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Mac Pro 4,1 and Boot Camp woes

funkahdafi

funkahdafi

Suspended
Original poster
Mar 16, 2009
377
112
Planet Earth
Hi guys,

I haven‘t touched my old Mac Pro in a while since I moved to a new machine. Now I decided to turn it into a Windows gaming machine but I can‘t get Boot Camp to work. It doesn‘t give me the option to create the Windows install disk (that option is simply missing).

So I created a USB drive from another Mac (using Boot Camp), but that USB stick won‘t boot on the MP. I tried creating the USB stick by several other means (like Microsofts Media Creation Tool and Rufus), but no matter what I do, the USB stick is either not being recognized by the MP‘s boot manager at all, or I only get an "EFI Boot" option that won‘t boot.

I even tried burning Windows to a DVD, but that won‘t be recognized by the MP‘s boot manager either.

When this MP used to be my main machine a few years back I ran Boot Camp all the time without any issues whatsoever.

I am kind of out of options. Did I miss something? Would appreciate any help.

Thanks
 
If you don't really care about OSX, may be just make a clean install of the current OSX, and then try the bootcamp again.

As long as you have the Windows disc on hand, the installation process should be very straight forward. However, that disc should able to boot from boot manager. I am not sure if that's the cMP's problem, or your disc's problem.
 
h9826790 said:
If you don't really care about OSX, may be just make a clean install of the current OSX, and then try the bootcamp again.

As long as you have the Windows disc on hand, the installation process should be very straight forward. However, that disc should able to boot from boot manager. I am not sure if that's the cMP's problem, or your disc's problem.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I did. I clean installed El Capitan. The rest as described in my initial post.

I am going to install 10.9 now. From what I read, the older Mac Pros are no longer supported in Bootcamp since Yosemite.
 
funkahdafi said:
That's exactly what I did. I clean installed El Capitan. The rest as described in my initial post.

I am going to install 10.9 now. From what I read, the older Mac Pros are no longer supported in Bootcamp since Yosemite.
Click to expand...

Yeah, try the 10.9 then. I just use the 10.11.4 beta 2's bootcamp not long ago. It's works very well, but you are quite right, there are lots of reports about bootcamp since Yosemite.
 
Bootcamp is not something that defines how this is done.

It is a simplified package, but you can do it yourself without Apple's help.

Don't let them tell you what works, Google will show you that they aren't exactly truthful. I put a BT 4.0 and AC Wifi card in my 1,1 and was still able to use the bootcamp drivers for later Macs, you just have to run with elevated permissions.

You can use a GPT or MBR formatted drive, again, up to you. You just need to do some research.

Don't get discouraged. The "Cheese Graters" are the best machines Apple ever made, you can do it.
 
I spent almost 24 hours on solving this problem. I did a lot of research and I agree, it‘t not Boot Camp per se that‘s the problem. However, I still failed to boot Windows from an installation USB stick, no matter how it was formatted or prepared. So I supposed my Mac Pro 4,1 simply can‘t boot Windows from USB. Bummer.
 
funkahdafi said:
I spent almost 24 hours on solving this problem. I did a lot of research and I agree, it‘t not Boot Camp per se that‘s the problem. However, I still failed to boot Windows from an installation USB stick, no matter how it was formatted or prepared. So I supposed my Mac Pro 4,1 simply can‘t boot Windows from USB. Bummer.
Click to expand...

It will only boot Windows from USB flash drive if you are trying to install Windows 8, 8.1, or 10. It should boot any original Windows XP SP2+ CD or DVD from the internal optical drive or a USB attached optical drive.

All "Boot Camp" is is an assistant for preparing your machine to run Windows. It creates a Hybrid MBR/GPT partition table, attempts to partition it live, downloads drivers if needed, and sets the boot device to the Windows installation media on next reboot. The reason you did not see the option to "create an install disk" is because Boot Camp Assistant knows your model is not bootable from USB.
 
monkeybagel said:
It will only boot Windows from USB flash drive if you are trying to install Windows 8, 8.1, or 10.
Click to expand...

But that‘s exactly what it does *not* do in my case. I am trying to boot a Windows 10 USB stick. I even tried one that I created with Boot Camp on a 2015 iMac and even that didn‘t boot. The Mac Pro is not showing the "Windows" partition on the USB stick (which from my understanding would be the BIOS/MBR partition, the only one it could boot). It only sees the "EFI Boot" partition, but when I select that, nothing happens, e.g. the Mac Pro doesn‘t boot from it.

Nevermind though. I just built me a new Windows PC with new hardware.
 
FWIW - I have discovered a *very* simple way to work around Bootcamp entirely and install Windows 8 and/or 10 in (U)EFI mode: All you need to do is remove the bootmgr file from the root of a GPT formatted install USB drive. So simple it's ridiculous. Small caveat is that it didn't work when I used Apple's Disk Utility OR gdisk to format the USB drive. I had to use the Windows command line tool "diskpart".

So, from any Windows environment that lets you get to the command prompt (I was booted in BIOS/CSM mode from a Windows DVD, but you just have to be in Windows some way...)

Code: 
diskpart

list disk 
(find the target usb drive from the list - be careful! You're about to format the drive you select)

sel disk N
(where N is the number of the target USB drive)

clean

convert gpt

format quick fs=fat32 label=EFI_WIN10
(label it whatever you want)

exit

Then, again, in a Windows environment, mount your Widows ISO and simply copy everything EXCEPT the file "bootmgr" to the USB drive. bootmgr.efi may or may not be required. I copied it and it worked. You can experiment and report back if you want, otherwise just do what I did.

Reboot your Mac Pro holding alt/option, select the USB drive labeled "EFI Boot" and you will be booted into the installer in UEFI mode. Note that the drive you are installing to MUST also be a GPT formatted drive to boot Windows in UEFI mode. You can use the method above to format that drive as well.

Cheers
 
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