MacBook – Triple boot on MBP 2019 (T2)

bootbootcampdual-bootmacbook prowindows

My goal was to install onto a 2019 Macbook Pro (with a T2 chip) :

OS X Catalina
Windows 10 Pro (1)
Windows 10 Pro (2)

I managed to do so by using Bootcamp for the first Win10, and a bootable USB to install the second Win10.

But when i hold the option key i'm only presented with two choices :

If i select Windows i'll be presented with the Bitlocker Password step and only after that i'll be able to choose between my two Windows 10 installations.

What i would like is to have the two separate Win10 presented after i held the option key like this :

EDIT :
Is there any way this can be done on a single internal SSD witouth using rEFInd but ONLY the Startup Manager from Apple ? and how ?

I can post more informations about my setup if needed.

Here is the output of diskutil list :

   /dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     314.6 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk2         740.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:       Microsoft Basic Data                         129.7 GB   disk0s3
   4:           Windows Recovery                         569.4 MB   disk0s4
   5:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         25.0 GB    disk0s5
   6:           Windows Recovery                         554.7 MB   disk0s6
   7:                        EFI NO NAME                 314.6 MB   disk0s7
   8:         Microsoft Reserved                         16.8 MB    disk0s8
   9:           Windows Recovery                         554.7 MB   disk0s9
  10:                        EFI NO NAME                 314.6 MB   disk0s10
  11:       Microsoft Basic Data Loisir                  62.0 GB    disk0s11
  12:           Windows Recovery                         554.7 MB   disk0s12
  13:                        EFI NO NAME                 314.6 MB   disk0s13

    /dev/disk2 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +740.0 GB   disk2
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            10.7 GB    disk2s1
   2:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD - Data     25.6 GB    disk2s2
   3:                APFS Volume Preboot                 81.3 MB    disk2s3
   4:                APFS Volume Recovery                528.5 MB   disk2s4
   5:                APFS Volume VM                      1.1 GB     disk2s5

Thanks in advance.

Best Answer

You need to use the bcdboot command to create the boot files for each Windows installation in separate EFI partitions.

Note: This answer assume Bitlocker has be disabled. In other words, the answer assumes the Windows NTFS partitions are not encrypted.

Below is an example which closely (but not exactly) matches your situation.

Here, I have already setup two Windows 10 installations where the boot manager, shown below, is used to choose which Windows to boot.

The drive, used in this example, contains your 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 7th, 8th and 11th partitions, albeit the sizes might be different. Also, note the following:

My equivalent to your 3rd partition has the label BOOTCAMP.
My equivalent to your 7th partition is a unformatted and of type Microsoft Basic Data.

For simplicity, I did not include separate recovery partitions. However, creating these partitions for both Windows installations is possible. If using the Boot Camp Assistant to create the first Windows installation, then you probably will need to create and initialize the recovery partition after Windows finishes installing.

Note: A good new question would be how to create the second Windows installation without making such a mess of the partitioning.

Here I will assume you correctly built the Windows USB installer.

Below is the procedure I used to separate the booting of the two Windows installations.

Boot from the Windows 10 USB installer. Proceed until you reach the screen shown below.

At this point, any drivers that may be required to access disk0 have been loaded.

Next, enter the shift+F10 key combination to open a Command Prompt window, as shown below.

Next, use the diskpart, ren and bcdboot commands to separate the booting of the two Windows installations. Below is an example of how I accomplished this. Most of the work involves creating the second EFI partition.

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.18362.418]
(c) 2019 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

X:\Sources>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.18362.1

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: MINWINPC

DISKPART> select disk 0

Disk 0 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> list partition

  Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset
  -------------  ----------------  -------  -------
  Partition 1    System             315 MB  1024 KB
  Partition 2    Unknown            722 GB   316 MB
  Partition 3    Primary            208 GB   722 GB
  Partition 4    Primary            315 MB   931 GB
  Partition 5    Reserved            16 MB   931 GB
  Partition 6    Primary             68 GB   931 GB

DISKPART> list volume

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 0     E   WinInstall   exFAT  Removable     14 GB  Healthy
  Volume 1     C   BOOTCAMP     NTFS   Partition    208 GB  Healthy
  Volume 2                      RAW    Partition    315 MB  Healthy
  Volume 3     D   Loisir       NTFS   Partition     68 GB  Healthy
  Volume 4         EFI          FAT32  Partition    315 MB  Healthy    Hidden

DISKPART> select volume 4

Volume 4 is the selected volume.

