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lion10 Author

Level 1

15 points

The ultimate way to install Windows 8.x in (U)EFI mode on Apple systems

Well, all these solutions regarding Windows 8 (or 8.1) installation methods in this forum seem to be quite complicated. Here follows my favourite way for installing Windows 8.x on Apple EFI systems.

First, once and for all, forget Boot Camp! Because Windows 8 is fully EFI compliant, Boot Camp is totally useless. You only need it to get all the Windows drivers. When using Boot Camp with Windows 8 in EFI mode you get very likely even greater problems. The root of the most Windows 8 install errors reported here is located in Apple’s special "hybrid MBR" GPT layout. Nothing else!

So, in consequence, you have just to remove / replace that "hybrid MBR" with a standard GPT "protective MBR". This change will NOT affect OS X or any other OS X program in any way!

1. Use the OS X Disk Utility to create a partition scheme of your wishes.

2. Download in OS X the tool "GPT fdisk". Install it and start it in terminal with:

sudo gdisk /dev/disk0 or sudo gdisk /dev/disk1

Type p to view the partition table (verify that you have selected the right drive)

Type x to enter experts menu

Type n to create a new clean "protective MBR" (GPT fdisk will NOT report any changes)

Type w to save your changes

3. Start Windows 8 setup in EFI mode; - switch to "Windows prompt" under "repair tools". Start command diskpart. Check your partition; - select that one with name "EFI". Add the drive letter "b" with the command assign letter=b. (Note, this point is perhaps not needed at some systems.)

4. Exit diskpart, start again Windows 8 setup installer from prompt with command setup.

In Windows setup you have now just to format the Windows partition, - the setup installer is now able to update the Apple EFI Boot record properly. You should not get the "Windows could not update the computer's boot configuration. Installation cannot proceed." message.

I can confirm that this install method has worked perfectly for several MacBook, iMac and Macmini computers. Furthermore you should be also able to install Linux smoothly with EFI mode in dual or triple boot configurations. (Don’t know but Linux may have the same troubles like Windows with Apple’s "hybrid MBR" GPT layout.)

Finally big thanks to Roderick W. Smith for his great GPT fdisk tool!! And also a big thanks to user "riseyth" which has given the diskpart EFI "assign letter =b" hint in this forum. (list of references: http://superuser.com/questions/508026/windows-detects-gpt-disk-as-mbr-in-efi-boo t/508454#508454)

Posted on Apr 16, 2014 11:54 AM

58 replies

Loner T

Level 9

59,526 points

May 25, 2015 6:36 AM in response to T0m93

On disk0, you are missing

40 409600 1 GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B

On disk1, you have the correct setup.

If OS X boots and works as does Windows, I suggest meticulous back ups of your data from both OSes to two separate external disks. The only fix I am aware of is to erase the Fusion drive. Your Windows installation is on the first disk, which I assume is an SSD (256G). Since you havean EFI that has Apple firmware on disk1, if that disk fails, neither of your OSes will work, which is the reason for good backups.

On my Macmini's I have my Windows installation on the SSD, but the GPT looks like

macmini-i51:~ $ sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

Password:

gpt show: /dev/disk0: mediasize=256060514304; sectorsize=512; blocks=500118192

gpt show: /dev/disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0

gpt show: /dev/disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1

gpt show: /dev/disk0: Sec GPT at sector 500118191

start size index contents

0 1 MBR

1 1 Pri GPT header

2 32 Pri GPT table

34 6

40 409600 1 GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B

409640 250059096 2 GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

250468736 262144 3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

250730880 1664

250732544 249384960 4 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

500117504 655

500118159 32 Sec GPT table

500118191 1 Sec GPT header

macmini-i51:~ $ sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk1

gpt show: /dev/disk1: mediasize=1000204886016; sectorsize=512; blocks=1953525168

gpt show: /dev/disk1: PMBR at sector 0

gpt show: /dev/disk1: Pri GPT at sector 1

gpt show: /dev/disk1: Sec GPT at sector 1953525167

start size index contents

0 1 PMBR

1 1 Pri GPT header

2 32 Pri GPT table

34 6

40 409600 1 GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B

409640 1951845952 2 GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

1952255592 1269536 3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

1953525128 7

1953525135 32 Sec GPT table

1953525167 1 Sec GPT header

and the disk layout is

macmini-i51:~ $ diskutil list

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *256.1 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage 128.0 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 134.2 MB disk0s3

