bootcamp on new imac

[Luis Ortega]

Can you create a bootcamp installation of windows 10 on an imac if it's on a drive connected to it via one of the rear ports or does it need to be created on an internal drive or partition of an internal drive?
Can you only have one internal drive in the new imacs?
Will the imac pro offer more internal drives?

 

[jzuena]

Can you create a bootcamp installation of windows 10 on an imac if it's on a drive connected to it via one of the rear ports or does it need to be created on an internal drive or partition of an internal drive?
Can you only have one internal drive in the new imacs?
Will the imac pro offer more internal drives?

My first attempt at a Windows 10 install on my new iMac was on a 1TB USB3 drive connected to one of the USB-A ports. You have to trick the Windows installer, since it does not want to install on a removable drive. I used the Virtual Box trick and it worked. Booting between macOS and Windows requires holding down the option key, since the regular Bootcamp system preferences aren't installed.

Unfortunately, when I tried to set up the raw partition to also be a virtual machine in VMware Fusion, it hosed the drive up to the point it wouldn't boot, so I decided to just carve out a 50GB partition on the internal SSD for a standard Bootcamp install and reformat that 1TB USB3 drive as a D: drive for Windows. The D: drive works when I boot Windows natively, but not when run as a virtual machine, so I install things like games that I would only use when running Windows natively onto that D: drive.

I do believe there is only room for one internal drive in the iMac.

 

[Luis Ortega]

Thanks, that's very helpful.