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tony3dd

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 14, 2013
57
1
So is it true that Windows installed with bootcamp won’t show the bootcamp startup disk window to get back to Mac OS if a MVMe boot drive is being used? Would really like to use MVMe for the huge speed increase, but seeing how I have a Sapphire Pulse RX580 installed with no boot screen this must work.
 
Shut down Windows ( not -re-start ) the cMP must TURN OFF.

Cold restart doing the NVRAM/PRAM reset = hold down these keys.

Apple Key + Option + P + R until you hear the Happy Mac Chime.

Your cMP will boot back to Mac OS.

========================

In situations where you have other non-bootup problems do the above NVRAM reset after shutting down your Mac Pro.

This time hold the keys down until you hear the Happy Mac Chime THREE times.
 
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There are methodes described here to reboot once into Windows.

So boot into MacOs, bless windows to boot only next time.

If Windows reboots or you shut down the next startup volume is Mac Os again.
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how to:

csr must allow at least changing nvram to bless


Heres the script from @PianoPro

-------

You can use this script for Windows Legacy-BIOS Boot:

# change BOOTCAMP to your Win 10 volume name, and substitute your password for "your_password".

display dialog "Windows 10 Legacy-BIOS Boot" buttons {"Cancel", "Boot Win10"}

do shell script "bless -mount /Volumes/BOOTCAMP -setBoot -nextonly -legacy" password "your_password" with administrator privileges

tell application "Finder" to restart
 
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Use legacy (bios) mode only for Windows.

Uefi mode could damage your firmware with certificates.

Worst case could be a bricked Mac.
 
Your idea is seriously problematic:

  1. Windows 10 only boot from NVMe drives with UEFI installs.
  2. UEFI Windows installs requires at least UEFI v2.3.1c.
  3. Mac Pro 5.1 is not UEFI, but EFI and an ancient one, EFI v1.10. No one knows why Microsoft overlooked this and permitted UEFI installs with MP5,1.
  4. Windows 10 installed via UEFI mode running in a Mac Pro causes constant re-signing of the Mac Pro SPI, the SecureBoot certificates inside the NVRAM volume, this is one of the causes of the constant bricking of Mac Pros. MP5,1 EFI was never intended to work with UEFI Windows, just CSM.
  5. BootCamp assistant won't work if you use an UEFI install, you will need to reset the NVRAM every time you want to go to macOS.
It's not worth the risk, while some people never had the problem, every week someone asks helps to un-brick MP5,1s.

If you want to go for this anyway, the risk is yours, you will have to do a clean UEFI install from a USB key to a SATA drive, then clone it to the NVMe drive, since Windows don't install to external drives.
 
As I understood the TS has a nvme Drive for MacOs and no bootscreen gpu. So this nextonly boot argument is an easy fix.
 
Your idea is seriously problematic:

  1. Windows 10 only boot from NVMe drives with UEFI installs.
  2. UEFI Windows installs requires at least UEFI v2.3.1c.
  3. Mac Pro 5.1 is not UEFI, but EFI and an ancient one, EFI v1.10. No one knows why Microsoft overlooked this and permitted UEFI installs with MP5,1.
  4. Windows 10 installed via UEFI mode running in a Mac Pro causes constant re-signing of the Mac Pro SPI, the SecureBoot certificates inside the NVRAM volume, this is one of the causes of the constant bricking of Mac Pros. MP5,1 EFI was never intended to work with UEFI Windows, just CSM.
  5. BootCamp assistant won't work if you use an UEFI install, you will need to reset the NVRAM every time you want to go to macOS.
It's not worth the risk, while some people never had the problem, every week someone asks helps to un-brick MP5,1s.

If you want to go for this anyway, the risk is yours, you will have to do a clean UEFI install from a USB key to a SATA drive, then clone it to the NVMe drive, since Windows don't install to external drives.

Alex , would the OP have better luck if he used an AHCI M.2 PCIe SSD in his cMP for his Windows 10 install ? That way , all he'd need to do is hunt for a decent used drive as this type of drive is no longer made new .
 
Alex , would the OP have better luck if he used an AHCI M.2 PCIe SSD in his cMP for his Windows 10 install ? That way , all he'd need to do is hunt for a decent used drive as this type of drive is no longer made new .
Yes, PCIe AHCI can be used for CSM/legacy Windows installs.
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As I understood the TS has a nvme Drive for MacOs and no bootscreen gpu. So this nextonly boot argument is an easy fix.
If the macOS drive is the NVMe one, no problem at all. The problem is to use a NVMe drive for Windows.
 
So is it true that Windows installed with bootcamp won’t show the bootcamp startup disk window to get back to Mac OS if a MVMe boot drive is being used? Would really like to use MVMe for the huge speed increase, but seeing how I have a Sapphire Pulse RX580 installed with no boot screen this must work.

Don't use a NVMe drive . Install your Windows on this AHCI drive on a PCIe adapter .


Here is a list of cMP compatible AHCI interface technology drives .

