Bill Kervaski
Level 1 (15 points)

Q: iMac 13,2 Late 2012 3TB Boot Camp Windows 7 Install - SOLVED! (unsupported)

Ok, apparently a lot of folks (like me) bought a 3TB iMac expecting to install Windows 7 only to be greeting with a message from Boot Camp saying it isn't supported on 3TB hard drives .. hey I thought we were beyond these file system limitations, what do I know ;p

 

It's really easy to get Windows 7 installed, here's the steps (This is *NOT* supported by Apple -- assess your risk before proceeding):

 

* Just in case create a recovery USB stick - http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433

* Boot into recovery mode

* Launch Terminal

* Remove the coreStorage Logical Volume Group (this is what's preventing you from freely partitioning with Disk Utility)

** diskutil coreStorage list

** diskutil coreStorage delete UUID

* Exit Terminal

* Launch Disk Utility

* Create 3 Partitions, 1TB Each, make sure your Windows partition is 2nd as both the OSX and WINDOWS partition *must* exists below 2.2TB

** Partition 1 - OSX (HFS)

** Partition 2 - WINDOWS (FAT)

** Partition 3 - DATA (HFS) .. store all your iTunes stuff here?

* Exit Disk Utility

* Install OS X

* Create a Windows 7 USB install drive with Boot Camp on another computer

* Boot with your Windows 7 USB install drive, install Windows 7, be careful to choose the correct partition when you format

* Download the Windows 7 Boot Camp drivers - http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/25/23/041-6932/ezgnx0guny5bw6vm7to92ile w38ptli0z5/BootCampESD.pkg

* Install Boot Camp drivers

* Enjoy!

 

Didn't have time to write a book (sorry) but I'll try to check back to answer any questions (no promises).

 

Cheers!

Posted on Dec 14, 2012 2:40 PM

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Bill Kervaski

Q: iMac 13,2 Late 2012 3TB Boot Camp Windows 7 Install - SOLVED! (unsupported)

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  • by V Bassan,

    V Bassan V Bassan Dec 20, 2012 1:49 AM in response to jmoney0461
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 20, 2012 1:49 AM in response to jmoney0461

    Jmoney, how was your results? Did you succeed? Do you know if the Fusion Drive is active in your OSX partition?

  • by stanrandom,

    stanrandom stanrandom Dec 20, 2012 2:34 PM in response to Bill Kervaski
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 20, 2012 2:34 PM in response to Bill Kervaski

    This blog post has a slightly different way to do it that preserves the Fusion and doesn't need two separate HFS - http://dice.neko-san.net/2012/12/how-to-install-boot-camp-on-a-3tb-fusion-drive- mac/

  • by Christopher Murphy,

    Christopher Murphy Christopher Murphy Dec 20, 2012 2:56 PM in response to stanrandom
    Level 3 (555 points)
    Dec 20, 2012 2:56 PM in response to stanrandom

    Realize that Windows is on the HDD in this example. It's not on the Fusion drive.

  • by DigitalDream,

    DigitalDream DigitalDream Dec 23, 2012 2:43 AM in response to Bill Kervaski
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 23, 2012 2:43 AM in response to Bill Kervaski

    Hi,

     

    has anyone try it ? And is it working ? I have try it several times but with no success it dosen´t works by me.

    I get a error massage tht it is not possible to install windows on this partition. It´s also not possible to open the

    Windows Recovery Console i get the error message that it is not supportet on this installation.

     

    Regards

     

    DigitalDream

  • by Bill Kervaski,

    Bill Kervaski Bill Kervaski Dec 23, 2012 5:55 AM in response to DigitalDream
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Dec 23, 2012 5:55 AM in response to DigitalDream

    @DigitalDream - It works, remove the FAT32 partition you created with the windows installer and create a new partition in it's place in which to install windows.

  • by V Bassan,

    V Bassan V Bassan Jan 20, 2013 8:44 AM in response to stanrandom
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 20, 2013 8:44 AM in response to stanrandom

    I tried this solution and worked like a charm for me.

     

    http://dice.neko-san.net/2012/12/how-to-install-boot-camp-on-a-3tb-fusion-drive- mac/

  • by LoryMar,

    LoryMar LoryMar Feb 10, 2013 7:13 AM in response to Bill Kervaski
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 10, 2013 7:13 AM in response to Bill Kervaski

    Thank you for helping with this issue . It worked for me. The only thing different that I did - I have used disk utility to partition the drive. Thank God I did not get the fusion HD otherwise it would not have worked. The link to the bootcamp was what I needed.

    It seems rather strange that it is possible to be done and still Apple does not support the issue.

    I have talked with Apple support and every single one of the tech support guys were not able to give a solution to the issue.

    Thank you again. This made my day.

    Cheers

  • by Christopher Murphy,

    Christopher Murphy Christopher Murphy Feb 10, 2013 11:15 AM in response to LoryMar
    Level 3 (555 points)
    Feb 10, 2013 11:15 AM in response to LoryMar

    It's not only not supported, it's not recommended. And for good reason.

     

    To support drive capacities greater than 2TiB with Boot Camp, Apple will need to support booting Windows in EFI mode. Currently Macs boot Windows in BIOS mode. BIOS requires an MBR partition scheme, which is limited to 2TiB disks.

     

    There is an enormous 36 page thread on this subject in the Boot Camp forum, littered with people who have lost data as a result of, among other seemingly innocuous things, Disk Utility allowing them to add a 3rd partition to Boot Camped drives. This has to do with the inherent fragility and ambiguity of hybrid MBRs, used by Boot Camp.

