No bootable device when trying to install Windows 7 on a 2011 MBP

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I'm trying to install Windows 7 on a 2011 Macbook Pro. After partitioning the harddisk I inserted my DVD which has WIndows 7 ultimate on it, and selected 'Start the Windows installer'.
Instead of Windows automatically booting up, and the thing installing itself, I get this error message:
'No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key'

When I turn off the computer and restart with alt/option pressed down, the only choice I get is the Macintosh partition....

Any ideas?>
 

bobtomay

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And this DVD of Windows came from where?
 
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I can not reply for the original poster but I am experiencing the same problem. I downloaded Windows 7 from microsoft.com - the full LEGAL version. I run bootcamp and it does not recognize a disc. So I assumed I need to burn to a disk first. I right clicked and burned the file to disk ( Is this where I went wrong? Do i need to do something in Disk Utility?) the files are the same as the desktop version on my disk...

Anyway, When I click install Windows in Boot Camp now, it restarts my computer as if it is going to install and says no bootable disc...what do I need to do to get windows to install?

Thanks for your help in advance,
Ben
 

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You can not just burn the downloaded copy to a DVD. You have to run the executable to create an ISO file and then burn the ISO to a DVD using either Disk Utility or another program which can do the same thing.

If the download from MS is in the form of an ISO already, just burn the ISO to a DVD. That will render the DVD bootable so you can use it with Boot Camp.
 
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The Windows version I downloaded was the 32 bit iso version. I burned the iso disc ti dvd at 2.4 and get this error.
 

chscag

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Try downloading the ISO again and burn it once more. It's possible the first download may be corrupt. Be sure to use either Disk Utility or another program that can burn an ISO.

The ISO download from MS is designed to be burned to DVD which will make it bootable. It's the same as if you bought a boxed copy of Win 7 from the store.
 
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Boot camp error

My macbook pro is doing the same thing, i tried installing the boot camp and put in an installation dvd instead of a cd. i clicked to install and now my computer black screens and says "No bootable disc-- insert bootable cd press any key" i cant eject the current dvd (or atleast i dont know how) and every time i restart it does the same thing.
 
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Bootcamp "No bootable device" message when trying to install Windows from a DVD

Like other people whose postings I've read on several web sites, I too got that aggravating "No bootable device..." error message from my Mac (in this case, a Mac Mini running OS X 10.6) when I tried to install Windows 7 using Bootcamp Assistant. After several hours of troubleshooting on my own, and several more hours of fruitless troubleshooting with a Mac customer support rep, I finally found a solution.

Background:
I purchased my copy of Windows 7 (64 bit) online from the Microsoft store web site. I downloaded it to my Mac as an ISO file. However, to install it using Bootcamp, I had to make a copy of it on DVD. So, after I downloaded it, I right-clicked on the ISO file's image, then selected the "Burn...to disc" option. The Mac then burned the ISO image to a DVD for me. The DVD's contents and the ISO file's contents looked virtually the same when I viewed them in Finder. So, I figured I was ready to go.

I opened Bootcamp Assistant, partitioned my hard drive, inserted the Windows 7 DVD, and selected the "Start Installation" option. The Mac then rebooted and after a moment of seeing a blank gray screen, the screen went black and then displayed that "No bootable device..." error message. No matter what key I pressed, nothing worked.

To cut to the chase, the problem, at least in my case, was that Mac burned my DVD in "Mac OS Extended" format. (I don't recall the Burn utility giving me the option to choose the DVD's format. Apparently, it chooses the Mac OS Extended format for you.) After trying many other things, I discovered that, at least for my machine, the Mac OS does not recognize a DVD in Mac OS Extended format as a bootable device. On a lark, I downloaded the Windows 7 ISO file to an older Windows machine I had, and used a different Burn utility to burn another copy of the DVD. In this case, the utility burned it in "UDF" format.

When I tried the Bootcamp assistant install again, this time with the Windows 7 DVD in UDF format, it worked perfectly!

I'm a newbie to the Mac. Maybe a Mac vet would have known about this situation, but I didn't see it documented anywhere in the Bootcamp Windows Installer printed instructions, nor did I learn it from the Apple customer rep. I'm obviously not the only person out there who has purchased a copy of Windows online, instead of shrink-wrap format, used the Mac disk burning utility to create a DVD version of the ISO file, and then subsequently encountered this "No bootable device" error. I'm absolutely amazed that Apple either doesn't know about this issue at all, or hasn't bothered to let its customers know about it. In any case, I hope this post will spare someone else who encounters this problem several hours of aggravation and unsuccessful troubleshooting.
 
