Bootcamp a 2009 iMac with a faulty superdrive?

It won't use the external drive though, as I still have a "working" superdrive it can see.

It won't look in both drives, its only going to look for the disc in my existing superdrive that can't read any discs (but still appears fine in OSX)

The external drive trick will only work if you don't already have a SuperDrive or have removed it entirely to replace with an SSD etc..

Concorde Rules said:
You can skip the choose installation media step??

I did it a month or so ago on my MBP and how do you do it on a MBA like the guide??

It is possible. I know it is!!
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I'd love to know how. I press next after the partition screen, then get a pop up error saying insert disc. I can then only click back without inserting the disc. Unless this is because I'm running bootcamp assistant 5 and they changed it recently ?
 
That won't work.

The bootcamp utility won't look at that drive as I have a superdrive installed already. The system can see it but it won't read discs.

To force it to swap over to the external one, I'd have to open the imac up and remove it. And if I'm going to do that i might as well buy a new one.
 
mrbell1984 said:
Read this.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3410900?start=0&tstart=0
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Ok so i worked out why this wasn't working. I hadn't followed it fully and renamed one of the arrays from PreUSBBootSupportedModels to USBBootSupportedModels.

Did this and i now have the 3rd option in bootcamp assistant "Create a Windows 7 install disk"

Did this and then followed the process through, got to the bit about partitioning the disk and it reported it couldn't partition the disk as there was an error and it required running disk util to fix. Rebooted, used cmd + r to boot into the recovery partition and tried running the disk tool. Didn't work as I had booted from the HD still and reported it couldn't unmount the drive.

So rebooted, booted back into OSX and created an OSX mountain lion USB recovery stick. Put that in, rebooted the mac, held down alt and now had a 3rd choice - boot into the USB stick. Did this and then managed to sucessfully repair the drive. Rebooted again and re-ran bootcamp. Bootcamp then ran through again, created the windows 7 flash drive, then partioned the drive. This ran through sucessfully this time and rebooted. It then attempted to boot into windows where it failed with:

No Bootable device - Insert boot disk and press any key. Tried pressing any key, and nothing. Its like its rebooted without any USB support. My USB wired keyboard is lit up, so I know it has power, but pressing any key makes no difference at all. It doesn't even clear the error and bring it back up again.

Now i know i can boot from this USB stick, as it booted from it when i turned it into a mountain lion recovery stick. So i guess any option of doing it from a USB stick is out as it looks like windows can't recognize the USB controller on my mac. Guess theres a reason that I didn't have that 3rd option.......

So I may give the external DVD drive option a go, just in case it does work. If it doesn't I think the only alternative is to get the Superdrive replaced, and cart my 27" imac to the local apple store. Which should be fun....
 
Just wondering if you ever managed to get this to work?

I have recently inherited a late 2009 27" iMac with a borked drive and have had no success with either using an external DVD drive or the ISO copied to a flash drive.

I can start the process with the external drive but when it reboots it comes up with the familiar "No bootable drive" message. From googling the problem I believe this is because even though at the start of the process the Boot Camp Assistant recognises that there is a Windows install disc in the external drive, by the time it reboots the system will ALWAYS and ONLY look at the Superdrive to boot.

I tried the ISO on a USB flash drive but couldn't get it to show up in the Boot Options menu, even though my USB k/b and mouse are powered happily.
 
BigDannyO said:
Just wondering if you ever managed to get this to work?

I have recently inherited a late 2009 27" iMac with a borked drive and have had no success with either using an external DVD drive or the ISO copied to a flash drive.

I can start the process with the external drive but when it reboots it comes up with the familiar "No bootable drive" message. From googling the problem I believe this is because even though at the start of the process the Boot Camp Assistant recognises that there is a Windows install disc in the external drive, by the time it reboots the system will ALWAYS and ONLY look at the Superdrive to boot.

I tried the ISO on a USB flash drive but couldn't get it to show up in the Boot Options menu, even though my USB k/b and mouse are powered happily.
Click to expand...

The no bootable drive message is the clue. It's one thing to copy an image onto a disc as data and another to make it bootable. If you download an ISO of Windows, you have to dd it to the USB drive. Bootcamp should do this, but I prefer to do it manually with the guide below.

Follow this guide and substitute references for Ubuntu to whatever you're trying to dd to USB (be it Windows or some flavour of Linux). This is how I've put all manner of Linux, Windows, Lion, Mountain Lion & Mavericks onto USB. Under the Ubuntu guide it says that you need to create an img file from the iso. You don't. I've never done so and I've never failed making a bootable USB.

The EFI boot loader is the biggest problem, which bootcamp also deals with. But again, I don't tend to use that. I use rEFIt / rEFInd since I dual boot with Linux as opposed to Windows.

http://refit.sourceforge.net/
http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/
 
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