[CleanSlate]

I'm so pissed and disgusted right now.

TL DR: My new macbook won't even boot. Am back to using my old laptop now.

I tried installing Windows 8.1 on my macbook. What I thought was supposed to be a piece of cake with Bootcamp (version 5.1 on OS X Yosemite 10.10.3) turned out to be anything but. I encountered problems at EVERY single step of the way.

1. Downloading windows 8.1 was no simple matter. I had to go out and buy an USB flash drive, go to my office to use a windows PC and create a bootable USB flash drive with the 8.1 installation files. It took me about 5 hours to figure this out and get the USB drive prepared. NOTHING ELSE I had tried, worked.

Even Microsoft said as much that using USB or a DVD was the only option, and in order to use those, I had to create them using a Windows PC. My new macbook doesn't have a DVD drive, and I don't want to buy an external optic drive.

2. I initially formatted the USB flash drive as FAT using the Mac's Disk Utility before putting 8.1 installation files on it. But then the Windows PC changed it to FAT32 for some reason. Bootcamp did not want to download Windows Supporting Drivers onto the UBS flash drive because it was in FAT32, and not FAT.

3. I thought I could get around it by manually downloading the supporting drivers and copying them onto the USB flash drive.

4. I opened Bootcamp and unchecked the first 2 options, and left the 3rd option checked - only install the Windows, figuring that it would detect the supporting drivers on the USB flash drive anyway.

I thought all my problems were over when I got to the part where I started to partition my drive, and it reboot off the USB drive to install Windows.

5. It went through all the steps except the last one, when it reached "Finishing up". Then it said something like "Error with boot partition, Windows installation cannot be completed." Clicked OK and it said "Installation cancelled, no changes to disk will be saved".

Then the screen goes black, and it won't even boot again. I pressed the power button again and again, and all I see is a black screen.

I'm taking it in to the Apple Store and going to have them fix it or wipe the thing clean with a fresh install of OS X.

I'm so fucking pissed and I feel like beating someone up.

The only consolation I can take out of all this is that I backed up all my files and put them all up on my Google Drive before trying to install Windows.

[h3ltrsk3ltr]

I'm not incredibly mac savvy but i remembered the word parallels from an old programming class.

http://blog.parallels.com/category/windows-on-mac/

Perhaps a good place to start.

Edit: I'm very interested to obits how this works out. I'm out and about but if you want to tag team this bitch pm me and I'll give you my number. (you can probably tell I'm not a comp genius but I'm a quick study and happy to help).

[Marmite]

You do know where you went wrong don't you!? You were installing Windows.

My brother had similar issues putting Windows 7 on his Mac Pro, with the exception of wiping his hard drive in the process. I would stick to having Windows as a VM, I just couldn't justify the risk of ruining / violating a $2000 machine with it.

[CleanSlate]

I just wiped the whole thing and reinstailled OSX fresh.

Really should be able to install windows on this. I'll use VM the second time around. It shouldn't be this difficult. I'm tired and going to bed, so I don't have another meltdown.

[The Beast1]

Are you sure you told it to install to the correct partition during the windows install and not over the OS X partition? From your description it sounds like windows went and tried to install itself over your OSX partition.

I always manually wipe the partition boot camp makes and tell windows to install it there. Autodetection my @$$.

What happened when you held option during boot?

The whole elimination of the DVD drive is annoyingly stupid. I went out and bought an 8 and 4gb flash drive for the sheer purpose of reinstalling OSs if things go bad.

[CleanSlate]

I did choose the correc partition, but did not hold option during boot.

I still don't know what really happened, but now I don't trust bootcamp and will only use it to partition and then install windows through VMware.

I just need to find a good set of instuctions. My new mac is back to the way it was before, and I've lost nothing except anout 8 hours.

[RawGod]

Is that the new 12 inch Macbook? Looks nice but reviews have been mixed because of the performance and lack of ports.

[villageindian]

Which version of Windows did you get? If you got the 64-bit, you cannot format the HDD as FAT32 and then install it. It has to be ExFAT. I am pretty sure that you wiped out the partition when you went into Disk Utility.

After you created the USB installation drive in Mac, did you select the right partition to be created? How you should allocate the space depends on how much space you want for your Windows system and how much space you want for your OS X system.

