Bootcamp failing to partition install windows 8 Mac Pro 2008

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Bootcamp failing to partition install windows 8 Mac Pro 2008

Hey people could someone please help me I've been using windows 8.1 via bootcamp on my 2008 mac pro for a while on a second internal hard drive which was quite slow so i decided to reinstall windows 8.1 from scratch via bootcamp on a larger and much faster hard drive.

Now the new hard drive in question is a 2tb 2.5inch samsung and i'm using an icey box enclosure,so i thought it was a good idea to format the new 2tb hard drive also the old hard drive with bootcamp on which was a second internal 3.5 500gb hard drive,so i go through the process as normal for bootcamp assistant and i get this message,

(We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one,for more information ,see the setup log files.)

Then i use the format button within the installation and it says

( Windows cannot be installed to this disk ,the selected disk is of GPT partition style)

So I've been trying to formate my hard drives in fat 32 exfat mac journaled etc also using cmd prompt diskpart selecting the disk cleaning the disk formatting the disk NTFS deleting partitions making the disk active,I've been doing quick and long formats using mac and another pc using just unused space,so I'm really annoyed as this has been going on for about 4 days now,I've tried converting the hard drives to MBR,I've tried creating partitions in cmd prompt and disk utility ,I've also done a clean instal of Yosemite and gone to disk utility via recovery and formatted the hard drive but it still will not work,i'm getting the,

(EFI error GPT error)also we couldn't create a new partition error: 0x80004005)

im not really up for buying another hard drive,i really want to use my new 2tb hard drive can someone please help me and advise me where i'm going wrong.

I've looked online read many many forum posts but nothing seems to work,watched loads of lame video's.

Thanks in advance.

Mac Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5), 2008

Posted on Apr 26, 2016 8:46 AM

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Answer 1

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Apr 26, 2016 8:56 AM in response to StuartJ1210

1. Please see Boot Camp: "We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one" alert during Windows 8 install - Apple Support .

2. Let BCA format the disk to FAT32. If the disk is larger than 2TB, your specific Model needs a legacy MBR/BIOS installation. We should check the MBR. Please post the output of OSX Terminal command

diskutil list

3. EFI Boot is not recommended on your specific model.

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Answer 2

StuartJ1210 Author

Level 1

12 points

Apr 26, 2016 10:55 AM in response to Loner T

Last login: Tue Apr 26 15:55:04 on console

Stuarts-Mac-Pro:~ StuartsMacPro$ diskutil list

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *240.1 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_HFS Macintosh SSD HD 239.2 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3

/dev/disk1

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *2.0 TB disk1

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1

2: Microsoft Basic Data 2.0 TB disk1s2

/dev/disk2

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: IRM_CCSA_X64FRE_EN-... *4.7 GB disk2

Stuarts-Mac-Pro:~ StuartsMacPro$

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Answer 3

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Apr 26, 2016 12:06 PM in response to StuartJ1210

If your designated disk1 is connected to anything other than the internal SATA bus, you will run into issues. Can you post the output of

diskutil info disk1

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Answer 4

StuartJ1210 Author

Level 1

12 points

Apr 26, 2016 1:42 PM in response to Loner T

Content (IOContent): GUID_partition_scheme

OS Can Be Installed: No

Media Type: Generic

Protocol: SATA

SMART Status: Verified

Total Size: 2.0 TB (2000398934016 Bytes) (exactly 3907029168 512-Byte-Units)

Volume Free Space: Not applicable (no file system)

Device Block Size: 512 Bytes

Read-Only Media: No

Read-Only Volume: Not applicable (no file system)

Ejectable: No

Whole: Yes

Internal: Yes

Solid State: No

OS 9 Drivers: No

Low Level Format: Not supported

Device Location: "Bay 2"

Stuarts-Mac-Pro:~ StuartsMacPro$

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Answer 5

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Apr 26, 2016 2:26 PM in response to StuartJ1210

Will the entire 2TB disk be dedicated to Windows? If yes, can I suggest formatting it via Disk Utility as a MBR/FAT disk to start with?

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Answer 6

StuartJ1210 Author

Level 1

12 points

Apr 26, 2016 3:31 PM in response to Loner T

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Answer 7

StuartJ1210 Author

Level 1

12 points

Apr 26, 2016 3:34 PM in response to Loner T

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Answer 8

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Apr 26, 2016 3:36 PM in response to StuartJ1210

Click on the outer 2TB disk, and try to format it as MBR scheme and FAT.

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Answer 9

StuartJ1210 Author

Level 1

12 points

Apr 26, 2016 3:37 PM in response to Loner T

This is different then before ? doesn't even get to the windows install bit?😕

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Answer 10

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Apr 26, 2016 3:38 PM in response to StuartJ1210

In the current state, can you post the output of diskutil list command?

