How to install Windows 7 x64 on The Mac Pro!

This post originally appeared on 2s2d.net on May 2, 2009 – I have moved it up since I have just done 3 posts on Windows 7 RC x64 on the Mac Pro…Watch for the round up coming soon.

This post is a follow up to my post from this past week about Windows 7 in-place upgrades being a bad idea. Click here for the first part of this two part epic. The second part focuses on completely rebuilding my Mac Pro Bootcamp partition with Windows 7 RC x64.
So it begins, and mind you it is not for the faint of heart. This was one of the longest OS builds in my time due to hardware inadequacies and the simple fact that Microsoft and Apple don’t want to play nice together. However, I was focused and determined to make this work. The first part of the project was, of course, to get the Windows 7 x64 ISO downloaded from Technet (yes I am a member) so that it could be burned to a DVD. The ISO now had to be burned to a DVD so we could boot from it and do the actual installation. Easy once again. I had already backed up everything I needed so I booted into OS X on my Mac Pro, launched the bootcamp assistant and told it to create a new partition on to a 150gb hard drive, it did what I asked and asked for the DVD. The process begins…the mac reboots the dvd spins up and EJECT…oh no what has happened.

The MAC didn’t like the DVD….no what…on a whim I waited for the white screen of the Apple EFI to disappear and then popped the DVD back in. It started to spin and it sounded like it was going to boot….woo hoo, lets get this puppy installed. But my luck was taking a mental health day and thus I ended up with:
1.
2.
Select CD-ROM Boot Type :
This had happened to me before when installing Vista x64 on a Mac Pro, the simple reason is that Microsoft now has their own version of the EFI and Apple has their own version…well guess what, they don’t work together. How to fix….? I did some searching in my notes and remembered how I had done this so here you are (must be done in Windows)

• Create 3 folders c:\7iso c:\7exe c:\7dvd
• Download this .exe file and put into c:\7exe
• Take your downloaded Windows 7 .iso and copy it into c:\7iso and unzip it (use winrar or another similar tool)
• Move the actual .iso file that you copied in out of c:7iso
• Open a command prompt and get to the c:\7exe directory
• Type:  oscdimg1.exe -n -m -bc:\7iso\boot\etfsboot.com c:\7iso c:\7dvd\7dvd.iso

The 7dvd.iso is the file you will burn onto a new DVD.

Yes its a project alright but this is just the beginning. So we are at the beginning now and going to turn the Mac Pro off and then back on with this new DVD inserted.  All goes well, white boot screen appears, and the DVD ejects again…now this is upsetting.  Anyhow, I reinsert the disc again and we get the Windows is loading files…WOO HOO, we are on our way…the steps above worked to make a bootable DVD.  The Windows Setup starts and makes you accept a few things here and there…..you finally arrive at the screen where you will select the hard drive to which you want to install Windows 7 on.  I simply went to the new 150gb hard disk, selected it, and in 2 minutes got an ERROR!!!  Yes, after all this I was being told by Windows that it cannot install on to his hard drive….but WHY?  Bootcamp had prepared it and all was well….so what the HECK was going on?  I immediately turned to the internets to help me and found various answers..none of which helped me to say the least.  (NOTE: The mac pro had 3 hard drives, one with os x, one with vista x64, and this new one).  After all of this I had no solution in sight and thus proceeded to do what I thought was best.  I removed the Vista x64 hard drive, booted back into OS X and started the bootcamp process all over again.  The machine rebooted and again the DVD ejected, I re-inserted it and we were at the setup screen again….this time I was able to select the disk and VOILA we were installing.  FINALLY after a hand full of reboots and hours spent trying to figure out the issue I was able to start installing Windows 7 RC x64.  The setup was going through its paces, rebooting once or twice and doing its thing….it took all of 19 minutes, timed, to install Windows 7.  WOW!  Now that is impressive.  Once the install was done the first thing I did, and I recommend everyone do this, is run Windows Update to get the latest stuff MS has in store for us.  The second thing I did was download and install the Bootcamp 2.1 x64 Drivers which are available at Apple by clicking here.  Finally a usable system with Windows 7 and a very speedy system to boot.
The build process was interesting and challenging and thus I decided I would share my trials and tribulations on my blog….I hope the process above helps you get Windows 7 x64 installed on your Mac Pro. Please leave me comments and feedback with my errors and or recommendations on how to make this process better.