How to Install Windows 8 Natively On Mac with Bootcamp

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Windows has always been supported on Mac, as Windows 8 approaching close to it’s release date, install Windows 8 on Virtual Machine is no longer a viable option if you want to test the new OS extensively. On Mac, the latest Boot Camp Apple ships with Lion only support Windows 7, but you can still use the Boot Camp Assistant Wizard to easily install Windows 8 to your Mac natively.

To do this, here are some requirements you need to have:

  • Windows 8 ISO image (you can obtain Windows 8 Release Preview from here)
  • USB (8 GB if you are installing on MacBook Air or MacMini that has no Super Drive) a blank DVD other wise
  • A Mac with Boot Camp 4
  • Have at least 25GB free space on your Mac

First go ahead and launch Boot Camp Assistant.

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Easiest way is go to Spotlight and type “boot camp”

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Read the instructions and Continue.

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The second step lets you to create a bootable USB drive as well as downloading driver from Apple for the Windows installation. Check all if you wish to proceed the installation. Even if you have a bootable USB drive already created, it’s a good idea to create a new Windows 8 bootable USB install drive here, because the USB drive will also include some of the content downloaded from Apple. You can uncheck “Install Windows 7” if you only want to create a bootable USB install drive for your Mac. (notice, the example here are from a MacBook Air, if you have a Mac that has build in Super Drive, then you will be given an option to burn the ISO image onto a DVD)

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Now select the Windows 8 ISO image and select the destination USB disk.

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Now you can sit back and relax. This process will take a while, get a coffee and come back.

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It will not only Copy Windows install files but it will also download additional content from Apple.

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When the USB is ready, it will ask you how you wish to re-allocate your disk space to accompany Windows 8.

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Here I give it 40GB for Windows and leave the rest of my Mac. Once you are done at this stage it will partitioning the disk and reboot whenever it’s done. From here on, your Mac will be boot into Windows and you can follow the Windows install wizard.

Your Windows installation will reboot twice. When it’s all done, by default your Mac will now start to reboot into Windows automatically, but if you wish to change the boot order, you can press and hold the “Option” key on your Mac when it boots up (during the grey screen). Then you will see this boot option to choose which partition you wish to boot into.

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That’s it for installation Windows 8 on your Mac. Pretty straight forward, there are still some driver issue with Windows 8 Release Preview on Mac, I’m looking forward when the official release came in October !

4 COMMENTS

  1. i have a problem…i choose the partition i want to make.and i put the windows 8 x64 installation disc and press install.after that there is a message saying “the installer disc could not be found”…what can i do to solve the problem…??

    • are you trying to install WIndows 8 via USB ? or DVD ? there is a difference between them, the guide is on USB installation. You want to build a custom USB that contains all the “drivers” alone with Windows install

  2. Hi,
    Where can I find the ISO image? I’ve bought the Windows 8 Pro version and I’m trying to run it on my Macbook Air (2012). I’ve done everything else except create an ISO image. I can’t seem to find it. Any help would be much appreciated 🙂

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