Look closely at the actual labels on the drives for these exact model numbers as eBay gives a lot of false results . You don't want to pick up a NVMe drive by mistake .

Samsung AHCI M.2 PCIe SSD models :

MZHPV128HDGM = 128 GB .
MZHPV256HDGL = 256 GB .
MZHPV512HDGL = 512 GB .

Use this adapter Sintech model ST-M2PCE4X :

 
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There are three widely used AHCI PCIe drives with the M.2 format:

Samsung XP941
Samsung SM951-AHCI
Kingston Predator AHCI

Apple has AHCI PCIe drives but with the 12+16 connector. Unless you have one already (Samsung SSAUX and SSBUX, plus some uncommon SanDisk drives) it will cost a lot more than buying a standard M.2 drive.
 
Kingston Predator AHCI

A word of warning: This drive has an option ROM that makes it appear as SATA to increase compatibility. But ironically, on the cMP this feature prevents from booting CSM installations of Windows (even on other drives)!
 
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A word of warning: This drive has an option ROM that makes it appear as SATA to increase compatibility. But ironically, on the cMP this feature prevents from booting CSM installations of Windows (even on other drives)!
So it’s similar, but not as worse as the option ROM of 950 PRO, where it won’t even boot macOS.
XP941 seems the most compatible, even have a working TRIM. SM951-AHCI TRIM won’t work with macOS correctly
 
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So it’s similar, but not as worse as the option ROM of 950 PRO, where it won’t even boot macOS.
XP941 seems the most compatible, even have a working TRIM. SM951-AHCI TRIM won’t work with macOS correctly

The big problem with XP941 drives is they they are getting increasingly hard to find and disproportionately expensive at the high end , capacity wise .

Is it dangerous to force TRIM on an AHCI SM951 in a Mac System ?
 
The big problem with XP941 drives is they they are getting increasingly hard to find and disproportionately expensive at the high end , capacity wise .

Is it dangerous to force TRIM on an AHCI SM951 in a Mac System ?
SM951-AHCI TRIM works until the drive is full, after that you have to boot single user and run a fsck -fy manually or the write throughput becomes around 200MB/s. For people that don't have a GPU with pre-boot configuration support, this become tiresomely fast.
 
I have Windows installed on a standard SATA 7200rpm drive. Not trying to put it on any other type of drive. Just want to be able to boot to it from the Mac SSD boot drive to the Sata bootcamp drive, and back. Maybe I should just install a SSD in the regular drive bay, and avoid all this. Sounds like a real headache!
 
I have Windows installed on a standard SATA 7200rpm drive. Not trying to put it on any other type of drive. Just want to be able to boot to it from the Mac SSD boot drive to the Sata bootcamp drive, and back. Maybe I should just install a SSD in the regular drive bay, and avoid all this. Sounds like a real headache!
You still need to check if it's an UEFI or CSM/legacy/BIOS install. If you installed via UEFI, you need to reinstall via DVD, which will install via CSM.
 
You still need to check if it's an UEFI or CSM/legacy/BIOS install. If you installed via UEFI, you need to reinstall via DVD, which will install via CSM.

so how do I check that out? If this gets to complicated, I may just erase my Windows drive, and reformat it to Mac OS. That will give me another 2Tb of storage. I do have a Windows 10 laptop now.
 
Did anyone in this thread ever manage to install Windows to a AHCI PCI SSD, and what was the trick?

I have Samsung AHCI blade SSD and managed to make OSX think its internal, and now i am trying to do bootcamp installation and it works all the way until bootup to DVD and then i get complaint for windows installer that parittion is FAT32, and i reformat to NTFS and after that the installer refuses to install on that partition. (it says its not bootable and to check BIOS to make it bootable)

Is there anyone who knows the trick?

I also tried to use a cloning program and clone existing windows10 installation from SATA SSD into the samsung PCI SSD and could only get black screen with "no boot disk avalible" upon startup.

The way i did it was to prepare the PCI SSD disk with bootcamp assistant in order to get the small 200mb partition in place, and then clone only the windows partition from the working SATA SSD, not the 200Mb partition that sits in front of it. I use Macrium free cloning software.

I really really want to make this trick working, so that i get PCI SSD blade disk working in NON EFI boot mode.

Thanks for any advice

//GF
 
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Did anyone in this thread ever manage to install Windows to a AHCI PCI SSD, and what was the trick?

I have Samsung AHCI blade SSD and managed to make OSX think its internal, and now i am trying to do bootcamp installation and it works all the way until bootup to DVD and then i get complaint for windows installer that parittion is FAT32, and i reformat to NTFS and after that the installer refuses to install on that partition. (it says its not bootable and to check BIOS to make it bootable)

Is there anyone who knows the trick?

I also tried to use a cloning program and clone existing windows10 installation from SATA SSD into the samsung PCI SSD and could only get black screen with "no boot disk avalible" upon startup.

