How can I install Windows on my Late 2006 Macbook Pro without a DVD?

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How can I install Windows on my Late 2006 Macbook Pro without a DVD?

Hi everyone, I have a Late 2006 MacBook Pro (MacBook Pro 2,2) that I would like to install Windows on. It has a faulty SuperDrive (rejects every DVD inserted) and a HP external DVD drive with burn capability, though the Windows 7 32 bit dvd I burned doesn’t seem to appear in the boot selector. Boot camp drive partitioning seems to have worked though. I am currently running a patched installation of OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan (15G31). Any help on this matter will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

MacBook Pro 15″, OS X 10.11

Posted on Sep 28, 2024 3:18 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 5, 2024 9:29 PM in response to Arandomuserfromsomewhere

So after hours of googling and disassembling two laptops, I’ve found a solution.

Turns out the MacBook Pro will only boot Windows in BIOS mode through SATA connections (the hard drive and the DVD drive), so my first method was to turn the whole SSD into a bootable installer which worked but did not allow me to dual boot macOS.
My second solution was to use GPT Fdisk to partition the drive into a hybrid MBR, and then put the drive into the SATA connection of a Windows laptop, before booting a modified Tiny11 USB and installing Windows like normal onto the SSD and taking it out after going into the OOBE part of the installation, then reinstalling the SSD into the MacBook Pro to complete installation and then install OS X back onto the SSD.

Hope this helps anyone who tries to install Windows onto an old Mac without an optical drive!

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