chocolatellama

Q: Problems installing Windows 10 on a 2012 MacBook with Fusion Drive?

So I've been trying for weeks to install Windows 10 onto my 2012 MacBook Pro 15" (non-retina) with two internal drives (a 120gb SSD in the original drive tray and the 500gb HDD in the optical drive tray). I set up a DIY Fusion Drive that has worked amazingly in OS X (10.11.6) but when I try to install windows, all kinds of errors occur.

 

The specs for my MacBook:

Mid-2012 15" Unibody (last 15" model before the retina)

El Capitan 10.11.6

2.6 GHz Intel i7

8gb DDR3 RAM

GT 650M 1024 MB VRAM

500gb HD shipped with the machine (which I believe has been moved from the original drive bay to the optical bay)

120gb SanDisk SSD (installed into the main bay, I believe)

"DIY Fusion Drive" setup linking the SSD and HDD into a Logical Volume (software recognizes this as a Fusion Drive)

 

 

So first off, the computer doesn't have an optical drive, obviously, so I can't install via DVD but apparently my Mac is new enough for Bootcamp to support creating USB installers via ISO, which I have done with Windows 10 and its drivers (through Bootcamp).

 

But the majority of the problems lie with the partitions. I've tried creating a partition through Bootcamp and selecting the EFI installer upon boot. All goes well until I format the BOOTCAMP partition created by Bootcamp Assistant and the Windows installer gives me the error ""We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one."

 

Frustrated, I tried following tutorials online on how to install Windows without the help of Bootcamp and this has seemed to only make matters worse. I used Bootcamp Assistant to remove my old Bootcamp partition and all was well. Several sources have told me that either A.) Creating a Partition in the MS-DOS (FAT) in which to install Windows would work or that B.) Creating "Free Space" the size of the needed Windows partition and creating a new partition via the Windows installer in the unallocated space would solve the issues. Neither of these worked, I just receive the same error. ""We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one."

 

Now I'm stuck with some weird partitions on my disk from my install attempts that I can't get to go away and, I assume because of these odd partitions, Bootcamp Assistant cannot merge the 150gb Windows partition I created back into the Fusion Drive. This is what it tells me:

Screen Shot 2016-09-13 at 11.04.39 PM.png

 

I've heard Windows may get confused because it's trying to install to the HDD (which is in the optical bay) but in actuality, it needs to be installed on the drive in the main bay (disk0, the SSD in my case).

 

 

Here are the outputs of a few terminal commands:

 

diskutil list

(I would ideally like to delete/merge disk1s4, disk1s5, and disk1s6 without data loss so I can start from scratch)

Screen Shot 2016-09-13 at 11.15.39 PM.png

 

diskutil cs list  (also, with this command, I noticed that "disk2" which is supposedly the "Fusion Drive," has only 463.6gb of space, shouldn't it have 620gb?)

Screen Shot 2016-09-13 at 11.17.48 PM.png

 

Any help is appreciated! I just want to move these stupid extra partitions and get Windows to run properly.

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6), null

Posted on Sep 13, 2016 11:46 PM

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Q: Problems installing Windows 10 on a 2012 MacBook with Fusion Drive?

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  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Sep 14, 2016 1:43 PM in response to chocolatellama
    Level 7 (23,965 points)
    Safari
    Sep 14, 2016 1:43 PM in response to chocolatellama

    This is expected (and unpredictable behavior) due to a modified disk configuration.

     

    Backup OSX to Time Machine, remove the second disk, restore OS X, install Windows on the drive in Main bay. Add the  second disk in Optibay, create a Fusion drive using the OS X partition and the second whole disk. Do not try to repartition your disks again at any time, otherwise Windows is start failing.