10.6: A workaround for a Boot Camp x64 installation issue

Mar 17, '10 07:30:00AM

Contributed by: poenn

Snow Leopard only hintToday I installed Windows 7 Ultimate x64 via Boot Camp on my 2007 MacBook Pro 2.4GHz machine. I was stumped when I couldn’t install the Boot Camp drivers from the 10.6 DVD in Windows.

I tried several different approaches, but every single try ended with the message Boot Camp x64 is unsupported on this computer model when launching the Boot Camp setup app. I could also not install the 3.1 update. The only visual indication was Nvidia drivers installing, and afterwards, it would simply quit while all the time there was no reference that I was actually about to install Boot Camp.

Knowing that I didn’t do anything wrong, I didn’t want to give up and finally found a solution. Here's a step by step guide:

  1. Boot into Windows 7 and insert your 10.6 DVD
  2. Right-click on Start » Programs » Accessories » Command Prompt
  3. Select Run as Administrator
  4. Type cd /d D:, then press Enter
  5. Type cd Boot CampDriversApple, then press Enter
  6. Type BootCamp64.msi, then press Enter
The regular Boot Camp installation window should come up and install just fine. Afterwards I was able to update to 3.1 (the version on the 10.6 DVD is 3.0) without problems. I used the Apple-supplied standalone download of the 3.1 update, but it should also work using Apple Software Update from the Start Menu.

I hope this is of help to others -- I read that some of the newer iMac models also aren't (yet) supported by Boot Camp, so maybe this solution works there, too.

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