Install Windows on my MacMini Late 2009 ... again

Everytime I document my computer related experience here, it always start with something painful, and this time is no exception.

So about 2 to 3 months ago, my Mac Mini (late 2009 model) was not able to startup with Windows 8.1 running on it.  I was busy back then, and really didn't have much time to do the re-installation.  As the result, I left it as what MacMini was meant to be used for: as a Mac OSX Mavericks computer.

I finally got some time today, and decide to try install the lastest Windows 8.1 Update 1 on it.  Besides, I am very much sick and tired of using my Lenovo S12 as the network file server. It's slow, sluggish in every way.  And gave me everything but pain and sorrow.  My thinking was that if everything goes well, then maybe I canuse this MacMini to replace S12 as my network file server.

The road to set up Windows 8.1 Update 1 on my MacMini was not as straight forward as I expected.  In fact, at the end, I have no choice but settle with using Windows 7 Ultimate edition.

At first, I as trying to boot the Windows 8.1 Installation disc from the MacMini internal disc drive, and found that it has problem reading the disc.  Eventually I had to accept that fact that the disc drive on my Mac Mini is dead.

I then found out that my USB based external DVD worked fine.  So I used it to bootup a MSDN Windows 8.1 Update 1 disc.  There were 2 options on the bootup screen (as I pressed the ALT button on the keyboard during start up).  One said UEFI Boot, and with that one I couldn't install on any partition.  The other one simply said "Windows" and with that I could on one of the partition.  But then install still failed after the machine rebooted.  By then time, I gave up on installing through booting up a Windows installation disc, and tried to do the official way: install Windows by running Bootcamp Assistance on Mac OSX.

I started Bootcamp Assistance on Mac OS X Mavericks.  I found that I was NOT able to download Windows support software.  After I few tries, I decided to download those software later, and went ahead for the OS installation.  It turns out that if I have a Windows installation before, I have to remove the existing one.  The automated process failed, and I had to use Disk Utility to manually remove the Windows parition, and then expand the MacOS partition to cover the whole disc.

Then the assistance kept refusing to use my Windows 8 installation disc, saying that it only works with Windows 7.  After I few trials, I gave up and used Windows 7 Ultimate edition with SP1.

The Windows 7 was reasonably straight forward EXCEPT that it doesn't preperly see the Bootcamp Windows partition Bootcamp assistance prepared, yet I am able to format that partition and the continue the installation process.

After Windows 7 installed, I was trying to use Windows 8.1 with update 1 installation disc to update the OS, it started out fine, but during the middle of the setup, the installation process encountered problem, and eventually roll back to Windows 7.  So maybe the bootcamp assistance was indeeed correct that Windows 8.1 Update 1 does NOT work with my MacMini late 2009 model.

With that, I was then started to install Windows boot camp support software.

I tried to install Bootcamp using Boot Camp Support Software 5.1.5621.  It DID NOT work.  But then Bootcamp  4.0 Build 4033 (Boot Camp software that I download back in Dec 23 2012) worked fine.  So I settled with that.

Next I tried to update the OS, and found the process ultra long and clunky.

And then after a whole day of keep trying and trying to install, and got messier and messier. Finally I gave up.  After wasted more than 1 day of time, I decided to reinstall Windows 7 and start from the beginning.

For the second time, I did the exact same process, and once again I have to reformat the BootCamp Partition.  That's fine.  At least the installation was completed.

And in this round, I did two things very different from the last round:

• Did NOT install Bootcamp 4.0 in the very beginning (in fact, as of now, I haven't installed it yet)
• Did NOT selectively run certain Windows update instead of following the order the system managed.

The Bootcamp one is an odd discovery, as I found out that Bootcamp 5 was NOT officially supported on my MacMini Late 2009.  In fact, even Bootcamp 4 was not officially supported if I use Windows 7 64 bit instead of 32 bit.  I think that's because officially MacMini Late 2009 wasn't supposed to have more than 4 Meg of memory.  Anyway.  I am pretty much stuck with Windows 7 and Bootcamp 4.

The update is actually what wasted most of my time.  In fact, as of now there's still 2 updates that can't be installed.  One is IE 11, and the other one of IE 10 security update.  Still, after the messy situation on the system, I realized that the OS has a specific order of installing update and patches.  That makes sense because of all the dependencies.

And my experience was that if an update step got stuck for more than 15 minutes, it pretty much means that it's stuck.  Regardless of the instruction on the screen (do not turn off your computer), I had to force shutdown and turn back on the machine.  And majority of the time I will be able to continue the install.  So when it doubt, shutdown and reboot.  After tens of those situation, I eventually have all update installed EXCEPT the IE crap.

I still don't know whey IE 11 installation can crash and rebooted the machine, but something's seriously wrong with IE, and after wasted enough of time, I don't give a shit anymore.  It tortured me so much that I almost want to take a day off to fix it, and then I realized that with the salary of that day off, I can almost buy a new MacMini anyway.

If it's possible, I'll just leave the system as it is.  Because even if I manually use IE 11 offline installer to install, I still got system crash and all sort of problem.  Also I am pretty much giving up on using IE anyway.  The MacMini running Windows 7 is mainly as a way to facilitate me to:

• Record TV that I couldn't record in my closet computer (like certain channels with better reception in my room and in the closet)
• Downloading (BT and JDownload stuff)
• Media sharing (with my mobile devices)
• Casual computer usage and drawing (without booting up my nosier but more powerful desktop)

For that a clean machine like what it is now is pretty sufficient.

Also I am sick and tired of spending/wasting more time on this thing.  I already lost my whole weekend on this darn thing.