"No Bootable Device" after failed Boot Camp installation (Windows 8 - 1TB Fusion Drive)

On my new iMac /w a 1TB Fusion Drive, I tried to install Windows 8 (still technically unsupported) using the following method:

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/11/no-support-no-problem-inst alling-windows-8-on-a-mac-with-boot-camp/

Everything was proceeding just fine; I had Boot Camp copy all of the Windows 8 files (a legitimate, store-bought copy) to a bootable USB drive - a feature only available on new Macs running Boot Camp Assistant that don't come with an internal optical drive - and create a 102 Gb partition on the Fusion Drive. It then rebooted and was proceeding through the Windows 8 setup wizard as should be expected, but it couldn't modify any of the partitions on the Fusion Drive and wouldn't proceed. I accepted defeat and decided I would just wait until Windows 8 is officially supported before trying again.

Now, every time I turn the computer on, I get an error message saying "No Bootable Device...", unless I hold down the Option key and manually select "Macintosh HD" (the only boot device listed). I already removed the primary Windows 8 partition, but it hasn't fixed the issue.

I'm thinking that it's one of the 'hidden' partitions causing it to behave like this, or something wrong with the EFI bootloader, but I don't know how to proceed. Any thoughts on this?

Solution 1:

I had a similar issue installing Windows 8 x64 on a 2013 Macbook Pro Retina running Mac OS 10.8.3 (which does support Windows 8) and the problem turned out to be an issue between the 32GB USB 3.0 installer drive I was using and Bootcamp Assistant/Mac OS. The USB drive was not defective.

I went through the Boot Camp Assistant process three times using a Microcenter branded 32GB USB 3.0 thumb-drive. When the system would reboot to start the Windows 8 installation process I would get a "No Bootable Device" error. After reading a suggesstion from another site I changed USB drives and used a Microcenter branded 16GB USB 2.0 thumb-drive and the Windows 8 installer USB was found and installation proceeded successfully.

Solution 2:

Go to system preferences then startup disk. Then select Mac OS X and hit restart.