Late 2012 iMac, Mojave, APFS and Boot Camp

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Level 1

6 points

Late 2012 iMac, Mojave, APFS and Boot Camp

Basic system/issue in subject. Additional details: One 1TB drive, formatted APFS (one partition/volume rebuilt due to disk corruption), fully patched Mojave. I'm trying to load/run Boot Camp for the first time to run Windows 10. I've tried to run the Boot Camp Assistant, but it tells me there are no partitions large enough to use. I created a new 150GB APFS volume, but BCA can't/won't see that on the boot disk. I've tried to search, but for whatever reason, I can't find the answer to this seemingly simple question: Can I install/use Boot Camp on an APFS formatted drive on a late 2012 iMac?' If yes - how? I've read most of the articles on APFS I could find, but none directly answer what I'm trying to figure out.

Anyone have any ideas?

TIA.

Dechief

iMac 21.5", macOS 10.14

Posted on May 10, 2019 2:19 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

dechief4 Author

Level 1

6 points

May 11, 2019 5:53 AM in response to dechief4

I've now at least gotten to the Windows installation steps. The partitioning hung several times, so I performed the steps located here: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/314111/boot-camp-assistance-is-stuck-on-create-a-partition which got me over that hump. Loner T - again, your assistance was much appreciated, and I can now state the answer to my first, basic question is 'Yes' (with some caveats to actually making it work...).

Dechief4

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Answer 2

dechief4 Author

Level 1

6 points

May 10, 2019 6:22 PM in response to Loner T

Here is the output requested (and yes, I have seen that article, but it did not appear to apply to my situation...). I've also attached screen shots of what I see (this is without the 'new' APFS volume):

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk1 1000.0 GB disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +1000.0 GB disk1

Physical Store disk0s2

1: APFS Volume MacCaldwell 478.3 GB disk1s1

2: APFS Volume Preboot 24.0 MB disk1s2

3: APFS Volume Recovery 519.8 MB disk1s3

4: APFS Volume VM 1.1 GB disk1s4

/dev/disk2 (external, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *3.0 TB disk2

1: EFI EFI 314.6 MB disk2s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage TimeMachine 3.0 TB disk2s2

3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 134.2 MB disk2s3

/dev/disk3 (external, virtual):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_HFS TimeMachine +3.0 TB disk3

Logical Volume on disk2s2

65C09DBD-059C-416A-A5BC-F18B8A53CE0F

Unlocked Encrypted

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Answer 3

dechief4 Author

Level 1

6 points

May 10, 2019 8:02 PM in response to Loner T

Here is the fsck output:

dev_init:607: Using /private/var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/T/fsck_apfs.7735.1/apfs and /private/var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/T/fsck_apfs.7735.1/nx for device-io.

** Checking the container superblock.

** Checking the EFI jumpstart record.

** Checking the space manager.

** Checking the space manager free queue trees.

** Checking the object map.

** Checking volume.

** Checking the APFS volume superblock.

** The volume MacCaldwell was formatted by diskmanagementd (945.241.4) and last modified by apfs_kext (945.250.134).

** Checking the object map.

** Checking the snapshot metadata tree.

** Checking the snapshot metadata.

** Checking snapshot 1 of 22.

** Checking snapshot 2 of 22.

** Checking snapshot 3 of 22.

** Checking snapshot 4 of 22.

** Checking snapshot 5 of 22.

** Checking snapshot 6 of 22.

** Checking snapshot 7 of 22.

** Checking snapshot 8 of 22.

** Checking snapshot 9 of 22.

** Checking snapshot 10 of 22.

** Checking snapshot 11 of 22.

** Checking snapshot 12 of 22.

** Checking snapshot 13 of 22.

** Checking snapshot 14 of 22.

** Checking snapshot 15 of 22.

** Checking snapshot 16 of 22.

** Checking snapshot 17 of 22.

** Checking snapshot 18 of 22.

** Checking snapshot 19 of 22.

** Checking snapshot 20 of 22.

** Checking snapshot 21 of 22.

** Checking snapshot 22 of 22.

** Checking the extent ref tree.

** Checking the fsroot tree.

** Checking volume.

** Checking the APFS volume superblock.

** The volume Preboot was formatted by hfs_convert (945.200.129) and last modified by apfs_kext (945.250.134).

** Checking the object map.

** Checking the snapshot metadata tree.

** Checking the snapshot metadata.

** Checking the extent ref tree.

** Checking the fsroot tree.

** Checking volume.

** Checking the APFS volume superblock.

** The volume Recovery was formatted by diskmanagementd (945.200.129) and last modified by apfs_kext (945.250.134).

** Checking the object map.

** Checking the snapshot metadata tree.

** Checking the snapshot metadata.

** Checking the extent ref tree.

** Checking the fsroot tree.

** Checking volume.

** Checking the APFS volume superblock.

** The volume VM was formatted by apfs.util (945.200.129) and last modified by apfs_kext (945.250.134).

** Checking the object map.

** Checking the snapshot metadata tree.

** Checking the snapshot metadata.

** Checking the extent ref tree.

** Checking the fsroot tree.

** Verifying allocated space.

** The volume /dev/rdisk1 appears to be OK.

Here is the tmutil output:

com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-05-09-231705

com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-05-10-001822

com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-05-10-011822

com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-05-10-021822

com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-05-10-031822

com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-05-10-041822

com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-05-10-051825

com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-05-10-061741

com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-05-10-071739

com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-05-10-081709

com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-05-10-091740

com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-05-10-101738

com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-05-10-111739

com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-05-10-121637

com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-05-10-131724

com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-05-10-141736

com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-05-10-151742

com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-05-10-161747

com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-05-10-171620

com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-05-10-181720

com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-05-10-191720

com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-05-10-201746

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Answer 4

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

May 10, 2019 8:06 PM in response to dechief4

Run

sudo tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2019-05-09-231705

and repeat for all subsequent entries, and check after the 22 are deleted, if you see any new ones.

Once all snapshots are cleaned up, retry BCA and try to install Windows. Since you have an iMac, you will also need to run a SMC and NVRAM Reset before you next Windows attempt.

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Answer 5

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

May 11, 2019 7:09 AM in response to dechief4

You should not need WinRE (based on your link). It is not used, unless Windows does not start correctly. Manually creating partitions works on GPT-only disks with EFI installation. Your 2012 model does not correctly support EFI boot, but if you want leave it as is, that is fine.

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Answer 6

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

May 10, 2019 5:00 PM in response to dechief4

From macOS Terminal, post the output of

diskutil list

Also, are you aware of If you see the alert 'Installation cannot proceed with Boot Camp configured' - Apple Support ?

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Answer 7

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

May 10, 2019 6:30 PM in response to dechief4

Please disconnect all external storage.

To install Windows, if the BCA needs to create a USB installer, you need to use a USB2 Flash drive of 16GB or larger.

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Answer 8

dechief4 Author

Level 1

6 points

May 10, 2019 6:45 PM in response to Loner T

External storage disconnected. Same error as in the screenshot above...

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Answer 9

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

May 10, 2019 7:38 PM in response to dechief4

Can you post the output of

sudo fsck_apfs -n -l /dev/rdisk1

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Answer 10

dechief4 Author

Level 1

6 points

May 10, 2019 7:46 PM in response to Loner T

It will take a while (it’s got 22 snapshots to go thru). BTW - I surmise the answer to my Mojave/APFS/iMac question is ‘yrs’? Thanks for the assist here.

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