Thanks to everyone for the kind words and support, I’m blown away! ❤ I’ve been posting for couple of months now, and this video did very well! I do content like this on a weekly basis, so I’d really appreciate if you’d watch and share some of my other videos. If you liked this one, I think you’ll find the other ones interesting (even though I got far fewer views). Much love, hope to see you in the comment section of my other videos! ❤
that ending was awesome, also that point where you forgot why you wanted to even install windows 7 in the first place is something i felt personally lol
Only reason I know about this exact model of MacBook pro released in 2007, is because of the TV show dexter. When season 3 came out, the laptops in the department used that model of macbook.
@@johncoolboy Now that you mention it, yeah, I do remember seeing it there 😁 At that time Apple was actually pushing its products in many movie/TV shows. They also sponsored The Office btw 😁
@@1993MAZDAMIATA Hey, thanks for commenting! I do find them very, very beautiful, although I remember wanting a unibody model around 2009/2010. Those things looked sleek as heck! In hindsight, both models aged very well, but since the unibody design continued and evolved, these aluminium and titanium models are seeming more and more desirable.
@@johnhricko8212 Thanks man! Yeah, sometimes you have to be pretty hardheaded to make any sort of progress with these old computers 😂 Thanks for the support and comment! ❤️
Not exactly the same but I had major issues installing Windows 10 alongside Linux on my old laptop. It was a real pain, but I boot the Windows installer into repair tools and got the CMD line up. From there I was able to rebuild the bootmgr. It might be different with Win10 and EFI but it ended up working after many many tries. I was dying when you would fake out giving up. BEEN THERE!
Thanks for putting this together and sharing. I share a useless compulsion to "recue" old computers....only to be reminded no one wants an old computer but me. :)
@@awanderson Man, thank YOU for watching and appreciating my work. Just judging by the comments alone, there are more people than you think who feel the same way about old computers 🤟 If you’d like, I’ve put up a new video about another computer nobody wanted, so feel free to check it out. Thanks again for the support! Much love! ❤️
I'm pretty sure it's because of the mode that was used to burn the usb or the os install. In bios mode the drive layout MBR is used not the new GPT. In UEFI mode the GPT is used. So it's two things that change for a newer install.
@@jeremias3363 Hey, thanks a lot for commenting! I’m pretty sure I’ve tried both MBR and GUID. Although that doesn’t explain all the errors I’ve received while trying to boot directly off of an existing installation from the HDD. Cheers!
<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="822">13:42</a> I was tabbed away and had to drop everything to figure out when, how and what exactly started playing Scorpions all of a sudden. That's the GOOD stuff.
Hey, thanks a lot for commenting! I did install the SSD and it does have a max amount of RAM (officially). I tried installing two additional gigs but it had problems booting. I don’t see a need to run Windows 10 on it (I don’t really know why I insisted on installing win 7), I mainly use it for GarageBand.
I seriously want to get one of these. I remember working at a place that gave these out as work computers, and on a trip in 2013 I got bored and installed Diablo 3 to it. Ran fine. I think Minecraft ran soso on it. The amount of IO ports on these things is great. I have a MOTU MK3 that's USB and Firewire that would love this thing.
@@waldfruchttee yeah, it kinda sucks the hard drive isn’t easier to access (like it is on the plastic MacBooks or early unibody models). But at least it’s fairly robust and you don’t have to worry about breaking plastic snaps 🤷♂️
"I was on a mission from god to install windows 7" i felt the same when i was trying open patcher with monterey on a 2011 macbook pro with a bad gpu and disabled it
I think everybody working on computers feels like this at some point xD I had my fair share of experience with bad GPUs on 2011/2012 models. Dosdude’s GPU disable command worked well enough in my case.
@@Takuma_Sakazaki Oh yeah, it was such a big leap in comparison to OS9 and Windows 98. It really looked like the next gen os. And, as predicted by Steve Jobs, it really did set Apple up for the next 20 years.
