BootCamp on SDD on system with Fusion Drive

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emulajavi Author

Level 1

10 points

BootCamp on SDD on system with Fusion Drive

Hi.

First, for those of you with iMacs or Mac minis with fusion drive, does your system always list:

SSD drive as disk0???

HDD drive as disk1???

My iMac originally listed them like that but after splitting the Fusion Drive, now SSD is listed randomly as disk1 or disk2 and HDD is always disk0.

I’d like to know if this random or not.

Now onto the reason behind that question: BootCamp

I have a late2015 Max with a 2TB fusion drive (120gb+2tb)

I want to install Windows on a partition of the SSD, something BootCamp Assistant doesn’t allow to because it can only create a new partition on the HDD, but Apple CoreStorage supports.

I have found that what seems to work to get Windows on the SSD is:

- Enter Internet Recovery

- Split the Fusion Drive

- Create on the SSD (for me disk1 or 2) two partitions: Macintosh HD (50GB) and BOOTCAMP (70GB)

- Create on the HDD (for me disk0) two partitions: Macintosh HD (990GB) and SHARED (1.1TB exFAT. Will be used for Windows Files permitting macOS r/w)

- Recreate the Fusion Drive with the two Macintosh HD partitions, to take advance of the magic of Fusion when in macOS

- Install macOS on the Macintosh HD Fusion Drive Volume.

- Create bootable USB with Windows 10 and BootCamp Drivers and install it on the BOOTCAMP partition of the SSD.

Everything works except the last step, where Windows installation gives me an error after selecting the BOOTCAMP partition (Disc 1 Partition 4), clicking on Format, and then on Next. A yellow warning appears saying ”we couldn’t create a new partition or locate an existing one”.

Seems that the error is because Windows likes to install on Drive 0 but not on Drive 1.

I don’t know how to make my system recognize the SSD as disk0 again.

Any clues?

Thank you

IMAC (RETINA 5K, 27-INCH, LATE 2015), macOS High Sierra (10.13.1)

Posted on Nov 22, 2017 9:54 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

emulajavi Author

Level 1

10 points

Nov 28, 2017 12:15 PM in response to Loner T

So this is step by step how I managed to install Windows 10 (1709) on the SSD part of a 2TB Fusion Drive in my iMac 5K 27-inch (late 2015).

I don’t know if this will work to all types of stock Fusion Drive setups on Apple products. This is what I wanted:

iMac 5K 27-inch (late 2015) with 2TB Fusion Drive (120GB SSD + 2TB HDD)
macOS 10.13.1 High Sierra installed on a Fusion Drive of 800GB consisting of 45GB of the SSD and 755GB of the HDD.
Windows 10 (1709) installed on 75GB of the SSD
1,2TB on a separate exFAT partiton for sharing files between OSs.

Things to take into account (you can skip this. It’s only an explanation of why things are done in a specific order):

- YOU NEED TO ERASE ALL YOUR SYSTEM. PLEASE BACKUP.

- BEFORE DOING ANYTHING, DOWNLOAD WINDOWS COMPATIBILITY DRIVERS FROM BOOTCAMP ASSISTANT ON MACOS, AND SAVE THEM TO A USB DRIVE.

- macOS only permits to install Windows making a BOOTCAMP partition on the HDD.

- Windows doesn’t like macOS’s EFI partition structure

- Windows always tries to install on disk0 despite of you telling Windows to install on disk1.

- macOS doesn’t like the way Windows creates the EFI partition and refuses to install after Windows.

- Windows creates an EFI partition of 100MB but macOS needs 200MB minimum.

- Installing first macOS, separating a slice of the SDD from the Fusion Drive and trying to install Windows on it, doesn’t work because Windows doesn’t like macOS EFI partition.

- Spliting the Fusion Drive, erasing all disks, installing Windows normally, then reducing Window’s partition to make room for macOS and trying to install macOS doesn’t work because of the small Windows EFI partition.

- Of all the different tries I made, the only way I could manage to install Windows, was installing Windows first, without any operating system installed on my iMac.

Well, these are the STEPS that worked for me:

A. Split the Fusion Drive:

1.- Boot into Internet Recovery: Hold Command+Option+R till a spinning globe appears.

2.- Launch Utilities -> Terminal and type:

diskutil cs list

3.- Look for the Logical Volume Groupe ID (LVGID) at the top and Logical Volume ID (LVID) at the bottom part and type:

diskutil cs deleteVolume LVID

diskutil cs delete LVGID

Now you have your Fusion Drive splitted

B.- Boot into the Windows USB Installer.

1.- When the Windows Install Setup appears, press Shift+F10

2.- Type:

diskpart

list disk(check what drive is disk0 and what drive is disk 1. (For me: disk0 HDD, disk1 SSD)

select disk 0

clean (this deletes all the drive)

select disk 1

clean

3.- Now we are going to manually create the EFI partition that will solve all of our problems. Type:

select disk 1 (the SSD)

convert gpt

create partition efi size=200

format quick fs=FAT32 label=”EFI”

create partition msr size=128

exit

4.- Now proceed with Windows Setup, selecting custom install and on the partition selection window:

- delete (if any) all of the disk0 (HDD) partitions

- delete (if any) all of the disk1 (SDD) partitions except EFI and MSR so you will have:

- 2TB unallocated space on disk0 (HDD)

- EFI partition on the SSD

- MSR partition on the SSD

- 112GB of unallocated space on disk1 (SDD)

- select the 112GB of unallocated space and click next. Windows should install.

