BootCamp Assistant is an application made by Apple that makes it easy to install and run Windows on a Mac. It’s not absolutely necessary to use the BootCamp Assistant however it does somewhat simply the process. It does this by automatically creating a separate partition on your hard drive and then uses that partition to run Windows on the Mac. The steps taken by BootCamp to install Windows on a Mac can also all be accomplished by using Disk Utility so we’ll go through both methods.
Understanding the Basics
Understand BootCamp
BootCamp Assistant does two things, it downloads all the drivers necessary for Windows to operate properly and makes it easy to partition your hard drive into 2 partitions. One partition will be used by your Mac to run Mac OS X and the other partition will be used to run Windows.
Basically what the drivers do, is allow your built-in camera, special keyboard function (like volume), magic mouse and trackpad to work properly. For example, without the drivers, when you press the volume button on your Apple keyboard it won’t do anything because there are no driver to tell Windows what that button does. The Windows support drivers should be installed even if you don’t plan on using the built-in camera or any of the other Apple hardware. It basically helps your Mac run Windows properly.
Next, why do I have to make a new partition to install Windows? Well the reason is that Windows and Mac don’t run on the same format. Macs run on Mac OS X (Journaled) and Windows runs on NTFS. Partitioning splits your hard drive into 2 separate sections, each with its own format. This means that your Mac will continue to run on Mac OS X (Journaled) and Windows will be able to run on NTFS. Think of it this way, the soon to be roommates both live in the same house but each get their own room customized to their own liking.
It’s not necessary to use BootCamp Assistant since it can all be done with Disk Utility, however I’ll go through that at the bottom of this article.
Preparing your Hard Drive with BootCamp
Partition with BootCamp
Whenever you do anything to modify the hard drive you should always make a backup first; it’s very unlikely that something will go wrong but best be on the safe side. After making a backup, open BootCamp, it can be found in the Applications/Utilities folder or by searching for it in spotlight.
Here you will see the options that allows you to “Download the latest Windows support software from Apple” and “Install Windows 7 or later version”.
Lets handle downloading the latest Windows support software first. BootCamp assistant wants you to download the support drivers directly onto a properly formatted USB flash drive. If you go this route, your USB drive has to be formatted as MS-DOS (FAT), this is because Windows can not read the default Mac format. It’s not necessary to go this route as the support drivers can be downloaded directly from the Apple website, even after you’ve installed Windows on your Mac. I’ve already covered how to format a drive, read the guide here if needed: Formatting a Drive
If you’d rather skip this step, just uncheck “Download the latest Windows support software from Apple”. Once you’ve got Windows installed on your Mac, it can be downloaded from BootCamp Recent Software Updates.
Next, onto partitioning the hard drive. Well first, it’s not always necessary to partition your drive. If you have more than one internal hard drive, and want to use it solely for Windows then there is no reason to partition it. Simply format it during the Windows installation. The same thing goes for an external hard drive that you want to use solely to run Windows on your Mac.
If you do want to partition your drive, BootCamp makes it really easy to do. It show two sections on the partitions page, OS X and Windows. Just drag the slider left and right to decide on how much space you want to dedicate to the Windows partition. For a bare minimum you should at least dedicate 20GB. It depends on what you want to do with this partition however. If you’re a gamer and plan on installing many games, you should probably dedicate more that 20GB to Windows. I’d recommend around 60GB-100GB, however it depends entirely on how you plan to use Windows on your Mac.
Once you’ve decided on the amount of space you’d like to dedicate to Windows click the “Install” button. BootCamp Assistant will immediately start partitioning your drive. It usually takes around a minute to complete. Next your Mac will restart. Make sure your Windows install disk is inserted as it will be needed right after the restart.
Installing Windows on a Mac
Installing Windows 8
Once your Mac restarts, it will load up the Windows installation files. Be patient, it can take a while, for me it took around 3 – 4 minutes. Once the install files are booted up, the first thing you’ll have to do is agree to the terms and conditions, after reading the 25 page policy of course…
Next, you’ll be presented with two options, Upgrade or Custom. Choose Custom: Install Windows only (Advanced).
