How to install Windows on an iMac without using Boot Camp?

Question

I’m having difficulties installing a Windows 8.1 trial on my late-2009 iMac. I had Vista installed a little while back, but think I installed this when my iMac was running Snow Leopard (it’s since been upgraded to Mavericks).

I’ve created two DVDs: one with the Windows trial ISO, and one with the ISO converted to a .crt file. Boot Camp complains that this Mac can only run Windows 7, and also recognises neither of these as installation disks; it just keeps telling me to insert the installation disk and wait a few moments.

So I’ve tried re-booting my iMac and holding down the Alt key, but it doesn’t pick up the optical drive; it just displays two hard drive partitions (Macintosh HD and Recovery). (It also doesn’t detect the partition I’ve set aside for Windows, but I guess that’s because it’s formatted as ExFAT).

I’m therefore out of ideas as to what to do, in that I’ve resorted to trying to install Windows in a VM. This isn’t ideal, as I wanted to be able to boot into Windows and use it just as I would OS X, not through virtualisation on an OS X desktop.

So…

1. What am I doing wrong with Boot Camp, and why does it not recognise neither the burned ISO or .crt DVDs as installation disks?
2. If there’s nothing I can do with Boot Camp, is there any way I can take the image of my Windows VM, and apply it to the partition set aside on my iMac’s hard drive so I can boot into it?

Solution

If you don't want to have a separate OS, Parallels Desktop for Mac puts a virtual window on your Mac Desktop with Windows. A free alternative is VirtualBox although requires more computer knowledge.
To help your issue without using Parallels, try using a USB drive.

Comments

[Martin Bean]

I don’t have a USB stick which is why I’ve tried creating a boot DVD, but neither of my DVDs with the ISO and CRT files are picked up by Boot Camp as installer CDs.

[aliasgar]

Create a DVD using a Windows 8 (64-bit) iso, using disk utility; And it should work.

[Martin Bean]

Tried that, as above. I wrote the ISO to the DVD, but it’s not bootable.

[aliasgar]

Try booting a Live CD / DVD of Ubuntu or any other Linux. This should boot ur PC directly into Linux. If it boots, there is an issue with you iso image / cdr image. I am assuming you have the Genuine DVD of Windows 8 (64-bit). Please try with the Genuine DVD instead of making an iso / cdr file out of it, and re-writing it on another DVD.

[Martin Bean]

I’ve lost the disc, hence trying to burn another.

[aliasgar]

Did you try a Bootable Ubuntu / Linux DVD. It will confirm that your iso / cdr file is corrupt / not-working. Hope this helps!

[Martin Bean]

I do not have a Linux/Ubuntu boot DVD to hand.

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Good answer ! Keep it up and keep sharing your knowledge, our site grows from the contributions of those like you !