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Bootcamp Win 10 with El Capitan, 10.11.6 on a 2009 MacBook Pro

I'm running El Capitan, 10.11.6. Can I install Win 10 using Bootcamp on my Mac? I have run Win 7 for 12 years, but can't move to Win 10. Bootcamp install seems to hang and say the Win 10 ISO image to too big to fit on 128GB flash drive. Not sure how to get the Win 10 ISO image onto the flash drive, as when I downloaded it from MS, I wasn't offered the flash drive, it just went into my Downloads folder.

MacBook Pro 13″, OS X 10.11

Posted on Apr 23, 2021 3:33 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Apr 23, 2021 4:17 PM

Windows 10 requires an MBP 2012 or later to run. See here Install Windows 10 on your Mac with Boot Camp Assistant - Apple Support

Maybe if you install Windows 7 and then update to 10, but be careful, you can have problems with drivers.

7 replies

Apr 24, 2021 4:24 AM in response to Bob Canuck

Bob Canuck wrote:

My problem then was my keyboard appears dead, and I can't login to Win 10. Ctrl-Alt-Del does nothing, so the Win half of my Mac is a brick.

If you did not install Bootcamp drivers after W7 was installed, then W10 would cause issues. If you correctly installed BC drivers from Install Windows 7 on your Mac using Boot Camp - Apple Support, then the in-place upgrade to W10 will grandfather the W7 drivers.

Apr 24, 2021 4:57 PM in response to Bob Canuck

The drivers must be installed when you are booted in Windows, not when booted in macOS. macOS only allows the download of the drivers.


On your Mac, to get to W10, the steps are

  • Install W7 using W7 DVD and the built-in Optical drive by running BC Assistant.
  • Your MBP should only have two options on the BC Assistant screen
    • Download option - download W7 drivers from the link provided, because some macOS versions do not support W7
    • Install option - Partitions your internal disk and installs W7
    • You must use a USB2 flash drive. USB3 devices of any kind will not work
    • Once W7 is fully installed, connect the USB2 Flash drive with W7 software when booted in Windows
    • Run setup.exe from the USB drive
    • This should allow all your Apple hardware to work properly in W7
  • Now you can download the W10 ISO when booted in W7, not in macOS
  • Mount the W10 ISO (right-click on the ISO and mount it or use Disk Utility)
  • Run setup.exe from the W10 ISO
  • This should install W10, without needing any new drivers, since all W7 drivers shod be grandfathered
  • If the current W10 ISO removes Bootcamp drivers, you need to find an W10 ISO from 2015/2016 to let you upgrade to W10
  • Once you have W10 1511/1607 functional, then you can upgrade to the latest W10 release

Apr 23, 2021 10:04 PM in response to Loner T

I did an upgrade to Win 10 from Win 7. It all appeared to work fine and appeared to boot to Win 10 (at least with a nice opening screen). My problem then was my keyboard appears dead, and I can't login to Win 10. Ctrl-Alt-Del does nothing, so the Win half of my Mac is a brick. It appears my only solution is to revert back to Win 7 and re-install it via Bootcamp and rebuild my Win 7 half of my Mac. Ugly, but should work.

Apr 23, 2021 10:04 PM in response to Rafael Scheid

I did an upgrade to Win 10 from Win 7. It all appeared to work fine and appeared to boot to Win 10 (at least with a nice opening screen). My problem then was my keyboard appears dead, and I can't login to Win 10. Ctrl-Alt-Del does nothing, so the Win half of my Mac is a brick. It appears my only solution is to revert back to Win 7 and re-install it via Bootcamp and rebuild my Win 7 half of my Mac. Ugly, but should work.

Apr 24, 2021 4:25 PM in response to Loner T

I have downloaded the latest Windows support software via Bootcamp to my flash drive while I'm running Mac-OS. The problem now seems to be I can't run the setup program on the flash drive, as it is a Windows program and I'm stuck in Mac-OS. I can't "get to" (i.e. Boot) Windows to run anything on the flash drive. So I have all the drivers (dated June 29, 2011) on the flash drive, but I either can't run them or don't know if there is a Bootcamp program on the drive that will run on Mac-OS and updated all my Bootcamp drivers. After the download completes to my flash drive, I get the message "Install this Windows support software after installing Windows". Not clear on how/when to do this install and the timing (under Mac-OS, under Windows?). Exe files fail as they're Windows files, and not sure if here is a Mac on the flash drive that will do the install. Or can/should I just transfer the files from the flash drive to the appropriate Mac folder, reboot to Windows, and pray keyboard magically becomes unfrozen. I'm thinking I need to find my Win7 install software and set up Win7 all over again via Bootcamp on my Mac. Ugly, but seems to be my last chance.

Bootcamp Win 10 with El Capitan, 10.11.6 on a 2009 MacBook Pro

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