@@Takuma_Sakazaki well, I do have a lot of nostalgia and love for win xp, as it did feel like such a sleek os after win 95/98. But, the dock, the aqua interface and all other features of OS X really blew me away back in 2001 when I first saw it. Beautiful ❤️
@@schvabek I loved XP just for gaming. Actually everytime I reinstalled XP, the first time I did was turning off the theme and just used a classic win98/2k theme.
i had one of these macbook pros around 2012-2015. It was fine for web browsing and youtube and could run minecraft at minimum settings, and some other older games I liked, but the framerate sometimes chugged hard and the battery life necessitated it almost always being plugged into its "life support"... then the hard drive finally failed so I took it entirely apart not knowing how it worked at all, that's how I got into computers. i also have a 2009 iMac i got for free that still works and i use for watching movies from time to time...now it is upgraded with an SSD and running Linux Mint, and honestly is still usable, it has a beautiful 1440p display, and with a core2duo e7600, dedicated HD4670 radeon gpu, and 16GB DDR2 it's not the worst and it can handle movies, music and streaming.
@@nfrcomputers Oh yeah, I daily drove my 15” 2007 MacBook Pro probably until 2014-2015 lol. But coming from power pc models (which could hardly run any games, due to compatibility), I was VERY happy to run my UT2004, GTA SA and COD2 lol. Glad this brought you back. Enjoy your memories! Much love ❤️
I wish you would install a lightweight Linux distribution on this machine. I’m sure you can do some productive work on the machine after installing Linux. Zorin OS and AntiX Linux would be some good choices for this machine.
@@ghungrooseth1946 Hey, thanks so much for commenting! I’ve gotten a ton of recommendations for Linux, but I have little experience with it. I’ll definitely be trying it out! Much love! ❤️
Wondering if was 1.0 USB/ if FireWire to Sata dvd rom drive might have work on other Mac; I would have used an old FireWire enclosure and done this on older Macs in 2005/‘06 models but lucky you had another Mac w/ dvd drive
that bad boy can fit so many linux distributions :D. but if that's not up your ally (you should try it anyways) dualbooting with windows 10 is probably safer since anything that can run windows 7 can sweat its way to windows 10 even if it has a bit of a hitch
@@alastor--radiodemon7556 Hey man, thank you so much for commenting! I’ve gotten a ton of requests to do a Linux distro, so I’ll definitely be trying it out, even though I have zero experience installing and running Linux :D I’ll be sure to make a video about it! Much love ❤️
@@schvabek i can give you some suggestions! Linux Mint is great and reliable for new users, definetly a first choice if you intend to actually use if for more than just a video but its so good it gets a bit boring Ubuntu is ol reliable for new users, the face of linux even if its not as loved by insiders as it used to be Fedora is cutting edge (but not bleeding edge) and super cool while being user friendly! ----------this is the section for nerds--------- if you like reading through manuals arch linux gets a lot of views alpine edge will squeeze every last bit of performance out of a computer, it can even run on 64mb of ram! but you will have to do a clunky manual install read through guides and overall be a huge nerd (easier to install than arch still though) for any of these, when in doubt: pick mint
@@alastor--radiodemon7556That’s actually very helpful! I’ve heard about all of these, I’ve also watched some videos on them (LTT had one I watched not too long ago). I’ve come across some computers with preinstalled Linux distros, but for some reason I’ve just never messed with them. I’ll be sure to try it in the future! ❤️
Sorry this problem was such a bear. I'm in the process of partitioning the SSD inside a 2008 MacBook to run two versions of macOS and Linux Mint if I can figure out the installation process. I'd be very leery of trying this if the machine didn't have a working internal optical drive, and I'd definitely not want to rely upon a secondary spinning hard drive. All that's doing is drawing power and space.
