MacOS – How to get Windows to install in Legacy (BIOS) boot on the mid-2012 MBP

bootbootcampefimacoswindows

I've got a 13" mid-2012 MBP running OS X 10.10.3 Yosemite. I've recently repaved it with a fresh install and now I'm getting round to Bootcamp`ing it. I've installed Windows 8.1 in EFI boot mode and discovered the well documented issue with the sound card not working. Following various online guides to install Windows in legacy boot mode, I've held option at boot and selected "Windows" on the USB thumb drive that Bootcamp Assistant created but all I get is a black screen with a white blinking cursor. I've left it for 10 minutes but still nothing (some reports say it boots to the installer after a while).

I believe the disk is hybrid MBR (due to Bootcamp Assistant), here's the output from fdisk

Gregs-MBP:~ greg$ sudo fdisk /dev/disk0  
Password: 
Disk:   /dev/disk0  geometry: 60801/255/63 [976773168 sectors] Signature:   0xAA55   Starting       Ending  #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1: EE 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [         1 -     409639] <Unknown ID>   
2: AF 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [    409640 -  486812704] HFS+   
3: AB 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [ 487222344 -    1269536] Darwin   Boot   
4: 0B 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [ 488493056 -  488280064] Win95 FAT-32

How can I get Windows to install in legacy boot mode?

Note, I previously had Windows 8.1 working fine (audio and everything) and if I remember correctly I just ran Bootcamp Assistant and followed the instruction, no trouble.

Best Answer

Well I've finally found an answer: just use a Windows 8 install CD ROM with the standard 'install Windows 7 or later option' selected. Do not install Windows 8.1. It seems the problem is with the latter messing around Boot Camp normal procedures rendering audio and some other components unusable.

Where my MBP 13″ mid 2012 wouldn't complete my installation with Boot Camp before, now the installation starts in legacy via the CD, it just flows and at the end of it I get to install my version of the Boot Camp drivers found on the net and audio works fine.

What might have influenced the whole process was that I accidentally erased my whole disk, had to start from the recovery over the internet (Command + R at startup) and reinstall Yosemite and my files through my Timemachine backup). Maybe it fixes something with my old recovery and EFI partitions, but I can't know for sure.

Related Solutions

I think I messed up the Fusion Drive on the 1TB iMac (with BootCamp)

Theoretically everything is fine with your Fusion Drive. Fusion Drives look like this. Disk0 is your SSD with 121 GB and disk1 is your HDD with ~1 TB (~1.121 TB summed up).

The larger parts of your SSD (disk0s2) and your HDD (disk1s2) are pooled to a CoreStorage LVG (Fusion Drive: disk3) with a size of 967.8 GB. The rest is reserved for EFIs, a Recovery HD (alltogether ~1.3 GB) and your old Windows partition - now probably free space (~152 GB).

The logical volume 'Macintosh HD' (967.8 GB) spans disk0s2 and disk1s2. This is the first 'Macintosh HD' in picture 1. The volume 'Macintosh HD' - it's the one visible on the desktop - should ideally also have about 967.8 GB. This is the second 'Macintosh HD' in picture 1.
In fact it has only 852.67 GB (see picture 3).

In the second picture the logical volume 'Macintosh HD' is the first listed in black, the volume 'Macintosh HD' is the second listed in black, the other two 'Macintosh HD's listed in grey are the parts of your SSD and HDD dedicated to the logical volume 'Macintosh HD'.

In my opinion something went wrong after deleting various partitions with the Bootcamp Assistant/Disk Utility or in Windows.

Preparation:

Detach any external drive (especially your external Time Machine backup drive)
Restart to Internet Recovery Mode by pressing alt cmd R at startup.
The prerequisites are the latest firmware update installed, either ethernet or WLAN (WPA/WPA2) and a router with DHCP activated.
On a 50 Mbps-line it takes about 4 min (presenting a small animated globe) to boot into a recovery netboot image which usually is loaded from an apple/akamai server.

I recommend ethernet because it's more reliable. If you are restricted to WIFI and the boot process fails, just restart your Mac until you succeed booting.

Alternatively you may start from a bootable installer thumb drive (preferably Mavericks or Yosemite) or a thumb drive containing a full system (preferably Mavericks or Yosemite).

