Boot Camp Trouble

Assuming this is related to "Your disk could not be partitioned&#… - Apple Community,

• Try using W10 1803 (April) instead of W10 1809 (October)
• Your Mac supports both EFI and BIOS boots. Mojave defaults to EFI Boot. If you need to create a MBR, you can use GPT Fdisk (https://sourceforge.net/projects/gptfdisk/).
• The ISO should be on the Mac's internal disk in any folder other than Downloads.
• If BCA prompts you for a USB to create an installer, use a USB2 Flash drive, which will be erased and formatted by BCA.

You have a 3TB Fusion drive, which means only an EFI installation will work, because MBRs only support 2TiB.

On a 3TB Fusion drive, using the the 3TB HDD disk for Windows, the possible partitioning schemes are

• A sandwich layout used on CoreStorage (pre-APFS) Macs - EFI, macOS, Windows, macOS on the HDD. This accommodates a Windows partition less than 1TB and is suitable for Hybrid MBRs and BIOS installation of W7/W8.1. This is used on 2012 and older Macs. On these Macs, if the Windows partition is larger than 1TB, then the layout becomes - EFI, macOS, Windows. Recovery HD has been omitted on CS layouts to avoid confusion. A MBR must be less than 2TiB, and must start within the first 2TiB, so any disk larger than 4TiB is not supported for MBRs.

• A standard layout (APFS and 2013 or later UEFI Macs) - EFI, macOS, Windows without needs a Hybrid MBR. 2012 Macs are not supported as noted in If you see the alert 'Installation cannot proceed with Boot Camp configured' - Apple Support. Note this statement : If you have iMac (27-inch, Late 2012), you can install macOS Mojave using the steps below — but after the update, you cannot use Boot Camp to install Windows.

You have a 2014 Mac, so it allows the second option on APFS with 3TB Fusion drives. If you are able to create the USB2 Installer, using Create+Download and it has the EFI installer included, we can try the Alt/Option method to install Windows, since you already have a partition. You may see an error about EFI being NTFS, which can be resolved.

Please do not switch macOS versions, yet! There are some peculiarities that need to be understood. Under Sierra

• BC Assistant forces W7 installation to use BIOS, EFI is not supported, even though the 2014 iMac is capable of EFI. BC drivers used are 5.1.5679.
• BC Assistant uses EFI during W10 installation, not BIOS, which causes a BSoD in win32kfull.sys. No MBR is created for W10.
• Mojave only supports W10 and EFI only for new installations, similar to Sierra, and ends up with the same BSoD.
• I manually partitioned the Fusion drive (CoreStorage, not APFS Fusion) using diskutil cs resizeStack command to get an MBR. This allowed me to install W10 1803 (April) using BIOS mode. Mojave has no equivalent of resizeStack command, but GPT FDisk can be used to create a MBR.
• My assumption is that Mojave supports grandfathered installations of non-W10 versions on ALL Macs, and should allow existing installations to continue. I have tested this on a 2012 MBP which was upgraded from macOS Yosemite to Mojave directly. I do not want Mojave on my 2014 iMac.
• I have seen some discussions, where users have lost their MBR, but Windows worked properly after MBR was recreated. See
  • windows 7 wont statrt - Apple Community
  • Unable to install Windows 10 - Apple Community
• The second link is still work-in-progress.
• I need to check which driver(s) may be causing the BSoD under Mojave/EFI on the 2014 iMacs.

brandonschuk wrote:

I have successfully removed the current partition, and I created a partition slightly over 1TiB. There is a "$WinPEDriver$" folder and here is a link to the PasteBin of my AutoUnattend.xml file: https://pastebin.com/YVzkf5xe

Looks fine and as expected.

Since it may have something to do with drivers on the windows boot drive, I am toying around right now with what happens if I use these contents instead of what the Windows10 boot drive has and/or a combination - no success yet, but will let you know.

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1837?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

BC 5.x drivers will fail on W10. You need to use BC6 drivers. Can you post a two-level file structure of $WinPEDriver$ using macOS Finder. Check the Product Version line in Bootcamp.xml referenced in the AutoUnattend.xml.

Lastly, what do you think of me trying to install windows 7 instead of windows 10 and then upgrading to windows 10? I would give it a shot, but I have been stuck for a few hours on how to make a windows 7 boot flash drive, because boot camp assistant will only let me make a windows 10 one, and will not allow me to make a windows 7 one. None of the manual ways seem to be working.

Mojave does not support W7. If you downgrade to Sierra, you may be able to, but EFI updates can lead to other issues.

• Use BCA, remove the current partition
• Create a partition via BCA, which is 1TiB+, so we can manually create a MBR using GPT Fdisk
• We can install using BIOS mode, instead of EFI and see what we get.

The win32kfull.sys is nasty, because it is looking for drivers, which should already be in $WinPEDriver$ which is built as part of the Windows installer.

• Can you verify that the USB has a $WinPEDriver$?
• Can you post the contents of AutoUnattend.xml to PasteBin and post a link here?

My recommendation

• Use a USB2 Flash drive
• Download and install GPT Fdisk
• Create a FAT32 partition of 1+TiB
• I can provide steps for a Hybrid MBR in this configuration
• Test BIOS Mode Windows installation

You will temporarily need to disable SIP using csrutil in Local Recovery (not Internet Recovery) otherwise GDisk will fail. Once SIP is disabled, the GDisk steps are as follows. Be aware that Reboots can change the disk numbers. I will assume disk0 is the 3TB HDD. Change it, if necessary, after you check the output of diskutil list.

