MacBook – Can a version of Windows newer than Vista be installed on MacBookPro2,2 2006 Core 2 Duo

bootbootcampmacbook prowindows

Apple documents state my MacBookPro2,2 2006 Core 2 Duo 2.16 MHz will not run Windows versions newer than Vista. However, I burned a 32 bit Windows 7 ISO to a DVD, after converting the ISO to DVD/CD master in the Disk Utility. The resulting DVD worked. I tried same procedure with a 32 bit Windows 10 ISO. The Mac froze at a black screen with a message asking for a boot choice 1, 2. Why did booting from the Windows 10 DVD fail?

I understand that my Mac has a 32 bit EFI, but the processor is 64 bit. I also understand there are issues with booting from an USB flash drive, which is why I used a DVD. Are there other methods to install newer versions of Windows on my Mac?

Best Answer

You model Mac can only support only one boot method when booting from the optical drive. The 32 bit Windows 7 installer ISO provide by Microsoft can only be BIOS booted and therefore offers no problems when burn to a DVD. However, any of the Windows 10 installer ISO files provided by Microsoft can be either BIOS or UEFI booted. Using a DVD burned from one of these ISO files to boot your Mac will result in your Mac hanging as described in your question. This is true for both the 32 bit and 64 bit versions of the Windows 10 installer ISO file.

Several answers involving installing Windows 10 on your model Mac have already been posted. See the question Installing windows on a MacBook Pro 15-Inch “Core 2 Duo” without Mac OS X.

Note the following:

According to Microsoft, a computer needs at least 1 GB of RAM in order to install 32 bit Windows 10 and at least 2 GB of RAM in order to install 64 bit Windows 10. Your Mac was shipped with 1 GB of RAM, but is capable of being upgraded to at least 2 GB.
You do not need a license to install and test Windows 10. However, to continue using Windows 10 will require a license. You may be able to install a licensed Windows 7, then upgrade to Windows 10 for free. This was true as of early in 2020. I do not know if this is still true today. Also, if a licensed Windows 10 was previous installed on your Mac, then you will be able to use this existing license.
Apple only supports running 32 bit Windows XP SP2 or Vista on your model Mac. Therefore, the drivers provided by Apple may or may to work with a 32 or 64 bit Windows 10. However do to the age of your Mac, many of the necessary drivers will probably already be included in the Windows 10 installer software or will be downloaded automatically from Microsoft.

Using USB to Install Windows 10

The basic steps are outline below. An optical drive is not used to install Windows 10.

Use a USB port to install a 32 bit BIOS booting Debian Linux. This will include the Grub boot loader.
Use Debian Linux to copy the Windows 10 installation files to a NTFS formatted volume on the internal drive.
Use Grub to BIOS boot the Windows 10 installer on the internal drive.
Install a BIOS booting Windows 10. This will overwrite Grub and Debian Linux.
Expand the Windows 10 partition to consume the space occupied by the partitions containing the Windows 10 installer files and the Debian Linux swap space.

A more detailed version of above steps is given below. These steps can be used to install either a 32 bit or 64 bit version of Windows 10.

Install 32 bit BIOS booting Debian Linux. Follow steps 1 through 4 given in this answer with the following exception. When asked to Configure the package manager, choose a Debian archive mirror country followed by a Debian archive mirror.
Prepare a partition for the Windows installation files. Start by booting to Debian. If the Mac does not boot to Debian (via Grub) by default, then restart the Mac and immediately hold option key until the Startup Manager icons appear. Select the internal drive icon labeled Windows. If a Debian desktop environment was not installed, login as root. Otherwise, login using the default username, open a Terminal window and enter the command shown below.
```
su --login
```
The middle partition on the internal drive (/dev/sda3) contains an ext4 formatted volume. The command given below will replace this volume with a NTFS formatted volume. A connection to the internet is required.
```
apt update
apt install exfat-fuse exfat-utils ntfs-3g parted
sed -i '/\/installation/d' /etc/fstab
umount /dev/sda3
sfdisk --part-type /dev/sda 3 7
partprobe
mkfs.ntfs -L WINSTALL -Q /dev/sda3
mount /dev/sda3 /installation
```
Create a Windows 10 installer on an internal drive partition.