The way i did it was to prepare the PCI SSD disk with bootcamp assistant in order to get the small 200mb partition in place, and then clone only the windows partition from the working SATA SSD, not the 200Mb partition that sits in front of it. I use Macrium free cloning software.

I really really want to make this trick working, so that i get PCI SSD blade disk working in NON EFI boot mode.

Thanks for any advice

//GF
You can trick macOS to think that a PCIe SSD is internal, but the moment you reboot, the control is back to the Mac firmware, where anything except the Southbrige SATA native ports are external. So, your idea won't work from the start.

The only way to install CSM Windows to an AHCI PCIe SSD is:
  • via a PC that supports it as internal ( like PC motherboards that have M.2 connectors on-board ),
  • via cloning from a SATA disk,
  • via Windows DSIM installs,
  • via VMware raw-disk.
 
Yes, i figured too that the MacPro told the windows installer that it was not a "internal drive", so that was dead end.

I tried now two different ways to clone, using a free windows cloning utility called Macrium.

- First attempt i try to make bootcamp create the volumes on the drive, and then just clone the windows partition and let the 200Mb partition sit untouched. That didnt work, kept giving me "no bootable device".
- Second attempt i used Macrium to clone both partitions, 200Mb and the Windows partition from the working SATA windows install. However this didnt work either, cause i think Macrium will not clone the partitions correctly.

I dont have access to PC with slot for this SSD to make internal install.

And i am not sure how that will end up not beeing a EFI install? (i am not good with windows)

Is there any particular windows running cloning software that will make this cloning 100% correct and avoid the problems with Macrium? I tried many different cloning tools but they dont seem to work, and i am not interested in buying them just to find out it doesnt work or to be used once...

I feel i am incing closer and closer to a solution here, and would like to make a writeup as i finish, and post it as a new thread. Many hours went in to this, but i would be happy to make it work.

//GF
 
Yes, i figured too that the MacPro told the windows installer that it was not a "internal drive", so that was dead end.

I tried now two different ways to clone, using a free windows cloning utility called Macrium.

- First attempt i try to make bootcamp create the volumes on the drive, and then just clone the windows partition and let the 200Mb partition sit untouched. That didnt work, kept giving me "no bootable device".
- Second attempt i used Macrium to clone both partitions, 200Mb and the Windows partition from the working SATA windows install. However this didnt work either, cause i think Macrium will not clone the partitions correctly.

I dont have access to PC with slot for this SSD to make internal install.

And i am not sure how that will end up not beeing a EFI install? (i am not good with windows)

Is there any particular windows running cloning software that will make this cloning 100% correct and avoid the problems with Macrium? I tried many different cloning tools but they dont seem to work, and i am not interested in buying them just to find out it doesnt work or to be used once...

I feel i am incing closer and closer to a solution here, and would like to make a writeup as i finish, and post it as a new thread. Many hours went in to this, but i would be happy to make it work.

//GF
Try VMware raw-disk Windows install, with Fusion you have a 30-day free trial to accomplish it. There are several tutorials on how to install via raw-disk. It's a complex procedure, but it's doable. Read my Catalina MP5,1 rad-disk install tutorial to see what is needed.
 
Try VMware raw-disk Windows install, with Fusion you have a 30-day free trial to accomplish it. There are several tutorials on how to install via raw-disk. It's a complex procedure, but it's doable. Read my Catalina MP5,1 rad-disk install tutorial to see what is needed.

Ok, if i do this Raw-disk windows install, will i then be able to boot straight from this volume or will i need VM-ware fusion to run it also?

I would be so happy if i could manage to boot straight from the SSD with Alt-key boot.

In case i would like to continue trying with the plain cloning method.

What cloning tool has been sucessfully used to do the cloning from working SATA install to the SSD?

Do i have to clone both partitions (the small 200mb partition that bootcamp makes) and the windows partition, or is it enough to just clone the windows partition if i do the cloning?

I am not sure what the 200Mb partition that is first contains, and how it relates to data on the main windows partition? For example if the windows partition is changed from FAT32 to NTFS, will it still work or does it need altering on the 200Mb partition as well?

//GF
 
Ok, if i do this Raw-disk windows install, will i then be able to boot straight from this volume or will i need VM-ware fusion to run it also?

I would be so happy if i could manage to boot straight from the SSD with Alt-key boot.

In case i would like to continue trying with the plain cloning method.

What cloning tool has been sucessfully used to do the cloning from working SATA install to the SSD?

Do i have to clone both partitions (the small 200mb partition that bootcamp makes) and the windows partition, or is it enough to just clone the windows partition if i do the cloning?

I am not sure what the 200Mb partition that is first contains, and how it relates to data on the main windows partition? For example if the windows partition is changed from FAT32 to NTFS, will it still work or does it need altering on the 200Mb partition as well?

//GF
You will use VMware just for the install part, read my Catalina tutorial starting with this post, it's the same technique. After it's installed, you boot normally, raw metal.

I can't answer about cloning, I never liked very much the idea. DSIM installs are much better than cloning.
 
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