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2008 Mac Pro 3,1 not compatible with BootCamp 5 / Windows 8?

D

DualShock

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 29, 2008
570
124
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5634

I'm still running Lion 10.7.5 on my 2008 Mac Pro, and was hoping that Windows 8 would work with a set of updated Boot Camp drivers. ARGH!

I'm guessing that it works "unofficially" though. Is anyone running Windows 8 on a 3,1? Has anyone actually tried to install the Boot Camp 5 drivers?
 
You don't need Bootcamp or the drivers at all. I've installed Windows 7 and 8 'manually', never bothering with the Bootcamp drivers, and have had no problems whatsoever except for having to find a missing sound driver.
 
I had no trouble installing and running Windows 8 on a 2008 3,1 Mac Pro when Windows 8 was initially released. I used the current BootCamp Windows 7 drivers downloaded at the time.
 
Dissapointing Apple won't officially support it with proper Bootcamp drivers for windows 8 though. I guess Apple has officially retired our 2008 mac pro's in their eyes..... Despite them being more than capable machines.
 
I just installed Win8 on a 2006 Macbook. I used the Boot Camp software from BC 3.0 I think? And the drivers work fine. Just use the newest BC drivers for your computer and you should be ok.
 
It's okay, I still prefer Windows 7 over Windows 8 (Long live a real desktop and the Start menu!)
 
I think the Bootcamp 5 drivers work with 7 as well, as long as you are using 64bit OS

The point here is Apple released newest Bootcamp 5 package and it is set to not work on anything but a 4,1 or newer Mac Pro.

You can work around ALL of hose restrictions using the above linked post.
 
3,1 MacPro Win install issues

Have you guys been installing this over a previous version of windows to make it work? As i have been attempting to install Windows 8 x64 for the last week to no avail. I have tried everything short of installing win7 and installing over it. Any insights would be very much appreciated.

My most recent attempt and, seemingly the most promising has been to install via parallels and use rEFIt to adjust the MBR etc. However when install in parallels starts it never gets past the first screen, kicking out an error code (i know it would be helpful to have, but i;m at school and code is at home) basically it is having an issue readin/writing to a disk.

Long time Mac User-First time poster. I have a fairly decent comprehension of computers and the MacOS in particular, but everytime i try to use the bootcamp/windows setup i run into so many troubles i usually give up. But I now NEED windows, due to software for my career.

Sorry for the long post. Thanks in advance for any insights!!
 
macmanjpd said:
Have you I have tried everything short of installing win7 and installing over it. Any insights would be very much appreciated.
Long time Mac User-First time poster. I have a fairly decent comprehension of computers and the MacOS in particular, but everytime i try to use the bootcamp/windows setup i run into so many troubles i usually give up. But I now NEED windows, due to software for my career.
!!
Click to expand...

What happens when you try to install Windows using the DVD (not parallels installation)?
Does the installer actually ever boot up? Where do you run into trouble?

I had issues installing Windows 7. The installation disc booted fine, but it demanded some 'missing drivers'.
 
DVD install

When i attempt an install via optical drive, the drive churns for a while, then eventually it coms to another error screen (after sitting at the new windows splash screen for about 5 min).

I have burned three separate DVDs at slow speed, and still the same, no success in creating a bootable thumb drive, i attempted to create one with the bootcamp wizard, to no avail.

Used room mates laptop to try to create one in a windows environment, that also failed, i had limited time with it, so it may have been my fault that it failed;MagicIso gave me no option to burn image to USB, and the cmd prompt didn't want to accept the NT60 :d command.

I'm on 10.7.5 BTW
 
Update

After struggling with the Windows 8 installer, i found an old RC1 version of Windows 7 and decided to try going from 7-8....well, wouldn't you know, here i am with Windows 8 on a mac pro3,1!!

process went like this

Fresh Boot Camp partition.
Reboot into Windows 7 installer.
Install
Reboot
Install Bootcamp Drivers
Reboot
Select setup.exe from windows 8 installer
installs.

Done.
 
Thanks for starting this thread. I'm about to attempt windows 8 on a new ssd drive in my Mac Pro 3.1.

Macmanjpd, when you ran setup.exe at the end of your process to install windows 8, I assume you were booted up in windows 7?

"Fresh Boot Camp partition.
Reboot into Windows 7 installer.
Install
Reboot
Install Bootcamp Drivers
Reboot
Select setup.exe from windows 8 installer
installs."

Thanks!
 
I had windows 8 on a bootable flashdrive, made in windows environment, and ran setup.exe from that flashdrive.

I should also note, i installed rEFIt, earlier in my process, and that may have helped in the process along the way, you can adjust the GUID partition tables from the menu, and it will repair any leftover problems from a previous MBR (master boot record) on the disk.

hope this helps!
 
windows 8 is running, yes. but not 100% perfect on a macbook pro 2008. I am using windows 8 since its msdnaa release and it is running quite smoothly. except little flaws like the missing shadow-pictures when you hit the function keys like volume etc. I had the desire that boot camp 5 would fix these issues....but 5 won't even install on a pro 2008 :)

I wish apple was microsoft and everything would be updated so smootly, haha.
 
MacVidCards said:
You can run Bootcamp 5 on a 3,1

http://www.iphoting.com/blog/archives/830-Boot-Camp-on-Older-Intel-based-Macs.html

I just did it

I will be testing soon on a 1,1 as well running Win 8 64bit, should work there too.

I hate Apple twisting our arms to abandon perfectly good machines.
Click to expand...

I feel the exact same way about their greedy push to abandon good machines.
Were you able to run bootcamp 5 on the Mac Pro 1,1? I've installed Win8 but can't install the support drivers
 
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