Install Windows 7 on Mac using Boot Camp

Here is a detailed guide and walkthrough on how to install Windows 7 on Mac using Boot Camp Assistant. This guide will help you dual boot your Mac with Windows 7 using Boot Camp. Boot Camp Assistant prepares you Mac machine for Windows. It creates a partition for Windows and starts the Windows installer. Having a Windows system in a Mac, offers you the advantage of using the two operating systems. There are some cases that the application you want to use can only be run in Windows. In this case, learning how to install Windows 7 on Mac using Boot Camp will help you solve that problem.

In my case, I like both OS and wanted to bet the best of both worlds. With this I decided that dual-booting Mac with Windows 7 would help me more. Below are the steps on how to install Window 7 on Mac using Boot Camp.

Requirements:

            ⁃            Mac OS X v10.7

            ⁃            Boot Camp 4

            ⁃            Windows 7 ISO file or Windows 7 bootable USB flash drive with 8GB capacity or more

Step-by-Step Guide on How to Install Windows 7 on Mac using Boot Camp Assistant:

-       Open Boot Camp Assistant located in Applications/Utilities Folder

-       Click Continue button in Boot Camp Assistant

-       In the next windows, select the appropriate task and click ‘Continue’

Only Select ”create a windows 7 install disk, if you have a windows 7 ISO file, Else you need one Windows 7 bootable USB pen drive with 8GB capacity or more. You can crate the bootable Windows 7 pen drive using the tool (http://images2.store.microsoft.com/prod/clustera/framework/w7udt/1.0/en-us/Windows7-USB-DVD-tool.exe) from Microsoft.

           

Only Select 'download the latest windows support software from Apple' if you have a good Internet connection and have patience. (Most of the time the download fails. As it's about 700MB. Alternatively you can always download the Windows support software from http://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/others/index-lion.merged-1.sucatalog directly. But to identify the actual download file link, open the above link and find for 'BootCampESD.pkg'. You will get two or more of this files in your search result. Now for each of the instance, go for the distribution list details, which will be a few lines above the file name. eg. 'http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/42/63/041-4778/K6D5nFM78BPscB3sWqjhRSJrt8FnBtmTyz/041-4778.English.dist'. Open that link and check for 'var models'. You need to locate your Mac version in this. e.g. 'MacBookAir4,1','MacBookAir4,2','Macmini5,1','Macmini5,2','Macmini5,3'. If it's listed, then use that particular BootCampESD.pkg file for your Mac).

-       Let Boot Camp Assistant save the Windows Support Software (“BootCampESD.pkg) and copy the files.

-       Create a partition for Windows, then click Partition button. (Partition size depends on how often you will use Windows. I recommend 100GB or higher in creating a partition for Windows as you do not want having not enough disk space popping up, I had set it to 100GB)

-       Wait for Boot Camp Assistant to finish partitioning the disk

-       From the System Settings, choose the newly created BOOTCAMP partition as a startup disk, and manually restart your Mac

-       Restart your Mac and hold down the Option button at boot and select the BOOTCAMP partition

-       Insert your Windows USB Bootable USB drive, then restart your Mac, and press “C“. (You’ll be seeing a completely gray screen, just wait until your USB drive loads)

-       Proceed in installing Windows 7.

-       From the Windows 7 installation screen, accept the license agreement

-       Select Custom (advanced) installation

-       Choose the BOOTCAMP partition

-       Click on Drive options (advanced), then select Format, click OK

-       Proceed with the installation by clicking the Next button

-       Windows 7 will continue to install, just wait until the Windows installer finish the necessary steps. Note that your Mac computer may restart several times during the installation.

-       After Windows 7 installation is complete, you will have to enter some information like User Name and Computer Name, proceed in doing so.

Windows 7 is now running in your Mac. But before the celebration, do the steps above to fully complete the installation.

-       Insert your USB drive that contains the Windows Support Software files

-       Install the Windows Support by running the setup.exe found in the WindowsSupport folder. Doing the step above will run the Boot Camp installer.

-       Proceed with the install, by clicking Next

-       Accept the Boot Camp license agreement, and hit Next

-       Select the Apple Software Update for Windows feature, and click Install (This will install the Apple Software Update, which contains the necessary files and drivers for your newly installed Windows in your Mac)

-       Once Boot Camp installer is completed, click Finish to quit the installer.

-       Restart your system to make the configuration changes made by Boot Camp Services to take effect.

Congratulations! Windows 7 is now completely installed in your Mac machine. You have successfully dual boot Mac and Windows. You may now get to use Windows 7 together with your Mac OS X. Boot Camp Assistant provides us with great help in partitioning the Macintosh HD, adding a Windows partition in the Mac machine. It prepared our Mac for the Windows 7 installation. Hope you enjoy this guide on how to install Windows 7 on Mac using Boot Camp.