DISKPART> assign letter=s

DiskPart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point.

DISKPART> select volume 2

Volume 2 is the selected volume.

DISKPART> format fs=fat32 label=EFI2 quick

  100 percent completed

DiskPart successfully formatted the volume.

DISKPART> set id=c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b

DiskPart successfully set the partition ID.

DISKPART> gpt attributes=0x0000000000000000

DiskPart successfully assigned the attributes to the selected GPT partition.

DISKPART> assign letter=t

DiskPart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point.

DISKPART> detail partition

Partition 4
Type    : c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b
Hidden  : Yes
Required: No
Attrib  : 0000000000000000
Offset in Bytes: 1000340455424

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
* Volume 2     T   EFI2         FAT32  Partition    315 MB  Healthy    Hidden

DISKPART> list partition

  Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset
  -------------  ----------------  -------  -------
  Partition 1    System             315 MB  1024 KB
  Partition 2    Unknown            722 GB   316 MB
  Partition 3    Primary            208 GB   722 GB
* Partition 4    System             315 MB   931 GB
  Partition 5    Reserved            16 MB   931 GB
  Partition 6    Primary             68 GB   931 GB

DISKPART> list volume

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 0     E   WinInstall   exFAT  Removable     14 GB  Healthy
  Volume 1     C   BOOTCAMP     NTFS   Partition    208 GB  Healthy
* Volume 2     T   EFI2         FAT32  Partition    315 MB  Healthy    Hidden
  Volume 3     D   Loisir       NTFS   Partition     68 GB  Healthy
  Volume 4     S   EFI          FAT32  Partition    315 MB  Healthy    Hidden

DISKPART> exit

Leaving DiskPart...

X:\Sources>ren s:\efi\microsoft\boot\bcd BCD.original

X:\Sources>bcdboot c:\windows /s s:
Boot files successfully created.

X:\Sources>bcdboot d:\windows /s t:
Boot files successfully created.

X:\Sources>exit

After the Command Prompt window closes, you can abort the Windows installation.

References

UEFI/GPT-based hard drive partitions
DiskPart commands
ren
BCDBoot Command-Line Options

Related Solutions

I think I messed up the Fusion Drive on the 1TB iMac (with BootCamp)

Theoretically everything is fine with your Fusion Drive. Fusion Drives look like this. Disk0 is your SSD with 121 GB and disk1 is your HDD with ~1 TB (~1.121 TB summed up).

The larger parts of your SSD (disk0s2) and your HDD (disk1s2) are pooled to a CoreStorage LVG (Fusion Drive: disk3) with a size of 967.8 GB. The rest is reserved for EFIs, a Recovery HD (alltogether ~1.3 GB) and your old Windows partition - now probably free space (~152 GB).

The logical volume 'Macintosh HD' (967.8 GB) spans disk0s2 and disk1s2. This is the first 'Macintosh HD' in picture 1. The volume 'Macintosh HD' - it's the one visible on the desktop - should ideally also have about 967.8 GB. This is the second 'Macintosh HD' in picture 1.
In fact it has only 852.67 GB (see picture 3).

In the second picture the logical volume 'Macintosh HD' is the first listed in black, the volume 'Macintosh HD' is the second listed in black, the other two 'Macintosh HD's listed in grey are the parts of your SSD and HDD dedicated to the logical volume 'Macintosh HD'.

In my opinion something went wrong after deleting various partitions with the Bootcamp Assistant/Disk Utility or in Windows.

Preparation:

Detach any external drive (especially your external Time Machine backup drive)
Restart to Internet Recovery Mode by pressing alt cmd R at startup.
The prerequisites are the latest firmware update installed, either ethernet or WLAN (WPA/WPA2) and a router with DHCP activated.
On a 50 Mbps-line it takes about 4 min (presenting a small animated globe) to boot into a recovery netboot image which usually is loaded from an apple/akamai server.

I recommend ethernet because it's more reliable. If you are restricted to WIFI and the boot process fails, just restart your Mac until you succeed booting.

Alternatively you may start from a bootable installer thumb drive (preferably Mavericks or Yosemite) or a thumb drive containing a full system (preferably Mavericks or Yosemite).

