Bootcamp Assistant of Catalina asks for Win10, but win7 is needed for Recovery issues

No, I discarded when I saw Windows 10 references, while I need Windows 7.

After reading it, I have some doubts.

_ For windows 7 it references back to Install Windows 7 on your Mac using Boot Camp - Apple Support which is not accurate nowadays as i mentioned.

_ If I follow instructions with windows 7 files instead of 10. Then how is it bootable? Shouldn't bootable usb drives be something more than just copying files?

_ Why bootcamp behaves differently in my 2 virtual machines with the exact same files? I mean, parallels and virtual machine may virtualize differently regarding emulated devices, but why bootcamp cares? Isn't there any command line option to activate?

So, I found the way to edit Info.plist of Bootcamp inside the VM, where the model of the MacBook Pro is called "Parallels14,1".

With this I was successful to have a bootable USBstick for windows7 that I will keep as gold.

I guess the same could be done in Catalina with newer version of Bootcamp, but I didn't expend more time on it.

This was/is clearly a bad design of Bootcamp. What difference would it make if it allows you to create the installer independently of the Mac running bootcamp?

Sadly is not enough.

The installer now is able to show the partition table. It never suggest a repair method.

It seems that Bootcamp got numbered disk0partition5, while it wasn't 5 before.

This may be because I resized the APFS partition to make a new one in FAT32 for data transferring between OSes.

It seems that Diskutils hasn't kept the old partition table as it was, instead it fully revamped.

The new error says that Windows can't be installed in a partition table with GPT style.

I guess now that MBR is completely gone. Thanks DiskUtils !

Is there any fix for that?

Ok, I understand your point but I disagree. You say "Is not the tool, Is how you use it."

While I say Win7 has BC-drivers support its just the BC-assistant refusing.

I did kept the ISOs as gold, I didn't expected the planned obsolescence.

DiskUtility wasn't instructed to touch any windows-aware partition.

Therefore I don't see it as normal or expected.

Anyway, I don't have datalost, I seek for gaming performance and knowledge and this troubleshooting.

It also leaved free-unused-space in between the new partition like 124Mb each. Why? I don't know, it wasn't instructed.

gdisk is installed

¿how should I repair the hybrid GTP-MBR?

I have 2. One is MBP Mid-2012, and the other is MBP Retina Early-2013.

The first one has the unbootable win7. The second continues to have it, until any-reinstall attempt occurs.

Also, to add a bit more info. The windows 10 installer also complains about the same. It can't be installed in the BOOTCAMP partition disk0s5.

Loner T wrote:

The link you reference has the latest drivers by Mac model, which support W7/W8.1.

Yes, I know. I do have the correct BC-drivers as they were working before updating Catalina. Dont worry. The topic here is creating the windows 7 install usb stick to repair "if possible" the win7bootability that got broken.

the USB2 Flash drive is formatted as a MBR for W7/W8.1 on supported models and will boot.

It will be my next attempt.

I tried installing my Parallels to boot from Bootcamp, but no luck neither. Non-bootable OS.

I tried with the windows normal iso, but it doesn't find the partition.

I then tried to edit the win7.iso to include the bootcamp drivers and test it inside parallels, but editing ISOs is something not made easy on Mac. DiskUtil is a nice tool, but custom-bootability is not included. If you happen to have some knowledge of it it would be helpful.

if you install macOS in a VM on a Mac with any VM engine, the BC Assistant UI remains the same. You will need to 'pass' teh USB connections to the VM.

I disagree, that is the issue here.

BC Assitant UI DOESNT remains the same.

I can not pick in Parallels the same options as I CAN DO in VirtualBox being the same virtualiced harddrive.

I couldn't with virtualbox because of the bug with USB stability as I mentioned.

Check the images attached. Options in BC Assistant ARE different.

Yeah, I know, VirtualBox and Parallels are showing different Macbook's models strings.... actually Parallels copies exactly the same as the host, but the one at the VirtualBox works.

