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Windows 8 EFI won't boot up on my 2010 Mac Pro

M

muffinface

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 18, 2013
3
0
Hi Everyone, not sure what i'm doing wrong here...

I successfully installed Windows 8 Pro on my 2010 Mac Pro, and everything to my knowledge worked fine. I rebooted into it twice, and it started up without a hitch. I then decided i'd boot into OSX and install software there first before going back into windows to update drivers and everything else.

So I then rebooted into OS X, removed the Windows 8 CD from the tray, and installed some software, then partitioned my OS X drive (separate drive) so I could have a exFAT drive that my Windows SSD can access.

When i tried cold booting into Windows 8 again....it just hangs on the Blue window screen, and does nothing. I've tried several times and it stays on that screen, never booting into windows. I put the Windows 8 CD back in and it then hangs at the same screen but with the words "Pereparing Automatic Repair" but never actually does anything.

I suspect it could be looking for my boot drive or something. Not entirely sure what happened. Hoping someone out there could help me out with a possible fix, it's giving me a huge headache!! I've been at this for a couple of days, and my Internet has been down all of Saturday.

For reference, I have a Mac Pro mid 2010 (5,1), windows is on a Separate SSD drive installed on the 2nd optical SATA cable, while OSX is on an HDD in Tray 1.

Thanks in advance!
 
Last edited:
maybe try a PRAM reset, or perhaps the windows partition\boot manager got messed up, might have to reinstall.
 
Partitions are screwed.

Please help me summarize.

1. Installed windows 8 > ran win updates.
2. Boot into OSX install software on OSX.
3. Made a separate partition OSX drive to access via wind 8 & OSX.

Most likely the partition from the OSX drive screwed up the boot manager on the win 8 side. Try doing a repair with win 8 install disc and or running the check disc using the repair( could take several min~hours).

If all fails...go back to OSX > run bootcamp > install win 8.
 
Thanks for the replies guys, I've tried the Pram reset several times already and no go.

@chomomo: #1 and #2 are correct, as for #3, There are no partitions as i'm running both OSX and Windows 8 on separate drives.

I have a feeling that for some reason, the windows 8 drive can't seem to find the EFI boot info so it can boot into windows, which somehow is on a partition on the OSX drive. I'm going to try and point it towards that direction, and may solve my issue. If not, i'll try re-installing both again, and make sure that the boot info resides in the same drive as windows...I don't think it should matter, but that's the only reason I can think of as to why it stopped working.

I'm trying not to use bootcamp but if this doesn't work out, then i'm probably going to have to. It's a shame because aside from this boot issue, everything works perfectly. :(
 
It is usually best to disconnect all other hard drives when installing windows, otherwise it may put its boot files on other drives (in your case, the OSX drive).

I suggest you temporarily disconnect the OSX drive, boot with the Windows 8 DVD and run startup repair(s) on the Windows SSD.

Only after verifying the system is able to boot successfully into the Windows SSD by itself would I reconnect the OSX drive.
 
I've had two successful Windows 8 EFI installations. Both were on separate hard drives with all other drives except the OD disconnected. Only after W8 was installed did I install Boot Camp using the Mac Pro's install disk, then updated that with the latest BC. I worked pretty good (2010 MP 3.2 quad).
 
I have Windows 8 installed on a separate drive but it took me many tries because it keeps stalling out during the install process. I suspect that my problems were due to an optical drive that was extremely near death. But after hours of trying, I finally got it installed and it works fine with vmWare Fusion.

Eventually, I replaced my Mac Pro 3,1 with a 5,1 and transplanted the drive to the new machine and it continued to function perfectly, albeit after having to call Microsoft to reverify my serial code.

Unfortunately, I can not describe how I did the install because I lost track of what worked after all the attempts needed to complete the install process.
 
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