Thanks a billion!
Hello everyone,
As the struggle was real, I thought I would also participate in this thread and share my testimonial with you.
For more than a week, I had been attempting to set up Windows 7 x64 on my mid-2014 MacBook Air 13", but to no avail. I was so sick of witnessing the infamous black screen, "no bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key", or the "select your language" window in the Windows 7 PE with no keyboard nor mouse alive, that I had almost given up on it all.
But that was before I came across the present thread. I diligently applied the procedure described by turbostar in the Apple Support forum thread, and IT WORKED LIKE MAGIC
<Edit> As the above link seems to be (momentarily?) broken,
here are the EXACT steps I followed:
"use a usb2 only flash drive, don't use usb3
disconnect all usb devices except for the flash drive you're using to install windows
before you try with the usb2 key, restart the machine and do a PRAM reset the open disk utility and repair permissions TWICE
open bca to remove/delete the prior windows partition (3rd box)
then restart bca, check all 3 options and report back".
That is basically it. At the end of the very last step ("restart bca, check all 3 options"), BootCamp will reboot the computer automatically, so make sure not to press any key (i.e. don't press alt-option, just let it reboot on its own).
My specs:
- Mid-2014 MacBook Air 13" with pre-installed Mac OS 10.9 (Mavericks)
- Windows 7 x64 Home Premium ISO file
- The most basic USB
2.0 flashdrive one can get
- (Note: I did not have rEFIt installed)
krissy, THANKS A BILLION for taking the time to give us an update and share the trick with us on this forum! I signed up on Mac Forums just so I could thank you!
That
turbostar guy must be some kind of wizard, for sure!
As a student in aerospace engineering, being able to work on Mac or Windows as I please is a real lifesaver; many high-end CAD programs are only available on Windows platforms. I can now finally work in peace!
So once again, thank you so much!
Take care,
tm