@@moeskido Thanks so much for commenting!As far as installing the OS’s, I can say from personal experience that installing macOS from usb is very straightforward and user friendly. Windows, however, clearly doesn’t like installing from USB (at least on models with internal SuperDrives). Not sure about Linux, I don’t have much experience with that. But these old models hold up surprisingly well with maximum RAM and as SSD. I’m sure you’re going to enjoy it for years to come! Cheers! ❤️
@@graxxor yeah, it sucks. Upgradability of MacBooks peaked, in my view, with the early unibody models circa 2008-2012. They were super easy to disassemble and work on, not to mention the ram, battery, hard/optical drives, fans were super easy to swap and upgrade. Afterwards it all kinda went downhill as far as user serviceability goes.
@@emlyndewar Ooh, that! Yeah, for sure. Although, I later realised the temp probe wasn’t plugged in correctly (I guess from the last time someone had it apart), so now it works well even without the smc fan control.
@@Fixinit1 Huh, never thought of that. In my mind I was reading it like 10-dollar. Anyway, thanks for letting me know, I’ll keep this in mind for future videos! Much love! ❤️
The huitar solo was awesome bro and the video even better. Sorry for asking but how did you connected the guitar to the macbook? I have an old mac too and iam a guitarist but i have never tried to connect it with pc? Thanks for answer :)
@@higgycz4092 Man, thank you so much for the kind words! Really appreciate it! I use an iRig Pro interface (you can Google it, they have quite a few models), it’s really good, no delay, there’s no setup, I’ve been using it for years and can recommend it fully. There are other cheaper options which probably work alright too, but I haven’t tried them. I’ve bought mine second hand for cheap and hasn’t looked back. Much love! ❤️
I used to play Team Fortress 2, the first time on these type of old MacBooks...it's still kind of crazy how these things looked, especially when paring with the PowerBook G4 at the time. Though it's cool to see these machines again, it's rare to even see it out in the open ngl I wish I had my old MacBook with me, hadn't used that thing since 2014
@@NathanDarkson984 Thanks so much for the comment! Yep, I myself remember gaming on this back in the day. UT2004, COD2, GTA SA, Team Fortress… If you’re interested in getting back to these machines, they are quite easy to find, cheap, easy to work on and a ton of fun! Even the newer unibody ones, they are even easier to upgrade and disassemble.
dude, i also had a macbook pro the same model as the one in the vid and played tf2 in the years 2013-2016... in 2015 or so i finally upgraded to a i5 3230m/8gb ddr3 macbook pro and then could finally run tf2 and minecraft at something a little more playable... i still have that i5 macbook, but now the keyboard and trackpad have both failed so it permanently needs a USB keyboard/mouse connected. still works though
Oh my goodness, this was so cool!!! Awesome guitar playing at the end- I LOVE that song! 😍 I still have my 15 inch MacBook Pro with the DVD drive from 2008! I don't use it regularly, but definitely enjoy using it whenever I do. It has a WAY nicer keyboard than my modern MacBook Pro, and I love watching old movies on DVD on it when I'm in the mood for an extra nostalgic experience! I'm not super techy, so watching you do all that work on these older Macs was fascinating and far more advanced than my current skill level lol Feel free to let me know if you remember why you were wanting to use windows 7 on your machine! I knew about the bootcamp concept back in the day, but never tried it. Currently I have a loved one who is kinda broke right now and no longer has a functional laptop, so I wonder if I should consider converting my old 2008 MacBook Pro to help them out? Although mine is SLOW so I don't think it would be an optimal or reliable productivity tool. Also not sure if I'm ready to say goodbye to occasional DVD movie nights or that nicer keyboard lol 😂
Hey, thanks so much! I have a ton of love for both these pre-unibody macs and also the early unibody ones, because I used to own them back in the day. I used a 15” 2006 model all the way to around 2016, and then I “upgraded” to a unibody 2008 model lol. I upgraded and used that thing for about 4 years, no issues. So if you have a working DVD drive in yours, installing windows 7 is quite easy and could breath a bit more life in your old machine. If you hadn’t already, pop in an SSD drive and 8 GB of ram (it’s a very easy thing to do on your machine) and I suspect it’ll run just fine for basic productivity. I mean, on this 2007 model I’ve installed a more modern up to date browser and I can technically browse the web, although it is notably slower. The 2008 model is a big step up, it also has faster DDR3 memory. Thanks again for all the support and comments! Keep rocking the old tech! ❤
You are very kind. You didn’t ask me but I would recommend just buying a used business laptop (around $100) with and SSD already included. You would need to install an SSD in your old Mac to make it useable for them and you’d lose something it sounds like you still have affection for. I have a new Mac which can’t run windows so bought an 3-4 year old business notebook for around $100 and it’s pretty amazing what you can get for that price for normal day to day tasks.
