How do I install Windows 7 on an Apple laptop?

Question

I received an Apple MacBook with model number A1181. Didn't like OS X, so I inserted a Windows 7 DVD during booting to install Windows 7. At one point I was supposed to select the drive on which I want to install. In the options I clicked on format and the drive was formatted.

Now I can't complete the installation because i† says

Windows cannot be installed on this drive. The drive is GPT style.

Please how do I resolve this?

Solution 1

Just use Bootcamp - It comes with Macs and should make it easy for you to install Windows.

Following the link, you should find guides and everything you need to get started.

Solution 2

Bootcamp has been mentioned in other posts.

Another option is that you could boot your Mac into a partition manager like GParted and format the hard disk to NTFS, Microsoft's filesystem.

After partitioning the disk to NTFS, in theory Win 7 should install without issue.

Solution 3

Generally speaking you can't install windows 7 on apple but there is a work around.

The solution is to format your apple laptop hard disk to RAW, which contains no filesystem.

1. Take out your apple laptop Hard Disk from apple computer and put in windows computer.

2.In windows computer, Right Click on My Computer and Click on Manage

3.From here go to > Disk Management. Now you will see your all hard disk.

4.You can see that on MAC HDD there are 3 partitions. Format all of them,delete all volumes and make it RAW.

5.Now put this Mac Hard disk back on Apple laptop. Insert your Windows 7 installation disk. Your apple Macbook Pro laptop is ready to upgrade to Microsoft Windows 7

For details go to this post

additionally you can go to this site apple-bootcamp-windows-versions-drivers-partition-size

Comments

[Deb]

U need a virtual machine software (like VM ware,Virtual Box,Parallels) to run windows virtually or you can use the inbuilt boot camp for a dual boot option.

[Jazz]

The simplest way to resolve this is to use the partition utility on the install disk to repartition the drive with the MBR (Master Boot Record) partition scheme and a volume format of NTFS. After that the install should work. But dual-booting using Boot Camp is more recommended.

[Jazz]

This is a lot of overkill. You absolutely do not need to perform any hardware modifications or surgery to install Windows 7. And even if you wanted to, you would be voiding the warranty. Use Boot Camp or a VM solution as others have said; ignore this answer.

[Jazz]

Also note that he may have to change the partition scheme from GUID (that's probably the GPT mentioned in the OP's post) to Master Boot Record or MBR, which is the most Windows-friendly partition scheme.

[Deb]

I already have mentioned those methods, see the first comment. Our work is to resolve the problems. It is totally up to you that which way you choose.

[Lorenzo Von Matterhorn]

this does not address the problem of GPT vs MBR detailed before in a previous comment by @Jazz