Use the following links to install your Windows - Macrumors Forums Discussion, HowtoGeek and Apple Forums

It is finicky to a certain degree but if you follow the steps, it should work out fine.

Let me know if you are still facing issues.

[CleanSlate]

(05-24-2015 08:34 AM)villageindian Wrote:  

Which version of Windows did you get? If you got the 64-bit, you cannot format the HDD as FAT32 and then install it. It has to be ExFAT. I am pretty sure that you wiped out the partition when you went into Disk Utility.

After you created the USB installation drive in Mac, did you select the right partition to be created? How you should allocate the space depends on how much space you want for your Windows system and how much space you want for your OS X system.

Use the following links to install your Windows - Macrumors Forums Discussion, HowtoGeek and Apple Forums

It is finicky to a certain degree but if you follow the steps, it should work out fine.

Let me know if you are still facing issues.

Yes I got the 64 bit. The USB flash drive was in FAT32, and when the windows installation started, it asked which partition to select and I formatted it as NTFS. I'm not sure I remember seeing an ExFAT option, though.

Should the USB drive be in ExFAT as well as the HDD partition?

I think I skipped the ISO making step. I just downloaded the DVD files onto the USB drive, but did not make the ISO. Now I am making the ISO.

Thanks for the links, though. I'll try to follow them...

[Phoenix]

Just install it in a VM. As I explained in the other thread, everyone just uses VMs - it really breaks your workflow if you need to reboot to do something. Also the VM is easier to install in - you don't need to worry about partitioning and hardware issues etc, it takes care of all of it.

[monster]

Sorry but this isn't Murphys Law, this is a fail with you at fault.

Why do you get a MacBook to install Windows? You don't an iPhone to install Android, do you? No.

You get a PC to install Windows.

[CleanSlate]

(05-24-2015 09:02 AM)monster Wrote:  

Sorry but this isn't Murphys Law, this is a fail with you at fault.

Why do you get a MacBook to install Windows? You don't an iPhone to install Android, do you? No.

You get a PC to install Windows.

So how do you explain all those people installing windows on their macs successfully? If someone can do it, then I should be able to do it.

[el mechanico]

It would be Murphy's law if it was your friends computer that you were doing a favor for after you did your own and it worked out fine.

[Parlay44]

You don't buy a Mac to dual boot it with windows. You buy a Mac because you wanted and need a Mac. You only need windows once in a while so just do it as a virtual machine. It's isolated and compartmentalized. It won't fuck with your hard drive or Mac files.

I used to dual boot windows and Mac years ago but that was my Hackintosh. I had a custom chameleon boot loader that would boot anything. You make 3 partitions. One small one for Chameleon and two large ones for the OSs. You make the small partition the active partition. That starts up the bootloader. Then you choose which OS to boot into.

[villageindian]

(05-24-2015 08:41 AM)CleanSlate Wrote:  

when the windows installation started, it asked which partition to select and I formatted it as NTFS. I'm not sure I remember seeing an ExFAT option, though.

Yup, you just tried to overwrite the HFS partition with NTFS. But not all drivers were present when you did this. Hence, it could not boot properly at all and complete the installation.

I would suggest that you look at Disk Utility carefully and create the right partition before you install Windows. Really go through this step using the HowToGeek link I provided.

The USB can be in FAT/FAT32 partitions and Mac can read it naturally. However, NTFS cannot be read-write, only read status naturally by Mac OS X. Hence, you must install Paragon NTFS or Tuxera NTFS to read-write the partition.

[CleanSlate]

(05-24-2015 08:52 AM)Phoenix Wrote:  

Just install it in a VM. As I explained in the other thread, everyone just uses VMs - it really breaks your workflow if you need to reboot to do something. Also the VM is easier to install in - you don't need to worry about partitioning and hardware issues etc, it takes care of all of it.

From what I understand, I should be able to access the Windows partition either by booting into it, or using VM within OSX.

The reason I want to be able to boot into windows is I will do some coding and developing in there, and that's CPU and memory intensive. Doing it within a VM could be quite slow.

[CleanSlate]

(05-24-2015 09:18 AM)villageindian Wrote:  

(05-24-2015 08:41 AM)CleanSlate Wrote:  

when the windows installation started, it asked which partition to select and I formatted it as NTFS. I'm not sure I remember seeing an ExFAT option, though.

