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misanthrophy

Suspended
Aug 16, 2018
165
43
Okay, as my final goal is to get an Amfeltec card with 4 nvme blades in raid0 I will simply bite the bullet and see the ssd‘s as external ones in the finder, right?
 

bentbenny

macrumors newbie
Jun 20, 2020
2
0
I have the exact same issue on a cMP 4,1 flashed to 5,1. Once the HyperX was installed I was no longer able to boot from a windows 10 partition installed on a separate ssd in one of the standard drive bays. I also receive the no bootable device error once windows tries to load. The only way I can boot from the windows partition is to pull the hyperx predator from the machine. I do not have the custom kext installed.

I have never been able to resolve this issue and have been contemplating pulling the hyperx permanently so I can restore access to my windows partition.

If you come up with a solution for this I would love to hear about it. You are the first person that I have seen mention this issue so I am wondering what is unique about our setups. My hyperx was purchased about 6-12 months ago.
Hey everyone! Just resurrecting this thread. Was there ever a solution to the this PCIE bootcamp issue?

I found a few bits of information on various places around the web about issues with the HyperX Predator in certain configurations. I want to see if there is an easy solution to my problem. I'm running cMP High Sierra 10.13.6 booting off a AHCI pcie HyperX Predator with a GTX 1080. This setup is stable and perfect for my retouching and video work. So far don't need any features from Mojave or Catalina. I would however like to be able boot into Windows 10 in one of the SATA drive trays. I've had success installing/using windows 10 and bootcamp both in Legacy and UEFI (with GT120) with uEFI I can only boot into windows with the GT120 installed with startup manager (selecting EFI Boot the windows option doesn't work). With Legacy I can only boot into windows with the HyperX removed. With uEFI I can use bootcamp to get back to macOS but the problem is I can't boot back into windows without the GT120 installed. It just hangs with a black screen. I don't have an empty slot to keep both cards installed. Does anyone know of a fix or workaround for this? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
 

Radguy1

macrumors newbie
May 20, 2023
3
0
I'm late to the party as usual, but I can also confirm that using the HyperX Predator, Windows is not bootable on a Mac Pro 5,1. It is however bootable on a 3,1. So there you have it. If you want fast drive access on a 3,1, the HyperX predator cards are fantastic. I have two of the 240GB versions with Capitan and Windows 8.1. Of course, the problem with this on a 3,1 is that you need bootscreen to select Windows (8,8.1) to boot. So you therefore need a GPU that can do that. The original 2600xt will do in a spare slot if you don't have a compatible GPU, but uh, the little fan sounds horrible, always has. Little fans on GPUs etc are the worst with their whine. But if you don't have a GTX680 or similar, that's what you've got to do.

Anyway, I'm putting forward what I think the ideal/functional solutions for these series of Mac Pros without going down the OpenCore route - sticking with stock standard hardware and software while being able to boot both MacOS and Windows.

For the 3,1 - the HyperX predator cards are great and can boot MacOS and Windows.

For the 5,1 - The HyperX predator cards can't boot Windows, not only that, if you have Windows installed on a standard drive and you have MacOS installed on a HyperX, Windows won't boot. You just can't have any HyperX card in the machine if you want to boot Windows (without OpenCore).

As far as the GPUs go, El Capitan puts substantial limits on what the 3,1 can drive without modification. It seems the GTX980 is the best choice.

That the 5,1 can run Mojave of course doesn't mean you should. Nvidia cards with the exception of a few older cards can't run on Mojave. So it seems that if you want to stick with Nvidia cards, you can stick with High Sierra.


This ties back to the original point regarding M.2 drives for the respective Mac Pro series, given that you can't use the HyperX if you want to use Windows on a 5,1. Luckily, if you want to stick with a GTX 980, people have reported nvme working on High Sierra on a 5,1. I can confirm nvme works on a Hackintosh running High Sierra. While I can't personally confirm, people seem to have Windows booting from M.2 on 5,1s, so I've ordered a KryoM.2 evo and a Samsung 960 evo which seem to be a safe bet.

One of the many advantages of using the 5,1 vs the 3,1 to boot Windows 8,8.1 is that you can use the Startup Disk panel to set the boot volume, so the boot screen isn't needed for normal operation.


A final note on the HyperX, I did have some trouble installing and running Windows as I think the HyperX won't hold MBR. As a mac user, I wasn't familiar with the whole MBR thing, so I didn't understand why I couldn't boot when I pulled out the HDD it was originally paired with or why Clover on a USB made it boot as a workaround. I finally figured this out when I moved the HyperX card from an old SuperMicro X7 board to the Mac Pro 3,1, to cut a long story short, start by installing Windows 7 on a HDD or SSD and then install 8.1 onto the HyperX with Windows 7 as the boot volume.
 
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Radguy1

macrumors newbie
May 20, 2023
3
0
I'm late to the party as usual, but I can also confirm that using the HyperX Predator, Windows is not bootable on a Mac Pro 5,1. It is however bootable on a 3,1. So there you have it. If you want fast drive access on a 3,1, the HyperX predator cards are fantastic. I have two of the 240GB versions with Capitan and Windows 8.1. Of course, the problem with this on a 3,1 is that you need bootscreen to select Windows (8,8.1) to boot. So you therefore need a GPU that can do that. The original 2600xt will do in a spare slot if you don't have a compatible GPU, but uh, the little fan sounds horrible, always has. Little fans on GPUs etc are the worst with their whine. But if you don't have a GTX680 or similar, that's what you've got to do.