Enter a following command to permit writing to the /home folder.
```
chmod a+w /home
```
Transfer, to the /home folder, the ISO file required to install Windows 10. In the case of this example, this would be the Win10_20H2_English_x64.iso file. If your file is different, then make the appropriate substitutions in this step. Below are various ways to transfer this file. Choose one way or find another way.

Note: A choice below can depend on which predefined collections of software are currently installed.
- Use another computer to download and transfer the ISO file to a ExFAT formatted USB flash drive. Use either the cp command or the Files application to copy from the USB flash drive to the /home folder.
- Use another computer to download the ISO file. Use sftp on this other computer to transfer the ISO file to the /home folder on the Mac. Enter the command hostname -I on the Mac to get an IP address.
- Use the FireFox ESR application to download the ISO file from the web. Use either the mv command or the Files application to move the downloaded ISO file to the /home folder.
Next, enter the commands given below to copy the Windows 10 installation files from the mounted ISO file to the /installation mount point.

Note: The boot.wim and install.wim files are very large and therefore will take a while to be copied.
```
mkdir -p /media/iso
mount -o loop,ro /home/Win10_20H2_English_x64.iso /media/iso
cp -Rv /media/iso/* /installation
```
When finished, shutdown the Mac. If a Debian desktop environment was not installed, then enter the command below instead.
```
shutdown -P now
```
Remove any USB flash drives that may be plugged into the Mac.
Replace the 32 bit Debian with Windows 10. Start by booting to Grub. If the Mac does not boot to Grub by default, then restart the Mac and immediately hold option key until the Startup Manager icons appear. Select the internal drive icon labeled Windows. When an image similar to the one shown below appears, press the C key.

Enter the commands given below to boot from the /dev/sda3 partition.
```
insmod part_msdos
insmod ntfs
insmod ntldr
set root='(hd0,msdos3)'
parttool (hd0,msdos1) type=7 boot+
ntldr /bootmgr
boot
```
Proceed with the installation of Windows. When you reach the window shown in the image below, select Custom: Install Windows only (advanced).

When the window shown in the image below appears, leave Drive 0 Partition 1 highlighted and click on the Format button. Next, click on the OK button in the popup window. Finally, click on the Next button.

Proceed with the installation of Windows 10.
Install the Boot Camp Support Software (Windows Support Software). The Boot Camp Support Software is on the Snow Leopard installation DVD. The files can be accessed from Windows. Officially, only 32 bit versions of Windows can be installed on your Mac. Since I do not have your model Mac, I can not predict how difficult it will be to the adapt the software for use with a 64 bit Windows. You should consult lx07's answer for more information.

A Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) ISO file can be downloaded from the website Mac OS X Snow Leopard Install DVD. You should verify the download by computing the SHA256 hash value. The Get-FileHash Power Shell cmdlet can be used to compute a SHA256 hash value. Entering Get-FileHash along with the path to the downloaded file in a Power Shell window should produce the following SHA256 hash value.
```
CBEEB2378C40B20A9B06236F567DE593E9030A0A865515B50CF6D35833E25CD5
```
Under Windows 10, the Boot Camp Support Software can be accessed by mounting this ISO file.
Remove unnecessary partitions and extend the Windows 10 partition. Boot to Windows 10 desktop. Next, right click on the Start button and select Disk Management. A windows similar to the one shown below will appear.

Right click on the last partition shown for Disk 0. Select Delete Volume…, as shown below. In the popup window, click on the Yes button.

Right click on the free space shown for Disk 0. Select Delete Partition…. In the popup window, click on the Yes button.

Right click on the partition with the volume label WINSTALL. Select Delete Volume…. In the popup window, click on the Yes button.

Right click on the partition with the drive letter C:. Select Extend Volume…. In the popup window, click on the Next button. Again, in the next popup window, click on the Next button. In the next popup window, click on the Finish button.

The result is shown below.

Exit the Disk Management application.

