goldenmean
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Windows 10 Bootcamp on Mac Pro

Has anyone been able to upgrade to Windows 10 on a Mac Pro? I have tried both the Media Creation Tool and a direct download of the ISO. However, every time I try to install the update, I get the following error message: Something Happened. We can't tell if your PC has enough space to continue installing Windows 10.

 

I have unplugged all peripherals both USB and Thunderbolt, but I still get the error every time. I have seen users that have upgraded their MacBooks. But I haven't seen anyone successfully get a Mac Pro running Windows 10 in Bootcamp. After much research yesterday, I saw suggestions that it may be because of the SSD drive. My Bootcamp partition is 80GB with 38GB free. So I think I should have plenty of room. The other suggestion I saw was that it may be an issue with the bootloader. Windows users with a Linux partition were having the same problem. They fixed it by restoring the default Windows bootloader, but I think that's a terrible idea on my Mac Pro.

 

Any and all suggestions or tips will be greatly appreciated.

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Aug 2, 2015 10:10 AM

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goldenmean

Q: Windows 10 Bootcamp on Mac Pro

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  • Helpful answers

  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Aug 2, 2015 10:25 AM in response to goldenmean
    Level 10 (190,733 points)
    Apple Watch
    Aug 2, 2015 10:25 AM in response to goldenmean

    A better place to post is:

    Boot Camp

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Aug 2, 2015 10:46 AM in response to goldenmean
    Level 7 (24,805 points)
    Safari
    Aug 2, 2015 10:46 AM in response to goldenmean

    1. On your MP, do you have more than one existing OS prior to the Windows installation/upgrade?

    2. An Upgrade needs more disk space than a clean installation, due to the requirements to support a rollback.

    3. Can you post the output of the following Terminal commands?

     

    diskutil list

    diskutil cs list

    sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

    sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

     

    The "sudo" commands will prompt for your password, and it will not be echoed back. You may also see a warning about improper use of "sudo" and potential data loss due to "abuse" of the command.

  • by The hatter,

    The hatter The hatter Aug 2, 2015 11:16 AM in response to goldenmean
    Level 9 (60,935 points)
    Aug 2, 2015 11:16 AM in response to goldenmean

    http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/windows-10-on-cmp-review.1901628/unread

     

    You should of course use WinClone 5.1 or Paragon Clone OS or HDM 15 v3 to backup Windows first.

     

    You can once it Is installed clone and move Windows which is happy to boot from Thunderbolt drives.

  • by goldenmean,

    goldenmean goldenmean Aug 2, 2015 11:28 AM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 2, 2015 11:28 AM in response to Loner T

    dev/disk0

       #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

       0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.3 GB   disk0

       1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1

       2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            415.0 GB   disk0s2

       3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

       4:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                84.4 GB    disk0s4

     

     

     

    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  810546880      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

      810956520    1269536      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

      812226056        504        

      812226560  164878336      4  GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

      977104896        131        

      977105027         32         Sec GPT table

      977105059          1         Sec GPT header

     

     

    sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

    Disk: /dev/disk0        geometry: 60821/255/63 [977105060 sectors]

    Signature: 0xAA55

             Starting       Ending

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

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

    1: EE 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [         1 -  977105059] <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 

  • by goldenmean,

    goldenmean goldenmean Aug 2, 2015 11:32 AM in response to lllaass
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 2, 2015 11:32 AM in response to lllaass

    Thanks for the suggestion, but I already tried that and got nothing but responses from MacBOOK Pro owners. This seems to be an issue specific to the 2013 and later MacPro.

  • by goldenmean,

    goldenmean goldenmean Aug 2, 2015 11:38 AM in response to The hatter
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 2, 2015 11:38 AM in response to The hatter

    Thanks for the suggestions. The link you referenced talks about an older Mac Pro. But I'm more interested in the idea that I can boot Windows from a Thunderbolt drive. Apple is very specific that Bootcamp can only be used from the internal drive. Are you saying there is a way to get around that? Because ideally, I want Windows on an external drive, but without any kind of virtualization container. I want to use Windows natively on the hardware.

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Aug 2, 2015 11:57 AM in response to goldenmean
    Level 7 (24,805 points)
    Safari
    Aug 2, 2015 11:57 AM in response to goldenmean

    You have two separate issues.

     

    1. If you try to upgrade, the amount of available space requires is roughly 1.5 times what is current occupied. A 80GB partition with 40GB free is unlikely to succeed. If you have large Documents or files, save them to an external disk. If possible, you can remove hiberfil.sys which is used for Windows hibernation after you disable Hibernate functions. This should free up roughly the same disk space as your RAM, and may get you over the upgrade issue.

     

    2. You do not seem to have a Windows EFI installation (because you are missing the usual Microsoft System Reserved) partition. At the same time you are missing the Hybrid MBR. What is the current version of Windows running on your MP? Do you have any current boot issues?

     

    3. Run Disk Utility Repair on the OS X side. Clean up Temporary files on the Windows side and based on step 1 and available disk space, try your upgrade.

     

    4. Backup OSX prior to upgrade, and if possible, create an external bootable OS X - OS X: Installing OS X on an external volume - Apple Support - just for extra safety.

  • by MK_93,

    MK_93 MK_93 Aug 2, 2015 1:32 PM in response to goldenmean
    Level 1 (11 points)
    Notebooks
    Aug 2, 2015 1:32 PM in response to goldenmean

    I upgraded or can clean install w10, but i can't activate after clean install, it only work legally via upgrade.

     

    mid 14 rmbp

  • by goldenmean,

    goldenmean goldenmean Aug 2, 2015 5:06 PM in response to goldenmean
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 2, 2015 5:06 PM in response to goldenmean

    Thanks for all the helpful suggestions. But my question still stands. Has anyone been able to update to Windows 10 using Bootcamp with the internal SSD partitioned for Windows on a late 2013 Mac Pro? If the answer is yes, that's great maybe there is hope. If the answer is no, did you get the same error message that I did?

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Aug 2, 2015 6:24 PM in response to goldenmean
    Level 7 (24,805 points)
    Safari
    Aug 2, 2015 6:24 PM in response to goldenmean

    Your issue is not model specific. W10 works on many Macs with internal SSDs. In my case, I have a 256Gb Samsung 840 Pro, which is split in half between the two OSes and did not have any issues.

     

    Your issue is specific to your environment - viz. - disk space. These two should be treated separately.

     

    Is your Windows installation EFI (UEFI) or BIOS? Check under SysInfo. If it is EFI, it may be easier to address.