In the next screen all the partitions on your Mac will be shown. If you used BootCamp the drive will be named BOOTCAMP. Select the drive that you’re going to install Windows on, double-check to make sure it’s the correct drive. Windows will show, “Windows can’t be installed on Drive 0 partition 4”. This is because BootCamp wasn’t able to format the drive to NTFS (this is normal). So we need to format this drive to NTFS, luckily it’s really easy.
After you’ve selected the correct drive, click “Drive options (Advanced)”. A little menu with the option to format will appear. Click on “Format”, once done, click “Delete”. Within a couple of seconds the drive will be formatted to the Windows NTFS format. The partition/drive will now be labelled, “Unallocated”, which is what we want. Now that it’s formatted, all that remains to be done is to simply click the “Next” button and Windows will start to be installed.
The entire process should take about 30-40 minutes on a regular drive, and will automatically restart multiple times during the process.
After it’s all complete and you’ve setup your user account (Windows will walk you through it), the BootCamp support drivers will need to be installed. Simply use the support software downloaded earlier or download it now from the Apple website and install it.
Install Windows on a Mac without BootCamp
Partition or Format
Installing Windows on a Mac without BootCamp is pretty much the same thing as installing it with BootCamp. For instance, the only thing BootCamp really did was download the support drivers and then partition the drive.
To do it without BootCamp simply open Disk Utility and select the drive you want to partition. Once selected, click the partition tab and then the little “+” symbol. Decide on the size of the partition, give it a name and choose a format. I suggest MS-DOS (FAT), however it doesn’t really matter as you are going to format it to NTFS later on when going through the Windows install process. Next simply restart your computer with the Windows installation disk inserted.
If Windows does not automatically start up when you restart your computer hold down the “Options” key when your Mac restarts/starts up. This will bring into view all the media attached to your Mac. Simply select the Windows installation disk and off you go.
Want to run Windows and Mac OS X simultaneously without having to restart every time? Read my other article about using Parallels.
This is the way to get the best performances running Windows on Mac, even If you have to reboot.
July 15, 2013 at 2:49 pmAgreed.
February 8, 2014 at 10:48 amCAN SOME ONE HELP ME I DELETE MAC SOFTWARE FROM MY MACBOOK AIR.NOW I WANT TO INSTALL WIN7 ON MY MACBOOK AIR.CAN IT POSSIBLE.
July 21, 2013 at 6:12 amIf you install bootcamp on a Mac and install windows, when you install programs on the windows side does it still look at the Mac OS side for installation? Or will it install on the Windows side of the OS?
October 18, 2013 at 12:45 pmWhen you install something on the Windows partition, it doesn’t look at your Mac partition. It doesn’t install anything to the Mac partition.
If you want to run Windows programs on your Mac you can use Parallels ( http://appducate.com/2013/06/run-all-windows-programs-on-mac-os-x-with-parallels/ ).
October 18, 2013 at 1:54 pmI’m struggling for 2 week.I istanation windows via usb with Boot Camp, before I format my USB on Mac OS exstended (journaled), I tried with many usb but when ever I switch windows to the usb on my return to MS-DOS FAT and I install it through Boot Camp can not ,say that it must be the format Mac OS exstended (journaled).Thanks of course
October 20, 2013 at 5:14 pmHi.
I’ve been trying to install windows 7 ultimate 64bit on my Mac from 2012. But after the formatting the bootcamp partition, it starts to install. But when the windows files are expanding it says that windows cannot install required files. I also tried a home professional, an enterprise edition but they all don’t work. What do I have to do? (Sorry if my English is incorrect.) I tried to install it with the iso file on a disk, I burned it with the speed 2.4
November 5, 2013 at 7:12 amHey there Mert, sounds like your Windows DVD is corrupt. You may need to re-burn the disk.
November 5, 2013 at 11:50 amHi there, trying to install Windows 7 64bit on my MBP with Retina Display using Boot Camp Assistant. Everything works well till
1) I don’t get the screen giving me choice to Upgrade or Custom (Advanced) Install; but can just click on Install Now, then, after selecting Bootcamp, I can’t seem to be able to format it as NTSF… even after selecting Bootcamp from the list and clicking on “Drive options (advanced).”and then on “Format”. It just gives me an error message afterwards. After that, doing a hard shut down and trying it again, my computer seems to no longer see/find the USB install disk. I have done it 4 or 5 times already, same thing happens every time.
