James Zhou 2000

It seems there are a lot of discussions on the internet about how to install windows 8.1 pro on latest Mac OS X Yosemite. Here are the steps I followed and it works like a charm.

First, purchase a license (product key) for windows 8.1 pro and then download the file to create iso file, and also use this iso file to burn a dvd disk.

Then, under Mac OS X, note that if you forget to create the iso file, you can still connect your usb-powered dvd drive with your windows 8.1 pro dvd inserted, and then from disk utility, to check cd/dvd master option to create a cdr file, and then rename it to iso. we will use this iso file later.

Third, under mac system, run boot camp assistant and check all the items and follow the instructions, and then select the iso file and also targeted device is the usb flash drive. then, select partition. i choose half-half between windows and mac. and after that, the mac system will automatically reboot.

Then, windows 8 will automatically start the installation. there is one tricky step that the windows will ask which partition to install and format. NOTE that always select the partition named boot camp, and then format it as NTFS. and the rest of the steps are very smooth.


Finally you can press and hold the option key and restart the computer, this will give you the option to switch between the two systems.

Notes: during windows installation, the apple driver update is automatically loaded right after windows installation is finished. During the whole installation process, I always have the usb flash drive plugged in and the usb-dvd drive with installation dvd connected.

This appears to be the most straightforward way to install windows on boot camp: i.e. prepare a usb flash drive and plugged in, and also prepare a usb dvd drive with installation dvd disc in it. The usb file system needs to be a FAT32 system and if this is not recognized by mac, we can use the disk utility to erase it and convert to mac ext file system. 

Just purchased windows 8.1 pro from online and after the download is complete, we will have an option to choose from install later or install from other media. The install from other media is the option we can use to create a bootable USB drive. Note that the file system on the USB flash drive needs to be FAT32, NOT NTFS.

Created a USB flash drive when I worked on Android projects and when I want to convert this drive to a bootable Windows 8.1 system, I cannot get a clean drive because the disk management tool in windows cannot delete the EFI drive. After a little search online, I found someone already posted a solution. Basically we need to use "diskpart" under administrator account, and then "list disk" to check the list of drives, and then use "select disk 1" or any drive that has issues, and then use "clean" command to clean up everything. After that, going back to disk management we will be able to create a primary partition. Sometimes the drive might get locked but this can be fixed by unplugging and re plugging the flash drive.