I have installed Windows 8.1 Pro via Boot Camp on my MacBook Pro Retina 15-inch mid-2015, with OS X Yosemite 10.10.4 and Boot Camp Assistant version 5.1.4. I can prove that this version of Boot Camp is no longer creating hybrid GPT/MBR partition scheme to install Windows 8 x64 on Intel-based Macs, and Windows is directly booted in EFI mode. Here are what I have tried:
- Running Ubuntu on its installation flash drive, I ran
sudo disk -l /dev/sda to check my local Mac SSD; results:
MBR: protective, BSD: not present, APM: not present, GPT: present Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT Therefore Windows is not booting from and running on a disk with hybrid GPT/MBR scheme.
- In Windows,
C:\Windows\panther\setupact.log has one entry: Callback_BootEnvironmentDetect: Detected boot environment: EFI How to tell if windows 7 installer boot in EFI or BIOS?
Therefore theoretically Boot Camp is not needed to install Windows 7/8 x64, which support booting from GPT disks on UEFI(that is EFI 2.x)-based systems. But still it's better to use Boot Camp to create the Windows Installation flash drive and download drivers for Windows. The guide: How to install Windows 8.1 on Mac without Boot Camp To sum it up:
- Partition your disk as you wish in
Disk Utility in OS X; just format your desired Windows OS and data partitions as FAT32.
- Since Retina MacBook Pros do not come with a SuperDrive, you need to create a Windows Installation flash drive from the ISO file. Please do this in Boot Camp Assistant. I have tried run
dd command on Mac's Terminal to copy the ISO, but the created flash drive is not bootable on UEFI Macs: the Apple boot manager simply does not recognize the flash disk.
- Plug in the flash drive, restart the computer and hold
option to open Apple boot manager. You will see a yellow drive called "EFI Boot", which is the Windows Installation. Continue the installation as normal, and format your Windows OS partition as NTFS when asked.
- Whenever the computer restarts, you need to hold
option key and select "Windows" drive on your local SSD to continue installation. Finally go into the system and drivers from Boot Camp will automatically install.
You should keep a Time Machine backup before these operations. Even if things really mess up, you can just create a OS X Yosemite installation flash drive, re-format the SSD to one partition and re-install OS X. How to make a bootable OS X 10.10 Yosemite install driveThe newest version of Recovery HD partition will automatically come back. This worked successfully when I wrongly operated the disk in Ubuntu.
Hope this works!
I'll post this as an answer, even though it didn't fix my problem – this was a lost case in the end. Aftermath: I dd'ed a backup of the Windows partition to my OS X partition:
sudo dd bs=512 if=/dev/disk0 of=windows_backup skip=732993496 count=173955112
Now I had a 80 gig hex dump which I could examine safely. I used a hex editor to search for all kinds of metadata:
- "NTFS" (encoded in ASCII) which starts a NTFS volume.
- "FILE" (encoded in ASCII) which starts a file entry record in the $MFT or master file table in NTFS.
- NTFS system file names (like "MFT", tried with little-endian UTF-16 and ASCII)
... and so on. But without success. I was able to find all kinds of data from the dump, but all the metadata, including the boot record (the first sector of the volume), the $Boot file (the first 15 sectors after the boot record), the $MFT file which keeps record of all the files on the file system, were gone.
The thing that baffles me that I couldn't even find $MFTMirr file, which is the backup file of the metadata files and stored halfway of the volume.
I was able to find a backup of the boot sector from its standard location, the last sector of the volume. However, the data was old, from the era before resizing the volume. The boot sector has stored the offset of the $MFT file metadata file, but inspecting the references was moot, there was nothing of value there.
In the end, I concluded that the volume was totally borked. The moral of the story? Hybrid Master Boot Record is evil. Also, it seems that the program that resized the volume did a subpar job, failing to update some of the metadata.
Best Answer
If Apple officially supports Windows 10 on you Mac, then you should follow the instructions given by Apple. See the Apple web site "Use Windows 10 on your Mac with Boot Camp" for details.
If apple does not official support your model Mac, you may still be able to install Windows 10. Here are some thoughts.
While editing the
Info.plistfile may allow you to create the USB Windows 10 installer, usually the same computer can not boot the installer from the USB drive. If you can, then your computer is one of the few exceptions.If you have a working optical drive, then this would make the best choice to install from. I would recommend burning the iso file to a RW DVD. This takes longer to burn, but the DVD is reusable.
When possible, you should use the Boot Camp Assistant to download the "Boot Camp Support Software" to a flash drive. If you can not, then download and use the "Boot Camp Support Software" for Windows 7. The correct version for your Mac can be found at the Apple web site "Install Windows 7 and earlier on your Mac using Boot Camp".
If you use an older version of the "Boot Camp Support Software" to install, you made need the set the Compatibility Mode. Right click on
Setup.exeto set the appropriate mode.Most likely you will not be able to install using a EFI boot method. Even if you succeed in installing, usually some of the hardware will not function correctly. (For example, sound will not work.)
The best chance at success will be to install using the legacy BIOS boot method. This requires you to partition the installation drive using a hybrid GPT/MBR partition scheme. This usually is accomplished by using the Boot Camp Assistant or using the Disk Utility to format (via Erase) the 4th partition as MS-DOS (FAT). (This is the partition assigned the identifier
disk0s4.) After booting to the Windows 10 installer, you will need to NTFS format this partition in order to complete the installation of Windows.If you use the Startup Manager to boot the Windows 10 installer, then you should choose the icon with the label "Windows". This selects the BIOS boot method. The icon labeled "EFI boot" selects a EFI boot method. Again, I recommend you avoid EFI boot method installations. You invoke the Startup Manager by holding down the option key when you turn on or restart your Mac.
Some users have reported problems getting the wireless keyboard to work during the installation process. The Windows installer does offer a "on screen" keyboard which can be temporarily substituted for the physical keyboard. You can pair the wireless keyboard after Windows 10 installs.
It is possible that your computer will boot back to OS X, before the installation of Windows completes. If this happens, then open the "Startup Disk" pane of the "System Preferences" application, select the icon labeled "Windows" and click on the "Restart" button. The installation of Windows will continue.