@@Vanillaessence Thanks for the information! Truthfully, I am absolutely inexperienced with handling internal electronics and/or taking them apart. I would undoubtedly need a second person helping me if I were to attempt any of those sorts of tasks, at least initially until I gained some experience and confidence lol. Fortunately my loved one does have a functional desktop computer, so thr matter is not urgent, and hopefully their financial situation will improve with time. You're right- I do still have an attachment to my 2008 MacBook Pro, as it was my very first laptop! 😊
@@Vanillaessence Good point! As good as these old machines can be, they are still getting on in years, and a 15-year old laptop is still 15 years old. So yeah, if you plan on using your computer for any modern tasks, even a 5 year old Windows laptop will do much, much better.
I don't know Mac, just Windows and Linux. So forgive me if this is a dumb question... what, does Boot Camp not support installation from USB drives? Does it require the DVD? That's the only reason I can think of that made it so you couldn't just install Windows 7 from a USB drive. But hey, good job with getting the SuperDrive working!
@@SeeJayPlayGamesThanks so much for the feedback! Intel based macs can boot macOS from USB (I’ve installed El Capitan from USB in this video), but they don’t seem to want to boot Windows from USB. Later Macs (particularly the ones without internal dvd drives) had that feature enabled directly from Boot Camp Assistant. I thought you could perhaps boot directly from USB/another HDD, but apparently that’s a no go.
I daily drive my 2007 iMac and 2009 Mac mini and installed Monterey using open core and they worked just the same as any modern computers smooth as can be. I’ll never buy a modern computer until there’s something that can’t be done using retro gear!
@@MichaelAdams-sr8kp Sure thing! I’m actually in this gaming oriented band, we do covers of in game music. So I’ll post some more of us playing in the future.
Hey, thank you so much! They are surprisingly easy to get and cheap nowadays, so it might be worth grabbing one if you’d like to mess around with them :)
@@emmanuelgaille3523 Thanks for commenting! I just did a video on my MacPro 1.1. Yeah, I don’t need to run Windows on this thing at all, it was more a proof of concept 😂
love the video, i have the same laptop, i replaced the speakers in it and added a ssd, but the screen is starting to fail now, it has marks on it and fading light
@@topmandog1 Hey man, thanks so much! Probably a failing backlight on yours, I’m sure you’ll find a replacement screen. Or just another laptop entirely, they’re quite cheap and easy to get nowadays.
@@topmandog1 It’s not as hard to disassemble as the modern ones, so I think you’ll do a good job! Screen also shouldn’t be too hard to replace. Best of luck! 🤘
@@lachlanlauCool! Yeah, although I know there were FW cards for PCs (and some even shipped MBs with built in FW) I’ve only ever used it on macs. I would recommend an Intel model, since it’s going to be far more compatible with other peripherals, drivers, apps, and overall it’s going to be faster (for something that you actually use for any sort of work). Again, appreciate the comment! Much love! 🤘
@@Mr.1.i Yeah, my office still uses win 7 machines lol I primarily use this machine for GB, so I have yet to use the Windows installation, but it’s there if I need it 🤘
@@wilsondavenport6939 Hey, I generally buy all the hardware locally. I know a local recycler who sells them to me for parts, also a couple sellers I know personally, so yeah, I don’t think it was me you sold them to. Good price though! 😁
The problem you ran into with the external optical drive resulted from the fact that while the MacBook Pro's UEFI is capable of booting from USB media, the CSM BIOS emulation is not. That approach would require a UEFI installation.
