MacOS – Windows 10 unable to install on partition formatted by Boot Camp Assistant

bootcampmacosusbwindows

I am trying to install Windows 10 on my iMac 27" (Mid 2011 – iMac12,2 – 3.4GHz -Core I7, OSX 10.11.6). When rebooting with the WININSTALL key, Windows Setup stops as it says it cannot install on the BootCamp Assistant generated partition (it is FAT32, wants NTFS). So I click the Formatbutton and he now says that the partition is MBR and he wants a GPT. So how do I make a GPT?

Note: Regarding the Boot Camp Assistant application: I modified the info.plist file by removing the "Pre" in ' "PreUSBBootSupportedModels" ' so I could get the checkbox to install Windows on the key.

Next question, I tried partitioning manually as suggested in question: Boot Camp Assistance is stuck on create a partition?,
but the command:

sudo  diskutil  apfs  resizeContainer  disk0s2  180.8G  FAT32  BOOTCAMP  70G

fails as diskutil does not understand verbs apfs nor resizeContainer.
So I checked on my MBP running High Sierra and there apfs exists but not resizeContainer. Should I upgrade the iMac to High Sierra?

Here is my diskutil list:

diskutil list:

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            967.3 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
   4:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                32.0 GB    disk0s5

Here is a list of my WININSTALL:

total 3968
drwxrwxrwx  1 silvano  staff    32768 Feb  1  2014 $WinPEDriver$
-rwxrwxrwx  1 silvano  staff     3219 Feb  1  2014 AutoUnattend.xml
drwxrwxrwx  1 silvano  staff    32768 Feb  1  2014 BootCamp
-rwxrwxrwx  1 silvano  staff      128 Sep 30 18:00 autorun.inf
drwxrwxrwx  1 silvano  staff    32768 Sep 30 19:15 boot
-rwxrwxrwx  1 silvano  staff   397752 Sep 30 17:55 bootmgr
-rwxrwxrwx  1 silvano  staff  1236376 Sep 30 18:00 bootmgr.efi
drwxrwxrwx  1 silvano  staff    32768 Sep 30 19:15 efi
-rwxrwxrwx  1 silvano  staff    80696 Sep 30 18:00 setup.exe
drwxrwxrwx  1 silvano  staff    32768 Sep 30 19:15 sources
drwxrwxrwx  1 silvano  staff    32768 Sep 30 19:15 support

Best Answer

Your best course of action would be to install Windows 10 the same way Apple instructs you to install Windows 8.1. For these instructions, see the Apple website: Use Windows 8.1 on your Mac with Boot Camp. When using these instructions to install Windows 10, you might want to consider the following.

You need to burn the Windows ISO file to a DVD. Some Windows 10 ISO files are large enough that you will need a double layer (DL) DVD. Older versions of OS X used the Disk Utility application to burn the contents of an ISO file to a DVD. With the newer versions of macOS (OS X), you can burn the contents of an ISO file to a DVD directly from a Finder application window. You use the Boot Camp Assistant to download the Boot Camp Support Software to an external drive.
You already have a BOOTCAMP partition. Assuming your external drive installer has the correct Boot Camp Support Software, you should be able to install Windows 10 with using the Boot Camp Assistant. Insert the DVD and connect the external drive, restart the iMac and then immediately hold down the option key. When the DVD icon labeled "Windows" appears, select the icon then the arrow below the icon. If during installation, you boot back to macOS (OS X), goto Startup Disk under System Preferences. Select the Windows partition, then restart the iMac to continue installation.

If you do not want to use a DVD, then you can use the accepted answer to the question: How to install Windows 10 into a 2011 iMac without using the Boot Camp Assistant, an optical (DVD) drive or third party tools?. If you are using OSX 10.11.6, then you can skip step 3.

