Boot Camp Assistant tells me to restore my Fusion drive, but it's not split

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Boot Camp Assistant tells me to restore my Fusion drive, but it's not split

I just upgraded to Catalina and found that my favorite, old video games suddenly do not work. I decided it was time to get Windows 10 and use it via Boot Camp. When I try to use Boot Camp Assistant, it immediately tells me 'Boot Camp cannot be installed to a split Fusion drive. In order to install Boot Camp please restore your drives to Fusion.'

The trouble is, when I looked into how to do this, and followed the instructions from Apple Support, they told me that my Fusion drive is working fine.

That's it. No idea how I can persuade my computer that it's drive is working as intended. Any ideas?

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Oct 16, 2019 1:48 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Oct 17, 2019 12:27 PM in response to bsuspicious

For a 2012 iMac with a non-3TB Fusion drive, boot into Single-User Mode by holding Command+S at boot. You will see a black-and-white Console window.

In the Console, run

fsck_apfs -s -o -y /dev/rdisk2

and post a photograph of the session.

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Answer 2

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Oct 17, 2019 3:45 AM in response to bsuspicious

bsuspicious wrote:

Thanks for the reply. Here are screenshots of the output:

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/839468c1-acd2-40cb-8d2d-06ebf6c2ac2f

...and...

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/4c7784c8-a88e-47ad-bbf8-1720a42fb604

Post the output of

sudo fsck_apfs -n -l /dev/rdisk2

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Answer 3

bsuspicious Author

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Oct 17, 2019 2:47 PM in response to Loner T

I couldn't get a photo of the session because my iphone has ceased focusing on two-dimensional things, but the output was very short, and it ended with 'error: the volume /dev/rdisk2/ has write access.'

I hope that helps.

I'll try it again and see if I can get a decent photo.

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Answer 4

bsuspicious Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 17, 2019 4:03 PM in response to bsuspicious

Update: I tried the Boot Camp Assistant again just now and it seems to be working. I have no idea which of the steps Loner T prescribed did the trick, but it's suddenly working.

As for resetting the PRAM and the SMC: I did those before I posted this question, and they didn't fix things for me.

I'm sorry I'm not a better scientist: I should've been trying Boot Camp after each step, to help isolate what worked, but I didn't.

Alas.

Thank you Loner T for your interest and your help. Very generous, and very much appreciated.

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Answer 5

bsuspicious Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 16, 2019 6:05 PM in response to Loner T

Thanks for the reply. Here are screenshots of the output:

...and...

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Answer 6

bsuspicious Author

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8 points

Oct 17, 2019 8:24 AM in response to Loner T

It's a fairly long list, but the conclusion is that the volume appears to be OK. Thank you again for your help.

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Answer 7

bsuspicious Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 17, 2019 3:01 PM in response to bsuspicious

This is the best I could do:

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Answer 8

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Oct 16, 2019 4:28 PM in response to bsuspicious

From macOS Terminal, post the output of

diskutil list

diskutil apfs list

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Answer 9

eecook89

Level 1

4 points

Oct 16, 2019 6:57 PM in response to bsuspicious

I am also having this issue... I am wondering if its apple adding Macintosh HD and Macintosh Data to new macOS

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Answer 10

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Oct 17, 2019 3:46 AM in response to eecook89

eecook89 wrote:

I am wondering if its apple adding Macintosh HD and Macintosh Data to new macOS

These are new APFS volumes, not new partitions. BC Assistant creates a new partitions.

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Answer 11

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Oct 17, 2019 9:45 AM in response to bsuspicious

What is the year and model of your Mac (do not post the serial number)?

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Answer 12

bsuspicious Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 17, 2019 10:14 AM in response to Loner T

27-inch iMac, Late 2012

3.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel i7

32 GB Ram

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Answer 13

eecook89

Level 1

4 points

Oct 17, 2019 11:02 AM in response to bsuspicious

I fixed mine by turning it off and pulling memory out for 15 minutes... but I think you can do it by rebooting and using control + command and p and r... PRAM reset is what it’s called

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Answer 14

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Oct 17, 2019 6:16 PM in response to bsuspicious

Excellent!

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Boot Camp Assistant tells me to restore my Fusion drive, but it's not split

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