Now you may either repair CoreStorage or rebuild your Fusion Drive:

'Repair CoreStorage' (not recommended):

First i would try to check the volume 'Macintosh HD' with Disk Utility. If the volume is corrupted consider a reinstall of Mac OS X.
If the volume is ok quit Disk Utility
Open Terminal and enter diskutil unmountDisk /dev/LVIdentifier and both diskutil unmountDisk /dev/DiskContainingApple_CoreStorageIdentifier
In your case: first diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk3 then diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk0 and diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk1
remove the EFI NO NAME partition with gpt remove -i IndexNumberOfEFINoName DiskIdentifier:
gpt remove -i 4 disk1
Remount the CoreStorage disks and then the Logical Volume:
In your case: first diskutil mountDisk /dev/disk0 and diskutil mountDisk /dev/disk1 and then diskutil mount /dev/disk3.

enter gpt -r -vvv show /dev/diskIdentfierOfApple_CoreStorage to get infos of your HDD CoreStorage disk.
In your case: gpt -r -vvv show /dev/disk1
It should look like this:

-bash-3.2# gpt -r -vvv show /dev/disk1
gpt show: /dev/disk1: mediasize=1000204886016; sectorsize=512;         blocks=1953525168
gpt show: /dev/disk1: PMBR at sector 0
gpt show: /dev/disk1: Pri GPT at sector 1
gpt show: /dev/disk1: GPT partition: type=C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B, start=40, size=409600
gpt show: /dev/disk1: GPT partition: type=53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC, start=409640, size=1671210848
gpt show: /dev/disk1: GPT partition: type=426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC, start=1671620488, size=1269760
gpt show: /dev/disk1: Sec GPT at sector 1953525167                               
     start          size  index contents                                        
         0             1        PMBR                                            
         1             1        Pri GPT header                                  
         2            32        Pri GPT table                                   
        34             6
        40        409600      1 GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
    409640    1671210848      2 GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
1671620488       1269760      3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
1672890248     280634887
1953525135            32        Sec GPT table
1953525167             1        Sec GPT header

The free space on your HDD has 280634887 blocks. Please calculate the biggest block number dividable through 8. That's 280634880 blocks (á 512 bytes) which equals 143685058560 B or ~143.7 GB. Add the size of your HDD CoreStorage Physical Volume (852666400768 B) The result is 143685058560 B + 852666400768 B = 996351459328 B
Resize your HDD CoreStorage physical volume with diskutil cs resizeDisk HDDPVUUID newsize
In your case: diskutil cs resizeDisk 93892BE8-2B7F-4ABD-A4C3-984495DCD98D 996351459328b
Calculate the maximal size of your CoreStorage Logical Volume in diskutil cs list: (size disk0s2) + (size disk1s2) In your case that's 120988852224 B + 996351459328 B = 1117340311552 B. That should be the size of your refreshed Logical Volume Group.
Resize your Logical Volume with diskutil cs resizeVolume LVUUID LVGSize-128 MB In your case that's diskutil cs resizeVolume D237FFDC-7DA4-41D7-AC13-4CC7E5E8C0A0 1117212311552b. If you get an error (There is not enough free space...) choose a smaller size like 1117148311552b.
Quit Terminal and open Disk Utility.
Check your expanded CoreStorage Volume for errors.
Quit Disk Utility, choose your CS volume as startup disk and restart your Mac

'Rebuild Fusion Drive' (recommended if you have a Time Machine backup)

Booted to Internet Recovery Mode open Utilities → Terminal in the menubar and enter:
diskutil cs list to get the CoreStorage listing.
Copy the Logical Volume UUID, it's the fifth listed.
Now delete the Logical Volume with diskutil cs deleteVolume LVUUID.
In your case: diskutil cs deleteVolume D237FFDC-7DA4-41D7-AC13-4CC7E5E8C0A0.
Copy the Logical Volume Group UUID, it's the first listed in the listing of diskutil cs list.
Then delete the Logical Volume Group with diskutil cs delete LVGUUID.
In your case: diskutil cs delete 1EFE58BC-3613-44C4-86EE-D816F3B66E3E
Enter exit and quit 'Terminal'
Open 'Disk Utility'. Enter 'Ignore' if you are asked to fix the drives.
Choose your SSD and partition it: 1 Partition Mac OS X Extended (Journaled), hit the Options button and choose GUID Partiton table and hit OK and Apply.
Please check that the size is ~121 GB

Example:
Choose your HDD and partition it: 1 Partition Mac OS X Extended (Journaled), hit the Options button and choose GUID Partiton table and hit OK and Apply.
Please check that the size is ~1 TB

Example:
Quit Disk Utility and open Terminal
Enter diskutil list

Example (your disk identifiers and sizes are different of course: Your volume SSD probably has the Identifier disk0s2 and the size 121 GB and your volume HDD probably has the Identifier disk1s2 and the size 1.0 TB):
Enter diskutil cs create "Name" IdentifierSSD IdentifierHDD
In your case probably diskutil cs create "Macintosh HD" disk0s2 disk1s2.