December 6, 2013 at 9:23 amHi there, i have late 2013 MacBook pro retina 13″ and have installed a windows partition but It has NO drivers and i don’t Know how to install them without using an usb.
Not even network or usb drivers are found.
Thanks in advance
December 9, 2013 at 9:29 amI have a SSD and a 2TB drive in my iMac (2011) Latest OSX which comes with bootcamp5 I believe. When I run it – I set my 2nd drive to have a MSDOS fat partition. (it’s there done) when I reboot, I get the dos looking black screen with flashing cursor. The win8 SEEMS to try and boot off the DVD but then stops and it sits forever.
I made a ISO and tried it from USB drive but that drive is not a option when I with holding OPTION.
There is no way I can get win8 to install on that partition? Also I read something about it needing to be the 4th partition, that the boot drive has 3 partitions and bootcamp will fall into the 4th. If using my 2nd drive I think it has only one partition and the FAT partiion falls into the 2nd spot.
I don’t want to (don’t dare) partition my main drive SSD because I don’t want to mess up OSX or my data. “I THINK” if I could get bootcamp to the 4 partition it might work? I’ve been 24 hours on this. I verified my win8 DVD and it was fine. But it doesn’t want to load/boot.
AND ISO on a CD card in usb port doesn’t come up as a bootable option.
?? I use parallels and love it – but looking for better performance and compatibility with win games.
February 6, 2014 at 12:25 pmHey there Ron, sounds like your are doing everything right. A quick question for you, how did you go about burning the ISO onto your DVD as well as how did you go about getting it on your USB?
From the sounds of it, your DVD and USB drive are working properly, they just aren’t being picked up as a bootable drive. This happens when the ISO file is simply copied onto the drive/dvd instead of being properly mounted/restored onto it.
Open System Preferences -> Startup Disk -> plug your DVD/USB in. A bootable device will show up in the list, whereas an unbootable drive/dvd will not.
February 7, 2014 at 9:50 amSpent ever hour not sleeping on this! all day today. I am a PC geek of 34 years, but new to Mac. (which I now prefer). I didn’t realize that a .dmg wasn’t a .iso. I had just renamed it and I THINK That was part of the problem. After realizing that, I went to my PC (because I had problems on the Mac doing it) and I took my original win8 DVD and created a .ISO.
I found a thread that said use RUFUS to load the ISO and make a “bootable” USB flash drive from the ISO. (it spit up on the dmg) so used the PC made ISO.
What’s strange is this bootable USB ISO acts like a DVD (doesn’t allow writing to it)? seemed weird. As I wanted to put the bootcamp extra $device$ files on it that were downloaded during bootcamp assistant install.
Thinking I’m ready to go – I reboot – hold OPTION and my USB isn’t there. It shows my winDVD (original) Backup, OSX and that’s it. “SOMETIMES” it shows a EFI which I’ve tried and I get errors that I can’t use that.
The one place I have strayed is – I’m not using a flash drive, I’m using a USB card reader with a 32GB SD card. (should be same thing). ?
Crazy that the SD with ISO installed on it is “read only”. I assume I can manually update bootcamp install with the OSX files after I get windows installed.
If I use bootcamp assistant (now) I don’t imagine it could write the downloaded files to the USB since it’s read only.
Using your (check) your right – it’s not showing up as a bootable device. ( only my SSD )
I had thought maybe trying to use my 2nd 2TB internal was the problem, so I have made a partition on my SSD. (thank God I haven’t trashed my OSX partition – yet).
Not the bootable or the (just copied) ISO show up as a bootable drive. But I’m quite sure the bootable SD I made is a boot device? (unless it needs some sort of boot record)
Totally confused.
new facts.
1. I had the SD card formatted FAT. I now think it has to be journaled with guid option on? So I change the SD card partition to that with guide. Showing the partition, I see “one” partition and top part of blue. (I suspect the boot part).
2. not sure why the disc was acting like a DVD – I think… I may have had the little “lock” write protect on the SD card (using micro – in a adapter which has cheesy sliding lock). I had to unlock it to format it in my PC to get the ISO off. (which wasn’t working)
3. At this stage, I reformatted SD – journaled with guid. But then just copied ISO to it. And still doesn’t show up as a boot device. I have tried to “restore” the ISO to it as well using diskutil. (says it can’t verify source) and refuses. I don’t get it, all the help and doc files say Just copy over your ISO and stick it into the USB slot.
