Start Windows 10 in safe mode on 2016 MacBook Pro

Question

Start Windows 10 in safe mode on 2016 MacBook Pro

On two different 2016 MacBook Pros (one with Touch Bar, one without) I've managed to render my Windows BootCamp partition useless by installing Visual Studio 2015 (with Update 3). At the end of the installation, the system reboots, configures Hyper-V (for virtualization), then reboots again. After that second reboot, I am presented with the Windows boot sequence and a forever-spinning wheel of white dots. The system never boots.

This is reproducible on both 2016 MacBook Pros (with Touch Bar and without) and I want to start Windows 10 in safe mode to try and diagnose the issue. This is Windows 10 Anniversary Update. Hitting F8 during boot does nothing. I believe that this is because it's a UEFI boot on the MBP.

I'm really not sure what to do but am totally stuck. Windows boots just fine until I put Visual Studio on. I've not yet confirmed if I can get into safe mode before I install Visual Studio. Perhaps getting into Windows safe mode is impossible on these 2016 MacBook Pros regardless of what subsequent software has been installed.

Please help!

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2016, 4 TBT3), macOS Sierra (10.12.2), LG Ultrafine 5K Display

Posted on Jan 11, 2017 8:09 PM

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Answer 1

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Jan 12, 2017 4:19 AM in response to ozziepeeps1982

Please see

Enable Hyper-V on MacBook Pro Late 2016 makes bootcamp unusable

Why is VT-x disabled in Windows 10?

Windows 10 does not boot after you enable Hyper v

INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE after enabling Hyper-V in Windows 10 on Late-2015 27" 5k iMac

Your 2012 Mac is a preUEFI Mac, and uses CSM-BIOS, and it can install W7. The 2016 is incapable of using BIOS emulation.

I suggest keeping the 2012 Mac running and well maintained. 😉

You can look at nested virtualization as an option. As mentioned in one of the link, please see MSDN: Using Parallels Desktop to install Windows and the dev tools on your Mac .

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Answer 2

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Jan 11, 2017 8:39 PM in response to ozziepeeps1982

Hyper-V is not supported on tbMBPs, which is the root cause of your problems. If Windows 10 fails to boot successfully a repeated number of times, it will bring up Automatic Recovery.

The other option you have is to build a USB Installer manually using BC6 drivers for your specific model, and a W10 ISO from Microsoft., and booting the installer from it to run Repairs.

Do you have a Windows System Restore point, before you started the update of Visual Studio?

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Answer 3

Jan 11, 2017 8:36 PM in response to Loner T

Oh wow, interesting. I didn't know this. I used to have a 2012 MacBook Air that I Bootcamp'd and used for Visual Studio work, so I just followed the same setup on the 2016 MacBook Pro. The only difference this time around was not needing to use a USB drive to install it, due to the "magic" they do in the newer models. I'm totally familiar with the USB approach however, including installation of something like rEFIt / rEFInd to take over the bootloader.

I've tried rebooting well over 10 times, including leaving the boot running for over an hour with it just spinning. I'm yet to see it kick into Automatic Recovery unfortunately. I didn't explicitly create a Windows System Restore point, no, as I didn't expect issues.

I've blown my Bootcamp partition away now in frustration, but am willing to start again if you have any suggestions.

So are you saying I won't be able to use Hyper-V at all on this laptop?

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