Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Level 1

90 points

My thunderbolt external drive causes Windows 10 to reboot in Bootcamp. Normal? Fix?

I have an imac retina. I use Parallels to boot into Windows 10 with no problem at all. Unfortunately, due to a graphics card issue, one application would not work correctly. I was advised to install Windows 10 using Bootcamp, retry this application, and see if it works. This resolved the conflict with that software.

Unfortunately, Windows kept re-booting and ultimately would crash and need to be re-installed (at least it seemed). I did this same process a few times.

By process of elimination, I found that if I disconnected the thunderbolt external drive, it resolved 100% of the problem. No more problems with re-booting.

I've tried researching and I see people have issues with Thunderbolt Displays and Windows 10, but really nothing else mentioned.

My understanding is that this is not a conflict when using Parallels because I'm still running off the Apple ecosystem, but through bootcamp with running just Windows it gets baffled by the thunderbolt connection.

I realize this may be more of a Win-doze problem, but is there any work-around to this other than me disconnecting the thunderbolt drive every time I wish to use the Bootcamp version of Windows 10?

Thank you.

OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

Posted on May 4, 2016 3:39 PM

27 replies

Loner T

Level 9

59,477 points

May 7, 2016 12:00 PM in response to Ramblinmanva

This is from my Mini with a 5TB external disk. It is not a Duo.

$ diskutil list disk6

/dev/disk6

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *5.0 TB disk6

1: EFI 314.6 MB disk6s1

2: Apple_HFS BKUP6OSX 3.0 TB disk6s2

3: Microsoft Basic Data BKUP6WIN 2.0 TB disk6s3

$ diskutil info disk6s3

Device Identifier: disk6s3

Device Node: /dev/disk6s3

Part of Whole: disk6

Device / Media Name: BKUP6WIN

Volume Name: BKUP6WIN

Escaped with Unicode: BKUP6WIN

Mounted: Yes

Mount Point: /Volumes/BKUP6WIN

Escaped with Unicode: /Volumes/BKUP6WIN

File System Personality: MS-DOS FAT32

Type (Bundle): msdos

Name (User Visible): MS-DOS (FAT32)

Partition Type: Microsoft Basic Data

OS Can Be Installed: No

Media Type: Generic

Protocol: USB

SMART Status: Not Supported

Total Size: 2.0 TB (2000666230784 Bytes) (exactly 3907551232 512-Byte-Blocks)

Volume Free Space: 2.0 TB (2000175529984 Bytes) (exactly 3906592832 512-Byte-Blocks)

Device Block Size: 4096 Bytes

Read-Only Media: No

Read-Only Volume: No

Ejectable: Yes

Whole: No

Internal: No

Your DUO is two physical drives in a RAID configuration. The Windows driver cannot read this RAID configuration, but it does try because it sees a JHFS+ volume.

You will need to setup the RAID as desired and then carve partitions, for use on OSX and Windows. OSX cannot write to NTFS, but it can read. If you need a shared partition, choose a file system (FAT32 or exFAT) as necessary. Use the WD drive utility to create partitions.

Please also see http://www.cnet.com/products/wd-my-book-thunderbolt-duo/ .

Ramblinmanva Author

Level 1

90 points

May 7, 2016 8:58 AM in response to Loner T

Thanks for the response.

My intent is/was to use this as just one "big" drive on the Mac. I have no need to read/write files on the Windows side to this drive at all, so I'm thinking I don't need a separate partition. Would I need a separate partition just to keep Windows from crashing? I just don't want it to crash windows when I boot to using bootcamp, but otherwise have no need to read/write to this drive in Windows. Sorry if this is confusing the way I've written it. Is my only option to unplug the thunderbolt when using bootcamp vs re-formating the partitions even if I don't need to read/write in Windows?

I would think I must keep the OS X side in a read/write format as I use it for a large media/music collection.

Ramblinmanva Author

Level 1

90 points

May 7, 2016 9:06 AM in response to Loner T

One more thing, not sure if this matters. Using the WD Utility, I appear to have the option of only amending the two drives. That is, I can't partition them up in various ways. Just one of 3 ways.

1. Raid Striped.

2. Raid-mirror

3. Individual drives (JBOD).

If I select # 3, I am giving the option to amend Drive A and Drive B with either the HFS+J format or ExFat format. I don't see how I could alter the size of any partitions or create more than 2 partitions, if desired.

Loner T

Level 9

59,477 points

May 7, 2016 9:08 AM in response to Ramblinmanva

HFS+ RAID configurations will cause problems.

Can you post the output of the

diskutil info disk3

from the OSX side?

Loner T

Level 9

59,477 points

May 7, 2016 9:12 AM in response to Ramblinmanva

Clayton Rhoades wrote:

One more thing, not sure if this matters. Using the WD Utility, I appear to have the option of only amending the two drives. That is, I can't partition them up in various ways. Just one of 3 ways.

