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Tried many things but nothing seemed to work installed all the drivers, read all threads about this issue in this forum but nothing worked ... Found an article but it was very long and confusing, if you know a solution to this please let me know thanks <3

I used a flash drive instead of a DVD to install Windows.

David Anderson
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lobstermaster
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  • What size screen? – David Anderson Nov 27 '19 at 03:19
  • 21.5 inch screen – lobstermaster Nov 27 '19 at 06:04
  • I asked because I am currently using a 2.15 inch 2.5 GHz Mid 2011 iMac. I do not remember having any problems with the auto drive when I had Windows 8.1 installed. Have you consider upgrading to the current version of Windows 10? I used to have Windows 10 installed and I did not have any problem with the audio driver. – David Anderson Nov 27 '19 at 07:40
  • Yes I did before, infact I installed windows 8.1 over 5 times and never worked... – lobstermaster Nov 29 '19 at 23:12
  • Would you be willing to try Windows 10? You can download the iso and install for free. However, if you wish to continue to use Windows 10, then you would have to buy a license. – David Anderson Nov 29 '19 at 23:28
  • No, it didn't work I said I did install Windows 10 before. And yes I am willing to install Windows 10... – lobstermaster Nov 29 '19 at 23:46
  • Are you using a DVD or flash drive to install Windows 8.1/10? Do you know if you are installing for a BIOS or EFI booting Windows? – David Anderson Nov 29 '19 at 23:57
  • What do you mean installing for a bios? I'm using a flash drive.. – lobstermaster Nov 30 '19 at 00:07
  • There two ways to boot Windows. The now legacy method is where Windows communicates with the firmware through BIOS functions. The current method is to communicate with the firmware though EFI functions. In 2011, all Macs booted Windows though the BIOS. The 2011 Boot Camp software also relies on BIOS functions. In 2011, a DVD can go either way. However, for all Macs (regardless of year), a flash drive must use the EFI functions. This would be the most probably reason the sound is not working with Windows on your Mac. – David Anderson Nov 30 '19 at 00:46

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In 2012, Apple starting switching over from DVD installs of Windows to flash drives. In 2015, Apple again switched to installs of Windows where only the Windows ISO file was required. Your have a 2011 Mac and therefore were only suppose to install up to 64 bit Windows 8.1 by using a DVD. While by 2011 the industry had converted from legacy BIOS booting of Windows to the modern EFI boot method, Apple did start converting until 2012. When a High Sierra was installed on your Mac, the firmware was upgraded to allow EFI booting of a Windows 10 installer from FAT32 and ExFAT formatted flash drives.

Unfortunately, the Boot Camp Support Software for your model Mac contains drivers for the legacy BIOS booting of Windows. Therefore, if you attempt to install an EFI booting Windows you may encounter problems such as the audio not working properly. The same should also be true when installing Windows 8.1

No Mac, regardless of model year, can BIOS boot from a flash drive.

In my opinion, Windows 8 and 8.1 were terrible versions of Windows. Therefore, you should consider installing Windows 10. Since the Window Support Software drivers are designed for a BIOS booting Windows, you should only install Windows to BIOS boot.

If you use a DVD to install Windows, then you should choose to BIOS boot from the DVD. This will automatically select Windows to be installed to BIOS boot. If installing the current version of Windows 10, then you will need a double layer DVD (DL).

If you choose to use a flash drive, then you can only EFI boot from the flash drive. The Windows installer will by default require you to install Windows to EFI boot. Instructions on how to install Window 10 to BIOS boot are given in the accepted answer to the question How to install Windows 10 into a 2011 iMac without using the Boot Camp Assistant, an optical (DVD) drive or third party tools?

David Anderson
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  • Okay but Windows 8 was bad not 8.1 though, and also the highest version bootcamp will support is 8.1 so I have to install Windows 8.1 then upgrade to Windows 10... Thank you for your help... – lobstermaster Nov 30 '19 at 08:02
  • Oh and also when trying to install Windows 7 I get a black screen upon bootup.. – lobstermaster Nov 30 '19 at 08:04
  • The drivers provided by Apple work with Windows 10 whether you do a clean install or upgrade from a previous version. However, I there does appear to be one file (bootcamp.msi) that no longer will works with the 1903 release of Windows 10. I have not checked to see what happens with the 1909 release. – David Anderson Nov 30 '19 at 08:59
  • There is EFI booting and UEFI booting. The industry switch to UEFI booting of Windows in 2011. Macs EFI boot OS X and macOS. The EFI standard was developed by Intel and adopted by Apple long before 2011. UEFI was developed from the Intel EFI standard. A 2011 iMac firmware is EFI compliant enough to boot OS X and macOS. Macs officially became enough UEFI compliment to boot Windows starting in 2012. You Mac is just one year to early and therefore has problems EFI booting Windows 7 from a flash drive. – David Anderson Nov 30 '19 at 09:17
  • Okay, thank you for your help really appreciate it.. – lobstermaster Nov 30 '19 at 09:26
  • If you want to install Windows 7, then you are going to have to use the DVD (optical drive) or use the very complex method described here. Basically, you have to create a virtual flash drive. – David Anderson Nov 30 '19 at 09:35
  • Thank you, I tried that but with another method but it said that the partition needed to be in GPT format but when I cleaned the partition with the command prompt all the drives went away and continuing with the only drive gave me an error. I'll be sure to try this method, thank you for all your help. – lobstermaster Dec 01 '19 at 02:38
  • Can you post a link to the method you are referring to? – David Anderson Dec 01 '19 at 02:53
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPcQcqlsszk I just followed this video... – lobstermaster Dec 01 '19 at 02:54
  • At 1:100 in the video, a MS-DOS (FAT) formatted partition is created on the internal drive. With older versions of macOS and OS X, the Disk Utility application would insure the drive was hybrid partitioned. Hybrid partitioning means there are partition entries in both the GPT and MBR table. However, this no longer happens with High Sierra. Instead the drive is left in a pure GPT format with a fully protected MBR. This means the MBR has a single pseudo partition that covers the entire drive. This is done to prevent legacy softare from accidentally damaging information stored on the drive. – David Anderson Dec 01 '19 at 04:03
  • This also prevents Windows from correctly installing. Since the video is dated Oct 5, 2017 and High Sierra was released on Sept. 25, 2017, I assume the poster of the video was using a version of macOS that predates High Sierra. – David Anderson Dec 01 '19 at 04:04
  • At 7:49 in video, refit is selected. This step is suppose to put boot code in the MBR. However, this only happens if there is not already code in the MBR. Any existing code may not work with the version of Windows you are trying to install. If refit does add code, the code also may not be compatible with the version of Windows you are trying to install. Most likely when this video was created, the correct code was aready in the MBR and if so, then this step did not do anything. – David Anderson Dec 01 '19 at 04:22
  • For the procedure in the video to be complete, there should have been a step were any existing code in the MBR was first zeroed out. However, this would require first disabling SIP. The procedure I linked to, puts Microsoft's code in the MBR during step 8. The command used is sudo fdisk -u -y -f $DISK1 $DISK0. – David Anderson Dec 01 '19 at 04:22