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Also can I suggest that in most of these cases people are burning the FILE to a disc.

What needs to happen is that the DISC IMAGE needs burning.

An ISO is a disc image - it contains an exact replica of a DVD/CD. If the ISO is just burnt to a disc you'll end up with a disc contain one ISO file. The ISO needs to be burnt as an image. Use Disk Utility to 'Burn Image'.

This way, so long as the disc image was bootable when it was created (by Microsoft in this case) the disc will end up bootable too.
 
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I have had to burn the ISO for friends using my Win7 partition on my MBP before it would boot correctly. I tried it with the OSX though I have no special software on OSX for burning disks. On Win7, I have Roxio and use their "Burn Image to Disk" setting and pointed it at the ISO file. Once I started doing that, worked like a charm. I have done 8 of these so far.

And if you downloaded an EXE, you HAVE to use a Windows machine to run it to decompress the ISO for burning onto disk.

And if the ISO didnt come from Microsoft, you are on your own.
 
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I downloaded an ISO file from Microsoft to my Mac. I used the Mac's disk burning utility (I'm pretty sure it's "Disk Utility") to create a DVD version of the ISO file. The resulting DVD had all of the same files on it that the ISO file contained: setup.exe, a boot folder, etc... This DVD did not work with Bootcamp Assistant. I burned another DVD of this same ISO file on another machine using a different disk burning utility. In this case, it was "Power2Go". That DVD contained the same files as the ISO file, and the first DVD I burned. This 2nd DVD did work with Bootcamp, i.e., it installed Windows 7 on my Mac. The only discernible difference between the 2 DVDs is the one that didn't work was in "Mac OS Extended" format, while that one that did work was in "UDF" format.
 
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The only discernible difference between the 2 DVDs is the one that didn't work was in "Mac OS Extended" format, while that one that did work was in "UDF" format.

This is exactly why I used Roxio to burn the image. I used Win7 because I had Roxio for Windows and didnt feel like purchasing another license.

Mac OS Extended is not bootable for Windows.
 
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Apparently, DVDs in Mac OS Extended format aren't bootable in Mac OS X either, at least not on my Mac. When I put the M.O.E format DVD of Windows 7 in my Mac Mini drive, and then navigate to the "Start Up Disk" function, the DVD doesn't show up as a bootable disk. However, when I put the UDF format DVD of Windows 7 in the drive, then navigate to "Start Up Disk", the DVD does show up as a bootable disk.

Again, maybe this was a "newbie mistake" on my part. Maybe Mac vets know that M.O.E. formatted DVDs aren't bootable on Windows, Mac, or Bootcamp Assistant. However, this certainly isn't common knowledge, and apparently the Apple customer rep who tried to help me didn't know it. As part troubleshooting of this problem, I downloaded the Windows 7 ISO file to my Mac twice, burned it to DVD on my Mac twice (both times in Mac OS Extended format), reloaded the Mac OS X operating system from scratch, restored all of my files from backup (thankfully Timecapsule worked the first time!), and purchased a USB enabled keyboard (I was using a wireless keyboard initially). All told, this took several hours of work, and it did not fix the problem. It was only when, on a whim, I decided to create a DVD version of the Windows 7 ISO file on a different machine using different burning software (which fortunately created the DVD in UDF format) that the problem finally was fixed.
 

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Unfortunately, when someone purchases direct from the Microsoft store, MS expects that person to expand the *.exe or burn the *.iso on a Windows machine.

Disk Utility is a handy tool for burning but not the best for burning a bootable *.iso for Windows as you found out. I suggest downloading a free burning program and use it instead of Disk Utility. The free "Burn" is a good one. It defaults to the UDF format.
 
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thanks i love youuu; you help me a lot.

Like other people whose postings I've read on several web sites, I too got that aggravating "No bootable device..." error message from my Mac (in this case, a Mac Mini running OS X 10.6) when I tried to install Windows 7 using Bootcamp Assistant. After several hours of troubleshooting on my own, and several more hours of fruitless troubleshooting with a Mac customer support rep, I finally found a solution.

Background:
I purchased my copy of Windows 7 (64 bit) online from the Microsoft store web site. I downloaded it to my Mac as an ISO file. However, to install it using Bootcamp, I had to make a copy of it on DVD. So, after I downloaded it, I right-clicked on the ISO file's image, then selected the "Burn...to disc" option. The Mac then burned the ISO image to a DVD for me. The DVD's contents and the ISO file's contents looked virtually the same when I viewed them in Finder. So, I figured I was ready to go.

