MP 7,1 Windows 10

[eflx]

Has anyone successfully installed Windows 10 onto an external SSD on their new Mac Pro while using an XDR display?

I don't think it has anything to do with the XDR, but I've installed Windows 10 onto an external SSD successfully and can boot Windows and use it just fine on my MacBook Pro; but connected to my Mac Pro it shows the initial Windows logo, then just crashes, or sits for a while with a black screen then eventually reboots itself and the Apple logo pulls up.

Any ideas? Of course, I've disabled T2 security completely - no go. Not sure what's happening. Downloaded the latest Windows 10 x64 ISO as well. Boots up just fine connected to the MacBook, nothing on the Mac Pro.

Frustrating ....

 

[velocityg4]

You need to have a separate dedicated install for your Mac Pro. Plus you need to perform the installation on the Mac Pro. Windows is not a portable OS. It doesn't take well at all from being moved from one computer to another. As you found out it can really screw it up.

The only way you could possibly move it would be if it was setup as a VM and both VM's were set to the exact same settings. Sometimes if hardware is similar enough. It can be moved from one computer to another. But it still takes a while and usually ends up haunted with stability issues until a clean install is performed.

 

[startergo]

Has anyone successfully installed Windows 10 onto an external SSD on their new Mac Pro while using an XDR display?

I don't think it has anything to do with the XDR, but I've installed Windows 10 onto an external SSD successfully and can boot Windows and use it just fine on my MacBook Pro; but connected to my Mac Pro it shows the initial Windows logo, then just crashes, or sits for a while with a black screen then eventually reboots itself and the Apple logo pulls up.

Any ideas? Of course, I've disabled T2 security completely - no go. Not sure what's happening. Downloaded the latest Windows 10 x64 ISO as well. Boots up just fine connected to the MacBook, nothing on the Mac Pro.

Frustrating ....

Actually Windows 10 is pretty good in booting to different hardware and it will install the missing drivers automatically.
Normally it hangs on the display drivers. After 3rd unsuccessful attempt (Start/shut down sequence) it will bring you to the repair option. Select to boot in safe mode with networking. In there download the bootcamp drivers for the Mac Pro. Before that you have to uninstall the old bootcamp manager or you can just install the missing/ broken display drivers from the package. Brigadier is a nice bootcamp downloader.

 

[eflx]

Thanks guys! I should respond and say that the Windows 10 installation was indeed performed on the Mac Pro first, but as it kept crashing the setup, I tried continuing setup by plugging it into my 2016 MacBook Pro which worked flawlessly.

There's got to be something happening, and also potentially a Pro Display XDR incompatibility with safe mode as apparently I need a DisplayPort monitor in safe mode to see anything I've just found out.

Hmmm ... I've heard using the Bootcamp Assistant to install Windows on the main SSD first, then using something like "drive clone" to copy that setup to another disk would work; then delete the windows partition on the main drive later.

 

[startergo]

Thanks guys! I should respond and say that the Windows 10 installation was indeed performed on the Mac Pro first, but as it kept crashing the setup, I tried continuing setup by plugging it into my 2016 MacBook Pro which worked flawlessly.

There's got to be something happening, and also potentially a Pro Display XDR incompatibility with safe mode as apparently I need a DisplayPort monitor in safe mode to see anything I've just found out.

Hmmm ... I've heard using the Bootcamp Assistant to install Windows on the main SSD first, then using something like "drive clone" to copy that setup to another disk would work; then delete the windows partition on the main drive later.

On your MacBookPro what is the output of:

sudo fdisk /dev/diskX >> Geometry.txt  && sudo gpt -r show diskX >> Geometry.txt

Where X is the Windows disk number found in diskutil list?

 

[codehead1]

For many I'm just adding the obvious here, but for some...Windows 10 works just fine under VMware Fusion on the 2019 Mac Pro and Catalina. A lot of advantages being able to have Mac OS and Windows running and access files between them, if you don't need the fastest possible Windows.

 

[eflx]

startergo, I'll test the output of that when I get the chance and report back with the output. Thanks! What should I be looking for there?

codehead1 - no idea what software wouldn't be available on Mac, that a VM running windows would be required for really. Not this day and age anyhow. Only important pieces of software may be on one or the other platforms etc. such as games or some other high-end design/development tools - but a huge amount of productivity software is available on Mac OS anyhow making a Windows VM pretty much useless in every scenario I can imagine!

 

[startergo]

startergo, I'll test the output of that when I get the chance and report back with the output. Thanks! What should I be looking for there?