Yup, you just tried to overwrite the HFS partition with NTFS. But not all drivers were present when you did this. Hence, it could not boot properly at all and complete the installation.

I would suggest that you look at Disk Utility carefully and create the right partition before you install Windows. Really go through this step using the HowToGeek link I provided.

The USB can be in FAT/FAT32 partitions and Mac can read it naturally. However, NTFS cannot be read-write, only read status naturally by Mac OS X. Hence, you must install Paragon NTFS or Tuxera NTFS to read-write the partition.

villageindian: It worked! The links you provided and your advice helped, and Windows is installed without a major hitch. I can now dual boot into either OSX and Windows.

+1 from me, thanks man.

Now time to set up my VMware to link it to the Win partition.

[heavy]

Wasn't Murphy's Law validated?

[Phoenix]

The virtual machine (e.g. VMWare or virtualbox) will store its virtual HDD as files on the host machine. It will also allocate some of the host machines memory for the virtual machine to use, and will execute the virtual machines instructions on the host machines CPU. As far as the host machine is concerned, it is an executable and some data files. Partitions play no part in it.

Dual-boot is where both OS are installed on the same host machine HDD, in different partitions.

There is no problem compiling in a VM. I've never met anyone who did their multi-OS development by the dual-boot method, as the VM is probably 90% as fast as raw. They all just used VMs. The small compile speed hit you'll take by using a VM is eclipsed to the damage to workflow that fucking around with rebooting into different partitions does.

For instance, suppose you are porting your app from android to OSX, and something isn't working the same. With a VM, you can just all tab between the versions to compare. An alt-tab is instant. A reboot is like 1 minute, and you can't copy-paste between etc. If you want to get started ASAP, I strongly recommend you just download VMware or virtualbox for your Mac, install Windows in a new VMware image, and get on with it.

[CleanSlate]

I just installed and created a VM as well. I don't mind rebooting into Windows for heavy duty stuff when I don't need the OSX, and booting back into OSX and then open the VM to do those comparisons. Plus I store all my files on the cloud, never on the HDD. My MBP boots pretty quickly, and it's always nice to stand up and take a break while it's doing that.

I've had partitioned PCs before (Windows and Linux) and never had a problem with partitions. It's when people install too many dodgy third party programs that does weird stuff that fucks things up.

[monster]

(05-24-2015 09:05 AM)CleanSlate Wrote:  

(05-24-2015 09:02 AM)monster Wrote:  

Sorry but this isn't Murphys Law, this is a fail with you at fault.

Why do you get a MacBook to install Windows? You don't an iPhone to install Android, do you? No.

You get a PC to install Windows.

So how do you explain all those people installing windows on their macs successfully? If someone can do it, then I should be able to do it.

People have too much free time.

[CleanSlate]

(05-24-2015 10:44 AM)monster Wrote:  

(05-24-2015 09:05 AM)CleanSlate Wrote:  

(05-24-2015 09:02 AM)monster Wrote:  

Sorry but this isn't Murphys Law, this is a fail with you at fault.

Why do you get a MacBook to install Windows? You don't an iPhone to install Android, do you? No.

You get a PC to install Windows.

So how do you explain all those people installing windows on their macs successfully? If someone can do it, then I should be able to do it.

People have too much free time.

Haha okay that was funny, made me laugh. Nice quip.

[Handsome Creepy Eel]

I am confused as to why someone would want a Windows OS on a Mac. Doesn't Mac have its own tailor-made OS and array of applications?

[CleanSlate]

(05-24-2015 03:52 PM)Handsome Creepy Eel Wrote:  

I am confused as to why someone would want a Windows OS on a Mac. Doesn't Mac have its own tailor-made OS and array of applications?

Some software, mainly coding IDEs, can only be run in Windows, others in OSX. I'm thinking long term and I have plans to travel, so I want both OS's in one laptop.

Luckily, my new mac is working the way I intended it to. It took some wizardry to salvage the whole thing from my screw up last night.

[iamrichandiambeautiful]

I recommend that you use virtualbox on your mac to run Windows in a vm. Its free and opensource compared to the costly vmware and parallels. Virtualbox integrates really nicely with osx.