The question is WHY. BC shouldn't care at all.

I guess it cares because it is intended to support the macbook where it is installed and not really to troubleshoot others.

If I could just change that behavior of BC I could make it work not only inside the VM but also probably in the Host Catalina.

SO, I tested the approach of " Build your own Windows 10 Bootcamp USB In… - Apple Community ", but didn't worked.

After rebooting there is no USB stick shown. Just formating in FAT32 is not enough to make a usbstick bootable. Something is missing.

Also, If you see at the screenshot below, there is one file of difference between your sshot for win10 and my sshots for win7.

Its bootmgr.efi.

sh-3.2# diskutil list

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         100.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:                  Apple_HFS MacData                 299.5 GB   disk0s3
   4:       Microsoft Basic Data exFAT                   50.2 GB    disk0s4
   5:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP               50.0 GB    disk0s5

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +100.0 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume MacOS - Datos           27.3 GB    disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 25.8 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                525.8 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      2.1 GB     disk1s4
   5:                APFS Volume MacOS                   11.2 GB    disk1s5

sh-3.2# gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0
gpt show: unable to open device '/dev/disk0': Operation not permitted
sh-3.2# gdisk /swv/disk0
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.8
Problem opening /swv/disk0 for reading! Error is 2.
The specified file does not exist!

Hi again.

Why aren't drivers located in $WinPEDriver$ and Bootcamp folders not installed at all ? Is this known?

I formatted the MacData partition to exFAT from DiskUtility to pass the drivers files, but now I can't boot to mac as is not shown in the boot loader, I can't also use Command+R as it seems not that DiskUtility broke APFS container. Wonderful.

I have been struggling more. Sadly a reinstall of Windows was forced.

It should not be necessary.

I was able to install windows directly after combining "BOOTCAMP"+"exFAT" partition into one single of 100Gb, which is the 4th partition in the table.

The exFAT partition should be converted to Free Space, and then GParted should be used to extend the 50Gb NTFS to make it a 100GB NTFS.

Sadly Win7 can only be installed and booted on NTFS, while win8 and newer do can, therefore I had to move MacDATA to exFAT in order to not have the requirement of an NTFS driver on MAC to transfer files. That was the main reason to change partition scheme.

That was the Plan.

Delete the exFAT partition and extend NTFS with Windows itself.

Since I realized that my installer is not really a Startup Rescue disk, the I have to struggle to get one.

In the mean time I used GParted to expand NTFS to cover the available Freespace.

After doing that, Windows partition was left unrecognizable by Windows Installer or DiskUtility of MacOS.

That Partition went gone.

Then I installed Windows7 and the history continues.

ith a MBR supporting 4 entries, once you extend NTFS, you will have EFI, APFS, MacDATA and Windows (100GB). This will correctly fit the MBR and allow you to 'share' MacDATA between Windows and macOS, without any further changes.

Now, I find awful that bootcamp drivers don't get installed with the windows installation.... what's is bootcamp assistant function after all.

Because windows installed without drivers, (which now I think I picker driver version BootCamp5.1.5640 instead of the correct BootCamp5.1.5621)

I used DiskUtils to "delete" as it to calls "format" from HFS+ to exFAT about 300Gb and put te drivers inside.

I noted that it called the new formatted partition as disk0s6, which sounded weird because it was disk0s3 before.

After restarting Mac boot option is gone.....

Command+R shows a "downloading" process which downloads the RecoveryOS. Meaning is not there any more.

This morning I see a Mavericks installer.

I guess I should struggle now for installing Catalina again.

Creating an CatalinaUSB-installer which is the only one thing missing for this adventure.

I am not sure what happened with DiskUtility.

Probably the 124Mb of free space was required somehow and GParted joined it with windows.

Image below is from the newly downloaded recoveryOS.

I renamed MacDATA to DataStore which is now visible as disk0s3 as it always should have.