Replace optical drive for 1,1

[cryingrobot]

Years ago I stripped out PATA optical drive on my 2006 MP and replaced it with an external and installed an SSD. Little did I know at the time, it is impossible to install windows without it. I found this out when trying to install bootcamp the other day. Nothing works, no USB install, no external, Refit, etc. I even tried to install an internal SATA optical drive using the spare SATA ports. These read the optical fine but still cannot install Windows. I guess the EFI still sees these as external drives.

The problem is that no one makes those PATA optical drives anymore so a hardware solution, though very easy, is not available.

Does anyone happen to know any kind of software workaround to get my MP to recognize the sata drive as an internal optical?

On a similar line, I think I have stretched this hardware as far as it can go but have been waiting for a meaningful update to the MP which may be soon.

 

[All Taken]

4 ideas:

Convert a virtual disk to a full install via parallels etc.

Modify your Bootcamp plist (Google) to allow the installation via a USB - Just have a Windows ISO to hand and it will do the partition and take care of the EFI at boot.

Perform installation of Windows on another machine and use recovery if it fails to start on yours.

Winclone might be worth a look at.

That's it i'm all out of ideas.

 

[PowerPCMacMan]

Hi,

You wrote: "I even tried to install an internal SATA optical drive using the spare SATA ports. These read the optical fine but still cannot install Windows. I guess the EFI still sees these as external drives.

The problem is that no one makes those PATA optical drives anymore so a hardware solution, though very easy, is not available."

Hi, OWC is your friend. Call them and order plenty of PATA optical drives. They have them. Thats number one, number 2: The ODD ports are only bootable with Mac OS X and anything having to do with MAC in general. Those ports require AHCI drivers to be loaded just before Windows comes up. You can do this by installing a Linux Grub boot loader and have the boot loader install the AHCI drivers so that the ports will be rendered bootable.

One of the main reasons why I got rid of my 2006 Mac Pro in 2007 for the 2008 model - still had ODD ports problem, but once I was able to have the linux grub boot loader install the AHCI drivers, Windows booted up normally while using the ODD ports. Its a damn shame Apple did not intend for those ports to be used to load non-apple operating systems.

Of course, if this completely bothers you, I would sell off the 2006 for the 2009 Mac Pro which is all SATA and not PATA.