I am not sure if MP7,1 supports hybrid partition. If it does not and you created the BOOTCAMP with a hybrid partition scheme it may not boot. Hybrid BOOTCAMP acts like an MBR/ Legacy partition but on a GPT drive. The old Macs use hybrid BOOTCAMP creation when installed on the same drive as the MacOS. The new Mac goes all the way UEFI boot. One thing to test on the MP7,1 is to create a BOOTCAMP partition the same way created on the MacBookPro (if you installed it on the same drive as MacOS) through disk utility and see how it partitions the drive. Open terminal and enter root to avoid reboot: sudo -s.
Once you create the BOOTCAMP partition with BOOTCAMP assistant verify the partition geometry with:

sudo fdisk /dev/diskX >> Geometry.txt  && sudo gpt -r show diskX >> Geometry.txt

This will create geometry.txt file in the directory from which you enter this command. You can verify/change directory with pwd and cd <path_to_desired_directory>.
If MP7,1 creates UEFI BOOTCAMP partition then the WINDOWS from the MacBookPro has to be converted to UEFI. The command entered and the geometry.txt will tell us what is going on.
[automerge]1590257179[/automerge]
You can keep the Windows drive in the MP7,1 instead of moving it to the MBP just find the disk number and use it in the command

 

[codehead1]

codehead1 - no idea what software wouldn't be available on Mac, that a VM running windows would be required for really. Not this day and age anyhow. Only important pieces of software may be on one or the other platforms etc. such as games or some other high-end design/development tools - but a huge amount of productivity software is available on Mac OS anyhow making a Windows VM pretty much useless in every scenario I can imagine!

I don't get your reply—this is a thread about "Windows 10". Saying you shouldn't need to run windows is not a usable solution. But OK:

Stock analysis software, for a start. It's not as bad as it used to be, major brokers support Mac, but if you want to run a specific analysis platform (NinjaTrader, eSignal, TradeStation, MetaTrader...) and all their tools, you're doing it in Windows, the last I checked.

Next, you want to develop software that runs under Windows—try developing cross-platform audio plugins without running Visual Studio under Windows, then try testing them in Windows DAWs, without running Windows.

And there are a lot of scientific and engineering applications that only run on Windows. Even Excel is only partially implemented on Mac, if you need to use that.

Believe me, I wouldn't be running Windows if I didn't need to. I'm certainly not going to dedicate my Mac to running Windows, that's why I use a VMware Fusion, fire up Win10 as needed.

 

[ScreenSavers]

As mentioned before, Windows is not very portable, especially Windows 7 and older. Windows 8 and newer seem to be better about that, but it seems like you still have an issue. Windows usually needs to be installed on the machine it is used on.

 

[eflx]

Hey guys, forgot about this thread completely.

Has nothing to do with installing it on a different machine, and/or the portability of Windows. As mentioned, it was installed on the Mac Pro. I had mentioned that after getting it installed using my Mac Pro (7,1) it would never fully boot and kept crashing after presenting the Windows logo; I then took that installation on an external thunderbolt SSD that was created on the Mac Pro, and plugged it into the MacBook Pro I have (2015 model) and it booted and worked with 0 issues.

So that squashes 2 statements here as being false ... 1) that it needs to be installed on the same machine and 2) that the Windows installation isn't portable.

What the issue ended up being was:

1) drivers for the Mac Pro's SSD controller setup (T2) are specific to the Mac Pro; however, these drivers are needed for booting off the internal SSD (the only drive counted as an internal drive on the Mac Pro is the internal boot SSD) and still do not help when booting off any other ssd (translation: bootcamp installs work fine, others don't)

2) there are no current drivers or way to support booting the Mac Pro from an external thunderbolt connected SSD enclosure into Windows - this seems to have to do with some combination of what the Mac Pro considers internal & external, and incorrect/missing drivers to support this

3) I don't have the cables to do this, but it seems booting Windows off of another drive outside of a standard bootcamp assistant install may be limited to booting from a drive attached to the internal SATA connectors in the Mac Pro


If anyone else with a Mac Pro (7,1) themselves can verify this, it'd probably be more helpful here than the other replies.

 

[TrevorR90]

I have Windows 10 on an external SSD and this happens to me during initial setup where Windows 10 will only bootup with HDMI and not usbc until I actually get into Windows and install the display drivers.

So essentially, to deal with Windows, I had to do everything via HDMI and then installed the appropriate drivers and then was able to use a usbc connection.

Even after installing display drivers and using USBc, the windows logo will appear for a second and disappear but shortly after, it'll get to the login screen.

 

[ZoomEnhance]

@eflx Definitely be aware of the HDMI workaround mentioned above.

You may also wish to temporarily move your SSD to a USB enclosure and create a bootable install using a VM + WindowsToGo.

Booting from external USB SSD?

Is it possible to boot from an external Samsung USB SSD if the boot volume is copied with Carbon Copy Cloner? Also, if I have an SSD on an internal PCI card, will that work to boot the Mac if cloned with CCC? CCC gave me a message that said I would have to restart I guess in recovery mode and...

forums.macrumors.com

After the install (including BootCamp drivers), try moving the SSD back into your Thunderbolt enclosure and boot from it. HTH.

 

[eflx]

Hmmm, good tip @ZoomEnhance that seems like it could solve the issue for sure.

@TrevorR90 that HDMI tip might work in combination with booting from a USB enclosure as well. Seems a bit of a PITA with this Mac Pro to get it to work how I'd like, but both of these suggestions seem like that should do the trick. Thanks guys!