'Install or remove windows 7 or later version' option greyed out

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Level 1

9 points

'Install or remove windows 7 or later version' option greyed out

I have a macOS 10.13.6, and I'm trying to use bootcamp to install Windows 10, and the install or remove windows 7 or later version option is greyed out. Bootcamp Assistant version is 6.1.0.

I made some mistakes the first time trying to install windows 10, and accidentally erased my MacBook Air, and restored it 3 months ago. It was around 2015 when I first got my laptop.

diskutil list and diskutil cs list:

This is what the disk utility looks like:

Can anyone help me on this?

Thanks in advance.

MacBook Air, macOS High Sierra (10.13.6)

Posted on Jul 12, 2018 2:19 PM

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Answer 1

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Jul 12, 2018 5:28 PM in response to UltFireSword

There are three different styles in that specific option.

Install W7 or later version
Remove W7 or later version
Install or Remove W7 or later version

The last entry indicates that BCA cannot determine the current state properly. See the screen shots in Bootcamp User Interface .

Can you run SMC Reset using How to reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support and test what options you see?

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Answer 2

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Jul 14, 2018 8:12 PM in response to UltFireSword

Run

sudo tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2018-07-12-112035

and then re-try

diskutil apfs resizeContainer 5F2DFF8B-15F3-4811-987D-6C50E9E32E3A 85g fat32 BOOTCAMP 0g

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Answer 3

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Jul 15, 2018 4:34 AM in response to UltFireSword

Can you post the output of

sudo fsck_apfs -n -l /dev/rdisk1

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Answer 4

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Jul 16, 2018 3:56 AM in response to UltFireSword

Run

diskutil eraseVolume fat32 BOOTCAMP disk0s3

and now try to install Windows. We may also need to clean up EFI, but let us try this first.

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Answer 5

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Jul 17, 2018 5:12 AM in response to UltFireSword

Backup macOS using the current Time Machine setup using 'Backup Now'. Once the backup completes, boot into Internet Recovery and erase your internal disk, restore your backup, and then run BC Assistant and retry Windows installation.

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Answer 6

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Jul 14, 2018 7:41 PM in response to UltFireSword

Post the output of

sudo tmutil listlocalsnapshots /

Please note the trailing space and "/".

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Answer 7

UltFireSword Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 14, 2018 5:44 PM in response to Loner T

Started APFS operation

Aligning shrink delta to 41,123,069,952 bytes and targeting a new physical store size of 80,000,000,000 bytes

Determined the minimum size for the targeted physical store of this APFS Container to be 97,727,746,048 bytes

Error: -69531: There is not enough free space in the APFS Container for this operation due to APFS limits or APFS tidemarks (perhaps caused by APFS Snapshot usage by Time Machine)

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Answer 8

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Jul 14, 2018 9:29 AM in response to UltFireSword

Partition is the correct choice. Windows cannot use a volume inside the APFS container. You need to partition the outermost disk, not the APFS container.

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Answer 9

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Jul 12, 2018 4:12 PM in response to UltFireSword

The Install or Remove option is only available, if there is either a valid Windows installation or an existing BC/Windows partition.

Based on the screen shots of BCA options, your Mac is 2014 model or older.

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Answer 10

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Jul 19, 2018 5:07 AM in response to UltFireSword

You should have the following structure on the USB. Look under USB -> Bootcamp -> Drivers. There is an Intel folder

As a test, from Install Windows 7 on your Mac using Boot Camp - Apple Support, download the BC drivers package, and replace the $WinPEDriver$ folder currently on your USB with the downloaded version and try to install Windows.

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