Installing Windows through Boot Camp

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I have a mid-2010 MacBook Pro and I am trying to avoid installing Windows using a DVD disc since my optical drive hasn't been used in ages and to be honest it has never performed well and always gave me errors and such (both on this MBP and my older '08 one).

I have been searching on how to install Windows using a USB Flash Drive and it turned out to be a hassle because only MacBooks without an optical drive are allowed to do that, however after following tutorials in several articles, I was able to edit the Info.plist in order to enable that feature and it worked. I burnt the ISO to the flash drive and used Boot Camp Assistant to create a partition and when I tried installing, it allow me to install to the Boot Camp partition saying: "Error: Windows Cannot Be Installed to This Disk. The Selected Disk Has an MBR Partition Table. On EFI Systems, Windows Can Only Be Installed to GPT.).

Any ideas guys?
 

chscag

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It sounds like your Macintosh HD is partitioned incorrectly. If it's showing up as MBR, that's not right. It should be partitioned as GUID. Open Disk Utility and check your hard drive to make sure.
 
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Tarek
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Thanks for your reply. I attached screen shots of Disk Utility. I am not sure whether it is MBR or GUID, I am inexperienced with such things.

Screen Shot 2014-11-16 at 7.52.02 PM.png

Screen Shot 2014-11-16 at 7.51.54 PM.png
 
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Tarek
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Okay, it is definitely GPT.

Screen Shot 2014-11-16 at 8.15.37 PM.png

Screen Shot 2014-11-16 at 8.18.22 PM.png
 

chscag

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That's not good Tarek. Make a full backup using Time Machine first and then go ahead and boot to recovery. From recovery, erase the hard drive, re-partition the Macintosh HD as GUID, reformat, and afterward restore your Time Machine backup. Then you should be able to install Windows via Boot Camp.
 
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Thanks for your reply. I am going to have to buy an external HDD in order to perform a Time Machine backup since there doesn't seem to be any alternative. You're sure it's not because I am trying to install Windows from a USB drive rather than a DVD disc, though, right? And one last thing, after I delete the HD, do I repartition it as 1 partition or 1 for Mac and 1 FAT32 for Windows? Should I just do the former and then use Boot Camp Assistant to re partition better?
 

chscag

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Repartition and reformat only one partition - your Macintosh HD. Do not touch the recovery partition (you can't anyway) or add another partition for Boot Camp. Let the Boot Camp assistant create the Boot Camp partition for you after all your data is restored and everything is running as normal. And yes, your Macintosh HD is partitioned incorrectly as GPT not the fault of the external USB drive. I don't know how you managed to do that but at one time or another in the past, you must have messed with it. Anyway, get it right this time and make sure it says GUID when you re-partition.
 
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And your model, as it came with an optical drive, will not install Windows from a thumb or other drive. Format the entire drive Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and then let BootCamp Assistant format the partition it sets up for Windows, using NTSF.
 
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I moved all the important files to my PC and I already re-partitioned and formatted the hard drive and all seems good and the computer is much, much faster. I am using Boot Camp Assistant to re-partition and attempt to install Windows now.

@harryb a lot of people got it to work after following the instructions so why not?
 

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