Now you may either repair CoreStorage or rebuild your Fusion Drive:

'Repair CoreStorage' (not recommended):

First i would try to check the volume 'Macintosh HD' with Disk Utility. If the volume is corrupted consider a reinstall of Mac OS X.
If the volume is ok quit Disk Utility
Open Terminal and enter diskutil unmountDisk /dev/LVIdentifier and both diskutil unmountDisk /dev/DiskContainingApple_CoreStorageIdentifier
In your case: first diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk3 then diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk0 and diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk1
remove the EFI NO NAME partition with gpt remove -i IndexNumberOfEFINoName DiskIdentifier:
gpt remove -i 4 disk1
Remount the CoreStorage disks and then the Logical Volume:
In your case: first diskutil mountDisk /dev/disk0 and diskutil mountDisk /dev/disk1 and then diskutil mount /dev/disk3.

enter gpt -r -vvv show /dev/diskIdentfierOfApple_CoreStorage to get infos of your HDD CoreStorage disk.
In your case: gpt -r -vvv show /dev/disk1
It should look like this:

-bash-3.2# gpt -r -vvv show /dev/disk1
gpt show: /dev/disk1: mediasize=1000204886016; sectorsize=512;         blocks=1953525168
gpt show: /dev/disk1: PMBR at sector 0
gpt show: /dev/disk1: Pri GPT at sector 1
gpt show: /dev/disk1: GPT partition: type=C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B, start=40, size=409600
gpt show: /dev/disk1: GPT partition: type=53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC, start=409640, size=1671210848
gpt show: /dev/disk1: GPT partition: type=426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC, start=1671620488, size=1269760
gpt show: /dev/disk1: Sec GPT at sector 1953525167                               
     start          size  index contents                                        
         0             1        PMBR                                            
         1             1        Pri GPT header                                  
         2            32        Pri GPT table                                   
        34             6
        40        409600      1 GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
    409640    1671210848      2 GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
1671620488       1269760      3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
1672890248     280634887
1953525135            32        Sec GPT table
1953525167             1        Sec GPT header

The free space on your HDD has 280634887 blocks. Please calculate the biggest block number dividable through 8. That's 280634880 blocks (á 512 bytes) which equals 143685058560 B or ~143.7 GB. Add the size of your HDD CoreStorage Physical Volume (852666400768 B) The result is 143685058560 B + 852666400768 B = 996351459328 B
Resize your HDD CoreStorage physical volume with diskutil cs resizeDisk HDDPVUUID newsize
In your case: diskutil cs resizeDisk 93892BE8-2B7F-4ABD-A4C3-984495DCD98D 996351459328b
Calculate the maximal size of your CoreStorage Logical Volume in diskutil cs list: (size disk0s2) + (size disk1s2) In your case that's 120988852224 B + 996351459328 B = 1117340311552 B. That should be the size of your refreshed Logical Volume Group.
Resize your Logical Volume with diskutil cs resizeVolume LVUUID LVGSize-128 MB In your case that's diskutil cs resizeVolume D237FFDC-7DA4-41D7-AC13-4CC7E5E8C0A0 1117212311552b. If you get an error (There is not enough free space...) choose a smaller size like 1117148311552b.
Quit Terminal and open Disk Utility.
Check your expanded CoreStorage Volume for errors.
Quit Disk Utility, choose your CS volume as startup disk and restart your Mac

'Rebuild Fusion Drive' (recommended if you have a Time Machine backup)

Booted to Internet Recovery Mode open Utilities → Terminal in the menubar and enter:
diskutil cs list to get the CoreStorage listing.
Copy the Logical Volume UUID, it's the fifth listed.
Now delete the Logical Volume with diskutil cs deleteVolume LVUUID.
In your case: diskutil cs deleteVolume D237FFDC-7DA4-41D7-AC13-4CC7E5E8C0A0.
Copy the Logical Volume Group UUID, it's the first listed in the listing of diskutil cs list.
Then delete the Logical Volume Group with diskutil cs delete LVGUUID.
In your case: diskutil cs delete 1EFE58BC-3613-44C4-86EE-D816F3B66E3E
Enter exit and quit 'Terminal'
Open 'Disk Utility'. Enter 'Ignore' if you are asked to fix the drives.
Choose your SSD and partition it: 1 Partition Mac OS X Extended (Journaled), hit the Options button and choose GUID Partiton table and hit OK and Apply.
Please check that the size is ~121 GB

