As I expected, installing the 64 bit version Windows 7 on my MacBook Pro wasn’t as easy as perhaps it should have been.
You can’t just burn the x64 image to a disk and expect it to work. My MBP didn’t boot from the disc presenting me with the same stuff as it did with Vista (choose option 1 or 2, but the keyboard doesn’t work!).
There are even some new issues introduced by Snow Leopard which I deal with at the end.
However, I’ve had further time to research better methods of getting around this issue since I wrote the Vista x64 article.
Note: I wrote this guide using my MacBook Pro which I got in Summer 2007. (Apple identifies it as “MacBookPro3,1”; It’s the Santa Rosa 2.4Ghz model). Some steps may not be required for your Mac. By deduction, I have already determined that some people are able to boot straight from the DVD. I wasn’t able to.
Ok, here we go:
Follow the instructions here to build a compatible iso file.
Burn that iso image to a DVD (I’ve tried with a USB flash drive but it wouldn’t boot 😦 )
Put it in your MacBook / MacBook Pro / iMac…. and install like normal! 🙂
Driver support in Windows 7 is okay for my MacBook Pro; certainly a lot better than it was with Vista x64, but you’ll still want to install some stuff especially if you’re on a laptop (to get the brightness adjustment, bluetooth, touchpad etc., working). So:
Put your Snow Leopard disk in, if you have one. And follow the instructions below if you see that message.
Otherwise:
If you don’t have Snow Leopard, try your Leopard DVD and run the setup from there (Mine doesn’t have the 64 bit drivers on, yours may. Who knows….)
Or finally, you can download the individual driver files from the above package which should save some time waiting for Rapid Share. They’re here. You won’t see any application run, maybe just a UAC prompt, but they do work.
Now you should have a completeish install; but, be sure to check Windows Update (there’s a better video driver) and apply security updates / install antivirus….
Oh, and to get sound working you can just run the RealTekSetup.exe from any of the above packages in Vista compatibilty mode and it’ll work.
Whichever method you choose: you should update to the latest version (3.1 at time of edit) which can be downloaded here. You have to install a previous version before that though.
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EDIT: to improve your hard drive’s windows experience rating, look at the solution I posted in the comments below.
Snow Leopard edit: Now that Snow Leopard is out, all the disks have x64 drivers on them. So, if you can, use that. However, if you have an oldish Mac like mine, you may see the following message (Boot Camp x64 is unsupported on this computer model)
After installing the drivers from the disk, you should update to Boot Camp version 3.1 from here.
If you do see that, it’s no big deal. Just open up command prompt as an administrator (in the start menu type cmd, right click on it and select Run as Administrator, click yes on the UAC prompt).
In the command prompt window, change to the DVD’s directory by running
cd /d D:
(assuming your Snow Leopard disk is in the D drive).
Now type
cd Boot Camp\Drivers\Apple
And then finally, type
BootCamp64.msi
This circumvents the installers check of your computer model and installs all the relevent drivers properly.
Hmmmm…
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