1. Raid Striped.

2. Raid-mirror

3. Individual drives (JBOD).

What is the current state?

If I select # 3, I am giving the option to amend Drive A and Drive B with either the HFS+J format or ExFat format. I don't see how I could alter the size of any partitions or create more than 2 partitions, if desired.

JBOD state should give you the option of formatting individual disks as you want.

As a test, set it to JBOD and check the output of

diskutil list

Ramblinmanva Author

Level 1

90 points

May 7, 2016 9:16 AM in response to Loner T

The current state is # 1. Raid Striped.

This is the read out of diskutil info disk 3, in it's current un-changed state.

Device Identifier: disk3

Device Node: /dev/disk3

Whole: Yes

Part of Whole: disk3

Device / Media Name: WDC WD40EFRX-68WT0N0

Volume Name: My Book Thunderbolt Duo

Mounted: Yes

Mount Point: /Volumes/My Book Thunderbolt Duo

File System Personality: Journaled HFS+

Type (Bundle): hfs

Name (User Visible): Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

Journal: Journal size 524288 KB at offset 0x7472000

Owners: Disabled

Content (IOContent): Apple_HFS

OS Can Be Installed: Yes

Media Type: Generic

Protocol: SATA

SMART Status: Not Supported

Volume UUID: 92CB6B98-9787-31E6-B3B6-EBD7B61A4746

Disk / Partition UUID: 08D6142E-A5FF-4EF8-A85E-BC77D9C5BE2C

Total Size: 8.0 TB (8000886079488 Bytes) (exactly 15626730624 512-Byte-Units)

Volume Free Space: 7.3 TB (7280840073216 Bytes) (exactly 14220390768 512-Byte-Units)

Device Block Size: 512 Bytes

Allocation Block Size: 8192 Bytes

Read-Only Media: No

Read-Only Volume: No

Device Location: External

Removable Media: No

Solid State: No

Virtual: Yes

OS 9 Drivers: No

Low Level Format: Not supported

This disk is a RAID Set. RAID Set Information:

Set Name: My Book Thunderbolt Duo

RAID Set UUID: 08D6142E-A5FF-4EF8-A85E-BC77D9C5BE2C

Level Type: Stripe

Status: Online

Chunk Count: 244167666

Ramblinmanva Author

Level 1

90 points

May 7, 2016 9:40 AM in response to Loner T

I just set it to JBOD. Here is the diskutil list below. If I'm otherwise happy with the OS X side performance, I guess I should just get used to unplugging the drive when using Bootcamp?

I left them in HFS format when doing the reconfigure to JBOD.

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 894.0 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3

4: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 105.7 GB disk0s4

/dev/disk1 (external, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *4.0 TB disk1

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1

2: Apple_HFS My Book Thunderbolt ... 4.0 TB disk1s2

/dev/disk2 (external, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *4.0 TB disk2

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk2s1

2: Apple_HFS My Book Thunderbolt ... 4.0 TB disk2s2

Loner T

Level 9

59,477 points

May 7, 2016 10:27 AM in response to Ramblinmanva

As a test, with the current Duo as JBOD, can you leave the storage connected and reboot into Windows? Please post your observations (I do not expect it to crash 😉 ).

Ramblinmanva Author

Level 1

90 points

May 7, 2016 11:06 AM in response to Loner T

You are correct. Re-booted using bootcamp into windows 10, a few times, no problem with the JBOD approach. I disconnected and re-connected the drive while in Windows and I noticed that when it connected Windows popped up rightly calling it the My Book Thunderbolt (which it did not do in the previous configuration).

Is that because it is not in Raid? It is still HFS+J, but not in Raid. Is that the solution?

Then I would just use the drives as separate drives? Guess that shouldn't be a major issue when saving stuff to iTunes and such as long as I don't need to overflow into more space.

Thanks again.

Loner T

Level 9

59,477 points

May 7, 2016 11:57 AM in response to Ramblinmanva

Yes, your issue is RAID. The JBOD, however, does not provide redundancy. Please ensure a good regimen of backups.

The Windows driver does not support HFS RAID.

Ramblinmanva Author

Level 1

90 points

May 7, 2016 11:59 AM in response to Loner T

Awesome. Thanks for all the help.

Off topic a bit, I find the Thunderbolt transfer during all this much slower than I thought it would be. I thought it should be super fast. One folder of 700 Gigabytes says it will take about an hour. Maybe it will really finish sooner.

Appreciate all the help diagnosing this stuff.

Loner T

Level 9

59,477 points

May 7, 2016 12:08 PM in response to Ramblinmanva

Your TB is faster than the SATA speed of the disks which is your upper limit.

My thunderbolt external drive causes Windows 10 to reboot in Bootcamp. Normal? Fix?