Mac OS X 10.9.3 Bootcamp: “No bootable devices.”

Question

Mac OS X 10.9.3 - 2013 MacBook Pro (w/optical drive) - attempting Windows 7 install

• Downloaded the correct .iso (X17-59465.iso)
• Plugged in USB drive (500GB)
• Opened up Bootcamp
• Bootcamp gives me the option to make a bootable USB
• Great, so I choose that option
• I run bootcamp assistant which downloads the correct support files, creates the Windows partition on the HD, creates the bootable USB
• Bootcamp assistant finishes, tries to boot
• Black screen with error message: “No bootable devices.” No response from keyboard.

Restarting and holding the option key does not allow me to boot off of the USB. Bootcamp will only allow me to remove the Win partition and start over, but I feel like I’ll get the same results.

Solution

After finishing BOOTCAMP Process, while restarting hold down the Option key to list all Bootable devices, now select the EFI Boot instead of Windows, now try installing.

Comments

[Spiff]

What partition map scheme does Disk Utility show for your USB drive? If it's not "GUID Partition Table" (GPT), that's your problem.

[nuclearsalt]

So the USB has to be GPT? I may have formatted it for MBR, assuming that Windows would need it to be in that format for it to install. I ended up using a DVD instead, which worked.

[Spiff]

Yes, the Mac EFI ROMs only know how to boot off of a GPT-formatted drive.

[DWils]

But bootcamp assistant just formats it back to MBR after formatting it to GPT using disk util.

[Jacksonkr]

Tried this and my thumb drive will not show as an option for a bootable drive. Dried a different thumb drive and I'm having the same issue. Win7 SP1 Ultimate x64 on OSX 10.10.1