4: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 127.7 GB disk0s4

/dev/disk1

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk1

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage 999.3 GB disk1s2

3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 650.0 MB disk1s3

/dev/disk2

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_HFS OSX-FusionHD *1.1 TB disk2

macmini-i51:~ $ diskutil cs list

CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)

|

+-- Logical Volume Group DF140929-90E7-48E1-AC3D-C9C75BA88D1D

=========================================================

Name: OSX-FusionHD

Status: Online

Size: 1127375384576 B (1.1 TB)

Free Space: 69632 B (69.6 KB)

|

+-< Physical Volume C856A74C-EB57-4D1F-8223-0A22215218ED

| ----------------------------------------------------

| Index: 0

| Disk: disk0s2

| Status: Online

| Size: 128030257152 B (128.0 GB)

|

+-< Physical Volume 80D91A14-CCC9-47B1-B071-B9ADFF23924F

| ----------------------------------------------------

| Index: 1

| Disk: disk1s2

| Status: Online

| Size: 999345127424 B (999.3 GB)

|

+-> Logical Volume Family 019D610F-21AC-4B54-AB0A-6D5F90D520A7

----------------------------------------------------------

Encryption Status: Unlocked

Encryption Type: None

Conversion Status: NoConversion

Conversion Direction: -none-

Has Encrypted Extents: No

Fully Secure: No

Passphrase Required: No

|

+-> Logical Volume D9DC0F70-38C7-4AE6-BAC4-CFBE0F8D4F68

---------------------------------------------------

Disk: disk2

Status: Online

Size (Total): 1118844862464 B (1.1 TB)

Conversion Progress: -none-

Revertible: No

LV Name: OSX-FusionHD

Volume Name: OSX-FusionHD

Content Hint: Apple_HFS

Jul 27, 2015 10:24 AM in response to lion10

I've followed instructions carefully several times and still receive the "Windows could not update the computer's boot configuration. Installation cannot proceed." error. Anyone have any thoughts on what I'm doing wrong?

Loner T

Level 9

59,526 points

Aug 3, 2015 9:00 PM in response to codekaran

codekaran wrote:

Can we solve this issue of preUEFI Macs? I have Late 2011 model

Unfortunately, no. Apple made a choice not to provide updated EFI which was UEFI compliant for Macs older than Late 2013 models.

MarcS9

Level 1

0 points

Aug 4, 2015 2:30 AM in response to codekaran

Even if you manage to install WIndows in EFI mode on a 1.1 system, you will not have a stable platform. The EFI firmware cannout be upgraded, so you will always have this limitation on older Macs.

The 2.x EFI version introduces a large amount of procedure calls to access computer hardware. This includes hard drives, audio and graphics.

Running Windows on EFI 1.1 will at the very least prevent you from installing Monitor and Display card drivers, meaning you won't be able to use any advanced graphics applications like 3D modelling software or PC Games.

You may also have problems with Audio.

You definitely will have frequent crashes whenever Windows updates a driver, forcing you to restore from a System Restore point, as your Mac will not be able to boot into Windows (Windows Boot Repair Assistant Boot Loops).

Aside from the issues above, if you have time to kill and don't need a working system, you can get Windows installed under 1.1, with crappy graphics and disabling automatic updates, you can even play MP3s, browse the net and perform low graphics tasks like MS Office and web browsing.

If on the other hand you want to benefit from having advanced hardware to do advanced tasks, look to the more stable Mavericks/Windows 8.1 via Bootcamp combination, as Loner T suggests.

Loner T

Level 9

59,526 points

Aug 4, 2015 4:04 AM in response to codekaran

codekaran wrote:

What if I just edit the plist in BootCamp Assistant? Will that work?

Also can you suggest me different way for installing windows on my machine?

Editing the pList just allows you create a USB. It still does not change the behavior of Apple Bootmanager. If your built-in Optical drive is not working, one option is to replace/repair it. If it was replaced with an Optibay HDD, and is still available, temporarily put it back, install Windows and then modify the Optibay as necessary. On Macs prior to 2011, SATA speeds issues exist when HDDs are put in the Optibay.

lion10 Author

Level 1

15 points

Aug 17, 2015 4:28 AM in response to BlueLineRon

Okay folks, - as mentioned in my first post, this infamous „Windows could not update the computer's boot configuration. Installation cannot proceed.“ message always appears when Windows is not able to modify the EFI boot partition. This indicates that the conversation of the GPT „hybrid MBR" to GPT „protective MBR" scheme was not successful. Or you may have simply forget to convert it. 😉 Keep in mind, this step is fundamental essential and absolutely necessary.

The EFI boot partition has furthermore always to be FAT32 formatted, nor HFS+, ZFS, exFAT, and at least NTFS. It is strongly recommended to use Apple’s Disk Utility to create all partitions you need. It will create everything 100% Mac OS compatible, including the EFI boot partition and the mandatory free space between the partitions.

Important note, do not reorganize / change the partition layout after you have converted it to GPT „protective MBR". Apple’s Disk Utility will probably restore it back to the GPT „hybrid MBR" scheme. As a result, Windows will presumably stop booting up correctly.

If changes must be made at your converted GPT „protective MBR" scheme use GNOME Partition Editor instead of Apple’s Disk Utility. It is also known as GParted and is meanwhile able to handle Apple’s special GPT scheme error free. (http://gparted.org/) Furthermore this ingenious program is also able to make perfect copies / clones of your original hard disk. I was able to move several Mac OS / Windows installations error free to different SSD’s (Samsung 840 pro, 850 pro).

I can now also confirm that a Windows 10 UEFI installation works perfectly with those steps described in this thread.

Unfortunately I must here add a big warning regarding Apple computers which contains any NVIDIA GPU. This warning also belongs to Windows 8.x and affects all Apple (NVIDIA GPU) computers prior 2011, maybe even also later models.

Do not install the NVIDIA GPU driver, - your UEFI based Windows installation will otherwise no longer boot up and hangs. You have to start Windows then in save mode and change the driver back to „Microsoft Basic Display Driver“. This is the standard UEFI GOP compatible GPU driver from Microsoft. This one works stable and has more features than the older „Standard VGA Display Driver“. However, also this driver is lacking 3D acceleration.

So, regarding NVIDIA GPU based Apple systems, if you need 3D acceleration, it will be better to install Windows 8.x or 10 trough UEFI CSM aka in „legacy BIOS mode“.

Well, when you want to have under Windows full AHCI and NCQ support e. g. when you use a fast SSD, then it may look different. I had to set up a Mac mini 2010 for a small company as (program) server. It is mounted in a RackMac mini from Sonnet. Main focus is here pure SSD performance. Windows 10 is performing absolutely perfectly in native UEFI mode, so AHCI, NCQ and also ATA TRIM fuction are fully usable. Only exemption is that I had to block the NVIDIA GPU driver installation from Windows Update.

In such constellations it may be recommended to activate the „advanced boot options“ in Windows. That makes it much easier to enter Windows Safe Mode every boot up. For this, just enter the following command at Windows prompt:

bcdedit /set {globalsettings} advancedoptions true

As mentioned, other Apple computers, for example with Intel GPU’s, are not affected. They works in UEFI mode great with Intel GPU driver installed. I observed so far no driver issues as some people assume here. Well, I never install the whole Boot Camp package, I prefer to load the needed driver separately. Regarding Apple computers with AMD Radeon GPU range I have unfortunately no deeper information. Will check their Windows UEFI compatibility in the future.

Finally, it is not correct to say that generally all Apple computers prior 2011 have incompatible Windows UEFI implementation. Overall Windows stability depends primarily from the built-in GPU. As mentioned above, the first generation aluminum mac mini from 2010 works actually good. Furthermore I was also able to boot Windows 10 stable on several early 2009 iMacs. On those Apple computers you have just be very very careful that Windows does not to install the NVIDIA GPU driver automatically trough Windows Update.

Regarding the iMac family can be said that 64bit UEFI 2.x compatible firmware, as Windows requires for UEFI operation, seems to be present since the introducing of the iMac9,1 line in 2009. So, iMac models prior 2009 are definitely not Windows UEFI compliant. They all have EFI 1.x based firmware, difference between these is that in 2006 they where 32bit, in 2007 & 2008 they where 64bit.

Ole_Oie

Level 1

10 points

Aug 31, 2015 10:41 PM in response to Loner T

I have few few questions.

I have OS 10.10 and windows 10 already installed with bootcamp. Do I need to partition the disk again in step 1?

In step 2 on which disk I do the sudo command. Below is the structure of the SSD?

Thank you.

This the structure of

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *512.1 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage 99.3 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3

4: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 412.0 GB disk0s4

/dev/disk1

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_HFS Untitled *98.9 GB disk1

Logical Volume on disk0s2

AA65F74F-FF29-407E-B84E-55F4A35C7DFD

Unencrypted

Loner T

Level 9

59,526 points

Sep 1, 2015 4:43 AM in response to Ole_Oie

Ole_Oie wrote:

I have few few questions.

I have OS 10.10 and windows 10 already installed with bootcamp. Do I need to partition the disk again in step 1?

In step 2 on which disk I do the sudo command. Below is the structure of the SSD?

Thank you.

If you already have Windows installed, and it is functional, is there a need to do this at all?

Ole_Oie

Level 1

10 points

Sep 1, 2015 6:43 AM in response to Loner T

It fully functional just the SSD is running in IDE in windows. I would like it to use the AHCI.

It is early 2011 macbook pro. I tried the BOOTICE it installs the AHCI and the SSD goes from 340Mb/s to 560Mb/s, but affects the sleep/wake mode of the windows.

Ole_Oie

Level 1

10 points

Sep 1, 2015 9:52 AM in response to Loner T

The problem is not in windows. On my mac the wake/ sleep of windows is flawless on 8 and 10. On PC windows 7 has also no issues.

But the boot camp is creating ****** MBR I guess.

I am hoping that installing it in efi would make things smoother.

I need the sleep/wake its a laptop afterall and would like to have the AHCI also.

Sep 21, 2015 3:56 AM in response to lion10

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT. (NOT HYBRID MBR!!!)

this is what gdisk is telling me in terminal and still i keep getting various error messages at the end of windows 10 installation (2014mid 15' retina macbook pro, yosemite) i assigned/unassigned letter b/ letter s to the efi "system" partition, created the mrs reserved 128mb partition in diskpart, and still "windows couldn't update the computers boot configuration" then "windows couldn't prepare the computer to boot into the next phase of the installation"

gpt show: /dev/disk0: mediasize=500277790720; sectorsize=512; blocks=977105060

gpt show: /dev/disk0: PMBR at sector 0

gpt show: /dev/disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1

gpt show: /dev/disk0: Sec GPT at sector 977105059

start size index contents

0 1 PMBR

1 1 Pri GPT header

2 32 Pri GPT table

34 6

40 409600 1 GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B

409640 741565040 2 GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

741974680 1269536 3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

743244216 1608

743245824 262144 4 GPT part - E3C9E316-0B5C-4DB8-817D-F92DF00215AE

743507968 233596928 5 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

977104896 131

977105027 32 Sec GPT table

977105059 1 Sec GPT header

please help!

Loner T

Level 9

59,526 points

Sep 21, 2015 7:29 AM in response to hoosentroger

Your are using EFI Boot.You do not need the Hybrid MBR. If you have MSR/MSD, there is not Hybrid MBR on GPT-only disks. If you have Hybrid MBR, then it is a non-EFI (BIOS/Hybrid MBR) .

Using Diskpart will confuse the EFI Boot and it is not a good idea.

Sep 21, 2015 9:15 AM in response to Loner T

I know I don't need the hybrid MBR, the reason i showed you that its protective MBR, using GPT, was to prove that it should work with the efi installation of windows 10, but it doesn't. So what might be the problem? How should I prepare the partitions, because none of the "windows 8 for mac in efi mode" tutorials work for my system. So you say I shouldn't use diskpart but even the tutorial in this feed suggests the windows prompt, which starts with diskpart:

"3. Start Windows 8 setup in EFI mode; - switch to "Windows prompt" under "repair tools". Start command diskpart. Check your partition; - select that one with name "EFI". Add the drive letter "b" with the command assign letter=b. (Note, this point is perhaps not needed at some systems.)"

Or Do I get it wrong?

Loner T

Level 9

59,526 points

Sep 21, 2015 9:18 AM in response to hoosentroger

1. Remove the current GPT4 and 5.

2. Run DU and Repair Disk. You can also boot in Safe Mode and boot normally and continue.

3. Run SMC Reset and NVRAM Reset.

4. Create a Free Space partition of the size you want Windows to be (+128MB for MSR). Do not use Diskpart for any drive letter assignments.

5. Run W10 installer and point to this Free Space.

6. The EFI Partition should automatically get a Microsoft Directory and appropriate BD structures during the installation using EFI Boot.

I have done this on several Late 2013 and 2014 models without any issues.

Oct 3, 2015 3:50 PM in response to lion10

Brilliant guide. I am trying this on my Mid-2012 rMBP 15" (10,1) with Windows 10. I have an Nvidia GT650M GPU and am indeed having driver problems and had to boot into Safe mode. It seems that using the default microsoft drivers does not allow you to use an external display. I found another post that said some people had sucess with earlier Nvidia drivers. I almost always use my macbook with an external display and so this would be a deal breaker for me. However having the additional speed on the SSD has been great. Has anyone solved this Nvidia driver black screen problem or have any suggestions?

Thanks!

The ultimate way to install Windows 8.x in (U)EFI mode on Apple systems