Q: Trying to install Windows 10 on Early 2013 Retina MacBook Pro

Here it is, thanks again for helping with this!

Just checked, here's my overview:

I've cross referenced with the page you linked, and these seem to be the correct (or latest) versions for my model.

Output for sudo fdisk /dev/disk0:

Disk: /dev/disk0 geometry: 60821/255/63 [977105060 sectors]

Signature: 0xAA55

         Starting       Ending

#: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]

------------------------------------------------------------------------

1: EE 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [         1 -     409639] <Unknown ID>

2: AF 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [    409640 -  875816464] HFS+       

3: AB 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [ 876226104 -    1269544] Darwin Boot

4: 0B 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [ 877496320 -   99608576] Win95 FAT-32

I had BCA create a brand new partition right before I ran the command, without attempting to install anything on it. I have the GPT Fdisk utility installed as well.

I went ahead and ran the GPT Fdisk utility as per the instructions on this page: http://superuser.com/questions/508026/windows-detects-gpt-disk-as-mbr-in-efi-boo t

I made sure to reboot to recovery first to use the 'csrutil disable' command first, so that GPT Fdisk could actually make changes.

This got me as far as being able to run the Windows 10 installer.

After the installer finishes and tries to boot into Windows, I immediately go into the "System thread exception not handled igdkmd64.sys" loop.

This is BEFORE I am able to do anything in Windows 10, even the initial setup. It just immediately starts crashing. After a few loops it'll give me a few options (like booting into Safe Mode). I've tried booting into Safe Mode, but I then get an error that I can't boot into Safe Mode because initial setup hasn't been completed yet.

I guess at this point I technically have Windows 10 installed, except it's still not actually running.

Edit: I'd like to add that I at no point during the installation am connected to any network, and the only thing plugged in are my magsafe adapter and the USB flash drive with the windows installer.

During installation the Windows 10 installer does go through an "Installing updates" step, but I never connected it to any network through either ethernet or wifi while running the installer.

And therein lies my problem. I can only get up to the point where the installer runs from the USB successfully.

As soon as the computer restarts to finally boot into Windows 10 after installing, the driver error starts.

This is before any initial setup is finished, and long before I get to a point where I have access to the Desktop and Start Menu, from where I could install the drivers, make a Windows System Restore Point etc.

Nothing connected but the Windows installer USB (also tried booting Windows without it attached, since the installer was technically done).

Again, thanks for still trying to help out. It's very much appreciated!

1. The product version in Bootcamp.xml is 6.0.6136

2. I downloaded a new .iso from the website you provided for prosperity (I got my original file from there as well I think). I seem to have gotten a slightly newer file (Win10_1511_2_English_x64.iso over Win10_1511_1_English_x64.iso) but it hasn't made a difference.

I removed the existing partition with BCA and ran BCA from scratch again, making a new installer boot USB with the newly downloaded .iso file, creating a partition, then running the GPT Fdisk utility and finally installing Windows 10.

While I only have a key for Windows 10 Home, by not entering a product key I was able to select an install for Windows 10 Pro.

Unfortunately, after it finished installing and rebooting, it immediately jumped into the error loop again involving the igdkmd64.sys driver.

Here's a screenshot of the $WinPEDriver$ folder before I tried replacing them with the Windows 7 Drivers:

I've downloaded the Windows 7 drivers from the page you mentioned, and tossed them into the USB installer, replacing the folders.

The $WinPEDriver$ folder that comes with the Windows 7 Drivers only contains two folders: AppleBluetoothBroadcom64 and IntelHDGraphics64.

I checked the Bootcamp.xml file, and the Windows 7 Drivers do contain an older version of the driver that's giving me a bit of a headache.

The Bootcamp 5 XML references it twice, both for Intel HD Graphics:

<Name>Intel(R) HD Graphics

  <InfName>igdlh64.inf</InfName>

  <Class>Display</Class>

  <ClassGUID>{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}</ClassGUID>

  <CatalogFile>igdlh.cat</CatalogFile>

  <Provider>Intel Corporation</Provider>

  <DriverVer>10/31/2013,10.18.10.3345</DriverVer>

  <ServiceBinary>igdkmd64.sys</ServiceBinary>

  <HardwareID></HardwareID>

  <isX64>yes</isX64>

and

<Name>Intel(R) HD Graphics

  <InfName>igdlh64.inf</InfName>

  <Class>Display</Class>

  <ClassGUID>{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}</ClassGUID>

  <CatalogFile>igdlh.cat</CatalogFile>

  <Provider>Intel Corporation</Provider>

  <DriverVer>10/31/2013,9.17.10.3347</DriverVer>

  <ServiceBinary>igdkmd64.sys</ServiceBinary>

  <HardwareID></HardwareID>

  <isX64>yes</isX64>

Whereas the newer Bootcamp 6 version contains three references:

<Name>Intel(R) HD Graphics

  <InfName>igdlh64.inf</InfName>

  <Class>Display</Class>

  <ClassGUID>{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}</ClassGUID>

  <CatalogFile>igdlh.cat</CatalogFile>

  <Provider>Intel Corporation</Provider>

  <DriverVer>06/19/2015,10.18.14.4243</DriverVer>

  <ServiceBinary>igdkmd64.sys</ServiceBinary>

  <HardwareID></HardwareID>

  <isX64>yes</isX64>

<Name>Intel(R) HD Graphics

  <InfName>igdlh64.inf</InfName>

  <Class>Display</Class>

  <ClassGUID>{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}</ClassGUID>

  <CatalogFile>igdlh.cat</CatalogFile>

  <Provider>Intel Corporation</Provider>

  <DriverVer>06/16/2015,10.18.10.4242</DriverVer>

  <ServiceBinary>igdkmd64.sys</ServiceBinary>

  <HardwareID></HardwareID>

  <isX64>yes</isX64>

  </Name>

<Name>Intel(R) HD Graphics

  <InfName>igdlh64.inf</InfName>

  <Class>Display</Class>

  <ClassGUID>{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}</ClassGUID>

  <CatalogFile>igdlh.cat</CatalogFile>

  <Provider>Intel Corporation</Provider>

  <DriverVer>10/31/2013,10.18.10.3345</DriverVer>

  <ServiceBinary>igdkmd64.sys</ServiceBinary>

  <HardwareID></HardwareID>

  <isX64>yes</isX64>

Anyway, I replaced the files on the USB Windows installer with the ones from the Bootcamp 5 version, unfortunately, when trying to boot into the installer after doing this, I'm met with this error:

I re-downloaded the newer Boot Camp files through BCA (Action > Download Windows Support Software) and copied them over the Boot Camp 5 files again to see if it would work normally again, which it does.

I guess the BC5 Windows 7 drivers are not compatible with the Windows 10 installer?

Did a few more tests. A friend of mine had the idea to maybe install Windows 7 or 8 and then upgrade to 10 from there. He had the ISO's for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 and passed them on to me.

I tried to make a bootable USB installer from the Windows 7 iso, but that didn't pan out. It all ran through normally, but the USB installer ended up not showing up as bootable.

My experiences with the Windows 8 iso are basically exactly the same as with the Windows 10 one. I can get it to install, if I change the partition to GPT with The GPT Fdisk utility, but then as soon as it installs and reboots I start getting the driver error.

So unfortunately, still not any step closer.