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Why is BootCamp Partition still empty on Big Sur?

I just installed Big Sur 11.3 Beta on my MacBook Pro Late 2014 and tried to create a BootCamp partition with Windows 10 using Boot Camp Assistant.

As before on 11.1 and 11.2 the bootcamp partition is created but stays empty. As before, impossible to boot into Windows 10 from my Mac.

When is this problem finally being solved?

Posted on Feb 6, 2021 4:01 AM

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Posted on Feb 6, 2021 10:32 AM

I would not recommend Big Sur, as it has too many issues. Also, 11.3 is not publicly released and is an unpredictable OS, by definition.


If you must have Windows, use Catalina, and once Windows is fully functional, try to upgrade to Big Sur. If you have problems, fall back to Catalina. From my perspective, Big Sur is a Big Experiment. 😉

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Feb 6, 2021 10:32 AM in response to claudew

I would not recommend Big Sur, as it has too many issues. Also, 11.3 is not publicly released and is an unpredictable OS, by definition.


If you must have Windows, use Catalina, and once Windows is fully functional, try to upgrade to Big Sur. If you have problems, fall back to Catalina. From my perspective, Big Sur is a Big Experiment. 😉

Feb 6, 2021 6:31 AM in response to claudew

Beta versions cannot be discussed on ASC. If you switch to 11.2, then we can provide some guidance. The BC partition is normally empty, before installation starts. Your 2014 Mac needs a USB2 Flash drive of 16GB to create a Windows installer from which the Mac should boot. See Install Windows on your older Mac using Boot Camp - Apple Support for reference.

Feb 6, 2021 7:55 AM in response to Loner T

Thanks for the quick reply. I tried the same thing on 11.1 and 11.2, not beta versions.

It doesn't work and I didn't find any solution yet.

Boot Camp assistant starts well, with a 16 GB USB drive that works perfectly for Boot Camp Windows installation on my MacBook Air with Mojave.

On my MacBook Pro 2.8 GHz Late 2014 with Big Sur (11.1 or 11.2 or 11.3b) BCA downloads the latest version of Windows Stuff for Apple, partitions the local SSD for BootCamp, then a few seconds after wants to restart the Boot Camp partition, but as this does not seem to work, restarts again in Big Sur (taking much longer than normally).

Is there anything I can do to get this process right?

Feb 6, 2021 10:13 AM in response to claudew

In fact, I have another MacBook Pro 2014 with Big Sur 11.1 where I already tried to install Windows without success. I reset SMC and NVRAM and tried again, but it still didn't work out. Meanwhile, as I had lot of other problems with Big Sur, I managed to install a partition with Catalina and worked mainly with Catalina. Today I installed version 11.3b on the Big Sur partition and tried BCA again...and this time I got Windows installed!! But afterwards I wanted to reboot to the Big Sur partition BUT this is causing big problems: first it took 10 minutes to get to the boot partition select screen with A LOT of fan noise. Now (half an hour later) I have the screen with Big Sur, Catalina and Windows disks but I cannot do anything, no cursor, no mouse movement, no key reaction and the fan is still running...

Feb 6, 2021 10:44 AM in response to Loner T

It sure is!

Meanwhile "Rien ne va plus" on my other Mac! Only the Windows partition seems to have survived and the Mac immediately (well after many minutes...) starts into Window, with or without the option key, no more Catalina, no more Big Sur, RIP!

This is a monumental clusterfuck and I never had a similar situation on any Apple computer in the last 45 years, since my first Apple ][. In fact this misery started with the introduction of APFS and now it culminates in Big Sur.

To limit the damage I will never install Big Sur nor try to install a Windows partition. Apple finally reached the realm of Microsoft catastrophy.

Feb 6, 2021 12:30 PM in response to claudew

claudew wrote:

It sure is!
Meanwhile "Rien ne va plus" on my other Mac! Only the Windows partition seems to have survived and the Mac immediately (well after many minutes...) starts into Window, with or without the option key, no more Catalina, no more Big Sur, RIP!

If you reset SMC and NVRAM and reboot and hold Alt/Option, what are the available selections?

This is a monumental *********** and I never had a similar situation on any Apple computer in the last 45 years, since my first Apple ][. In fact this misery started with the introduction of APFS and now it culminates in Big Sur.

I hope it will be a bit more stable after a couple of releases.

To limit the damage I will never install Big Sur nor try to install a Windows partition. Apple finally reached the realm of Microsoft catastrophy.

🤣

Feb 6, 2021 1:09 PM in response to Loner T

Meanwhile the fatal MacBook pro is running again all three partitions: Big Sur, Catalina and Windows.

After a burning smell and a close call to 911, I did an emergency shutdown and let the Mac cool down for an hour. Now I get three partitions and all seem to work.

But I surely won't try anything as dangerous on my other Macbook Pro...

Why is BootCamp Partition still empty on Big Sur?

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