Bootcamp Windows 8.1 Partition Problem

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Bootcamp Windows 8.1 Partition Problem

I was instructed to create a new discussion about this so here goes:

I am trying to install Windows 8.1 on my iMac 5K. I have genuine Windows 8.1 install DVD, 64-bit. After using Bootcamp to create a partition for Windows and following the rest of the Bootcamp utility instructions, my computer restarted to a black screen. I restarted and held down option to select Windows EFI disk option. This allowed me to begin the Windows 8.1 install.

However, the partition that was allocated by Bootcamp utility was not able to have Windows installed to it. I got this error: Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, Windows can only be installed to GPT disks.

I went back to Yosemite and erased the Bootcamp partition using Bootcamp Utility to give the partition back to OS X. This hangs and fails and I need to restart computer. Now I'm stuck with the amount of space I originally allocated for Win 8.1 being totally useless. I then tried a new method of creating a Bootcamp partition through Disk Utility and created a Free Space partition. Fast forward to Windows 8.1 install and it lets me format that drive to Windows and I install 8.1 just fine. After Win 8.1 boots up I use the Apple driver files that Bootcamp download onto my USB stick to install the drivers for Windows. Things crash and now I can only boot into a black screen again, Win 8.1 does not boot up.

The only thing that works is going back into Yosemite which works fine. If I try and boot back into Windows it just comes up with a black screen. Now half of my hard drive (1 TB SSD that I BTOd with my iMac 5K) shows it's empty space and I cannot reallocate it to OS X. I start the process with Bootcamp Utility to give back all the space to OS X and it hangs and I have to restart. I've let it sit for over 2 hours to see if it just needed more time.

Below I've included some info from Terminal that hopefully can help.

Please help!

Posted on May 28, 2015 9:11 AM

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Answer 1

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

May 28, 2015 9:19 AM in response to greekappi

1. Please remove/disconnect disk2, disk3 and disk4 before you attempt Windows installation.

2. Your GPT indicates there is Free Space after the Recovery HD, but you will onto be abel to reclaim it, unless Recovery HD is removed.

3. You can install EFI Boot Windows but you need to remove disks as mentioned in #1. The Free Space will be split into an 128MB MSR and the remainder as NTFS by the Windows Installer. The MSR is not the same as your EFI partition.

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