Example:
Choose your HDD and partition it: 1 Partition Mac OS X Extended (Journaled), hit the Options button and choose GUID Partiton table and hit OK and Apply.
Please check that the size is ~1 TB

Example:
Quit Disk Utility and open Terminal
Enter diskutil list

Example (your disk identifiers and sizes are different of course: Your volume SSD probably has the Identifier disk0s2 and the size 121 GB and your volume HDD probably has the Identifier disk1s2 and the size 1.0 TB):
Enter diskutil cs create "Name" IdentifierSSD IdentifierHDD
In your case probably diskutil cs create "Macintosh HD" disk0s2 disk1s2.

Copy the resulting LVGUUID

Example:
Enter diskutil cs CreateVolume LVGUUID jhfs+ "Macintosh HD" 100%.

Example:
Enter diskutil cs list
Check the size of your Logical Volume. It should have the size ~1.121 TB

Example:
Quit Terminal
Open 'Disk Utility' and check your newly created volume for errors
Quit 'Disk Utility'
Attach your external Time Machine backup drive or check this answer if you use NAS or another network share.
Open 'Restore from Time Machine Backup'
Choose the appropriate Time Machine backup and restore your system
Reboot to your restored system.
Unmount and detach your Time Machine backup drive
Open 'Terminal' and enter 'diskutil list'
Check if your 'Recovery HD' is listed.
If your 'Recovery HD' is missing, usually reinstalling your current system with the latest available system installer (e.g. 'Install OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)' if Mavericks is currently installed) will recreate it without loosing any data. AFAIK Recovery Partition Creator 3.8 will NOT create a Recovery HD on CoreStorage volumes.
After reinstalling the system with the latest available system installer open App Store and install the latest security fixes.

MacOS – Uninstall rEFInd 0.8-3.7 on Yosemite

Note: El Capitan (OS X 10.11) prevents users from selecting rEFInd and common Linux distributions from the Startup Disk pane. The new preferred method is to install rEFInd into the an EFI partition. My answer, to an unrelated question, outlines this new preferred method to start the rEFInd Boot Manager and Linux operating systems. The answer, given below, applies to Yosemite (OS X 10.10) and possibly earlier versions of OS X.

Personally, I installed rEFInd on my computer to its own partition. This prevents the problems you are encountering. Everything ./install.sh installed went to this partition. If I want to remove rEFInd, I can simply erase or remove the partition. Of course both are unnecessary, because I can turn rEFInd on and off at will. I just go to the Startup window in System Preferences select my boot partition. This computer has OS X, Windows, Fedora and rEFInd installed.

I also can select the boot partition under Windows by using BootCamp and by holding the Option key down at startup. The command diskutil list produces:

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Marlin                  300.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
   4:       Microsoft Basic Data Coelacanth              98.9 GB    disk0s4
   5:                  Apple_HFS Linux HFS+ ESP          209.7 MB   disk0s5
   6: 0FC63DAF-8483-4772-8E79-3D69D8477DE4               524.3 MB   disk0s6
   7:                  Linux LVM                         98.6 GB    disk0s7
   8:                  Apple_HFS rEFInd                  939.5 MB   disk0s8

Note, the rEFInd partition is ~ 1 GB in size. In fact, it can be as small as 100 MB. When I setup this computer, I used the Disk Utility application to create the rEFInd partition. If I would have used the gpt command, I could have created a smaller partition. Neither OS X, Windows, Fedora nor rEFInd use the EFI partition to boot the computer. In fact, there is nothing useful in the EFI partition.

Answer to your questions:

How do I uninstall rEFInd 0.8-3.7 using OS X 10.10.3? Read the ./install.sh file and undo whatever it did. I should of had you run the commands bless --info and bless --info --getBoot. These would have told where the .efi file was stored. Note: Almost everyone installs rEFInd to the OS X boot partition.

How would I go and reinstall it using different options if I cannot remove it? The author of the software never said rEFInd could not be removed. I suggested you just install it again to its own partition. This might be a good place to mention the gpt command has to be run while either booted to an external recover partition or while booted to internet recovery.

Could I simply remove the EFI partition or would that corrupt my Mac? Do not remove the EFI partition! It is not used to boot OS X, but it is used by OS X for other things.