Win7 bootcamp issues (windows support software)

I'm installing Win7 64 with boot camp on my friend's MBA OSX 10.6. First step it asks is to "Download the Windows support software for this Mac". After the download is complete, a Save Windows support software screen appears. Choose either to Burn a copy to CD or to store a copy on an external USB device. I don't have an optical drive so that's not an option but it won't let me save to USB device when I click continue. I've formatted the USB drive using the disk utility as instructed but it still won't let me save to USB.

I continued to install Win7 without any issues but without proper drivers installed it's useless. I've downloaded boot camp to install within Windows but those are only updates and requires a prior version to be install first. According to my research boot camp can be installed in Windows via supplied disk but I don't have a disk and MBA has no optical drive. What's my options for drivers?

 

What file system did you use when formatting the thumb drive? Not to sound like an but is its capacity large enough for the process?

 

How did you install Windows 7 on a MBA without an optical drive?

 

probabally used microsofts own USB tool that makes any Win7 Disk into a bootable USB drive.
http://www.ithinkdiff.com/microsoft-releases-windows-7-usbdvd-download-tool/

not sure why its not saving though

 

I have Win 7 32 and 64bit on a thumb drive. That way I can install it on a computer that doesnt have a Optical drive.

 

This guide explains how to install Windows on an MBA from USB.

 

installed win7 from thumb drive.

used FAT file system to format thumb drive using the disk utility in OSX as instructed. thumb drive is 8gb so should be more than enough for windows support files. frustrating since the support files take along time to download but won't allow to save anywhere. i've tried several times using OSX FAT format and windows FAT format.

 

can the windows support files be downloaded independently without bootcamp?

 

Try formatting the thumb drive using exFAT instead of FAT. FAT has file size limits that might be the issue. I know FAT32 is limited to 4GB file sizes and I don't remember what FAT's file size limit is but it can be around there or even less. exFAT is a file system that both OS X and Windows 7 can read and write to and it has much larger file size limits.

 

http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/51/42/041-0509/Tqbd9DXyv9SfJVzJ7wYGrPsXdC88HsTmh6/BootCampESD.pkg

Theres a direct download for the package, might be useful.
You're not the only one having issues with the download function, a lot of people seem to have issues with it actually copying the files to USB.

If that link doesn't work go to:
http://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/others/index-leopard-snowleopard.merged-1.sucatalog
And search BootCampESD.pkg to find the updated link if it's changed.

 

Thanks for the info. I noticed the file has a pkg extension. How do I use the file once it's downloaded? I'm currently downloading so it might be self explanatory once I'm done but never seen a pkg file before so don't know if it's a windows file or not. thanks again!

 

Ok. I've downloaded the package and ran it in OSX and it went through the installation process and finished. I seems to me it's just the boot camp installation only. There's no options for extracting windows support files. I don't understand why no one supplies directly downloadable drivers for MBAs.

 

Open Finder and navigate to your Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/BootCamp folder. If the previous download completed successfully, there should be disk image there containing the Windows Support Software. Mount it and copy the files to the USB drive. Then boot into Windows, run setup.exe from USB. After installing the software and rebooting, use Apple Update in Windows to get the latest Boot Camp drivers (version 3.2).