Boot Camp Without Mac Cd

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Guest blog by Dhruba Jyoti Das, Parallels Support Team

One of my co-workers has previously written about the general procedure on how to set up a Windows virtual machine in Parallels Desktop based on your Boot Camp partition. But time flies fast, and Microsoft came up with Windows 10—not to mention, we recently released Parallels Desktop 11. Let me refresh what we’ve written in the past with updated instructions and the latest operating systems.

Jun 12, 2008  It’s no secret that I love Apple laptops but I much prefer Vista over OS X. I’ve upgraded to a MacBook Pro and wanted to see if I could get Windows Vista to install on my old 13″ MacBook without. How to download Bootcamp drivers without Bootcamp assistant? Ask Question. How do I download the Windows drivers for my 2010 MacBook Air without the BootCamp Assistant? Bootcamp windows-7 driver. Share improve this. It’s still 660MB or more, so it’s a full CD worth of burning time. You can now proceed with Boot Camp assistant.

You can take advantage of two different options in Parallels Desktop to work with a Boot Camp partition. Let me guide you through both options.

Option 1: Using your existing Boot Camp installation.

Fire up Parallels Desktop. With Parallels Desktop active, go to your Mac upper menu and select File→ New. In the Parallels Wizard, choose Use Windows from Boot Camp and click Continue.

If the option to Use Windows from Boot Camp isn’t present in Parallels Wizard, try the steps below:

  • Choose Install Windows or another OS from DVD or image file and then click Continue.
  • On the next page, click Locate manually and Continue without a source box.
  • Choose the type of operating system installed in Boot Camp. (For example: Windows 10.)
  • Make sure the Customize settings before installation box is checked. Click Continue.
  • In the Configuration window, switch to Hardware tab → Hard Disk 1.
  • From the Source drop-down list, choose your physical Boot Camp partition.
  • Close Configuration and continue your installation.

Option 2: Importing Boot Camp into a VM.

This process will help you to eventually migrate all of your Boot Camp data into the VM and get rid of the Boot Camp partition (or leave it as a separate install).

Here’s how to import Boot Camp into your Parallels Desktop VM:

  • Set Parallels Desktop to use Boot Camp, as described above.
  • Right-click on the Parallels Desktop icon on your Mac dock and open the Control Center.
Boot mac from cd drive
  • Right-click on the Boot Camp-based Windows and select Import Boot Camp.
  • Locate where you would like to store Windows and your data and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the import.

When you create a Boot Camp-based VM (as described in the first method), all of the changes you do on the Boot Camp side will be reflected in your VM and visa versa.For example, when you install a Windows program in the VM, it will also appear in Boot Camp.

On the contrary, if you import Boot Camp (using the second method), all the changes you do will be saved only on the side you actually perform them on. For example, if you install a Windows update on the VM side, it won’t appear in Boot Camp.

If you are starting fresh and you do not have Boot Camp, you do not have to set it up. You can simply set up Windows in a standalone VM. That gives Windows its own slice of real hard drive space so you can use it without having to shut down your Mac OS.

Hope this information helps! And don’t forget to follow the Support team on Twitter.

Installing Windows on a Mac should be a piece of cake with Bootcamp, but thatrarely is the case. In fact, I would personally say that Boot Camp Assistantis one of the worst apps that comes with OS X and unlike the rest, it doesn’twork seamlessly.

A few of its drawbacks:

  • It only supports a drive with a single partition.
  • It often throws very obscure error messages with limited detail.
  • It re-downloads 1.6 GB Windows drivers every single time it runs. These areplaced under /Library/Application Support/BootCamp/WindowsSupport.dmg anddeleted and re-downloaded each time Boot Camp Assistant starts processing.
Boot

This post did take a lot of work to complie and I did bone my hard drive afew times while trying certain ideas, so please throw out a thanks if ithelped you out :)

Disclaimer: This guide below contains procedures which can potentiallydestroy your partitions and data. I accept no responsibility for such loss soplease proceed at your own risk.

Update (2016-07-20): I have updated this post with further improvementsrelating to downloading of Boot Camp drivers and ensuring that a Hybrid MBR isnot used (which would cause issues when installing Windows).

  • An 8 GB or larger USB stick
  • A copy of the Windows 10 ISO
  • A valid Windows 10 license
  • A downloaded copy of unetbootin
  1. Start Boot Camp Assistant
  2. Select Action / Download Windows Support Software
  3. Choose your Downloads directory, enter your password and then clickSave

This will be the only step that we will use Boot Camp Assistant for.

Formatting Your USB Stick

Attach your USB stick and start Disk Utility, select your USB drive in theleft panel under External, click Erase and set the options as follows(exactly) and click Erase:

Name: FAT32
Format: MS-DOS (FAT)
Scheme: Master Boot Record

Turning Your USB Stick into a Windows Installer

Open unetbootin, enter your password, set the options as follows andclick OK:

Diskimage: checked, set to ISO and browse to your Windows 10 ISO
Type: USB Drive
Drive: Your USB drive (you should only see one entry here)

If you see more than one drive listed, you may confirm which is your USB driveby opening the Terminal and typing:

You’ll see your USB drive in the output and it should look something like this:

Boot Camp Without Mac Cd Download

Once you have kicked off unetbootin, grab a snack while the Windows ISO iscopied to the USB stick. This process takes around 15 minutes to complete.

Finishing Up

When this has completed, you may right click on the USB stick in Finder,select Rename “FAT32” and rename it as you like (I’ll call mine“WINDOWS 10”).

Finally, copy the WindowsSupport in your Downloads directory tothe Windows 10 USB stick so it’s easy to get to after our installation.

