Boot Camp: Windows installation boots to black screen with blinking cursor

Products Affected

Boot Camp

Symptoms

The Windows installation may boot to a black screen with a blinking cursor. This can occur if you use a USB optical drive or USB Flash drive for the Windows installation and another USB device is also connected to the computer.

Resolution

When using a USB optical or Flash drive to install Windows, disconnect all other USB devices from the computer except for the USB Windows install media, keyboard, and mouse.

Follow these steps if you encounter this issue.

  1. Press and hold the power button to shutdown the computer.
  2. Remove all USB devices except for the Windows installation media, keyboard, and mouse.
  3. Turn your computer on again and immediately hold down the Option key until you see a screen from which you can choose your startup drive.
  4. Select the Windows install media to start the Windows installation process.

Additional Information

If you have a MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2012) computer, additional steps are required to successfully install Windows 8. See this article for details.

Important: Information about products not manufactured by Apple is provided for information purposes only and does not constitute Apple’s recommendation or endorsement. Please contact the vendor for additional information.
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