issue: bootcamp - windows 8 - fusion drive

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issue: bootcamp - windows 8 - fusion drive

Hi

I have an iMac 3.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 with 1TB Fusion drive since early January this year. I have added 2 extra 4Gb of memory bringing it to 4x4.

I installed Windows 8 without any issue back then but it crashed recently and it was impossible to start it up so I decided to remove the partition and re-install it.

However, after 15 days and 15 hours spent on the phone with senior advisers, I am still stuck. Any help would be much appreciated.

Here are the steps I followed:

create an iso image in Documents using Windows 8 dvd.
create a partition using bootcamp (350Gb) plugging in a 1TB external hard drive
Once in Windows set-up, I choose 'Drive 1 Partition 4 BOOTCAMP'. As expected, it can't go further as 'Windows must be installed to a partition formatted as NTFS'
Instead of clicking 'Format' (which won't work), I press shift+F10 and end up in a terminal.
Type DISKPART>list disk>select disk 1>list partition>select partition 4> format fs=NTFS label 'Windows8' (I tried using the option 'quick' as well)
Back to windows setup, I hit 'refresh'. The first time I tried it was saying 'We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one. For more information, see the Setup log files'. The second and subsequent times I tried I got 'Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of GPT partition style'
Back to OS X and Disk Utility, I can see 2 parttions in Internal Drive>Partition: MacintoshHD and Windows8 which is a 350Gb partition of format 'Windows NT File System (NTFS)'

Questions:

Any idea what is going on? The partition seems to be in the correct format (NTFS)!
If GPT style partition is not the right partition style, what style should it be and how do I convert it into it?
Is it an issue related to Fusion? There are many discussions out there around this issue but haven't found anything that worked for me. It seems Windows expect an MBR style partition but Fusion provides an hybrid MBR/EFI partition, No idea what it means so I am just repeting what I read.
It also seems that having my external usb drive plugged in doesn't help. However, how can I unplug it while I am using it to install windows?

Thanks a lot for your help.

iMac, null

Posted on Feb 27, 2015 2:08 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 27, 2015 4:29 AM in response to m_CD

I would start by trying to get hold of proper ISO image rather than making your own.

I have Boot Camped many Fusion Drive iMacs but only ever used an official Microsoft ISO and never had any issues.

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Answer 2

m_CD Author

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Feb 27, 2015 5:52 AM in response to LukeJQuinn

thanks for your answer. What do you mean by a 'proper ISO image'? I bought Windows 8.1 dvd and created an image as per bootcamp tutorial. I am open to any other alternative.

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Answer 3

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Feb 27, 2015 7:57 AM in response to m_CD

m_CD wrote:

create a partition using bootcamp (350Gb) plugging in a 1TB external hard drive

Do not use any external storage when installing Windows via BCA. Use a 8+ GB USB2 Flash drive instead. Do not use a USB3.

Instead of clicking 'Format' (which won't work), I press shift+F10 and end up in a terminal.

This is supposed to work. Please see Macs with Fusion drive: How to find BOOTCAMP partition in Windows installer - Apple Support and https://help.apple.com/bootcamp/mac/5.0/help/#/bcmp173b3bf2.

Back to windows setup, I hit 'refresh'. The first time I tried it was saying 'We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one. For more information, see the Setup log files'. The second and subsequent times I tried I got 'Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of GPT partition style'

You are switching between legacy MBR method (used by BCA) and EFI Boot from your Windows DVD. Your Mac must be UEFI-compliant to work with EFI installer. Late 2013+ Macs and later Macs are UEFI-compliant. EFI installation uses MSR/MSD partitioning, and the MSR must exist in the first 2TB disk space for this to work.

Questions:

Any idea what is going on? The partition seems to be in the correct format (NTFS)!

If GPT style partition is not the right partition style, what style should it be and how do I convert it into it?

Is it an issue related to Fusion? There are many discussions out there around this issue but haven't found anything that worked for me. It seems Windows expect an MBR style partition but Fusion provides an hybrid MBR/EFI partition, No idea what it means so I am just repeting what I read.