@@WeebLabs Yeah, I tried installing refit, but I think that’s only supported on Snow Leopard and below. I then installed refind, which is a similar boot/uefi manager, and although the usb showed up, it still would boot from it.
@@schvabek I haven't attempted a UEFI installation on a MacBook Pro of this era before but it is quite likely that the 32-bit UEFI on these machines will cause problems.
@@WeebLabs Yeah, I remember that on newer models this went quite smoothly. And since I’ve installed MacOS via USB many, many times, I just assumed you can do the same with Windows. Oh well.
@@schvabek Well MacOS gets booted by EFI on every Intel Macbook, just like every modern computer. But at the time when bootcamp was developed (Windows XP era), Windows required a BIOS to boot, as the Macbooks didn't have a bios they shipped an EFI application that emulates a BIOS (CSM - Compatibility Support Module). And because all of those Macs shipped with an optical drive, nobody bothered to implement usb booting support in the CSM. And they never backported the CSM to include such support from the Macbook Air or Retina MPB to the older machines. And UEFI Support was not very mature in Windows 7, especially with the Macbook having a early custom-ish Apple flavor of UEFI, that's why you can't get it to boot the setup in UEFI Mode.
@@tschuuuls486 Huh, that’s fascinating. Thanks for explaining that! Wish somebody had told me that earlier, but I guess now I’ve learned it the hard way and you guys had a video to watch 😁 Much love! ❤️
I tried installing Windows 10/11 on an old iMac, but Apple hasn’t maintained the drivers and it causes the latest Windows 10/11 to BSOD after installing updates. Install latest Ubuntu instead and you can run both Windows and MacOS using virtualization.😂
@@hammersampson In my experience, boot camp assistant works great for all models, but on the models with internal SuperDrive you have to use a CD/DVD boot disc. Without it, you can run into issues (like I showed here). I don’t really like Linux/Ubuntu, so I prefer even the older, unsupported OS’s.
It is really that hadr to install Windows on older MacBook? I installed Windows 11 just fine on my 2012 MacBook Pro. I just created bootable USB with the Media Creation Tool, added xml file to skip TPM and Secure boot and it worked just fine.
@@Patrikch100 Newer ones (I think the unibody ones) started supporting USB booting for Windows. The ones without internal SuperDrive definitely started including support for that.
It's not that they are useless......its the security patches become out dated and you get fubbled with updating from servers that aren't available anymore
@schvabek when home computers were introduced they ran like a sack of shit ,still a core2duo 4gb ram can run win10,install chrome,watch youtube to a better standard of performance in comparision to old machines
@@Mr.1.iSure, but I mainly need this computer for GB. I don’t need it for any of the modern productivity, I have other more modern computers for that :)
@@lenni-builder Hey, thanks so much for the feedback! I gotta be honest, I don’t really like Linux 😬 I’m sure I could get used to it, but I don’t really know what to do with it.
@@pinathedallsheep.5174 Nope, no GarageBand on Linux 😁 The thing is, I don’t need these old computers to have support/run super smooth. I have modern computers for that.
i use this same macbook as my everyday i maxed the mem, installed ssd, and linux mint but you can install Monterrey using open core and it works great, i have it on a separate ssd because i prefer linux anyway. this is definitely not useless! it will run win11 why bother with win7?
