HELP: Need to install Windows on MBP but my Superdrive is broken.

[hdsalinas]

I need to install windows on my MBP, but the dvd drive on my MBP died.

I have a new Mac Mini near by that I could use as a dvd drive. Can I access this drive over a network and install Windows from there?

If this doesn't work, Can I use a USB drive to install windows from? I could create a disk image of the windows disc on the mini and mount it on my MBP.

By the way, which version of Windows would you recommend for my mac? XP, Vista or the new Win7?

Also I don't have much space left on my mac (about 38.77GB) What would be the minimum needed to run windows? I was thinking about giving Windows 10 GB - is that enough?

 

[balamw]

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I would recommend Windows 7. Minimum requirements are 16-20 GB.



There is a Windows based tool that will convert your DVD to a form compatible with a USB flash drive. Microsoft released this for Netbook installs. This is definitely the easiest but means you need Windows somewhere first.


http://store.microsoft.com/Help/ISO-Tool


B

 

[thunderboltspro]

I need to install windows on my MBP, but the dvd drive on my MBP died.

I have a new Mac Mini near by that I could use as a dvd drive. Can I access this drive over a network and install Windows from there?

If this doesn't work, Can I use a USB drive to install windows from? I could create a disk image of the windows disc on the mini and mount it on my MBP.

By the way, which version of Windows would you recommend for my mac? XP, Vista or the new Win7?

Also I don't have much space left on my mac (about 38.77GB) What would be the minimum needed to run windows? I was thinking about giving Windows 10 GB - is that enough?

I think your best bet is on the mini.. You would have to be running Xp on your lappy with hd room left and having your loops it would not be a easy task for putting it on the laptop.

 

[txhockey9404]

Definitely go for Windows 7, unless you have a tiny hard drive. In that case, I would probably go for XP. Windows 7 is huge compared to XP. I believe most Intel C2D and up Macs can boot from USB, as long as the drive is "bootable." I would look here for a guide, although you will need a copy of Windows on another machine first in order to make a bootable flash drive (it would also have to be >8gb)

 

[hdsalinas]

I went with Vista Business since I did not have a copy of 7.

Since I was not able to use my superdrive, installing windows was harder than I thought. After much trial and error, this is what worked for me. I borrowed a USB DVD drive from work then created a windows partition using bootcamp. But bootcamp would not detect the USB DVD drive when booting. So I downloaded and installed rEFIt and was able to boot from the external dvd drive and run the windows setup.

I was surprised to install Vista on the very first try without any errors, although I had to format as NTFS the partition that bootcamp created for windows.

After playing with Vista I restarted the MBP under MacOS and deleted the rEFIt files and selected my Mac OS partition as my primary startup drive.
Now I only need to press option on boot to select between Mac or Vista (Mac OS starts by default, which is what I wanted).

The only problem is that since I did not really use bootcamp to install vista, Windows is asking for drivers. How can I now burn a disk with the drivers from bootcamp?

 

[gugucom]

In Windows Explorer copy the Snow Leo or Leo install DVD (appr. 400 MB) to any data carrier like USB stick. Install from this medium.

 

[hdsalinas]

Thanks!

I had no idea that the bootcamp files where on the Leopard DVD. Vista found the drivers and now everything seem to work fine.

Hope this helps someone else.