After another full day I conceded and threw in the towel. Still my stubborn brain keeps churning. My thoughts that turned to this.
1. Maybe my iMac isn’t suppose to boot from USB? it’s never a option. It originally had a DVD… before upgrading to SSD and 2TB
2. BOOTING from my win8 install DVD “does work” it starts to install – but bombs when I pick a partition… I have selected and formatted it through the install but doesn’t allow me to continue (EFI boot problem) and something about not being GPX? or MBR? or something.
With those thoughts – I’m wondering if I should be concentrating on installing from DVD and not USB. And that means trying to get past the install problem. Stumped until I hear back from you.
Also – I did get the win8 DVD to start to install… it gets to the point where it won’t install to a EFI booted device. None of the partitions allow it. I even went in and did a diskutil and formatted them to NTSF file system (extended) and still no. I format from the windows setup and it kills the partition and leaves them as unused space.
Thank you so much for your reply.
February 7, 2014 at 12:16 pmHey Ron, from what I’ve read so far in your comments it sounds like your have either a corrupt Windows 8 iso or more likely, your DVD isn’t properly burnt.
1. You said, “I didn’t realize that a .dmg wasn’t a .iso. I had just renamed it and I THINK That was part of the problem.” – Renaming file.dmg to file.iso isn’t going to work, and could very well be the root of your problem.
2. You said, “I had thought maybe trying to use my 2nd 2TB internal was the problem”. – It’s unlikely that your 2TB drive is the problem.
3. You said, “But then just copied ISO to it. And still doesn’t show up as a boot device. I have tried to “restore” the ISO to it as well using diskutil. (says it can’t verify source) and refuses. I don’t get it, all the help and doc files say Just copy over your ISO and stick it into the USB slot.” – Just coping the .iso file over will not work.
What I recommend:
1. I’m not to sure where you’re at with changing the .dmg to .iso. All that was just confusing. I’d say ditch all of that, and start fresh. Get yourself a proper Windows install iso file, or just use an actual Windows 8 install DVD that you’d pick up from a store.
2. Once you have the .iso, make sure you burn it to your DVD properly. For this I’d personally recommend ImgBurn as I’ve used it myself and it works brilliantly. Here is a full guide on how to use it and how to properly burn your DVD: https://neosmart.net/wiki/burning-iso-images-with-imgburn/
3. For the time being don’t worry about trying to get it setup on your USB drive.
4. When you get to the Windows installation part, be sure to format and delete the 2TB drive. (don’t worry it won’t actually delete the drive). It should be labelled as unallocated when done. Once it’s done, you can continue on with the installation using your properly burnt Win 8 DVD.
If you have any other questions throughout the process don’t hesitate to ask. Good luck Ron.
February 8, 2014 at 11:00 amI gave up but DID find a fix for the quirky mouse control when using parallels. Now my games like MASS EFFECT 2 and WARHAMMER 40k on parallels have ultra smooth mouse control. The solution was easily found with google.
I’ve been all over since the older replies. I created proper ISO. I installed it on CD and doesn’t ever appear in boot devices. I wonder if my Mac does not have the option to boot from USB? I hear some do not if they have a CVD drive and (this did). It’s now external.
MY win DVD is fine – It’s the original from MSFT. I have given up on the flash drive boot, why will the winDVD not load if I boot directly from it? (is that because the machine has no driver for the external drive?) and can’t handle it at that low of a level boot?
In addition to seeing the DVD icon to boot from – I also see a DVD ICON and “EFI” that will boot. Windows DVD does install. Until it says pick a partition. It then says I can’t installed to MBR must be a GPT drive.
So I went back and reformatted my 2TB internal as GUID (had to be mac format) went back to win install and it listed the drives and the GPT drive could not be installed to because it said it needed to be NTSF format. I tried to click FORMAT and it would not click. I gave up. Sticking with parallels I guess = (
I have tried to continue installing to “unallocated space” bit it will not. It says can’t install to MBR (master boot record) needs GPT drive. Which is why I reformatted to GUID and then it says NOT NTSF. To that I say WTF ;-)
February 8, 2014 at 11:09 ammeant to read installed it on SD (not CD)
February 8, 2014 at 11:10 am