Is it possible to install win7 on macbook pro by itself?

hello everyone,
I'm thinking about getting the macbook pro 13 inch. However, I want to run win7 on it instead of mac OS. Is it possible to format the hdd and do a clean installation of win7 without macOS? I know there are ways to run windows on a mac like parallel and bootcamp. I still prefer using a macbook pro as a shell to run solely win7 os. I'm not making this thread to cause flame or anything regarding pc vs mac. Please this is just a question of personal preference and nothing else.

 

of course.. Bootcamp just helps you set up a dual boot.. but you can run just Windows.

 

I think W7 requires bootcamp but W8 you can run a clean install and just boot W8 from the EFI without any bootcamp or OSX being installed on the drive.

 

I think this is the answer i'm looking for. Yes I want to do a clean installation of win7 on the macbook pro by itself without any OSX on there. So you saying only win8 can do that and win7 can't? Is there anyway to bypass so that you can install win7 on a macbook pro without having to use bootcamp?

 

I don't think Windows 7 can talk to EFI that Macs use instead of BIOS. You can make your OSX partition extremely small and set your default boot as Windows 7 and it will act exactly like any other W7 computer.

If you want the OSX partition/Bootcamp to not exist I think you can do that with Windows 8 because it is compatible with EFI.

 

I've installed just Windows on a Macbook several times. When I bought my first Macbook 13, I put a new hard drive in, and didn't have an OS X disk. So, I just booted from my Windows 7 disk and used that for a few days.

 

You aren't running bootcamp?

I know you can't do it with Vista, I'm not sure about W7.

 

I was about to warn you that graphics switching doesn't work in Win 7, but then I realized that the MBP 13 doesn't have a dedicated GPU. So perhaps the single greatest reason on why you shouldn't use an Apple as a Windows-dedicated machine isn't going to be a problem for you with the MBP 13. Never thought about that before.

Anyway, the only concern I'd have is drivers. When I had a Windows partition on my MBP 15, Boot Camp was in charge of getting all the drivers to run the trackpad, etc. I'm not sure if Apple makes those available for download for people who are running Win 7 from a fresh install instead of from a boot camp install. Does anyone else know?

 

all bootcamp does is setup a partition. it doesnt even format it. bootcamp doesnt care if there is a mac partition there or not. simply install windows then the bootcamp drivers. there is no tricks needed.

 

I can upload the bootcamp drivers. But, they should be on your original OS X disk.

 

The occasional firmware update also will not work with Windows, Apple only releases them for OS X.

 

It is true that W8 will have out of the box support for EFI but it is already is available in Win7 (x64) [ source].

Apple releases updates to both OSX and any Windows OS that has Bootcamp installed. They are available through Apple Software Update. [ example]

Bootcamp is but a software and collection of drivers. When we "setup" Bootcamp in OSX, all it does is create a FAT32 partition. The real setting up of Bootcamp happens when we install it in Windows.

So, yes it is possible to have just Windows installed on your Mac.

Nonetheless its not the best idea in my opinion. Unless you're running really low on space, it's probably a better idea to have a lean, single-language installation of OSX, just in case Win7 acts up. Then, format rest of the drive and dedicate it to Win7 as your primary OS.

 

They were talking about firmware updates for the Mac hardware/software that comes on before OS X boots. Those updates can only be installed through OS X. The only updates that Apple releases for Windows, outside of their standard software ones (i.e. iTunes, QuickTime, Safari, etc.) just involve updating the bootcamp suite and Windows drivers. Firmware and EFI updates are done only through OS X.

Given the keyboard layout of a MBP, I wonder what the fascination is with installing Windows 7. They keyboard was meant for OS X use. On top of that, there are other notebooks that offer similar build quality to that of MBPs while having a lower price. Lastly, the Windows experience is sub-par across all MBPs but especially on the 15" and 17" models where the dedicated GPU is always on thus drastically draining the battery. To me, it doesn't make sense using Windows as the primary OS of a Mac. The first and foremost reason to buy any Mac is to gain the ability to run Mac OS X. The design and the looks are all considered to but they are nothing more than a package to run OS X.

Take out the OS X equation and you might as well buy an HP Envy or something similar.

 

Oh right. Agreed, then you will need OSX.

I agree completely. Though I dual-boot with Win7 having OSX is the only reason I would not buy myself a non-Apple laptop. (Unless all you need is a *nix then Linux is a great alternative.)

On the other hand, there are people who use Win7 on a daily basis but find that MB/P are the best devices to run Windows on. And it's true, there are very few machines out there that come close to the quality of MB/P hardware (and the occasional pain).

This is changing though, recently I saw a Dell that is a nothing less than a copy of the MBP (Sony has been doing that for a while). But I must say, it seemed to be of great quality (minus the pre-installed software) and a laptop I would not mind considering if I were going solo with Win7.

Yeah. But HP is horrible, I would not recommend it to anyone.