MP 1,1-5,1 Bare Metal Windows on cMP

[startergo]

Get this error when I am trying to add the Win10.vmdk to VirtualBox, what can I do? Also getting an error running the command...

Kind regards,

Mark

sudo diskutil unmountDisk disk1

The unmountDisk verb is similar to umount, but it unmounts an entire disk instead of one volume. Disks are specified with their mount point, as seen above. You can’t unmount your boot disk or volume, and you’ll get an error if you try to unmount a disk or drive that’s currently in use.

Pro Terminal Commands: Using diskutil - Apple Gazette

diskutil is the command line version of Disk Utility, allowing you to verify, repair, unmount and even partition disks in Terminal.

www.applegazette.com

 

[toke lahti]

@Dayo,
I've got mp5,1(was4,1), 5770 with boot screen, but plan to use gtx760 after os'es are installed.
IMHO, I've got two options: either install MyBootMgr or bootCamp controlpanel to boot between win10 & macos.

#1
How and why is the MyBootMgr better solution here?
Or do I need either of these?
Right now I have 10.14 installed in a APFS disk & win10 in a MBR disk.
If I let the mp boot by itself, it will boot to macos. There I can choose to boot to win10 from Control Panel.

#2
VB method of installing win10 leaves the disk without restore partition.
Right now I have a disk with corrupted boot file, and since it does not have restore partition, I'll have to install the whole os again. Is there a way to make that restore partition to win10 disk afterwards?

Thanks for your help!

EDIT: Spoke too soon. I will need imacPro's controlpanel to the win10 side, with Brigardier.
And I don't know how to do that.

The Definitive Classic Mac Pro (2006-2012) Upgrade Guide

The largest/most-complete guide to all possible classic Mac Pro upgrades covering OS, Firmware, GPU, CPU, Storage, USB, THunderbolt and Network upgrades.

blog.greggant.com

: "The process is: Install Windows 10 in Legacy mode (if not installed already this way), Download brigadier, and use it to install the correct drivers for your Mac Pro 5,1. After it's installed, used brigadier to uninstall the control panel. Then install the iMac Pro's control panel for AFPS support so you can reboot to 10.13+ with AFPS volumes."
How do I uninstall or install "control panel" with Brigadier?

 

[Dayo]

How and why is the MyBootMgr better solution here?

There is no blanket better solution and you have to evaluate and decide on what you feel will work best for you. MyBootMgr works for me for various reasons beyond using Windows which is a minor consideration for me. If you prefer another way, then go for it.

VB method of installing win10 leaves the disk without restore partition.
Is there a way to make that restore partition to win10 disk afterwards?

"VB Method" is just the same as getting a Windows DVD and running it on a normal computer to install.
So if there is a "missing" element that is available with other methods, I am sure Microsoft will have documentation somewhere on how to add it. Let us know what you find.

 

[toke lahti]

"VB Method" is just the same as getting a Windows DVD and running it on a normal computer to install.
So if there is a "missing" element that is available with other methods, I am sure Microsoft will have documentation somewhere on how to add it. Let us know what you find.

Well, I've done several installs with VB with these instructions:

How to boot Windows from an external HDD/SSD on a MacBook

Using macOS is the best fit for me, both professionally and in my personal life. That said, I find it useful to be able to run Windows…

medium.com

with my mini.
There will be no recovery partition in windows disk.

And now I did dvd (legacy) installation with mp and there's is a recovery partition.

My mini install got corrupted when I tried to find the optimal moment to start eGPU when booting from it.
And I didn't make a recovery usb stick with that install, now I get BSOD with error code that has lots of zeroes in it.
If I press F1, it will just boot again.
I don't know how can I fix that boot.
I've wasted tens of hours fiddling with this "installation of windows to some other drive than macos boot drive" that I'll just clone the working hdd install for mp to that non-booting ssd and do my windows stuff with mp. Have to do something else with these computers than just installing the os'es... I swear that my next desktop computer will be hackintosh. Will continue fiddling with mini once I get few more cheap ssd's...

 

[Fwi Haxx]

hi,
sorry if I m asking a noob question but what are the risk between UEFI vs LEGACY windows 10 ?
I ve got open core installed with a entire separate ssd for windows, I ve installed using parallel desktop to create my win10 bootable usb, and installed windows normally after reboot with open core on my usb....do I got a LEGACY OR UEFI ?
I m always looking for a DRIVER for EXTERNAL FIREWIRE ISIGHT for Windows 10...if anybody can help....
THANK YOU in advance for your help

 

[Dayo]

They can explain a bit better on the OpenCore forum but in summary, if you boot into UEFI Windows directly on a Mac, it corrupts the Boot ROM. Legacy Windows does not have this issue

It is safe to boot through OpenCore as it can prevent this issue if properly set up for this but some users sometimes forget to boot through OpenCore or have OpenCore disabled for one reason or the other and end up getting booted straight into Windows when they start their machines.

