#WINDOWS STARTER ISO REMOVE EFI HOW TO#
#WINDOWS STARTER ISO REMOVE EFI INSTALL#
#WINDOWS STARTER ISO REMOVE EFI DRIVERS#
#WINDOWS STARTER ISO REMOVE EFI UPDATE#

Note: You don't HAVE to upgrade to an SSD, but a mechanical, spinning hard disk is absolutely a performance bottleneck on these old computers. There are guides to all the hardware upgrades on ifixit dot com. Re-use the springs, but replace the nylon pins with the nylon screws and nylon hex nuts. The nylon rivet-pins that hold the CPU heatsink down get brittle with time, and the pin flanges snap off and are useless. If upgrading the CPU, I recommend buying some M3x20 nylon screws and hex nuts before you start. The 2007 Mac Mini is old and slow enough that any extra speed you can wring out of it is useful. If you're buying a CPU, I recommend spending the extra money to get a T7600 2.33 GHz CPU.

#WINDOWS STARTER ISO REMOVE EFI UPDATE#

You can also use a 2005 or 2006 CoreSolo or CoreDuo Mac Mini if you do the Mac Mini 1,1 to Mac Mini 2,1 firmware update first, and upgrade the CPU to a Core2Duo. OtherWorldComputing sells compatible models. I honestly don't recommend it as we rarely if ever use optical media any more, but I'm a little crazy.

Optional: If you want to replace the optical drive with a SuperDrive, this is the time to do it. If you upgrade to 3GB and have this problem, swap your DIMMs around.) (Unfortunately, I don't recall which order worked, but in the order that didn't work, the system would not chime or try to boot. With 3GB it mattered which slot I put the larger DIMM in. I've run Windows 10 with both 3GB and 4GB (one 2GB and one 1GB DIMM -vs- two 2GB DIMMs) and there was zero performance difference between having 3GB or 4GB, so if you're buying RAM you might as well just buy 3GB (or if one of your existing DIMMs is 1GB, just buy a single 2GB DIMM).

#WINDOWS STARTER ISO REMOVE EFI INSTALL#

You can install 4GB, but the computer will only address 3GB. (I didn't even bother trying this without maximizing the RAM to 3GB.) Maximize RAM to 3GB for the 2007 Mac Mini. Strongly Recommend (but also not required): Replace stock mechanical hard drive with a 2.5вЂќ SSD. Recommend (but not required): Replace stock CPU with a Merom T7600 2.33 GHz Core2Duo CPU.

#WINDOWS STARTER ISO REMOVE EFI HOW TO#

How to install Windows 10 on 2007 Mac Mini model A1278, Mac Mini 2,1: For every roadblock you may encounter, I've documented how to overcome them.Enjoy!

Then you run the Windows 10 installer as an update. dll's that will cause your system to BSOD if you fail to disable them.

#WINDOWS STARTER ISO REMOVE EFI DRIVERS#

After installing Windows 7, you install some Bootcamp drivers from an older MacOS installer DVD, and you have to disable three. To do this, you format your drive as MBR MS-DOS(FAT), then install and activate Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. I repeated and refined the process several times and presently have Windows 10 Pro 64-bit running on four A1278 Minis without any problems. But if you're interested in finding new life for an old 2007 Mini, Windows 10 runs quite well on it. I also used the same method to install Windows 10 on a 2010 Mac Mini, which supports up to 16GB RAM and is a more reasonable platform for modern use, as the 2007 Mac Mini is still limited by a slower CPU, much less RAM, and a very weak GMA950 graphics chipset. I was intrigued by reading reports that Windows 10 is more efficient than previous versions of Windows in that it eats up less RAM, and RAM is at a premium in the A1278 Mini, as it can only address 3GB max. A lot of trial and error resulted in discovering a back-door method that allows installing and running the current version of Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (presently 21H1 as of this writing). Apple abandoned support for that hardware platform long ago, so I wondered if any version of Windows might run on them.

Installing the last supported MacOS 10.7.5 was not very promising as modern web browsers won't run on them and the browsers that will run lack the security needed for modern websites. I embarked on this journey when I inherited 4 unwanted 2006-2007 Mac Minis and wondered if there was anything I could really use them for. I previously documented this method of installing the current version of Windows 10 Pro 64-bit on the A1278 Mac Mini in a thread on the macrumors web forum, but thought the wider Reddit community might benefit from it.

Windows starter iso remove efi