Copy the resulting LVGUUID

Example:
Enter diskutil cs CreateVolume LVGUUID jhfs+ "Macintosh HD" 100%.

Example:
Enter diskutil cs list
Check the size of your Logical Volume. It should have the size ~1.121 TB

Example:
Quit Terminal
Open 'Disk Utility' and check your newly created volume for errors
Quit 'Disk Utility'
Attach your external Time Machine backup drive or check this answer if you use NAS or another network share.
Open 'Restore from Time Machine Backup'
Choose the appropriate Time Machine backup and restore your system
Reboot to your restored system.
Unmount and detach your Time Machine backup drive
Open 'Terminal' and enter 'diskutil list'
Check if your 'Recovery HD' is listed.
If your 'Recovery HD' is missing, usually reinstalling your current system with the latest available system installer (e.g. 'Install OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)' if Mavericks is currently installed) will recreate it without loosing any data. AFAIK Recovery Partition Creator 3.8 will NOT create a Recovery HD on CoreStorage volumes.
After reinstalling the system with the latest available system installer open App Store and install the latest security fixes.

Windows – Bootcamp Windows 7 installation, USB is not recognized only on bootloader

I attach answer here as you guys suggested.

SOLVED - Bootcamp Windows 7 installation without USB, ODD

OK, I'll explain how I worked it. I followed almost of all of David's method here and here, but there are little differences.

Before we start, please note that I'm using MacPro4,1 which does not support USB installation of boot camp and I detached ODD. Instead, I attached another HDD in Bay 2.

You need rEFInd, VirtualBox, NTFS support for OS X (like Paragon or NTFS-3G), a bootable Windows installation ISO. Service Pack applied ISO is also ok.
Update Mac firmware as recent one as possible. here
Open Boot Camp Assistant and download driver files into any usb. (Just 2nd option of 3 of boot camp. if your boot camp assistant does not have 3 options, it would be 1st option)
install NTFS support for OS X, rEFInd and VirtualBox.
Format a partition with MS-DOS(FAT) which is going to install Windows.
- I recommend you not to use Boot Camp Assistant app to format. Use Disk Utility instead.
In terminal, type diskutil list and remember disk and partition number of target partition. In this example, I use disk 1 and partition 1. So, disk1s1

Unmount partition and set permission.

diskutil unmount /dev/disk1s1

sudo chmod 777 /dev/disk1s1

Create VirtualBox image with raw disk access. anywhere except bootcamp partition

sudo vboxmanage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename bootcamp.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/disk1 -partitions 1

sudo chown $USER bootcamp*.vmdk

Open VirtualBox and create a VM. Just set disk as what you already made, and ISO file of windows installation.
Start VM and install as normally, BUT when you get in 'setting computer name' phase, shutdown VM forcibly.
Turn off VirtualBox, and delete all files in the boot camp partition (including BOOT folder and bootmgr file - If you can not find them in Finder, use terminal to delete them or change Finder option with defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES)

Of course, Before open finder, mount partition first. (If you didn't installed NTFS support, you can't mount or delete file)
```
diskutil mount /dev/disk1s1
```
double click windows ISO and copy all of the item into boot camp partition
Reboot Mac and in rEFInd bootloader, select 'Windows NTFS volume'
Install windows again, but DO NOT format boot camp partition.
Installation is finished. When you see desktop, install Boot Camp Driver which you downloaded at Step 3
After boot camp driver is installed & if you can see 'Windows' on OS X boot loader (which you can enter by pressing alt/option), you don't need rEFInd anymore. You can delete it in OS X.
You will see bootup selection between 'Windows 7' and 'Windows Setup' when booting Windows. If you don't want to see it, Go to Control Panel - System - Advanced Settings - Advanced tab - Click Setting button which lies on 'Startup and Restore' section - Uncheck first one.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

I think I messed up the Fusion Drive on the 1TB iMac (with BootCamp)

Windows – Bootcamp Windows 7 installation, USB is not recognized only on bootloader

SOLVED - Bootcamp Windows 7 installation without USB, ODD

Related Question