MacBook Pro and Vista 64 bit (x64) - A guide of sorts

Just recently I went about ‘upgrading’ from Vista Ultimate 32 bit to Vista Ultimate 64 bit.

Since Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) is now out , I figured I would save some time and use a slipstreamed DVD of Vista with SP1 already on it.

This was my first problem: Microsoft introduced EFI support in SP1 and this resulted in problems with my MBP not wanting to boot from the install DVD; All I got when trying to boot from the disc was a message telling me to select either option 1 or option 2 (with no explanation of what difference it would make) and, the keyboard wasn’t working in this mode so it didn’t matter, I wasn’t able to choose either and I couldn’t continue.

Having spent a while googling this problem, I came upon a solution: Follow the instructions here. Yes, it’s a fairly long process and requires you to download stuff (and be running Windows in the first place) But, it does work as long as you follow the instructions correctly.

The alternative to doing this is to install Vista without SP1 and (optionally) install SP1 later, but, I believe it will take up more hard drive space this way and having a working SP1 disc will save time in the future (I hope!).

So, having done that, it’s time to install Vista. Nothing else needs to be said about this - it’s an easy process.

So, once you’ve installed Vista, you’ll probably arrive at the desktop like I did and realize that very little has drivers (especially the all important network devices - Ethernet and wifi which could help with getting drivers!).

Inserting the Leopard DVD provided little help - the Boot Camp software did install, but not properly and there aren’t any 64 bit drivers on that disc.

You can now skip over this section and download the Boot Camp 2.1 software for X64 linked to at the end.

I made finding network drivers first priority - since I can just plug in an Ethernet cable, I focused first on that - the required drivers can be found here. I downloaded them on another computer and transferred using a USB stick - I didn’t check to see whether the DVD drive was working at the time so don’t know if burning a CD is an option.

If you don’t have access to an Ethernet connection, or would prefer not to use one, the wireless drivers can be found in the file linked below.

The official Apple drivers for Windows x64 are only found on the Mac Pro restore disc; fortunately, someone uploaded them:

You can either download just the drivers (Bluetooth, iSight, Keyboard, touchpad & remote) from here

OR

You can download the whole Windows section of the Apple disc (including software) from here (I chose this since it installs the boot camp control panel and the clock fix etc):

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

If you want newer video drivers (the Apple one’s are old), I highly recommend getting them from www.laptopvideo2go.com

I now have a completely working MacBook Pro running Vista x64

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Edit: Apple has updated Boot Camp with Vista 64 bit support, see here

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