Boot Camp install issues on late-2013 iMac 27", replaced HDD with SSD

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Level 1

8 points

Boot Camp install issues on late-2013 iMac 27", replaced HDD with SSD

I have a late-2013 27" iMac that previously had a 3 TB Fusion Drive, which ran for several years with Boot Camp until the HDD started failing. I have replaced the HDD with a 2 TB SSD, running alongside the original 128 GB SSD blade. They are separate volumes (I didn't re-FUSION them).

I am trying to install Windows via Boot Camp assistant on the 2 TB drive. I have created the USB install stick, using the Win10_1903 (May 2019 Windows release), which I've verified that I can boot from by holding down the option-key. When I ask Boot Camp to only "Install or remove Windows 10 or later version," it downloads the Windows support software and then returns to the internal disk selection screen without partitioning the drive or reporting any error.

I have also tried using Disk Utility and skipping Boot Camp. The Windows installer won't proceed past formatting the partition (I haven't tried reformatting the whole disk, since my primary MacOS user directory is on this larger drive).

Beyond that, I have:

Reset NVRAM

Reset SMC

Deleted local TM snapshots via tmutil

Tried installing on the 128 GB blade instead (both via Boot Camp and not)

My next best guesses are to create another Fusion drive of a single volume and restore the user data from time machine, or try something clever with a virtual machine -> external HDD -> cloning back -> pulling my hair out.

Anyone have any better ideas? Or guesses as to why Boot Camp is failing with no error feedback?

Here is the output of "diskutil list (disk4 is the USB stick)"

   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *121.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk3         121.1 GB   disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *2.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk2         2.0 TB     disk1s2

/dev/disk2 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +2.0 TB     disk2
                                 Physical Store disk1s2
   1:                APFS Volume Lazarus                 191.6 GB   disk2s1

/dev/disk3 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +121.1 GB   disk3
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Commander               17.4 GB    disk3s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 45.7 MB    disk3s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                509.7 MB   disk3s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      2.1 GB     disk3s4

/dev/disk4 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *62.6 GB    disk4
   1:                 DOS_FAT_32 STALL                   62.6 GB    disk4s1

iMac 27", macOS 10.14

Posted on Jul 2, 2019 5:35 PM

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Answer 1

danfarnsy Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 3, 2019 10:21 AM in response to Loner T

Thank you, again, for the help!

There were hiccups with restoring from TM, and then a little more confusion when Windows objected to the GPT (I still had my backup disk connected by USB). Everything's sorted and Boot Camp Assistant did its job!

For anybody else who reads this, trying to do their own homework, here are my lessons learned:

Boot Camp Assistant needed two internal disks to be turned into a Fusion Drive, even if they're both SSDs and you don't expect a speed boost from doing so.
Creating Fusion Drive in Mojave isn't as simple as a resetFusion terminal command. Instead it requires booting from Internet Recovery (or an external boot drive) and following Loner T's comments on page 2 of Can't upgrade to Mojave on iMac with … - Apple Community . In particular, you need diskutil apfs createContainer
Unplug everything from USB not needed during the Boot Camp install. The Windows installer complained about GPT partition type while my Time Machine was connected.

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Answer 2

Loner T

Level 9

59,526 points

Jul 2, 2019 5:50 PM in response to danfarnsy

danfarnsy wrote:

I have a late-2013 27" iMac that previously had a 3 TB Fusion Drive, which ran for several years with Boot Camp until the HDD started failing. I have replaced the HDD with a 2 TB SSD, running alongside the original 128 GB SSD blade. They are separate volumes (I didn't re-FUSION them).

You need to, otherwise you will not be able to install Windows. Is there a specific reason not to?

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Answer 3

danfarnsy Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 2, 2019 8:04 PM in response to Loner T

Doesn't Mojave complain about using two SSDs (instead of an HDD and SSD) when you use the resetFusion command here? How to fix a split Fusion Drive - Apple Support

Can I still use diskutil to use the core storage method from High Sierra, and then format as APFS? I don't have 10.13 lying around, so I want to be sure a Mojave recovery volume will still let me do this before I start breaking things.

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Answer 4

Loner T

Level 9

59,526 points

Jul 2, 2019 8:15 PM in response to danfarnsy

If you have a TM backup of macOS on an external disk, you can build an APFS Fusion drive from scratch in Internet Recovery, by erasing and creating the appropriate containers. My testing of resetFusion has been unsatisfactory, to say the least.

Take a look at page 2 of Can't upgrade to Mojave on iMac with … - Apple Community. It has the diskutil APFS commands. Make your 121GB SSD the main, and the 2TB SSD the secondary in the APFS Fusion configuration.

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Answer 5

danfarnsy Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 2, 2019 7:02 PM in response to Loner T

LonerT, thanks for the response.

I don't have a specific reason, just general advice I read saying that with 2 SSDs, there was no real advantage to a Fusion Drive and that there were downsides (lower longevity with more frequent reads/writes as the system shuffled things around).

I was hoping to not have to wipe my Mac to get this to work. OTOH, it's certainly less long-term work to have my /User on the same volume as my system (did keep a backup admin user there, just in case), let alone the symlinks for larger things in /Applications. Do you know why Boot Camp gets confused with two internal drives? It certainly recognizes them and lets me select one, giving no complaints about the choice to partition one of them, even if it then fails at it. Is this a newer APFS problem?

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Answer 6

Loner T

Level 9

59,526 points

Jul 2, 2019 7:19 PM in response to danfarnsy

A mechanical HDD is the original disk. Since you now have an SSD, despite the obvious, you should be fine with creating a Fusion drive using the current configuration.

danfarnsy wrote:

Do you know why Boot Camp gets confused with two internal drives? It certainly recognizes them and lets me select one, giving no complaints about the choice to partition one of them, even if it then fails at it. Is this a newer APFS problem?

The logic of partitioning is dependent on the Mac's Model Identifier and supported disk layouts. This is not related to APFS. It would also occur on older versions of macOS, prior to Mojave.

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