MacOS – Dual boot with Windows 10 on 2011 Macbook Pro with APFS

apfsefimacoswindows

I have been able to successfully dual boot a 2011 Macbook Pro with Windows 10 before when OS X still used the HFS file system, but things have obviously changed with how the system boots with APFS.

I understand that Windows will not know what APFS is, and so Bootcamp will not work while using Windows if you want to switch over to OS X by using Bootcamp. However, I have another perplexing issue….or simply curiosity.

When you hold down the option key at bootup, I see a hard disk icon with “Macintosh SSD” – obviously that’s OS X. But I don’t see one for Windows (BOOTCAMP). I see “EFI Boot” instead. If I select that, I boot into Windows 10. So, ok, it works, but why does it not say “BOOTCAMP “ or “Windows”?

Also, if I’m in OS X and I go to the System Preferences and choose BOOTCAMP as my startup disk and restart the computer, it boots into nothing and says there’s no startup disk. So I have to power down and hold option again.

I suspect there’s a nuance or issue with the EFI partition or MBR now that APFS is involved, because I never had this issue before with fresh installs, which this was for both sides – OS X and Windows.

If anyone knows what’s going on, please let me know!

Thanks!!

Best Answer

You probably were suppose to install Windows to BIOS boot, instead of EFI boot. However, if all the hardware is working, there is no harm in EFI booting.

The fact that you do not see Windows label on the Start Menu is another indicator that you probably were suppose to BIOS boot Windows.

I am not sure why you can not properly select Windows from System Preferences. Again, this may be because you are EFI booting Windows. Or, there is something else wrong, but there is not enough information in your question to diagnose the problem. For example, you may have Windows boot files in the EFI/BOOT folder, but not the correct files in the EFI/Microsoft folder on volume labeled EFI in disk0s1.

BTW, you can select to the default operating system to boot from macOS and/or Windows by installing rEFInd on your Mac. This may also require installing an (script) application to select the default in both MacOS and/or Windows.

Adding an Windows Icon and Label to the Startup Manager Menu

  1. Boot to macOS.
  2. Download a collection of icons from the sourceforge web site Mac icns. Use the Finder application to open the downloaded file mac-icns.dmg.

  3. Open a Terminal application window and enter the command given below to mount the EFI partition (/dev/disk0s1) containing the Windows boot files.

    sudo diskutil mount disk0s1

  4. Enter the command below to copy the Windows icon file os_win8.icns to the EFI volume.

    cp /Volumes/mac-icns/os_win8.icns /Volumes/EFI/.VolumeIcon.icns

    This will add the following Windows icon to the Startup Menu.

    Note: When finished, you can use the Finder application to eject the mac-icns volume.

  5. Use the command shown below to change the label that will be shown below the Windows icon on the Startup Manager menu.

    bless --folder /Volumes/EFI/EFI/BOOT --label "Windows"

  6. Use the Finder application or enter the command below to unmount the EFI System partition labeled EFI.

    diskutil unmount disk0s1
Related Question