C.- Upon booting into Windows:

1.- Install Bootcamp Compatibility Drivers and reboot. You’ll see that C: drives has been magically renamed to BOOTCAMP.

2.- Delete the MSR partition. macOS doesn’t like it. Open a CMD as administrator and type:

diskpart

list disk (look for the SSD disk number. For me it was disk1)

select disk 1

list partition (look for a 128MB MSR partition. For me it was partition2)

select partition 2

delete override

3.- Shrink the BOOTCAMP partition. Using Windows Disk Management, reduce the BOOTCAMP volume to 44000MB.

4.- Create a new exFAT formatted volume (name doesn’t matter, it’s only a placeholder) on the newly freed space but leaving 128MB out of it. So substract 128 to the number that Windows suggests you. macOS needs those 128MB of unallocated space there.

D.- Installing macOS 10.13.1

1.- Boot into Internet Recovery.

2.- Using Disk Utility format the exFAT volume we’ve created before as HFS+ named Macintosh HD.

3.- Using Disk Utility format the HDD with a single Macintosh HD HFS+ partition.

4.- Recreate the Fusion Drive. Open terminal and type:

diskutil list (look what disk is disk0 and what disk is disk1. For me SSD was disk1 and HDD was disk0. Look also for the identifier of the SDD Macintosh HD partition which for me was disk1s4 I think)

diskutil cs create disk1s4 disk0 (first SSD partition, second whole HDD. It will do its stuff and report a large number Logical Volume Group ID -LVGID-)

diskutil cs createVolume LVGID jhfs+ Macintosh\ HD 100%

5.- Done. Fusion Drive created. Install macOS on Macintosh HD.

E.- Post macOS install:

1.- With Disk Utility, create a new exFAT partition on the Fusion Drive, size 1.2TB called WinMac that will be used to share files between OSs. The partition will be created out of the Fusion Drive and on the HDD.

An that’s all. That’s how I managed to get Windows installed on a portion of my SDD and keep the Fusion Drive for macOS, while also having a separate partition for file sharing.

All works correctly, but I have only experienced one ‘issue’:

- Bootcamp Control Panel on Windows shows three startup drives: MacOS X, disk1 Windows, and Microsoft Basic Data Windows

- macOS Startup Disk Preferences shows two: Macintosh HD - MacOS X, and BOOTCAMP-Windows.

- If you select MacOS X whether on Windows Bootcamp Control Panel or macOS Startup Disk Preferences, computer will always boot into macOS.

- In you select disk1 Windows on Bootcamp Control Panel on Windows, system will always boot into macOS.

- If you select Microsoft Basic Data Windows on Bootcamp control panel on Windows, system will always boot into Windows.

- If you select Windows on Startup disk on macOS, system will always boot into Windows, BUT Windows won’t recognize the HDD (and so the WinMac partitition) and show an error on a SATA/EHCI.

- Booting Windows using Alt-Option at startup always shows the HDD.

So to avoid the driver error and the HDD not being recognized I have to:

- If I have macOS set as default os: boot into Windows by pressing Alt-Option at startup. Selecting Windows on macOS and rebooting, means HDD won’t be recognized.

- If I want to set Windows as default os: I do it from Windows, selecting the ‘Microsoft Basic Data – Windows’ disk on Bootcamp Control Panel on Windows. After that, Windows will always boot recognizing the HDD.

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Answer 2

emulajavi Author

Level 1

10 points

Nov 23, 2017 10:52 AM in response to emulajavi

As expected, Windows installed 'the oficial way' with BootCamp Assistant on a 1250GB partition created by BCA went flawlessly.

When Windows setup appeared I managed to look with Shift+F10 and diskpart to what the BCA magic can be.

First, it seems that BCA temporarily 'hiddes' the SSD to Windows Installer, so Windows Installer only sees

- ONE HDD, the one of 1863GB (2TB),

- 3 Volumes:

0 C OSX Reserved FAT32 7628MB,

1 D BOOTCAMP NTFS 1164GB (so BCA ITSELF FORMATS IT TO NTFS wow!)

2 EFI FAT32 200MB hidden

- 5 Partitions:

1: i think OSX EFI

2: i think Macintosh HD HDD part of the Fusion Drive

3: i think Recovery HD

4: OSXReserved

5: Bootcamp

Here you have the Info that Windows gives....

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Answer 3

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Nov 22, 2017 6:15 PM in response to emulajavi

The error is explained in If you see a partition alert while using Boot Camp to install Windows - Apple Support . If there is no external storage, are there any external peripherals or TB devices or SD cards?

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Answer 4

emulajavi Author

Level 1

10 points

Nov 23, 2017 3:51 PM in response to Loner T

Hi. what do yo mean? What can we try?