@@95Comics Hey man, thanks for commenting and sharing your experience! That’s super cool that you daily drive this thing. I mainly use this for GB, I don’t really need Windows. The reason I went with win 7 was because it was included in the boot camp assistant. Cheers! 🤟
@@kellymendez Yep, all that aluminium gets quite toasty. But changing the thermal paste really did make it run noticeably cooler, so if yours gets super hot, it might be a good idea to do that 🤟 Thanks for commenting! ❤️
@@Dawid_The_Man I also took out a couple of optical drives back in the day to upgrade the storage on my macs. Nowadays I’d rather have the optical drives, just for legacy support and burning capabilities.
@@schvabek so installing a Linux distribution shouldn’t be a problem then. I mean, unless you’re running something with a lot of Windows dependencies I don’t see why a decent Ubuntu installation wouldn’t breathe new life into it.
@@michaelolz Man, I’ve received so many requests for Linux, it’s fascinating! 😁 I’ll definitely try it out, although I don’t particularly care for Linux. I don’t need this to run modern apps or whatever, I mainly need it for GarageBand (which is a Mac only application)
This was an awesome video and I was surprised to see you only had 303 subs (304 now!). I really enjoyed the escalating absurdity of the things you did (particularly running the MacBook half-deconstructed with your SATA super drives plugged in) to get the MacBook to run windows - respect!!🫡
@@andrew3939 Man, you have no idea how happy these comments make me! I really appreciate all the support! ❤️ Hopefully the subscriber count will grow in time 😊 Much love!
@@ro1934 Пасиба! Ну я не знаю, почему нельзя было разрешить узби бутинг для виндоус (раз это прекрасно работает для их оперативных систем). Хорошо, что это заработало после 2008 потом. Так вот, мне давно было интересно, получится ли или нет. Жаль, что эксперимент стоил мне столько часов ебли, но бывает.
@@schvabek да эпл как всегда в своем стиле. Своя "экосистема" и прочее. Если мне память не изменяет, то они и "разрешили* бутинг с флешки из-за скандала. (Могу ошибаться. Будет видос про хакинтош?
Вполне возможно. Хотя они вроде как среди первых начали продвигать узби. За последний год я кстати пересмотрел все мэкворлды и WWDC конференции с 97 года, и любопытно как на самом деле менялся курс компании, из «ценности» и статус. Офигеть. Насчет хакинтоша, это да! Хотя я честно боюсь этой темы, никогда раньше не пробовал, боюсь что на это уж точно уйдет полжизни лол. В отпуске точно попробую как нибудь.
@@TerrorSyxke Well, that’s what I paid for mine 🤷♂️ As far as Linux goes, I might try installing that some other time, but I don’t really know what to do with it. Much love ❤️
@@schvabek I really do think Linux is kind of your only option in modern operating systems, and it would perform the best of the options (other being upgrading to a newer Mac os), do give Linux Mint a try
@@thenitrogamer Hm, I’m sure you could, but I’m not entirely sure it would go smoothly on this computer. Since I’ve already installed the highest version of macOS it can run, the boot camp assistant only allows you to install Windows 7. And as we saw, booting Windows off of USB/HDD really didn’t go well on this particular model.
@@schvabek that's awesome. I was thinking of getting an older mac like this and getting some old version of pro tools going for recording demos and stuff.
@@StannyObelisk yep, this works very well for that! I’m using GB, I know it’s for noobs, but it quite literally does all I need, and it runs decently well on these older machines.
@@schvabek awesome stuff. I heard garageband is actually super good and that a bunch of records were made with it, I just haven't had the opportunity to play around with it. I think a laptop like this would be excellent for school stuff too. Cheers for the video :)
@@StannyObelisk Man, I know “professional” musicians look down upon it, or they use Logic Pro or something more fancy, but truth be told GB always just did all I needed to do (very few exceptions aside). I’m sure there are also good Windows apps for that. Also an iPhone/iPad version. Bus if you ask me, grab yourself an old, cheap Mac and go to town! Much love ❤️