HI Guys
As the title says, I want to install Windows 7 in this old MacBook, for my Keyboardit.

Any advice or thing I should know before doing it?

Thanks in advance.

Edit: I'm reading some pages that speak about using "boot camp"... Is it impossible to install tyhe drivers like in any computer?

 

Last edited: Sep 7, 2021

I tried to do it without bootcamp and while I was able to get it installed, it was an unstable mess. Following the instructions for Bootcamp, I was even able to install Windows 10 after tweaking some command lines in Bootcamp assistant. I have a 2011 Mac Book Pro and I had to install Windows from a disk as it did not want to boot from a flash drive. Do some research on Bootcamp and watch a few YouTube videos about it and you should be fine.

 

@Olymoon Maybe this helps: https://github.com/timsutton/brigadier

 

Olly
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205016

You have to download the Zip, it will contain all the drivers, you just have to format the usb drive accordinly and then just unzip it at root level in the usb driver, boot the mac with the windows CD AND the usb already in the driver, do as a normal windows installation and it will automatically install it all at first windows boot (that one it get setups and everything even before you login.

And that's it, no need to boot mac os first and install it via bootcamp icon...

The link for the drivers
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1720
Windows 7 64-bit
MacBook Pro
(13-inch, Mid 2012) 5

 

Thank you very much for your answers and your help.

 

@Lepow Strange thing i that by clicking the link from the compatibility table I go to the same link you gave, but once there, 13-inch, Mid 2012 is not listed ...
Only these are:

• MacBook Air (11-inch, Mid 2013)
• MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2013)
• MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013)
• MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)
• Mac Pro (Late 2013)
• iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2013)
• iMac (27-inch, Late 2013)

 

Article says that if you have those devices you need to install a newer version of software.

Those are not compatible devices. Version 5.1.5621 is the correct one for your device.

 

Hi Guys

I've done it, followed @Lepow exact instructions, and it worked perfectly.

So, explained from a Windows user point of view, it's very simple:

1 Format a USB pendrive with FAT32
2 Download the exact Bootcamp zip file for your Mac
3 Uncompress Bootcamp zip file in your computer and copy it's content at the root of the pendrive. (I used an empty pendrive)
4 Instert both your pendrive and Windows installation disk
5 restart your MAC
6 Just install like on any PC, the rest will follow automatically

Only one added info: I encountered the "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style." Problem.
I used a solution that is easy but deletes all data on the drive.

Solution #1: Wipe hard drive and convert to MBR using Diskpart

Step 1. Press keys Shift + F10 when you see the "The selected disk is of the GPT partition style" error during system installation, which opens Command Prompt. If that does not work, please go back to the first screen of the installation and press Shift + F10.

Step 2. Type diskpart in the command prompt and press Enter.

Step 3. Type command list disk and press Enter, which lists all disks connected to your computer.

Step 4. Type select disk # and press Enter. Replace # with the disk number representing the hard disk which is of GPT partition style.

Step 5. Type clean and press Enter. This command deleted all partitions and data from the selected disk.

Step 6. Type convert mbr and press Enter. This command convert disk to MBR format. You can exit Command Prompt when you see "DiskPart successfully converted selected disk to MBR format".

Now create a new partition, and follow as normal installation

There is another way without deleting all info on the drive, you can see in this e¡excellent tutorial:
https://www.diskgenius.com/how-to/the-selected-disk-is-of-the-gpt-partition-style.php


Big thanks to you all guys for your help

 

interesting, i have an old 2014 13inch macbook pro lying around that is pretty sluggish with catalina. was wonder if it would run any better with some version of windows. have you felt any difference performance wise?

 

This computer is not mine, it belong to my keyboardist. It has stability problems, so we decided to install windows on it. But I'll be unable to do any comparison as I didn't use it before.

What I can do, if you wish, is to install any vst that you say, and tell how much CPU it uses with Reaper.

What I will do anyways, is tomorrow I'll install all the program she needs for the band and I'll report cpu usages.

 

oh understand, thanks

i think since you cant compare it would be enough to hear your overall feel when your setup is done, graphics feel, a song with some tracks with vsts some like that. its not the most common thing you see installing windows on an old macbook, specially with music apps, super curious

 

Last edited: Sep 24, 2021

Olly sorry, forgot to tell that i i'm really OCD over my installations, so before any format, i wipe the whole disk partitions even the boot sector and then let windows create one at the windows setup disk selection screen...

 

OK, that's exactly what I'm going to do tomorrow, I'll come back and comment.

 

No worry, that was easy to solve. Thank you very much for your help.

 

not to stress @Olymoon , just wonder if you did get to make your full install, any first impressions perform wise?

 

Last edited: Sep 27, 2021

Hi guys, sorry for the late feedback.
2 Parts:
- The vst used with this old laptop: Under Reaper, using my Focusrite Scarltt 18i20, What I've done, was to put a backing track and use several vst in live with a master keyboard.
These were the cpu usage of different vst used (I used light ones for obvious reasons)
- Surge = 2%
- XPand 1.5%
- KV331 Audio SynthMaster 2%

But surprisingly I was able to use 2 instates of Surge and an instance of Xpand at the same time without glitches while the backtrack was playing.

I haven't done further tests because the computer belongs to my keyboardist and the only objective is to use it this way, as an expander for her to play with a master keyboard.

- Problems encountered: ZoneAlarm anti virus refused to install due to "ZoneAlarm is not recognized as a signed program, this may be due to hardware modifications have been made to this computer blabla. Solution: I installed Tinyfirewall.

Motu interface drivers were not installed due to "these drivers are not signed".

I've done all the tricks, programming the computer in driver test mode, etc ... nothing worked.
I had no more time to try 'cause she had to go to Italy, where she have another soundcard that she will try to install.. We will meet into 3 weeks and I'll work out the driver problem.

 

just to se it worked is nice, and for that particular task. thanks for the update

wonder if w10 would work fine w a 2014 macbook, I may give it a try.
some older rane hardware quit getting support in mac, and that MacBook will not be receiving further updates from apple.

 

I was able to install Win8 an 10 in an ancient MacBook Air late 2010.

FWIW if this helps someone in the future basically what I had to figure out was:

1. How to boot from a Windows USB installer. I had to install a Unix boot manager, reFind.
Also, important trick. Create the Windows partition with Mac Disk Manager and then reformat with FAT32. Otherwise the Windows installer wouldn't find the partition. Of course, you format again from the installer as NTFS.

2. Some minor tricks to install the BootCamp drivers, the real important thing. The problem was to execute the setup with admin privileges because at first I wouldn't have even trackpad support, only keyboard. So I packed them in a self-extracting rar (.exe) that after extraction executed the drivers setup requesting admin privileges so could open it only with the keyboard (yes to the warning dialog).

This may have changed a lot, but just in case...

 

i was able to install windows on my macbook pro through bootcamp without any usb/flash disc involved. i just put the windows iso on the desktop and bootcamp automatically detects it from there and proceeds installation. however my macbook pro is a quite recent version so idk if that makes a difference