It also seems that having my external usb drive plugged in doesn't help. However, how can I unplug it while I am using it to install windows?

There are two styles that Macs can support. Any Mac which is pre-UEFI supports legacy MBR only. Macs implement a Hybrid MBR which is setup as a 1:1 mapping between GPT and MBR. No partition resizing/movement is allowed in this method.

This issue gets further complicated when using 3TB Fusion drives (but not smaller Fusion drives of 1TB). As mentioned, do not connect any external storage, BCA will refuse to work, because it thinks you are trying to install Windows on an external disk. Use only a USB2 Flash of 8+GB as suggested.

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Answer 4

m_CD Author

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Feb 27, 2015 8:01 AM in response to Loner T

Thanks for all these details. I will try asap!

Note: I did manage to install it the first time using the external hard drive. But let's forget the past.

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Answer 5

m_CD Author

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Mar 2, 2015 12:40 PM in response to m_CD

hi

I bought a USB2 flash drive today and still can't get it working. After formatting the drive 1 Partition 4 Bootcamp from the Windows setup, I get: 'We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one'.

Any idea how I can fix that?

There are countless discussions around this issue and it is hard to believe Apple Support has no answer to that (except saying it is a windows issue while it is clearly not as simple as that). It seems the only solution is to create a partition form Disk Utility while Bootcamp is supposedly the proper tool for doing that. I am therefore a bit reluctant in trying that.

Thanks for your help!

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Answer 6

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Mar 2, 2015 1:16 PM in response to m_CD

m_CD wrote:

I bought a USB2 flash drive today and still can't get it working. After formatting the drive 1 Partition 4 Bootcamp from the Windows setup, I get: 'We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one'.

This happens when EFI boot is chosen, and BCA has failed to create the Hybrid MBR.

Can you post the output of following OSX Terminal commands? Enter your password when prompted and it will not be echoed back to you. "sudo" may also warn you about improper usage and data loss.

sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

sudo fdisk /dev/disk1

sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk1

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Answer 7

m_CD Author

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Mar 2, 2015 1:36 PM in response to Loner T

HI Loner T

thanks for your answer.

I already ran them and posted them to one of your previous post: Error: "We couldn't create a new partition or locate and existing one" installing Windows 8.1 via Bootcamp

Putting them back here for consistency.

Thanks a lot for your help!

Last login: Mon Mar 2 19:59:03 on console

charles-pc:~ Charles$ diskutil list

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *121.3 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage 121.0 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 134.2 MB disk0s3

/dev/disk1

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk1

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage 638.9 GB disk1s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.1 MB disk1s3

4: Microsoft Basic Data 360.5 GB disk1s4

/dev/disk2

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD *754.0 GB disk2

Logical Volume on disk0s2, disk1s2

5AF6F133-EDD1-4A59-98D9-6398F79F408D

Unencrypted Fusion Drive

/dev/disk3

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: FDisk_partition_scheme *15.6 GB disk3

1: DOS_FAT_32 WININSTALL 15.6 GB disk3s1

charles-pc:~ Charles$ sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk1

Password:

Sorry, try again.

Password:

Sorry, try again.

Password:

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 1247785824 2 GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

1248195464 1269760 3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

1249465224 1144

1249466368 704057344 4 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

1953523712 1423

1953525135 32 Sec GPT table

1953525167 1 Sec GPT header

charles-pc:~ Charles$ sudo fdisk /dev/disk1

Disk: /dev/disk1 geometry: 121601/255/63 [1953525168 sectors]

Signature: 0xAA55

Starting Ending

#: id cyl hd sec - cyl hd sec [ start - size]

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

1: EE 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 1 - 1953525167] <Unknown ID>

