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Asking this question here is my final resort. I have been trying for a long time to get my late 2013 Macbook pro running windows 7 and it has never been able to install.

Why has it not been able to install?

When allowing bootcamp to reboot my computer (with a genuine windows 7 dvd in a usb-dvd drive) I am able to control the mouse- however I get an error telling me no device drivers were found for my hard disk. However, because the usb is not recognised (with the support software downloaded to it) I am then unable to continue.

When rebooting manually into the windows 7 install disk I cannot move the mouse (presumably because no drivers are found by the installer). EXTERNAL USB MICE DO NOT WORK HERE EITHER.

To make a long story short, I cannot install windows 7. I have tried the same process over and over and over again with different tweaks, even creating an unattended setup ISO to attempt to get it to work, but just keep running into issues.

Please Help Me.

I expected the install process into windows 7 using the boot camp assistant to just work. It does not.

What have I tried:

In every attempt I've swapped USB ports, used USB mice, and a lot of other hardware, of which the installer does NOT recognise.

Typical install process involving multiple or just 1 USB, one bootable and one support software, or attempting with just one.

Quickly copying drivers into the partition before the computer reboots.

Creating an unattended setup ISO, with drivers pre-loaded. Literally every other combination and option I could have used (including therefor the optical drive).

I have tried everything under the sun, including running first aid from recovery etc.

THIS INCLUDES ATTEMPTING TO USE USB 2.0 DEVICES.

Youtube has not helped me. Forums have not helped me.

Please help me :)

Edit: I have experienced the 'no device drivers found' error before, both when using an external USB-dvd writer. This means that I have found similarity with other users on this site with the whole usb 3.0 not being pre-loaded with windows 7, hence the Windows-PE drivers...

06Days
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    Have your read Install Windows 7 on your Mac using Boot Camp? Note: 1) Windows 7 should include SP1, although others have posted installing without SP1. 2) You should use the Windows Support Software (Boot Camp Support Software) given in the document instead of the software downloaded using the Boot Camp Assistant. 3) The folders and files $WinPEDriver$, AutoUnattend.xml and BootCamp need to go into the root folder on the flash drive. – David Anderson Nov 14 '22 at 07:45
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    I should also point out that the last user I helped with a Windows 7 install stated this answer worked. – David Anderson Nov 14 '22 at 08:03
  • Hi @DavidAnderson I'm afraid that both of your solutions posted did not work as of yet. I was able to follow your first solution- I used bootcamp assistant to create a bootable USB- then I overwrote the drivers put in place by the assistant with the version corresponding to my device. This had no avail, and I got the "device drivers missing" error. I tried solution 2, and managed to get up to the dism step, but kept getting error 1035, tried restarting process, formatting disk etc, but still no avail. – 06Days Dec 16 '22 at 06:53
  • I also add that I followed the first article too- with same resulting error. – 06Days Dec 16 '22 at 07:22
  • Does your genuine windows 7 DVD have SP1 included? Are you sure the DVD is the full version and not an upgrade version? Is your internal drive the original drive? – David Anderson Dec 16 '22 at 11:31
  • Yes, It has SP1, the DVD is a full install ISO with SP1 which has been used before to install win7 on a windows computer. Yes, the internal drive is stock. – 06Days Dec 23 '22 at 01:15
  • I am reading your question from the beginning. Why are you using an usb-dvd drive? I believe Apple's instructions are to convert the Windows 7 DVD installer to an ISO file. Why did you not do this? See the Apple articles Install Windows 7 on your Mac using Boot Camp and Create an ISO image for Boot Camp from Windows installation media – David Anderson Dec 23 '22 at 05:51
  • Later in your post you state you are able to manually boot from the Windows 7 installer DVD without mouse support. Does the keyboard work? If so, why did you not proceed and install by just using the keyboard? – David Anderson Dec 23 '22 at 05:52
  • No Keyboard can be used I'm afraid, so no interfacing with the computer at all. Disabling Driver Enforcement via the F8 interface there is no change to this. – 06Days Dec 23 '22 at 06:04
  • I tried the DVD in an effort to avoid the 'No Device Drivers Found' error, I used forums in order to fix the issue and one of the solutions listed was to use a generic official install DVD. – 06Days Dec 23 '22 at 06:06
  • Are you familiar with the concept of installing Windows to a physical partition on the internal drive by the use of a virtual machine? – David Anderson Dec 23 '22 at 06:58
  • Yes, Indeed I am. I have used Virtualbox before, and on my M1 mac, I am using UTM to emulate an ARM release of Windows 10. I also use compatibility layers such as Wine, when virtualisation/emulation is not available. – 06Days Dec 23 '22 at 07:52
  • No I didn't realise that could exactly be possible. But assuming you are able to create a disk that contains the right files to boot, + the special device drivers It seems possible. Is there a way? – 06Days Dec 23 '22 at 07:53
  • What do you mean by "boot"? Are you referring to booting the Windows 7 installer or Windows 7 itself? Also, to be absolutely clear, you are using Boot Camp Support Software 5.1.5640 and Windows is 64 bit? – David Anderson Dec 23 '22 at 08:40
  • When I mean boot I mean yes, theoretically if you have all of the drivers and windows 7 loads them upon opening the install it should work correct? I have absolutely been using 5.1.5640 and the 64 Bit version of windows – 06Days Dec 23 '22 at 08:48
  • When installing to a physical drive using VirtualBox, you do not need any special device drivers. After the installation is compete (or you use Audit mode), I assume special device drivers could be installed before generalizing, then booting Windows from the actual physical Mac. – David Anderson Dec 23 '22 at 09:05
  • So you're saying I can run Virtualbox off of a partition on my hard-drive? I'll ask google how to do it. – 06Days Dec 23 '22 at 11:48
  • Do you know of any resources of how to do this? All I can find are virtualisation tutorials. – 06Days Dec 23 '22 at 11:52
  • This is covered in Sections 8.30. VBoxManage createmedium and 9.7.1. Using a Raw Host Hard Disk From a Guest. – David Anderson Dec 23 '22 at 14:30
  • Additional resources would be both this answer and this answer. You would probably need to use ideas from both answers to create your answer. The objective here is to avoid using the physical USB ports. Also, VirtualBox has changed the syntax of its commands since these answers were posted. Note, I posted both answers. – David Anderson Dec 23 '22 at 15:26

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