Bootcamp Installation Issues

nermina193 wrote:

Yes, I am erasing it and formatting it into MS-DOS (FAT), however every time I try to format it with bootcamp, it goes back into ExFAT.

The USB2 installer must be exFAT for macOS versions Mojave and higher. This accommodates Microsoft W10 1903 and newer ISOs.

The USB2 installer should be managed by BC Assistant. Manually erasing/formatting will lead to new issues.

On your specific model, your BC Assistant interface should have three options - Create, Download and Install.

• Create+Download options use a USB2 Flash drive and create a W10 installer. This installer is normally named WinInstall. Your USB shows it as Bootcamp. Is this intentional? This disk will be erased/formatted by BC Assistant.
• Install option uses this USB2 W10 installer, and partitions your internal disk and boots from the USB2 installer. This partition should be called BOOTCAMP.
• Also, see the following links for reference.
  • Install Windows on your older Mac using Boot Camp - Apple Support (this is for macOS Mojave).
  • Boot Camp Assistant User Guide for Mac - Apple Support

OP does not have the eXFAT issue. BCA is working as expected, but the issue is

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *121.3 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 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

The highlighted part is invalid. OP was asked to run resetFusion. The 121GB partition was formatted as BOOTCAMP (accidentally or intentionally). BCA will not work when Install Option is enabled, given this configuration. If APFS Fusion is in use, the secondary disk is partitioned for Windows. In OP's case, the primary disk is expected to be part of the APFS Fusion disk2 container, which it is not.

You may want to start a new discussion so your issue can be further analyzed.

Can you connect the USB, and from macOS Terminal, post the output of

diskutil info diskN

The value of 'N' should point to the USB. You can find the value of 'N' by running diskutil list command and checking its output first.

nermina193 wrote:

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/c5aa86b5-2370-42af-ae2f-a510683bfa99

Your disk partitions seem to be non-standard. From macOS Terminal, post the output of

diskutil list

nermina193 wrote:

I have an issue where when I go to install Bootcamp, I try to format the drive and it comes up with this error message:

"Your bootable USB drive cannot be created."

I have my ISO image and my USB drive (16GB) connected to the computer, but it still comes up with this error message. I am also running on macOS Catalina and I can't upgrade it because my system is too old. If anyone can assist me with this issue, thanks.

Are you correctly formatted your Flash drive as MS-DOS(FAT)

Open Disk Utility and Click your USB Flash Drive.

Then Post a screenshot of the Window of Disk Utility

If you still see a partitioning issue, run the steps in How to fix a split Fusion Drive - Apple Support, which will wipe your Fusion drive, install a new copy of macOS (same version as what you have now), and then try to install Windows. You will still need the USB2 Flash drive.

Please run a SMC and NVRAM Reset after very failed installation attempt.

nermina193 wrote:

There was no detail button, but here is what it said when I clicked "Get Info":

<Partition Info.log>

This shows a 1TB partition, so you do not seem to have an APFS issue.

Also, no I don't have a backup but I don't need one because I don't have anything much downloaded on this. Someone actually gave me this computer that was basically empty.

Good to know.

Note: When I enter bootcamp assistant, it says an option to remove windows 10 once I partitioned by original 2TB disc into a MS-DOS (FAT) file. Don't know if this is supposed to happend.

Yes, BC Assistant thinks that you have Windows on the 1TB partition you created. You can let BCA merge it back into your main 2TB APFS container.

What is the year/model of your Mac (do not post the serial number)? You may not have a disk space issue. macOS Catalina should be fine.

Did you ever solve this problem? So far no joy for me either. There's clearly a bug in the BootCamp Assistant that Apple is not going to ever fix and the #1 problem is the Windows10 ISO from 18xx and up is just too big (>4GB) - even though exFAT should support large files. There's a bunch of hacks out there but all have problems of 1 form or another. Please post anything here - BootCamp Assistant worked fine on my same machine, back in 2014, with Windows10, but that was when it had a much smaller ISO file (and I was running Mavericks, I believe). I redid my iMac after the 2nd drive crash a week ago, but bootcamp has been elusive - perhaps it's not compatible with SSD drives (even though that has zero to do with this bug!)