I opened Bootcamp Assistant, partitioned my hard drive, inserted the Windows 7 DVD, and selected the "Start Installation" option. The Mac then rebooted and after a moment of seeing a blank gray screen, the screen went black and then displayed that "No bootable device..." error message. No matter what key I pressed, nothing worked.

To cut to the chase, the problem, at least in my case, was that Mac burned my DVD in "Mac OS Extended" format. (I don't recall the Burn utility giving me the option to choose the DVD's format. Apparently, it chooses the Mac OS Extended format for you.) After trying many other things, I discovered that, at least for my machine, the Mac OS does not recognize a DVD in Mac OS Extended format as a bootable device. On a lark, I downloaded the Windows 7 ISO file to an older Windows machine I had, and used a different Burn utility to burn another copy of the DVD. In this case, the utility burned it in "UDF" format.

When I tried the Bootcamp assistant install again, this time with the Windows 7 DVD in UDF format, it worked perfectly!

I'm a newbie to the Mac. Maybe a Mac vet would have known about this situation, but I didn't see it documented anywhere in the Bootcamp Windows Installer printed instructions, nor did I learn it from the Apple customer rep. I'm obviously not the only person out there who has purchased a copy of Windows online, instead of shrink-wrap format, used the Mac disk burning utility to create a DVD version of the ISO file, and then subsequently encountered this "No bootable device" error. I'm absolutely amazed that Apple either doesn't know about this issue at all, or hasn't bothered to let its customers know about it. In any case, I hope this post will spare someone else who encounters this problem several hours of aggravation and unsuccessful troubleshooting.

thanks a lot, finally im installing windows 7, i burn on a windows laptop and go perfect; thanks seriously for take the time to post your experience. THANKSSSS
 
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Very Helpful

Like other people whose postings I've read on several web sites, I too got that aggravating "No bootable device..." error message from my Mac (in this case, a Mac Mini running OS X 10.6) when I tried to install Windows 7 using Bootcamp Assistant. After several hours of troubleshooting on my own, and several more hours of fruitless troubleshooting with a Mac customer support rep, I finally found a solution.

Background:
I purchased my copy of Windows 7 (64 bit) online from the Microsoft store web site. I downloaded it to my Mac as an ISO file. However, to install it using Bootcamp, I had to make a copy of it on DVD. So, after I downloaded it, I right-clicked on the ISO file's image, then selected the "Burn...to disc" option. The Mac then burned the ISO image to a DVD for me. The DVD's contents and the ISO file's contents looked virtually the same when I viewed them in Finder. So, I figured I was ready to go.

I opened Bootcamp Assistant, partitioned my hard drive, inserted the Windows 7 DVD, and selected the "Start Installation" option. The Mac then rebooted and after a moment of seeing a blank gray screen, the screen went black and then displayed that "No bootable device..." error message. No matter what key I pressed, nothing worked.

To cut to the chase, the problem, at least in my case, was that Mac burned my DVD in "Mac OS Extended" format. (I don't recall the Burn utility giving me the option to choose the DVD's format. Apparently, it chooses the Mac OS Extended format for you.) After trying many other things, I discovered that, at least for my machine, the Mac OS does not recognize a DVD in Mac OS Extended format as a bootable device. On a lark, I downloaded the Windows 7 ISO file to an older Windows machine I had, and used a different Burn utility to burn another copy of the DVD. In this case, the utility burned it in "UDF" format.

When I tried the Bootcamp assistant install again, this time with the Windows 7 DVD in UDF format, it worked perfectly!

I'm a newbie to the Mac. Maybe a Mac vet would have known about this situation, but I didn't see it documented anywhere in the Bootcamp Windows Installer printed instructions, nor did I learn it from the Apple customer rep. I'm obviously not the only person out there who has purchased a copy of Windows online, instead of shrink-wrap format, used the Mac disk burning utility to create a DVD version of the ISO file, and then subsequently encountered this "No bootable device" error. I'm absolutely amazed that Apple either doesn't know about this issue at all, or hasn't bothered to let its customers know about it. In any case, I hope this post will spare someone else who encounters this problem several hours of aggravation and unsuccessful troubleshooting.

I searched on the internet for a half hour before finding this post. I have a feeling this is not an uncommon problem and there is not much info available on the subject. Thanks so much for posting the fix; you saved me and probably many others a lot of time and headache!!!
 
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Thank you

I am having the same problem and it is a pain in the harse!! I have tried hours ( maybe 24) searching for solutions with no success. No explanations. I will try your tip.

Thank you!
 
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I had the same problem but then I realised that I had the "upgrade" not the actual installation disk so you should check that you have an installation disk not an upgrade disk
 

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