2: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused

3: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused

4: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused

charles-pc:~ Charles$ sudo dd if-/dev/rdisk1s4 count=1 2>/dev/null | hexdump -C

charles-pc:~ Charles$ sudo dd if=/dev/rdisk1s4 count=1 2>/dev/null | hexdump -C

00000000 eb 52 90 4e 54 46 53 20 20 20 20 00 02 08 00 00 |.R.NTFS .....|

00000010 00 00 00 00 00 f8 00 00 3f 00 ff 00 00 58 79 4a |........?....XyJ|

00000020 00 00 00 00 80 00 80 00 ff 0f f7 29 00 00 00 00 |...........)....|

00000030 00 00 0c 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|

00000040 f6 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 a5 0a 34 34 11 34 34 82 |..........44.44.|

00000050 00 00 00 00 fa 33 c0 8e d0 bc 00 7c fb 68 c0 07 |.....3.....|.h..|

00000060 1f 1e 68 66 00 cb 88 16 0e 00 66 81 3e 03 00 4e |..hf......f.>..N|

00000070 54 46 53 75 15 b4 41 bb aa 55 cd 13 72 0c 81 fb |TFSu..A..U..r...|

00000080 55 aa 75 06 f7 c1 01 00 75 03 e9 dd 00 1e 83 ec |U.u.....u.......|

00000090 18 68 1a 00 b4 48 8a 16 0e 00 8b f4 16 1f cd 13 |.h...H..........|

000000a0 9f 83 c4 18 9e 58 1f 72 e1 3b 06 0b 00 75 db a3 |.....X.r.;...u..|

000000b0 0f 00 c1 2e 0f 00 04 1e 5a 33 db b9 00 20 2b c8 |........Z3... +.|

000000c0 66 ff 06 11 00 03 16 0f 00 8e c2 ff 06 16 00 e8 |f...............|

000000d0 4b 00 2b c8 77 ef b8 00 bb cd 1a 66 23 c0 75 2d |K.+.w......f#.u-|

000000e0 66 81 fb 54 43 50 41 75 24 81 f9 02 01 72 1e 16 |f..TCPAu$....r..|

000000f0 68 07 bb 16 68 52 11 16 68 09 00 66 53 66 53 66 |h...hR..h..fSfSf|

00000100 55 16 16 16 68 b8 01 66 61 0e 07 cd 1a 33 c0 bf |U...h..fa....3..|

00000110 0a 13 b9 f6 0c fc f3 aa e9 fe 01 90 90 66 60 1e |.............f`.|

00000120 06 66 a1 11 00 66 03 06 1c 00 1e 66 68 00 00 00 |.f...f.....fh...|

00000130 00 66 50 06 53 68 01 00 68 10 00 b4 42 8a 16 0e |.fP.Sh..h...B...|

00000140 00 16 1f 8b f4 cd 13 66 59 5b 5a 66 59 66 59 1f |.......fY[ZfYfY.|

00000150 0f 82 16 00 66 ff 06 11 00 03 16 0f 00 8e c2 ff |....f...........|

00000160 0e 16 00 75 bc 07 1f 66 61 c3 a1 f6 01 e8 09 00 |...u...fa.......|

00000170 a1 fa 01 e8 03 00 f4 eb fd 8b f0 ac 3c 00 74 09 |............<.t.|

00000180 b4 0e bb 07 00 cd 10 eb f2 c3 0d 0a 41 20 64 69 |............A di|

00000190 73 6b 20 72 65 61 64 20 65 72 72 6f 72 20 6f 63 |sk read error oc|

000001a0 63 75 72 72 65 64 00 0d 0a 42 4f 4f 54 4d 47 52 |curred...BOOTMGR|

000001b0 20 69 73 20 63 6f 6d 70 72 65 73 73 65 64 00 0d | is compressed..|

000001c0 0a 50 72 65 73 73 20 43 74 72 6c 2b 41 6c 74 2b |.Press Ctrl+Alt+|

000001d0 44 65 6c 20 74 6f 20 72 65 73 74 61 72 74 0d 0a |Del to restart..|

000001e0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|

000001f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 8a 01 a7 01 bf 01 00 00 55 aa |..............U.|

00000200

charles-pc:~ Charles$

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Answer 8

m_CD Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 2, 2015 1:45 PM in response to m_CD

I tried to install windows first on the windows boot (pressing the option button I can choose between Mackintosh HD, windows and EFI). I got the above error message. I also tried on EFI and got the same issue.