Setting BIOS Booting as the Default

If a BIOS booting Windows is the only operating system installed on a Mac, then the Mac should automatically boot to Windows. However, if BIOS booting has not be set as the default, there may be a delay before booting begins. Otherwise, the Mac Startup Manager can be used to boot Windows. Below are two methods for setting BIOS booting as the default.

Method 1: Boot from an OS X (macOS) installation DVD or USB flash drive, open a Terminal window and enter the command given below.
```
 bless --device /dev/disk0 --setBoot --legacy
```
The version of OS X (macOS) chosen must be compatible with your Mac. The instructions for creating a Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) installation USB flash drive can be found here.
Method 2: A successful installation of the Boot Camp Support Software (Window Support Software) will include the creation of the Boot Camp control panel for Windows.

To set the default operating system in Windows:
1. In Windows, click the Boot Camp icon in the system tray and choose Boot Camp Control Panel.
  
  Note: Your screen may look different, depending on which computer you’re using.
2. Select the startup disk with the Windows operating system as the default.
3. If you want to start up that operating system now, click Restart.

Related Solutions

MacOS – “Select CD-ROM Boot Type:” error during Windows install

The problem you encountered occured before the Boot Camp drivers are installed. So, the drivers are not the problem. The correct drivers for Macs can be found at Boot Camp: System requirements for Microsoft Windows operating systems. In your case, the drivers can be downloaded from Boot Camp Support Software 4.0.4033. Also, the drivers can be downloaded using the Boot Camp Assistant. By the way, I used the same drivers to do a clean install Windows 8 (64 bit) on my iMac7,1 (20-inch, Mid 2007).

Your actual problem is with the DVD itself. As you might guess, it came with two ways to boot. You need to remove one of them. You are using a Windows 7 DVD. I was having the same problem with a Windows 8.1 (64 bit) DVD. The procedure to repair should be the same.

I used a windows 8.1 machine and a copy of the program oscdimg.exe from Microsoft. The procedure should work just as well using a Windows 7 or 10 machine.

To begin, you will need to copy oscdimg.exe to your desktop. There are many web sites where a copy of this file can be found. I used oscdimg.exe Version 2.55 (x86). If you want to be sure you are using the same one I used, follow the steps below.

Go to the web site The Windows® Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows® 7 and download the iso. This iso file is 1.7 GB in length.
Open the file Neutral.cab. If you are using a Windows 7 machine, you will need to burn the iso on to a DVD. The instructions can be found here. Open the new DVD to find the Neutral.cab file. It is faster to copy the Neutral.cab file to the desktop before opening it. If you are using a Windows 8.1 or 10 machine, right click on the iso icon and select Mount. Neutral.cab will be one of the files in the opened folder. (Note: Opening the file can take a while.)

One way to avoid burning a DVD would be to copy (or download) the iso file to a machine running OS X. The iso file can then be mounted by double clicking on its icon. Neutral.cab will be one of the files in the opened folder. You will need to copy Neutral.cab back to a Window machine. I tested this using OS X 10.6.8. I assume this procedure would work using any newer version of OS X.

Another way to avoid burning a DVD would be to copy (or download) the iso file to the ~/Downloads folder of a machine running Kubuntu (or perhaps some other Linux). The following commands can be used to extract the Neutral.cab to the ~/Downloads folder. You will need to copy Neutral.cab back to a Window machine. I tested this using Kubuntu 18.04.5 LTS.
```
cd ~/Downloads
mkdir windowsiso
sudo mount -o loop,ro KB#AIK_EN.iso windowsiso
cp windowsiso/Neutral.cab .
sudo umount windowsiso
rmdir windowsiso
```
Using a Windows 7, 8.1, or 10 machine, extract oscdimg.exe from the Neutral.cab cabinet file. The x86 (32 bit) version is named F1_oscdimg. The x64 (64 bit) version is named F3_oscdimg. Right click on the file of your choice and select Extract. Place the extracted file on your desktop. Rename the extracted file to oscdimg.exe. (I did verify the correctness of this procedure by installing the entire package and binary file comparing the installed x86 and x64 oscdimg files with F1_oscdimg and F3_oscdimg, respectively.)

