I've followed the instructions to enable the "Create windows 7 install Disk" in bootcamp but I am attempting to install Windows 8.1. How do I force bootcamp to allow me to create a windows 7 or later install disk?
MacOS – Create bootable USB of Windows 8.1 on Mavericks 10.9.4
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Related Solutions
This adds on to Django's answer, pointing out how to allow the option for revealing "Create a Windows 7 Installation Disk" in Boot Camp Assistant.
I checked the Bootcamp documentation and it says I may have the option to "create a windows installation disk" but I don't have that option (unsure why?)
Because you cannot see this option, it is most likely because your computer is not supported in Boot Camp Assistant.app's Info.plist. However, that can be quickly changed.
Open a new Terminal window and run
sudo nano /Applications/Utilities/Boot\ Camp\ Assistant.app/Contents/Info.plist
Type in your password.
Move with the arrow keys down to the bottom where it says:
(I meant to start with " (<) key (>) USBBootSupportedModels (<) /key (/>), but I don't know how to ignore HTML markup here. If a moderator or someone who knew how could change this, that would be great.
<array>
<string>IM130</string>
<string>MM50</string>
<string>MP60</string>
<string>MB80</string>
<string>MBP90</string>
<string>MBA40</string>
</array>
Check for your computer model number in > About this Mac... > More info... > System Report... in Hardware Overview under Model Identifier. It should be something like
Model Identifier: iMac10,1
iMac = IM, Mac mini = MM...and your MacBook Air would be MBA. Now, simply take MBA and add it to the numbers after (MacBook Air3,2 to MBA32) without the comma.
Go back to your Terminal prompt and remove the current string part with MBA (you may want to make a note of this somewhere, in case you decide to revert later). Replace it with an identical one that says:
... <string>MBA32</string> ...
(Without the ellipses)
Now save the file by typing Control-O and confirming the WriteOut by pressing the return key (make sure Wrote xx lines appears). Quit and re-open Boot Camp Assistant, and the option should be available!
At this point, you can select your .iso image, as usual (given that you've already converted the .img)
I am not really sure why you would want to install Windows 8.1 without BootCamp.
The USB stick needs to be a little bigger than the .iso
file you are going to be burning. It doesn't matter if there is any data on it, this will totally erase the whole thing.
Steps To Achieve Victory
- Download the ISO you want to use
Open Terminal (in /Applications/Utilities)
2.1 Navigate to the path where the .iso file is located
2.2 Use
ls
to list all the folders2.3
cd /path/to/iso
to dive in to folder orcd ..
to go back the path- Convert
.iso
to.img
using hdiutil:
hdiutil convert -format UDRW -o /path/to/target.img /path/to/source.iso
- Rename if OS X gave it a
.dmg
ending:
mv /path/to/target.img.dmg path/to/target.img
- Type
diskutil list
to get a list of currently connected devices - Insert USB drive you want to use
- Run
diskutil list
again to see what your USB stick gets assignedeg - /dev/disk3
- Run
diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskN
(whereN
is the number assigned to your USB stick, in previous example it would be3
) - Run
sudo dd if=/path/to/target.img of=/dev/diskN bs=1m
(if you get an error, replacebs=1m
withbs=1M
- Run
diskutil eject /dev/diskN
and remove your USB stick - The USB stick will now be ready to use
IMPORTANT For the step #9 you can use the destination to /dev/rdiskN
to reduce the copy time.
NOTE: Sometimes, not always, Step #4 will be necessary. Not all the time. I am not sure why it will add the .dmg
ending and other times leave it alone.
NOTE 2: Might I suggest you learn the name of the .iso
you downloaded, or just rename it win8.1.iso
or something, and put it on your Desktop folder. That way, when you are typing commands like #3 and #4 etc, etc, you can type it like this:
hdiutil convert -format UDRW -o ~/Desktop/win8.1.img ~/Desktop/win8.1.iso
and
mv ~/Desktop/win8.1.img.dmg ~/Desktop/win8.1.img
and step #9 would look like this:
sudo dd if=~/Desktop/win8.1.img of=/dev/diskN bs=1m
IMPORTANT - You can track the progress by pressing CTRL + T It will show the process info and records in and out, since we use the bs=1m
each record is 1Mb in size so you can easily track the progress.
I don't mean to be insulting with Note and Note2, I am just making sure that you know what all these commands mean. It's the simplest method. Unless someone else comes up with something better.
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Best Answer
You have to have a version of Bootcamp AND Mac that explicitly supports Windows 8.1. Apple has a knowledge-base article that shows what O/S and Mac supports what version of Windows:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5634
Unfortunately there are some Mac models that just won't support certain versions of Windows. Interestingly (or oddly..) enough the new MacPro and most (many?) of the new Macs only support windows 8.