of Windows 7 to install it with BootCamp.... (if my recollection is right).

 

[halcyon]

Well, of course, it my well matter to the computer. The two drives use different interfaces and so require different drivers.

You may want to have a look at this article, where a possible solution to your problem is discussed.

Nice! I'm going to give this a shot this evening. It sounds like I am in a similar boat as the author but hopefully rEFIt will work for me.

 

[halcyon]

The external drive should have nothing to do with it. It doesn't matter to the computer how it's getting the DVD information.

Hmmm.... As ijack notes, the computer does seem to care about the interface its using the DVD from. ...and it makes sense in an Apple-way-of-doing-things-sort-of-way...they may not have designed their firmware on the MBP's to deal with external USB optical drives at the boot level, at least not for BootCamp anyways (I've not tried to install OS X using an external drive yet). ...just a guess, I obviously don't know for sure.

 

[halcyon]

One more thing to note is that you need the full version of Windows 7 to install it with BootCamp.... (if my recollection is right).

Full Ultimate and Enterprise (which is really the same thing).

 

[halcyon]

Best answer selected by halcyon.