To be clear, Windows installations on this model Mac must use the legacy BIOS boot method. This requires the installation drive to contain partition entries in both the Master Boot Record (MBR) table and the GUID Partition Table (GPT). Windows will only see the MBR table entries and macOS (OS X) will only see the GPT entries. Therefore, Windows with think the drive is MBR partitioned, while macOS (OS X) will think the drive is GPT partitioned.

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MacOS – Clear free space in Disk Utility

Preparation:

Backup 'Macintosh HD'
Start another computer or smartphone and access this page here to follow the instructions.
Detach any external drive (especially an 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 (Mavericks or Yosemite) or a thumb drive containing a full system (Mavericks or Yosemite).

Revert CoreStorage Volume

Check the volume 'Macintosh HD' with Disk Utility and repair it if necessary. If the volume is corrupted beyond any repair consider a reinstall of Mac OS X.
If the volume is OK quit Disk Utility

Open Terminal from the menubar (Utilities/Terminal) and enter diskutil cs list. The output will be this:

CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group 25AF6969-0B3A-4C2C-BE38-29864C233F66
    =========================================================
    Name:         Macintosh HD
    Status:       Online
    Size:         801345126400 B (801.3 GB)
    Free Space:   18907136 B (18.9 MB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume 21095CB1-4D76-44F5-B438-0B84A06AB0E8
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    0
    |   Disk:     disk0s2
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     801345126400 B (801.3 GB)
    |
    +-> Logical Volume Family 2DDF1B89-E73A-45E7-96CD-5FA1DC9CA275
        ----------------------------------------------------------
        Encryption Status:       Unlocked
        Encryption Type:         None
        Conversion Status:       NoConversion
        Conversion Direction:    -none-
        Has Encrypted Extents:   No
        Fully Secure:            No
        Passphrase Required:     No
        |
        +-> Logical Volume 54E92188-CDD5-44AE-9D58-EF6A5B69D707
            ---------------------------------------------------
            Disk:                  disk1
            Status:                Online
            Size (Total):          800973897728 B (801.0 GB)
            Conversion Progress:   -none-
            Revertible:            Yes (no decryption required)
            LV Name:               Macintosh HD
            Volume Name:           Macintosh HD
            Content Hint:          Apple_HFS

Copy the UUID of the Logical Volume (lvUUID). It's the fourth listed.
Your Logical Volume is revertible, so enter:
diskutil coreStorage revert lvUUID to revert your CoreStorage Volume to a standard volume. In your case this is:
diskutil coreStorage revert 54E92188-CDD5-44AE-9D58-EF6A5B69D707
This will take a few seconds.
After a successfull conversion enter 'exit' and quit Terminal.
Open 'Disk Utility', hightlight the volume 'Macintosh HD' and check it for errors
Highlight the HDD and expand the volume 'Macintosh HD' to the full possible size (~1 TB)
Quit 'Disk Utility' and reboot to your standard boot volume ('Macintosh HD')

MacOS – Boot Camp failed and reduced Macintosh HD partition from 3TB to 1,46TB

The first thing I would try is to open Boot Camp Assistant and see if you can remove the partition. Whether Windows was installed or not, this should be possible.

Alternatively, since I'm guessing you haven't repartitioned your drive since you installed El Capitan, you won't be able to resize the partition unless you use a source outside of your computer. Even in recovery mode, you won't be able to repartition. You might be able to resize it in Disk Utility if you use Internet Recovery: CMD + Option + R at boot. Another option would be to boot into recovery mode, install OS X on a USB drive, then from the installation on that USB drive, you would for sure be able to resize your partition.

I have done this many times, so I understand the frustration it can cause when you have space that you can't recover and the only way to get it back involves several hours of your time.

The good news is that if you ever start with a fresh partition in El Capitan, their new partition scheme is resizable even when you're using it live so you wouldn't need to ever even touch Recovery Mode.

Best Answer

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MacOS – Clear free space in Disk Utility

MacOS – Boot Camp failed and reduced Macintosh HD partition from 3TB to 1,46TB

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