Bootcamp Catalina install issue

Sorry, but one last little tidbit before I am off, I did an

"Option" reboot and started the Windows installer

from there and it did see the Bootcamp volume.

So, when going the Bootcamp route, something

seems to be preventing Windows installer from seeing

partition (I did multiple "Refreshes" in the Windows

install location Window and no drive showed up

other than the installer drive).

Now whether I should just go ahead and install

using the Option boot to get to the installer at

this point is in question but as I don't have the time

to try it at this point I will leave you with that thought.

The SSD is a Sandisk Ultra 3D which I have in several Macs,

another of which does have a Bootcamp install of Windows.

The thing I find just too odd is that following the full Bootcamp

procedure, when it gets to the Windows install stage, the created

partition is not visible to the Windows installer.

Yet, if I boot up the Mac to the Windows installer drive, it sees the

partition just fine and appears to be happy to continue when

that partition is selected. Haven't done that since don't currently

have the time to wait for the install (if it should even be done)

and repair things in case the attempt fails.

One thought I have, does Bootcamp simply load and launch the installer?

If so, perhaps it is a volume mounting issue at that point in the process

if an actual reboot is not taking place. It kind of points to that since the

partition is seen when rebooting Mac and actually booting into the

Win10 installer.

Well, went back and double checked and well in terms of

Bootcamp itself, I was not imagining what it said:

However, I was in error about the partitioning. Bootcamp did

in fact create a physical partition:

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *960.2 GB   disk0

   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1

   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         704.0 GB   disk0s2

   3:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                256.0 GB   disk0s3

So, the issue is that the Windows installer is not seeing this partition

and you were correct on somethings and as you will see some

are different.

Doing diskutil info /dev/disk0s3 results in this:

Device Identifier:         disk0s3

   Device Node:               /dev/disk0s3

   Whole:                     No

   Part of Whole:             disk0

   Volume Name:               BOOTCAMP

   Mounted:                   Yes

   Mount Point:               /Volumes/BOOTCAMP

   Partition Type:            Microsoft Basic Data

   File System Personality:   NTFS

   Type (Bundle):             ntfs

   Name (User Visible):       Windows NT File System (NTFS)

   OS Can Be Installed:       No

   Media Type:                Generic

   Protocol:                  SATA

   SMART Status:              Verified

   Disk / Partition UUID:     5FE67A59-4BC1-44FC-9325-938063609A7F

   Partition Offset:          704210010112 Bytes (1375410176 512-Byte-Device-Blocks)

   Disk Size:                 256.0 GB (255986761728 Bytes) (exactly 499974144 512-Byte-Units)

   Device Block Size:         512 Bytes

   Volume Total Space:        256.0 GB (255986757632 Bytes) (exactly 499974136 512-Byte-Units)

   Volume Used Space:         75.4 MB (75382784 Bytes) (exactly 147232 512-Byte-Units) (0.0%)

   Volume Free Space:         255.9 GB (255911374848 Bytes) (exactly 499826904 512-Byte-Units) (100.0%)

   Allocation Block Size:     4096 Bytes

   Read-Only Media:           No

   Read-Only Volume:          Yes

   Device Location:           Internal

   Removable Media:           Fixed

   Solid State:               Yes

   Hardware AES Support:      No

The one line that stands out to me is:

OS Can Be Installed:       No

Now, whether that is just referring to macOS or any

OS remains to be seen. The other surprising thing is that it is

showing as an NTFS volume, which I thought Apple was not even

allowed t do because of licensing issues.

I am off to do other things for the next few days but had a short bit

of time to collect this info.

Any thoughts?

I went ahead and just booted directly into the Windows installer

drive and all went well, Win10 1909 is installed and working.

There are some problems but it isn't anything I have not

seen before when dealing with Windows fresh installs and

likely setup and perhaps some driver issues but all that is

yet to be determined, basically Windows as usual.

The SSD is a standard SATA SSD (not the slotted SSD on the logic

board) and why would that make Bootcamp itself create a APFS

volume within an APFS container for a Windows install?

I could understand if there was a issue with Bootcamp

failing to partition or otherwise just generally fail. Plus

that article is quite thin on info as to why the installation won't

work or what the symptoms were.

Forgot to add, the iMac has an SSD which replaced an HDD

quite some time ago and is not nor ever was a Fusion drive.

Thanks for taking time to try and help.

Loner T wrote:

woodmeister50 wrote:

The SSD is a standard SATA SSD (not the slotted SSD on the logic

board) and why would that make Bootcamp itself create a APFS

volume within an APFS container for a Windows install?

I assume you have a single physical disk/storage device in your Mac.

Can you post the output of

diskutil list

I could understand if there was a issue with Bootcamp

failing to partition or otherwise just generally fail. Plus

that article is quite thin on info as to why the installation won't

work or what the symptoms were.

If you have a Fusion drive, the HDD part of the Fusion drive is partitioned.

As I had stated, it never was a Fusion drive and was an HDD only iMac

which I replaced with an SSD.

f you have a single-drive which is a standard SATA disk, Bootcamp will partition it with a FAT32 partition, which the Windows installer formats as NTFS.

This is what Bootcamp is not doing. It is creating an APFS volume within

the APFS container. Also, Bootcamp is explicitly stating that it is adding

an APFS volume (?).

he Apple SSD driver used in $WinPEDriver$ will not recognize the Aura X2 on the listed models, and will cause failures if you use a third-party PCIe/NVMe SSD. It only recognizes Apple proprietary SSDs. See Cannot install Windows 10 - Macbook Pro R… - Apple Community as an example specific to OWC SSDs.

As stated, the SSD is a standard SATA drive connected to

the SATA connector.

"diskutil list" shows the physical drive, and the "synthesized volume"

and after running Bootcamp is shows the Bootcamp volume as part

of the APFS Container. /dev/disk0 remains unchanged with GUID partition

scheme, an EFI volume and Apple_APFS Container.

FWIW, Bootcamp did work for me once on this very machine with the SSD

back in High Sierra (I think but might have been Sierra) but had since done a

full complete wipe and repartition of the drive itself and complete reinstall.

Basically reset the drive to a "fresh out of box" state.

In addition, before removing the bogus Bootcamp APFS volume the last

attempt, I also took a peek at the EFI volume on the drive and there was

not any "Windows" directory there just the Apple, though I guess the

Windows one is installed when Windows is installed?

Also, as a check I ran Disk First Aid on the drive itself and the

APFS volume and there was not an issue.

Two things I may try before trying to do a "brute force" install of Windows,

a PRAM reset (perhaps something is sending "mixed messages" to Bootcamp

confusing it) or install an older macOS (High Sierra or Mojave) in another APFS

volume within the disk1 APFS container and trying Bootcamp in that.

It will be a few days before attempting these so any other thoughts

would be helpful.