     

    All Boot Camp users, in particular those using the work around for unsupported configurations in this thread, be extra vigilant with making backups of both environments. And never resize any volume with OS X Disk Utility, or a Windows based resizing utility. Only use utilties that explicitly support Boot Camp, or you will experience data loss.

     

    Instead, I recommend anyone who actually cares about their data, to use a virtual machine instead of Boot Camp.

  • by Bill Kervaski,

    Bill Kervaski Bill Kervaski Feb 10, 2013 11:18 AM in response to Christopher Murphy
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Feb 10, 2013 11:18 AM in response to Christopher Murphy

    Can't game in a VM ... likely the primary reason most bother with BootCamp to begin with.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Feb 10, 2013 11:32 AM in response to Bill Kervaski
    Level 9 (51,281 points)
    Desktops
    Feb 10, 2013 11:32 AM in response to Bill Kervaski

    Keep your backups up to date, decide how much you want to lose (a day, a week etc) and backup accordingly.

  • by LoryMar,

    LoryMar LoryMar Feb 10, 2013 9:23 PM in response to Christopher Murphy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 10, 2013 9:23 PM in response to Christopher Murphy

    Thank you for the insight.

    I am sure Apple has a very good reason for not supporting the bootcamp on a 3TB drive.

    However it would have seemed fair for them to warn their customers; if you choose a 3TB you won't be able to use bootcamp. Instead they choose to bag the money and play stupid every time someone asks their tech support about this issue.

    After 90 days from purchase one has actually to pay to listen to their elucubrations.

     

    Anyway thank you for the warning. I was  not going to resize the drives once all finished anyway.

    I am hoping I am going to get what I payed for. The Senior Tech Supervisors I have talked at Apple told me that indeed advertising Win install on Mac Computers was a big selling point.

     

    I am pretty sure Apple is not going to deal with this issue. It is not their style. Hope they'll prove me wrong.

     

    Cheers

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Feb 11, 2013 8:18 AM in response to LoryMar
    Level 9 (51,281 points)
    Desktops
    Feb 11, 2013 8:18 AM in response to LoryMar

    Did you buy one without checking, or is this a general complaint?

  • by Christopher Murphy,

    Christopher Murphy Christopher Murphy Feb 11, 2013 11:34 AM in response to LoryMar
    Level 3 (555 points)
    Feb 11, 2013 11:34 AM in response to LoryMar

    However it would have seemed fair for them to warn their customers; if you choose a 3TB you won't be able to use bootcamp.

     

    Yeah, I'm finding nothing at all on Apple's site indicating Boot Camp won't work on certain configurations. If I configure an iMac with a 3TB drive, I'm not flagged at all of a feature loss. I also don't find such a warning on the Boot Camp specific section of Apple's web site. Or in the Boot Camp FAQ, or in the System Requirements.

     

    However, I don't see anywhere in Mac sales information online that even mentions Boot Camp. It's not a listed feature at all. It's not in iMac Features, Design, Performance, Built-in Apps, or Tech Specs.

     

    and play stupid every time someone asks their tech support about this issue

     

    I think that's a valid criticism. This is not rocket science. Boot Camp Assistant is clearly engineered to not run on disks over a certain size, so tech support should be very aware of this issue right off the bat.

     

    I am hoping I am going to get what I payed for. The Senior Tech Supervisors I have talked at Apple told me that indeed advertising Win install on Mac Computers was a big selling point.

     

    The thing is, they aren't really advertising this, that I can see from online. Maybe it's different in the physical stores. But in any case,

     

    I am pretty sure Apple is not going to deal with this issue. It is not their style. Hope they'll prove me wrong.

     

    Unclear. I expect that the way Apple will bring support for large drives, it will be a Windows 8 only thing, because they'll also move to only EFI boot support at the same time. So, sorta like how they dropped Windows XP support entirely when they started supporting Windows 7, I expect a clear separation between Windows 7/BIOS/<2TB drives and Windows 8/EFI/>2TB drives. Hackers have had a lot more difficulty getting Windows 7 to EFI boot on a Mac, than Windows 8. I suspect Apple will prefer the easy path.

  • by crh24,

    crh24 crh24 Feb 11, 2013 12:12 PM in response to Christopher Murphy
    Level 3 (924 points)
    Feb 11, 2013 12:12 PM in response to Christopher Murphy

    Christopher Murphy wrote:

     

    <...>

     

    However, I don't see anywhere in Mac sales information online that even mentions Boot Camp. It's not a listed feature at all. It's not in iMac Features, Design, Performance, Built-in Apps, or Tech Specs.

     

    <...>

    I first became aware of the issue when I ordered my 27" online.  Since the Fusion drive was new I wanted to see what they said about it so I selected "Learn more" under the Storage area.  The Boot Camp limitation is listed there.

     

    However, I, too, believe Apple should make this current limitation a prominent part of their tech specs and certainly it should be a warning that is displayed if one orders a 3TB drive.

  • by Christopher Murphy,

    Christopher Murphy Christopher Murphy Feb 11, 2013 12:23 PM in response to crh24
    Level 3 (555 points)
    Feb 11, 2013 12:23 PM in response to crh24

    Aha. Yeah if you click on Learn More in the online store configuration page, before clicking on "Add to Cart" there is this light gray text on a light gray background:

     

    Note: Boot Camp is not supported on the 3TB hard drive at this time.

     

    The technology exists to flag this section with that warning upon clicking any 2+TB drive option for any computer. That's what they ought to do, in my opinion.

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