Rebuild MBR to match the new GPT information thus resetting the Hybrid MBR. Use defaults for other questions (like partition codes). The only values that need modifications are the Boot flags and step 10. Accept all other defaults that Gdisk offers. Please see thesample Q&A as an example. These steps can be repeated if you make a mistake before you get to Step 12, otherwise start from Step 1 for these steps. Step 6 has numbers which are typed with a space between the numbers. Please see the sample Q&A before you execute these steps.



1. Sudo gdisk /dev/rdisk0
2. P (Print list of parts)
3. R (Recover)
4. O (print current Hybrid MBR)
5. H (chooses Hybrid)
6. Partitions numbers to be hybridized: 2 3
7. Y (Good for GRUB question)
8. N (part 2 boot flag)
9. Y (part 3 boot flag make NTFS bootable partition)
10. O (print current Hybrid MBR)
11. W (Write the new MBR)
12. Y (Yes! write the new MBR)
13. Reboot

Here is sample Q&A for this section. Please notice the Press Enter/Return.

Place EFI GPT (0xEE) partition first in MBR (good for GRUB)? (Y/N): Y

Creating entry for GPT partition #2 (MBR partition #2)

Enter an MBR hex code (default AF): Press Enter/Return

Set the bootable flag? (Y/N): N

Creating entry for GPT partition #3 (MBR partition #3)

Enter an MBR hex code (default 07): Press Enter/Return

Set the bootable flag? (Y/N): Y

Same issue. Someone earlier posted something similar to my output of diskutil using the Late 2014 5k iMac.

diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *121.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk2         121.1 GB   disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk2         1000.0 GB  disk1s2

/dev/disk2 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +1.1 TB     disk2
                                 Physical Stores disk0s2, disk1s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            271.4 GB   disk2s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 45.3 MB    disk2s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                522.7 MB   disk2s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      2.1 GB     disk2s4

/dev/disk3 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *32.1 GB    disk3
   1:               Windows_NTFS WinInstall              32.1 GB    disk3s1

This is the first time I've noticed this because it's not a 3TB Fusion.

I've ran Bootcamp a few times on fresh Mojave installs, with different partition schemes. This issue first came up and I was on APFS so I assumed that + Fusion maybe was the issue. I de-coupled, partitioned it all again as jhfs+ and pretty sure I resetFusion as well. Used both ISOs from April and October. No dice.

Issue: After 'successfully' getting through BC partition, setup and restart, then a new and improved look alike to the classic 'blue screen of death'. Same error as most of these guys: win32ful failure.

The BIOS boot actually was really bizarre. It gets to the formatting of the 'BOOTCAMP' partition and gives the GPT format error that I've only experienced when partition is done outside BC.

This could have something to do with the strange APFS disk showing up? Under BIOS boot I noticed the size of the "BOOTCAMP" partition is 100GB greater than whatever I just set on BC. I've done 200GB partition on bootcamp and under the BIOS boot it finds a 300GB partition named ''BOOTCAMP''. Extremely extremely strange.

W7 on the 2014 iMac 5K.

AMD Driver from 2014...

Disk layout (with MBR/BIOS).

 diskutil list 
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *121.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage Macintosh HD            121.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Boot OS X               134.2 MB   disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage Macintosh HD            743.3 GB   disk1s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk1s3
   4:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                256.0 GB   disk1s4

/dev/disk2 (internal, virtual):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           +858.8 GB   disk2
                                 Logical Volume on disk0s2, disk1s2
                                 E42F07F4-DBC6-4718-A535-5F0E83C319C5
                                 Unencrypted Fusion Drive

sudo fdisk /dev/disk1
Password:
Disk: /dev/disk1	geometry: 121601/255/63 [1953525168 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: AC 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [    409640 - 1451845952] <Unknown ID>
 3: AB 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [1452255592 -    1269536] Darwin Boot 
*4: 07 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [1453527040 -  499996672] HPFS/QNX/AUX

I will post W10 EFI shortly.

I can install W10 1803 in BIOS mode on a 2014 iMac under macOS Sierra.

BC Drivers are 6.0.6136 for W10 1803.

diskutil list 
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *121.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage Macintosh HD            121.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Boot OS X               134.2 MB   disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage Macintosh HD            684.9 GB   disk1s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk1s3
   4:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                314.5 GB   disk1s4

/dev/disk2 (internal, virtual):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           +800.0 GB   disk2
                                 Logical Volume on disk0s2, disk1s2
                                 E42F07F4-DBC6-4718-A535-5F0E83C319C5
                                 Unencrypted Fusion Drive

/dev/disk3 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *16.0 GB    disk3
   1:                 DOS_FAT_32 WININSTALL              16.0 GB    disk3s1

/dev/disk4 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        +3.0 TB     disk4
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk4s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Time Machine Backups    3.0 TB     disk4s2

riMac:~ sudo fdisk /dev/disk1
Password:
Disk: /dev/disk1	geometry: 121601/255/63 [1953525168 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: AC 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [    409640 - 1337630176] <Unknown ID>
 3: AB 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [1338039816 -    1269536] Darwin Boot 
*4: 07 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [1339310080 -  614213632] HPFS/QNX/AUX

I will test EFI Mode in the next couple of days.

brandonschuk wrote:

https://www.reddit.com/r/bootcamp/comments/bdb81o/windows_10_installer_crashing_late_2014_5k_imac/

I looked at the post, which has very few details. Someone has also tried to go back to Yosemite and it still fails. If EFI was updated and is broken, downgrading just the OS will not help. Apple stopped separate firmware updates, which creates a problem.