In Disk Utility, select your internal hard drive on the left panel, andclick on Partition.

Click the + button and create a new partition of your desired size for yourWindows installation and name it as you wish (I’ll call mine “BOOTCAMP”). Ensure that the Format is set to MS-DOS (FAT) and click on Apply.

Huge thanks to Rod’s post from the superuser post titledWindows detects GPT disk as MBR in EFI boot.

Once you add a FAT32 partition with either Boot Camp Assistant or Disk Utility,your disk is converted into a hybrid GPT / MBR disk which is actually notsupported by newer versions of Windows. In this step, we revert thisadditional change made by Disk Utility by switching back to a pure GPTpartition table.

  1. Dowload the latest version ofGPT fdiskby browsing to the version, then gdisk-binaries and clicking the filewith the *.pkg extension (e.g. gdisk-1.0.1.pkg).
  2. Install GPT fdisk by running the installer you downloaded

  3. Open a Terminal and check the state of your MBR

    If your MBR partition is set to hybrid, please continue with step 4,otherwise if it is set to protective, you may skip the rest of thissection. Simply type q and hit return to exit GPT fdisk.

  4. Type p to view the existing partition table and verify you’re workingon the correct disk

  5. Type x to enter the expert menu

  6. Type n to create a fresh protective MBR

  7. Type w to save your changes and confirm the change when asked

  8. Type q to exit GPT fdisk

  9. Run GPT fdisk to show your disk layout:

    Your partition table should look something like this:

Disconnecting All Devices From USB Ports

This step is critical as I have had rather serious problems during Windowsinstallation when certain external drives are connected.

Unplug everything from your Mac except your keyboard (if wired) and yourbootable Windows USB stick (which we prepared earlier).

If your Mac contains multiple physical drives, you will need to disconnectall disks except the one which you intend to install Windows on or you mayencounter the following error:

Windows could not prepare the computer to boot into the next phase of installation. To install Windows, restart the installation.

Booting From the USB Stick

Ensure that the USB stick containing the Windows installer is inserted andthen restart your Mac while holding down the option (alt) key.

You should now be presented with a list of bootable drives. Select the USBdrive (usually titled “EFI Boot”) to begin installing Windows.

Correcting Your Windows Hard Disk Partition

When you are asked Where do you want to install Windows?, select theWindows partition created earlier (which I called “BOOTCAMP”) and clickDelete.

Next, select the chunk of Unallocated Space and click on New to createa proper Windows NTFS partition.

Note: OS X only supports creation of FAT filesystems, so this is why we needto re-create the partition ourselves during install.

Completing the Installation

Allow the installer to complete and boot into Windows.

Installing Boot Camp Support Software

Once Windows is up and running, install the Boot Camp Support software runningWindowsSupport/BootCamp/Setup.exe on your USB stick.

Note: The installer takes a little while to show up, so please be patient.

You may encounter a known issue whereby the Boot Camp Support Softwareinstaller locks up while installing Realtek audio.

If this occurs, you will need to open Task Manager and kill theRealtekSetup.exe process.

After the installer has completed, answer No when prompted to rebootand install the Realtek drivers manually by running%USERPROFILE%AppDataLocalTempRarSFX0BootCampDriversRealTekRealtekSetup.exe.If you can’t find this file, check any other directories starting withRARSFX under %USERPROFILE%AppDataLocalTemp.

Once complete, reboot Windows.

  • The latest version of SharpKeys
  • The flipflop-windows-sheel binary (see README for a download link)

Mapping Your Mac Keyboard

Install and run SharpKeys and then configure the following mappings tocorrect your Mac keyboard so that it behaves like a regular Windows keyboard:

Function: F13 -> Special: PrtSc
Special: Left Alt => Special: Left Windows
Special: Left Windows => Special: Left Alt
Special: Right Alt => Special: Right Windows
Special: Right Windows => Special: Right Alt

Note: for F13, you’ll need to select Press a key and click F13 on yourkeyboard.

Mac Os Boot Disk Download

Switching to Natural Scrolling

If you wish to flip scrolling direction to match that on OS X, runFlipWheel.exe and then click on Flip All.

Boot Camp Without Mac Cd 2017

Enabling Num Lock on Boot

Paste the following into a file named Enable NumLock on Boot.reg thenimport this into the registry to enable NumLock when Windows boots up(it doesn’t by default).

Completing Configuration

That’s it, give your machine one last reboot and you’ll have a fully workingWindows 10 installation.

Note: I have found Apple’s Magic Mouse to be extremely unreliable usingthe Boot Camp drivers from Apple. As such, I recommend purchasing a Logitech(or similar) mouse for use in Windows. I have no trouble plugging thewireless receiver for my Logitech mouse into one of the USB ports of my wiredApple Keyboard and it’s so tiny that you can’t see it at all.

Removing the Windows Partitions

If you decide to remove Windows, you may find that Disk Utility doesn’t allowyou to delete the two partitions that have been created by the Windowsinstaller.

This happens due to the fact that the first small partition created is of atype called Microsoft Reserved which OS X’s Disk Utility doesn’t support.

The safest way to delete these partitions is through the Windows installer. Sosimply boot from your USB stick as we did before and when you reach theWhere do you want to install Windows? question, you may delete your“BOOTCAMP” partition and the small 16 MB partition of type MSR (Reserved)just above the BOOTCAMP partition.

Once done, simply quit the installer by clicking the X in the top right cornerof each Window and reboot back into OS X.

Removing the Boot Entry

Boot Camp Without Mac Cd Player

Even though we have removed the Windows partition, a boot entry will still bepresent when holding down option (alt) during boot.

Ultimate Boot Cd Mac

You may remove these items by running the following in your Terminal: