Win 8.1, iMac Retina 3TB Fusion, Yosemite, Boot Camp fail!
I've got a new iMac Retina with the 3TB Fusion drive on which I wanted to install Win 8.1 using Boot Camp. I have VMWare Fusion installed and running, but figured Boot Camp might be better for my needs.
I read the Boot Camp Assistant instructions and it looked like it would be pretty easy to install Win 8.1. WRONG! 😟
I hooked up a USB HD for the driver download, hooked up the USB Apple DVD drive with the Win 8.1 installer, and started up Boot Camp Assistant.
Assistant downloaded the drivers, created the BOOTCAMP partition, then I got into the Win 8.1 installer. Reached a screeching halt when the installer got to the point of selecting where Win 8.1 would be installed. Got the error message about BOOTCAMP partition not being an NTFS drive.
Only one button "Format" to click to make the format NTFS. Confirmed I wanted to format, saw a brief spinning wheel, then supposedly formatting was done. Now Drive 1 Partition 4 lost the "BOOTCAMP" name and displayed no name. The "Next" button wouldn't do anything. I was stuck!
So no go on installing Win 8.1! Booting back into Yosemite and opening Disk Utility I see the Boot Camp partition, now named "untitled," identified as an NTSF volume!
I see a number of posts here where by using Terminal it is possible to work around problems with Fusion drives and Boot Camp.
My solution was to start Boot Camp Assistant and select the third option on the first screen to remove the Boot Camp partition. Well at least that worked!!! So I'm back to ground zero!
For now I think I'll just surrender and wait for Apple to figure out how somebody, who doesn't want to dig deep into the bowels of Fusion drives via Terminal, can install Win 8.1 on a 3TB Fusion drive (or any Fusion Drive?).
iMac with Retina 5K display, OS X Yosemite (10.10), 3TB Fusion Drive