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Answer 9

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Mar 2, 2015 1:46 PM in response to m_CD

Your MBR (output of fdisk) is missing, because BCA failed to create one. Please download GPT Fdisk (http://sourceforge.net/projects/gptfdisk/) and this can be corrected. EFI boot is unlikely to work.

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Answer 10

m_CD Author

Level 1

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Mar 2, 2015 1:53 PM in response to Loner T

great! I've downloaded it. Do you know what I should do next or do you have a link I should follow? I can always google it but I will be more comfortable with a guideline (and people reading this chat will have a self-contained solution).

Thanks a lot!

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Answer 11

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Mar 2, 2015 3:56 PM in response to m_CD

Rebuild MBR to match the new GPT information thus resetting the Hybrid MBR.

Use defaults as suggested by Gdisk for other questions (for example Enter an MBR hex code (default AF): AF).

Sudo gdisk /dev/disk0

P (Print list of parts)

R (Recover)

H (chooses Hybrid)

Partitions numbers to be hybridized: 2 3 4

Y (Good for GRUB question)

N (part 2 boot flag)

N (part 3 boot flag)

Y (part 4 boot flag make NTFS bootable partition)

W (Write the new MBR)

Y (Yes! write the new MBR)

Reboot

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Answer 12

m_CD Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 2, 2015 11:31 PM in response to Loner T

I have just tried and got the same error message. I was able to click once on 'Next' in the Windows setup. I also clicked on format the second time.

Here are the command lines I used:

After getting the above image, I restarted the computer, selected the windows boot as before.

Back to OS X, I get the below (which seems to indicate there is an MBR partition, right?).

Thanks!

Last login: Tue Mar 3 07:16:44 on ttys000

charles-pc:~ Charles$ diskutil list

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *121.3 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage 121.0 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 134.2 MB disk0s3

/dev/disk1

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk1

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage 638.9 GB disk1s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.1 MB disk1s3

4: Microsoft Basic Data 360.5 GB disk1s4

/dev/disk2

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD *754.0 GB disk2

Logical Volume on disk0s2, disk1s2

5AF6F133-EDD1-4A59-98D9-6398F79F408D

Unencrypted Fusion Drive

/dev/disk3

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: FDisk_partition_scheme *15.6 GB disk3

1: DOS_FAT_32 WININSTALL 15.6 GB disk3s1

charles-pc:~ Charles$ sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk1

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

gpt show: /dev/disk1: Suspicious MBR 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 MBR

1 1 Pri GPT header

2 32 Pri GPT table

34 6

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

409640 1247785824 2 GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

1248195464 1269760 3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

1249465224 1144

1249466368 704057344 4 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

1953523712 1423

1953525135 32 Sec GPT table

1953525167 1 Sec GPT header

charles-pc:~ Charles$ sudo fdisk /dev/disk1

Disk: /dev/disk1 geometry: 121601/255/63 [1953525168 sectors]

Signature: 0xAA55

Starting Ending

#: id cyl hd sec - cyl hd sec [ start - size]

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

1: EE 0 0 2 - 25 127 14 [ 1 - 409639] <Unknown ID>

2: AF 25 127 15 - 1023 254 63 [ 409640 - 1247785824] HFS+

3: AB 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [1248195464 - 1269760] Darwin Boot

*4: 07 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [1249466368 - 704057344] HPFS/QNX/AUX

charles-pc:~ Charles$ sudo dd if=/dev/rdisk1s4 count=1 2>/dev/null | hexdump -C

00000000 eb 52 90 4e 54 46 53 20 20 20 20 00 02 08 00 00 |.R.NTFS .....|

00000010 00 00 00 00 00 f8 00 00 3f 00 ff 00 00 58 79 4a |........?....XyJ|

00000020 00 00 00 00 80 00 80 00 ff 0f f7 29 00 00 00 00 |...........)....|

00000030 00 00 0c 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|

00000040 f6 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 58 b9 ce 4e f3 ce 4e 68 |........X..N..Nh|