If you are always aware of the potential issue, then you can use UEFI Windows without problems.

See HERE or HERE

LEGACY OR UEFI ?

If Windows is showing up as an option in OpenCore, you have UEFI Windows.

 

[Fwi Haxx]

Thank you very much for your answer...help so much

 

[Dewdman42]

Dayo, I'm going to try this. One question, I don't have a complete empty spare disk to use for installing legacy windows. I was hoping I could use one of the drives that I currently have OSX installed....but on a different partition. What do I need to know or do in order to facilitate that?

Currently my drives are allocated like this:

Drive1(1TB): Mojave. I use RefindPlus to boot to this volume without OC. It is fallback volume. GUID/APFS. EFI not used, unless OC becomes broken, then I can boot this drive as fallback using its own normal EFI.

Drive2(2TB): Catalina. GUID/APFS. EFI is not used.

Drive3(HDD): EFI partition used for RefindPlus/OC to choose OC(Catalina), or Mojave without OC.


So I do not need to use all of the space on either Drive1 or Drive2..not even close. Drive1 could easily be split into 2 500GB partitions for my purposes, but I don't know if that GUID disk can somehow have APFS (for Mojave) and whatever legacy windows needs for the other half?

Likewise for the larger 2TB drive where Catalina resides..there is plenty of room. But is it possible or advisable to partition a drive for OSX/windows on the same drive?

Another thing that just occurred to me is that I could probably put Catalina and Mojave on the 2TB drive, partition as GUID/APFS. The EFI there could be the fallback EFI for Mojave if and when OC is broken. Well maybe, most of the time I want the startup disk to be Catalina...so I'm not sure if that would confuse things if and when I need to fallback and boot clean to Mojave?

but anyway if I did that, then I could just wipe the 1TB drive and make it all for windows.

Anyway, appreciate some guidance on what would be the best approach to get this setup with RefindPlus/OC.... Mojave/Catalina/Windows.

 

[Dewdman42]

and another question I have for some of you that have done this kind of thing already...I have several more data SSD drives which are not suitable for booting, but they have a lot of content that I need to be able to access from both Windows or OSX..and it just occurred to me, that since they are currently formatted as GUID/APFS...that might not work. What do people do in order to share SSD's on a machine between windows and osx...booting to either OS needs to access the data files.. (ideally, but not if performance is compromised)

 

[Dayo]

I don't have a complete empty spare disk to use for installing legacy windows. I was hoping I could use one of the drives that I currently have OSX installed....but on a different partition. What do I need to know or do in order to facilitate that?

Sorry, I'm afraid that is not something I've looked into. @startergo might be able to help you.

 

[startergo]

and another question I have for some of you that have done this kind of thing already...I have several more data SSD drives which are not suitable for booting, but they have a lot of content that I need to be able to access from both Windows or OSX..and it just occurred to me, that since they are currently formatted as GUID/APFS...that might not work. What do people do in order to share SSD's on a machine between windows and osx...booting to either OS needs to access the data files.. (ideally, but not if performance is compromised)

Take a look at this:

Resize Your APFS Container for Bootcamp

Resize Your APFS Container for Bootcamp. GitHub Gist: instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

gist.github.com

 

[Dewdman42]

alright thanks for showing a way to resize APFS partition. so what are you suggesting would be the best setup for me?

Are you suggesting this:

1. Resize APFS partition to say 500GB
2. Create another partition on that drive (which is using GUID), which then I do some steps I'm not familiar with yet, to make it hybrid drive in order to install Windows on the other partition?

or

Should I split my 2TB drive into two APFS volumes..(one for Mojave and one for Catalina)..then just dedicate the other 1TB drive as totally windows-only?

For this second option my question/concern is that basically I think it shouldn't be that hard to have Mojave and Catalina installed on two APFS volumes of the 2TB drive. However I want to make sure I have a simple fallback to Mojave mode. Right now, Mojave is on its own drive in drive bay 1, with its own bootable EFi. So worst case, if OC gets messed up...I can clear the NVRAM, even pull out the other drive if I need to, and boot up Mojave to get back to where I was.