Anyway, I'm putting forward what I think the ideal/functional solutions for these series of Mac Pros without going down the OpenCore route - sticking with stock standard hardware and software while being able to boot both MacOS and Windows.

For the 3,1 - the HyperX predator cards are great and can boot MacOS and Windows.

For the 5,1 - The HyperX predator cards can't boot Windows, not only that, if you have Windows installed on a standard drive and you have MacOS installed on a HyperX, Windows won't boot. You just can't have any HyperX card in the machine if you want to boot Windows (without OpenCore).

As far as the GPUs go, El Capitan puts substantial limits on what the 3,1 can drive without modification. It seems the GTX980 is the best choice.

That the 5,1 can run Mojave of course doesn't mean you should. Nvidia cards with the exception of a few older cards can't run on Mojave. So it seems that if you want to stick with Nvidia cards, you can stick with High Sierra.


This ties back to the original point regarding M.2 drives for the respective Mac Pro series, given that you can't use the HyperX if you want to use Windows on a 5,1. Luckily, if you want to stick with a GTX 980, people have reported nvme working on High Sierra on a 5,1. I can confirm nvme works on a Hackintosh running High Sierra. While I can't personally confirm, people seem to have Windows booting from M.2 on 5,1s, so I've ordered a KryoM.2 evo and a Samsung 960 evo which seem to be a safe bet.

One of the many advantages of using the 5,1 vs the 3,1 to boot Windows 8,8.1 is that you can use the Startup Disk panel to set the boot volume, so the boot screen isn't needed for normal operation.


A final note on the HyperX, I did have some trouble installing and running Windows as I think the HyperX won't hold MBR. As a mac user, I wasn't familiar with the whole MBR thing, so I didn't understand why I couldn't boot when I pulled out the HDD it was originally paired with or why Clover on a USB made it boot as a workaround. I finally figured this out when I moved the HyperX card from an old SuperMicro X7 board to the Mac Pro 3,1, to cut a long story short, start by installing Windows 7 on a HDD or SSD and then install 8.1 onto the HyperX with Windows 7 as the boot volume.
Revising my post with good news. I managed to get Windows 8.1 installed on a the HyperX (240GB) on the Mac Pro 5,1, so I can confirm the HyperX cards are go if you want to run windows faster than SATA II on a 3,1 - 5,1

How to on the 5,1? I did it using the Windows DVD and selecting the Install DVD's EFI partition at boot screen. Bootcamp is completely useless for this. The correct format is GPT with an NTFS volume. I formatted the HyperX in High Sierra as GUID (GPT) with an HFS volume, but this doesn't work, at least not completely and I'm not sure if this step is necessary, but alas. (Windows 8.1 also doesn't want to know Tuxera NTFS volumes.) Once formatted, boot into the install DVD EFI partition and get to the command prompt by going through the Repair this Computer button sequence from the main install screen.

Once there, run DiskPart and use the command Convert GPT on the selected disk:


Once done, restart back into the installer EFI partition and click through until you get up to selecting the volume. The HyperX should appear there without the annoying refusal to co-operate message. At this point for me, I was able to click "New" and create the partition and then proceed with the install. With all the troubleshooting trying to make this work, I'd almost forgotten how good these cards are. I tried so many things I've memorised my Windows key, so I was rapped when the machine absolutely caned it through the install, it couldn't have taken more than ten minutes. Once installed, the machine boots in about thirty seconds from chime.

As for the KryoM.2 Evo NVMe card (with a Samsung 960 Evo), Windows 8.1 refuses to install onto it, fretting about BOIS support, as if that's ever caused anyone problems. Windows just doesn't believe in itself.

The Kryo works fine in High Sierra, although I wouldn't rate it better than the HyperX, notwithstanding the 700 - 750 MB/sec vs 1200ish reported speed difference. They take about the same time to boot which is a bit long for both I'd say compared to the 3,1 booting El Capitan which takes in the order of about 20 seconds to boot off a HyperX.

So there it is - if you want Windows 8.1 on a drive better than SATA II on a Mac Pro 3,1 - 5,1, the HyperX is the only option I know of because it's AHCI.

I couldn't install Windows 7 onto the HyperX as a master boot volume on a PC (not to say it's impossible, I just didn't manage to do it this way) but I did manage to install when booting from another volume. So I can't really say for sure, but it seems HyperX can't hold MBR but can hold an EFI partition, enabling booting directly on the 5,1. To make a HyperX work on a 3,1, it needs to be installed while Windows is booted on another drive which has the MBR.

This all makes sense considering the 5,1 has a more advanced EFI than the 3,1 which doesn't support ubiquitous EFI booting. And because the 5,1 feels pretty good about itself, it won't be caught dead wearing any MBR volumes with a fancy HyperX installed.
 

Radguy1

macrumors newbie
May 20, 2023
3
0
Just a quick note as I've had to reinstall due to one of those clunky programs that doesn't uninstall properly. The MacOS step is unnecessary but I forgot to mention in diskpart, once the volume is converted to GPT it may need the format fs=ntfs command. However, the Kryo had to be pulled to get the windows installer to play nice, so the format step might not be needed. They do work together, just not when doing the EFI Windows install.
 
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