I’ve seen on the forum this post.

Windows 10 Boot Camp install won't let me install on BOOTCAMP partition on Mac Pro with SSD drive

it seems that my problem is very similar, to the one the user with the yellow avatar (Plysovej_Kaktus) experienced, although he was attempting to install Windows manually on the HDD whether I’m attempting to install Windows manually on the SSD.

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Answer 5

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Nov 23, 2017 10:44 PM in response to emulajavi

emulajavi wrote:

Hi. what do yo mean? What can we try?

Go back to your SSD with 70GB for Windows and look at the Diskpart output the way you see it for the official layout. Do you get D: to point to the SSD 70Gb partition?

emulajavi wrote:

I’ve seen on the forum this post.

Windows 10 Boot Camp install won't let me install on BOOTCAMP partition on Mac Pro with SSD drive

it seems that my problem is very similar, to the one the user with the yellow avatar (Plysovej_Kaktus) experienced, although he was attempting to install Windows manually on the HDD whether I’m attempting to install Windows manually on the SSD.

There are were other issues with NVRAM settings that caused problems in that specific case. I assume you are running a SMC/NVRAM reset before the next attempt at re-installation.

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Answer 6

emulajavi Author

Level 1

10 points

Nov 24, 2017 4:23 PM in response to Loner T

Tried, but no luck! What I did:

0.- Stock macOS 10.13.1 installation with stock FusionDrive configuration (2.1TB)

1.- create the 70GB BOOTCAMP PARTITION ON THE SSD

2.- Shut down Mac. Reset NVRAM

3.- Shut down Mac. Reset SMC

4.- Boot Windows Installer USB

5.- State of the partitions when Windows Setup starts: BOOTCAMP is C and WININSTALL USB is D

6.- Partition selection Window:

7.- I select Disk 1 Partiton 4 and clic 'next'. State of the partitions after that: C is formatted to NTFS.

8.- Pop-up appears after clicking 'next' of step 7. Says that Windows wants to create some additional partitions for full functionality (system, recovery, etc)

9.- I click on next, next page appears with the setup % and after some seconds an error appears saying....Windows could not complete the installation. To install Windows on this computer, restart the installation. (or something very similar like Windows couldn't prepare to boot...)

10.- Installer goes back to the beginning. State of the partitions after what Windows setup partitioned: All partitions have been made on disk 0, the HDD, for no reason.

11.- Partition select window. New partitions are shown:

12.- If I select Disk 1 Partition 4 and clic 'next', yellow warning appears again.

I also have some windows setup logs

2017-11-24 22:08:07, Info IBS InstallWindows:Successfully loaded resource language [es-es]

2017-11-24 22:08:07, Info [0x0601c1] IBS InstallWindows:Install Path = X:\Sources

2017-11-24 22:08:07, Info [0x0601c2] IBS InstallWindows:Setup Phase = 2

2017-11-24 22:08:07, Info [0x0606cc] IBS LogBootDeviceInfo:The firmware boot device ARC path is [multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(3)partition(1)] and NT path is [\Device\Harddisk2\Partition1].

2017-11-24 22:08:07, Info [0x0606cc] IBS LogBootDeviceInfo:The system boot device ARC path is [ramdisk(0)] and NT path is [\Device\Ramdisk{d9b257fc-684e-4dcb-ab79-03cfa2f6b750}].

2017-11-24 22:08:07, Info [0x0601e9] IBS CheckWinPEVersion:Compatible WinPE Version 10.0.16299 sp 0.0

2017-11-24 22:08:07, Info [0x0601c9] IBS InstallWindows:Starting a new install from WinPE

2017-11-24 22:08:07, Info IBS InstallWindows: Setup working directory = X:\windows\panther

2017-11-24 22:08:07, Info [0x0601ce] IBS Setup has started phase 2 at 2017-11-24 22:08:07

2017-11-24 22:08:07, Info [0x0601cf] IBS Install source is X:\Sources

2017-11-24 22:08:07, Info [0x0601d0] IBS Build version is 10.0.16299.15 (WinBuild.160101.0800)

2017-11-24 22:08:07, Info [0x06403f] IBSLIB CreateSetupBlackboard:Creating a new persistent blackboard. Path is [X:\windows\panther\SetupInfo] Setup phase is [2]

2017-11-24 22:08:07, Info [0x090008] PANTHR CBlackboard::Open: X:\windows\panther\SetupInfo succeeded.

2017-11-24 22:08:07, Info [0x064043] IBSLIB CreateSetupBlackboard:Successfully created/opened Setup black board path is [X:\windows\panther\SetupInfo]

2017-11-24 22:08:07, Info IBS InstallWindows:No UI language from a previous boot was found on the blackboard. Using selected language [es-es].

2017-11-24 22:08:07, Info IBS InstallWindows:Setup architecture is [x64]

2017-11-24 22:08:07, Info [0x0601d5] IBS InstallWindows:Starting with Empty Queue. Setup Phase = 2

2017-11-24 22:08:07, Info PANTHR InitializedCriticalSection for pExecQueue->csLock;