Windows 10 on 2,1.

[Andrew297]

Hi, sorry if this is not the right forum.

 

I have an old 2,1 late 2006 17” MacBook Pro and I thought that I should install windows on it. The problem is that when I insert my Windows 7 or 10 dvd it says

 “            1.

              2.

Select CD ROM boot type:”

And I can’t select anything.

Please help.

                                       

[whispous]

It's absolutely not compatibile, and this isn't how you'd try to install Windows on a Intel Mac.

 

What you want is bootcamp utility from within the latest version of MacOS/OSX the device supports. Do it that way.

 

 

 

And now for the anecdote.

 

 

A few years ago, I was diagnosing and repairing a Mac. I removed the Hard drive, and put one of my spares in, intending to reinstall OSX on it. I powered it up, and walked away for a minute - it turns out I had a PC Win10 install on that drive, and the Mac had booted it without issue - it wasn't meant to be able to, really, but it did.

 

 

You could install Windows 10 on a drive on a PC and then try putting the drive in the Mac. Unlikely to work, but it did, once.

[Andrew297]

10 minutes ago, whispous said:

It's absolutely not compatibile, and this isn't how you'd try to install Windows on a Intel Mac.

 

What you want is bootcamp utility from within the latest version of MacOS/OSX the device supports. Do it that way.

 

 

 

And now for the anecdote.

 

 

A few years ago, I was diagnosing and repairing a Mac. I removed the Hard drive, and put one of my spares in, intending to reinstall OSX on it. I powered it up, and walked away for a minute - it turns out I had a PC Win10 install on that drive, and the Mac had booted it without issue - it wasn't meant to be able to, really, but it did.

 

 

You could install Windows 10 on a drive on a PC and then try putting the drive in the Mac. Unlikely to work, but it did, once.

I tried to use bootcamp but failed. I’m on 10.6.3 snow leopard. I will try to put an ssd with win 10 on it from another laptop and see if it works. It’s strange that it managed to boot into a 64 bit Vista install disk but not win7.

[whispous]

6 minutes ago, Andrew297 said:

I tried to use bootcamp but failed. I’m on 10.6.3 snow leopard. I will try to put an ssd with win 10 on it from another laptop and see if it works. It’s strange that it managed to boot into a 64 bit Vista install disk but not win7.

I mean, Windows Vista is (was) the supported version of Windows on a Mac as ancient as that. Not 7, and definitely not 10.

 

Can we explore the bootcamp failure? What happened?

[H I]

It cannot boot from a USB so DVD is the only option, I have tried before and failled to get Windows 10 to install directly with Vista being the newest to work.

 

Installing Windows 10 on the HDD using another PC will work.

 

What you could try doing is installing Windows Vista x64, upgrade to Windows 7 x64 and then upgrade to Windows 10 x64, I have done this before and it worked fine.

 

Bootcamp is cr** and never works properly on these old macbooks unless you are installing Windows XP, you are better off installing it straight from the DVD.

[Andrew297]

17 minutes ago, whispous said:

I mean, Windows Vista is (was) the supported version of Windows on a Mac as ancient as that. Not 7, and definitely not 10.

 

Can we explore the bootcamp failure? What happened?

I clicked “Start Installation” with a win 7 disc in and it restarted to select cd rom type 

[whispous]

You might have to try Vista.

[Andrew297]

14 minutes ago, whispous said:

You might have to try Vista.

It’s strange that it says it supports win 7

[whispous]

Ok. Well, is it an unmodified Windows 7 iso that you burned?

[Andrew297]

4 minutes ago, whispous said:

Ok. Well, is it an unmodified Windows 7 iso that you burned?

Yes.

[whispous]

Maybe someone else will have some extra ideas then

[Brian McKee]

My mid 2007 macbook can boot from USB and can install windows just fine... Personally I recommend Linux for these machines since, while the CPU is 64 bit compliant, the UEFI is not. You would need to use a 32 bit version of windows 10, while you can use a special version of Linux to install a 64 bit OS. Plus you can use a light desktop environment like XFCE to get more performance out of it.

 

If you're trying to boot from USB make sure you're using a usb stick that's usb 2.0.

 

https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Apple/MacBook/2-1

[Andrew297]

On 5/5/2024 at 6:52 AM, Brian McKee said:

My mid 2007 macbook can boot from USB and can install windows just fine... Personally I recommend Linux for these machines since, while the CPU is 64 bit compliant, the UEFI is not. You would need to use a 32 bit version of windows 10, while you can use a special version of Linux to install a 64 bit OS. Plus you can use a light desktop environment like XFCE to get more performance out of it.

 

If you're trying to boot from USB make sure you're using a usb stick that's usb 2.0.

 

https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Apple/MacBook/2-1

I managed to install Win 10 64 bit by installing it on another computer from a modified setup for a 2,1 mac pro and moving the ssd to the macbook. The only problem i’ve had is that I couldn’t install ATi’s video drivers. Not even for the integrated intel GMA.