Next, make a new Windows 7, 8.1 or 10 installation DVD, follow these steps. The procedure was tested using a Windows 8.1 installation DVD.

Make sure a copy of oscdimg.exe is on your desktop.
Place the original Windows 7, 8.1 or 10 installation DVD in the optical drive. If using a Windows 8.1 or 10 machine, then a Windows 7, 8.1 or 10 installation iso file could be mounted instead.
If you are using a Windows 7 machine, open a Command Prompt window by clicking the Start button , clicking All Programs, clicking Accessories, and then clicking Command Prompt. On a Windows 8.1 machine, look for the Command Prompt icon on the Apps page. On a Windows 10 machine, look for Command Prompt under Windows System on the Start menu.
Change your working directory to the desktop by entering the following command in the Command Prompt Window.
```
cd  %homepath%\desktop
```

Assuming D: is your DVD drive or drive letter assign to the mounted Windows installation iso file, enter the following command. Be sure to replace the letter before each : with the drive letter of your DVD drive or mounted file. The file new.iso will be created on your desktop.

oscdimg  -n  -m  -bD:\boot\etfsboot.com  D:\  new.iso

Note: For more information, see the Microsoft website Oscdimg Command-Line Options.

Using this command, on a Windows 8.1 (64 bit) DVD, produced the following output.

C:\Users\David\Desktop>oscdimg -n -m -bD:\boot\etfsboot.com D:\ new.iso

OSCDIMG 2.55 CD-ROM and DVD-ROM Premastering Utility
Copyright (C) Microsoft, 1993-2007. All rights reserved.
Licensed only for producing Microsoft authorized content.


Scanning source tree (2000 files in 803 directories)
Scanning source tree complete (2094 files in 867 directories)

Computing directory information complete

Image file is 3277371392 bytes

Writing 2094 files in 867 directories to new.iso

100% complete

Final image file is 3277371392 bytes

WARNING: This image contains filenames and/or directory names that are
 NOT COMPATIBLE with Windows NT 3.51. If compatibility with
 Windows NT 3.51 is required, use the -nt switch rather than
 the -n switch.


Done.

C:\Users\David\Desktop>

Burn new.iso on to a DVD. The instructions for a Window 7 machine can be found here. The same instructions can be used for a Windows 8.1 machine. For a Windows 10 machine, find the new.iso file in the File Explorer, then right click on the new.iso file and select Burn disc image.

Note: The current 32 bit Windows 10 (20H2) release can be burned to a DVD or a rewritable (RW) DVD. However do to the larger size, the current 64 bit Windows 10 (20H2) release can only be burned to a dual layer (DL) DVD.

You can also transfer the new.iso file to a OS X machine and burn to a DVD using the Disk Utility.
Finally, install Windows 7, 8.1 or 10 using the new DVD.

Bootcamp Windows Installation – Guide For Using Boot Camp Support Software 4.0.4033 to Install 64 bit Windows 7, 8 or 10

This has been tested for Windows 7, 8 and 10.

These are the instructions for a Windows 7 Professional Service Pack 1 (64 bit) installation. Here, I assume the Boot Camp Support Software 4.0.4033 has been copied to a flash drive. The instructions were adapted from the originals given here.

Determine the drive letter of your flash drive, by inserting the drive in a USB port on the Mac. Below is an example of the expected popup. This image shows F: as the drive letter. Your drive letter my be different. You can close this popup.
Open a Administrator Command Prompt window by left clicking the Start button, left clicking All Programs, left clicking Accessories, right clicking Command Prompt, and then left clicking Run as Administrator. When prompted to allow changes, click on Yes. The window should appear as shown below.
Assuming F: is your flash drive, change your working directory by entering the following command in the Administrator Command Prompt window. Be sure to replace the letter before the : with the drive letter of your flash drive.
```
cd  /d  F:\Drivers\Apple
```
In the Administrator Command Prompt window, enter the following command to start installing the Boot Camp Support Software.
```
BootCamp64.msi
```
Follow the onscreen instructions.
Installation can take a few minutes. Don't interrupt the installation process. When installation is complete, click Finish in the dialog that appears.
A system restart dialog box appears. Click Yes to complete the installation.