This is really just a whinge, or maybe a warning, because I eventually achieved what I needed, though not in the way I wanted. I hope it helps someone avoid the mistakes I made.
My task: install windows on a new macbook pro with os x lion and 2 internal hard disks - an SSD in the main slot plus a HDD in the superdrive slot via OWC's data doubler.
First of all discovered that Lion doesn't support win XP, a shame, because I only need to use on application in windows and it runs best on XP. Windows 7 it is then, Of course I can't use a windows 7 install dvd because I have no superdrive in the macbook, and Apple does not support installing windows via an external optical drive. ???
So I try and create a bootable disk image of the installer on a USB. First hiccup is that this option is greyed out in Lion's Bootcamp 4. ???
I discovered that using the instructions I found here:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread...rt=15&tstart=0
I could add the MPB Boot room version ID to info.plist for bootcamp, and the option becomes available and I make a bootable usb drive. Its doesn't work - on reboot I get black screen and the message "no boot disk found". I tried this with 2 other USB sticks, because on the advice of those in the thread I just linked, some usb sticks work better than others. Each time I download the drivers from Apple which takes ages, because Bootcamp doesn't allow to download these separately (???) (though I later realise its just a folder called "windows support" which I can copy on and off myself..duh.).
Anyway, still doesn't work. I try using rEFIt to get the usb to boot, doesn't work.
I also try to copy/restore the disk image to an 8gb partition I create on the SSD disk, in case that works, but Disk Utility doesn't allow this (error 'invalid argument) though apparently for this to work I would need to modify the master boot record? Which sounds risky...
By now it appears to me that Apple have purposefully and I would say capriciously prevented my model of macbook pro (MBP81) from booting from USB. !!!!
Just on the off chance it works, as it has for some, I try and install windows using the external optical drive. Doesn't work.
I now appears there is no option available to me other than to open up the MBP and take out the data doubler and replace the optical drive. I want to put windows on the larger HDD in the superdrive slot, so I also have to swap out the SSD for this. Thankfully I left an install of snow leopard on the HDD from my former setup! This also means I can use the older bootcamp which doesn't have the restrictions of 4.0, but actually I left the windows disk in the slot and it s just started booting up perfectly when I turned the mac on. Except for downloading new drivers, bootcamp is not even necessary (so why can't we download the drivers separately ???)
Anyway opening up the mac, swapping the stuff, closing it, installing windows, then opening up the mac again and putting everything back is far more of a headache than I wanted. This time you win Apple, but you also FAIL.
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