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Answer 11

StuartJ1210 Author

Level 1

12 points

Apr 26, 2016 3:48 PM in response to Loner T

Last login: Tue Apr 26 23:45:59 on console

Stuarts-Mac-Pro:~ StuartsMacPro$ diskutil

Disk Utility Tool

Utility to manage local disks and volumes

Most options require root access to the device

Usage: diskutil [quiet] <verb> <options>, where <verb> is as follows:

list (List the partitions of a disk)

info[rmation] (Get information on a specific disk or partition)

listFilesystems (List file systems available for formatting)

activity (Continuous log of system-wide disk arbitration)

u[n]mount (Unmount a single volume)

unmountDisk (Unmount an entire disk (all volumes))

eject (Eject a disk)

mount (Mount a single volume)

mountDisk (Mount an entire disk (all mountable volumes))

enableJournal (Enable HFS+ journaling on a mounted HFS+ volume)

disableJournal (Disable HFS+ journaling on a mounted HFS+ volume)

moveJournal (Move the HFS+ journal onto another volume)

enableOwnership (Treat as exact User/Group IDs for a mounted volume)

disableOwnership (Ignore on-disk User/Group IDs for a mounted volume)

rename[Volume] (Rename a volume)

verifyVolume (Verify the file system data structures of a volume)

repairVolume (Repair the file system data structures of a volume)

verifyDisk (Verify the components of a partition map of a disk)

repairDisk (Repair the components of a partition map of a disk)

verifyPermissions (Verify the permissions of a Mac OS X volume)

repairPermissions (Repair the permissions of a Mac OS X volume)

eraseDisk (Erase an existing disk, removing all volumes)

eraseVolume (Erase an existing volume)

reformat (Erase an existing volume with same name and type)

eraseOptical (Erase optical media (CD/RW, DVD/RW, etc.))

zeroDisk (Erase a disk, writing zeros to the media)

randomDisk (Erase a disk, writing random data to the media)

secureErase (Securely erase a disk or freespace on a volume)

partitionDisk ((re)Partition a disk, removing all volumes)

resizeVolume (Resize a volume, increasing or decreasing its size)

splitPartition (Split an existing partition into two or more)

mergePartitions (Combine two or more existing partitions into one)

appleRAID <verb> (Perform additional verbs related to AppleRAID)

coreStorage <verb> (Perform additional verbs related to CoreStorage)

diskutil <verb> with no options will provide help on that verb

Stuarts-Mac-Pro:~ StuartsMacPro$

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Answer 12

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Apr 26, 2016 4:02 PM in response to StuartJ1210

Try

diskutil list

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Answer 13

StuartJ1210 Author

Level 1

12 points

Apr 27, 2016 8:01 AM in response to Loner T

Last login: Wed Apr 27 15:59:53 on console

Stuarts-Mac-Pro:~ StuartsMacPro$ diskutil list

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *240.1 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_HFS Macintosh SSD HD 239.2 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3

/dev/disk1

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *2.0 TB disk1

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1

2: Microsoft Basic Data 2.0 TB disk1s2

Stuarts-Mac-Pro:~ StuartsMacPro$

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Answer 14

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Apr 27, 2016 9:01 AM in response to StuartJ1210

Here is an OS X Terminal command, but you must ensure that disk1 points to the correct disk before you execute this.

diskutil eraseDisk fat32 "BOOTCAMP" MBR disk1

The help syntax is

diskutil erasedisk

Usage: diskutil eraseDisk format name [APM[Format]|MBR[Format]|GPT[Format]]

MountPoint|DiskIdentifier|DeviceNode

Completely erase an existing whole disk. All volumes on this disk will be

destroyed. Ownership of the affected disk is required.

Format is the specific file system name you want to erase it as (HFS+, etc.).

Name is the (new) volume name (subject to file system naming restrictions),

or can be specified as %noformat% to skip initialization (newfs).

You cannot erase the boot disk.

Example: diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ UntitledUFS disk3

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Answer 15

StuartJ1210 Author

Level 1

12 points

Apr 28, 2016 3:32 AM in response to Loner T

Hey there Loner T thanks for trying to help but i think its an issue with bootcamp its self rather than my hard drive,i have tried 2 other hard drives and it fails every time,all the same errors but i can install windows 8.1 via the disk on to the hard drive and hold down alt every time i want to boot but its a massive pain as i have a gtx 960 graphics card which is pc so i'm gonna have to keep swiping cables out every boot which is annoying to say the least,also i tried the last line of terminal but that did nothing,i typed it out correctly so i don't really know as much as your good self,i really want to use bootcamp as it fine on my macbook pro but a massive failure now on my mac pro😢

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