But if I put both Catalina and Mojave on that drive, then I'm not sure how to make sure that Mojave will be the fallback volume always... I only want to boot into Catalina through OC. So normally StartupDisk gets set to Catalina at some point...which is fine, I guess if I have to clear the NVRAM in order to fallback to Mojave...then not a big deal..but how would it know at that point to boot the Mojave volume and not the Catalina one, when they are both on that drive in two APFS volumes?

When not falling back, I intend to use RefindPlus to select either OC (and by default go to Catalina), or select directly the Windows or Mojave volumes, bypassing OC.

 

[Dewdman42]

I didn't understand how that is related to sharing the data between windows and OSX either though? I'm presuming Windows cannot read or write to APFS volumes. So if I want to have shared content, must I format those data drives as FAT32 or some such? Must they be MBR also? or GUID is fine, but with FAT32? what are the downsides of a non-boot SSD drive not using APFS in that case?

 

[startergo]

1. Resize APFS partition to say 500GB
2. Create another partition on that drive (which is using GUID), which then I do some steps I'm not familiar with yet, to make it hybrid drive in order to install Windows on the other partition?

It is your choice. OC does not support hybrid partitions created by the Bootcamp utility. So if you want to use OC and Windows you will have to create Windows in UEFI mode as described in the first page of the OpenCore forum here. I just gave you the option to create Windows on the same drive as lets say Catalina. And if OC resides in the same EFI partition as the Windows BOOTx64.efi you will have to use bootstrap loader in OC. See bootstrap and bootprotect in the OC Manual.

 

[Dewdman42]

No, I don't plan to use Windows through OC, as I said above, I plan to boot into windows through RefindPlus boot screen specifically NOT going through OC. Legacy mode.

1. Catalina through OC, (later on will be upgraded to BigSur)
2. Mojave NOT through OC
3. Windows NOT through OC.

two of the above need to share a drive and Mojave needs to be readily accessible as a fallback boot volume in case OC gets corrupted.

what would be the ideal way to set up those partitions?

 

[startergo]

I plan to boot into windows through RefindPlus boot screen specifically NOT going through OC. Legacy mode.

Ok you can try this BootCamp Assistant in Catalina. But first you have to create a free space on that APFS drive as I showed you before. Here is the study on this modified BootCamp Assistant.

 

[Dewdman42]

Ok you can try this BootCamp Assistant in Catalina. But first you have to create a free space on that APFS drive as I showed you before. Here is the study on this modified BootCamp Assistant.

Roger that, so the approach is to use BootCamp Assistant in order to create the hybrid setup right?

Do that think that would preferable to putting Mojave and Catalina together on a drive and windows all by itself on a drive?

 

[Dewdman42]

Excellent guide. Thanks dayo. Worked as expected on dedicated drive, legacy mode. Not sure how windows is able To use non existent bios? But anyway it works without OC.

Bootcamp drivers were pretty easy just used bridgidier for 5,1 but only installed Bluetooth and Realtek drivers; followed by using iMac profile to install entire bootcamp.msi Read a page that broke it down to this. And it all works. I also had to search out and find different Bluetooth drivers since I have upgraded Bluetooth adapter. All works though, happy to have legacy mode so I don’t screw up my bootrom

 

[dalegribble]

Hi there
I'm on the disk preparation part, and when I type the command I getting this error. Following the directions precisely as written. I'm not sure what's wrong. I'm on Big Sur at the moment.

 

[Dayo]

Hi,

Wasn't tested on Big Sur and perhaps VirtualBox has since changed.
Can you try with Catalina or earlier to rule out the Big Sur angle?

 

[startergo]

Hi there
I'm on the disk preparation part, and when I type the command I getting this error. Following the directions precisely as written. I'm not sure what's wrong. I'm on Big Sur at the moment.

do you have vbox installed?

 

[Dayo]

do you have vbox installed?

Couldn't have been "Following the directions precisely as written" if not, but looking at things again, that does seem the most likely cause of the issue!

 

[dalegribble]

Couldn't have been "Following the directions precisely as written" if not, but looking at things again, that does seem the most likely cause of the issue!

Yep that's what the issue was, I didn't have it installed. Well I was able to get all the way through until the very last step where I have to restart into the windows drive. I have open core installed and I don't seem to see the drive in the boot screen so I can select it.

 

[Dewdman42]

any thoughts yet about whether this process or something similar may be able to get Windows11 onto the 5,1 since we lack TPM?

 

[startergo]

any thoughts yet about whether this process or something similar may be able to get Windows11 onto the 5,1 since we lack TPM?

I got 2 Ivy Bridge boards with TPM connectors. Recently ordered TPM boards for testing. For the Beta 11 you don't need TPM.