The 4K Dell OptiMac - 9020 MT - Core i7-4790 - Radeon RX 570 - LG 4K IPS Monitor

[aristeidk]

I am having a lot of trouble getting Windows 10 installed on my OptiMac. It simply refuses to boot after I have run the Windows installer from the USB. It seems like the SSD that I am installing to doesn't get a proper EFI partition.

If anyone who has had success with this on the OptiMac is around, could persuade you to take a look at sad tale here (and a couple of posts more after that): https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/guide-multibooting-uefi-on-separate-drives.198869/post-2094502

I am at the end of my rope here

Make a Windows 10 UEFI USB Installer

On a 64 bit Windows 7, 8.1 or 10 Computer: 1. Download the Windows 10 Creators Update ISO from Microsoft.com via their Create Install Media Download Tool Note: A Windows 10 license is not needed to do this. You don't have to enter a product key to download or install it. 2. Leave the ISO...

www.tonymacx86.com

 

[t33j4y]

Make a Windows 10 UEFI USB Installer

On a 64 bit Windows 7, 8.1 or 10 Computer: 1. Download the Windows 10 Creators Update ISO from Microsoft.com via their Create Install Media Download Tool Note: A Windows 10 license is not needed to do this. You don't have to enter a product key to download or install it. 2. Leave the ISO...

www.tonymacx86.com

Thanks, but no cigar. Same result as the other attempts with a USB install drive created with Rufus and Windows Media Creation Utility

Boots fine from the USB, I delete the old partitions and click "New" - it then creates an MSR partition and the data partition but no EFI partition. Then I proceed to "Next" and it starts copying files and preparing stuff. When it finally prompts to restart, I remove the USB drive before it reboots.

And then it boots to a "No bootable devices found" Which I attribute to the missing EFI partition.

 

[t33j4y]

I found this: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...-problem/3230b2ed-2076-4c45-bb92-59d09ed21dab

Apparently, if the computer was "born" with Windows 7, it can somehow be stuck in this belief and even if UEFI is selected, it won't work. So I would as that article suggest, have to install Windows 7 (which uses MBR) and then update to Windows 10 to make BIOS settings "catch up". This seems stupid (but hey, it's Windows...)

Funny thing is, the recycler I bought it from had installed Windows 10 on a new drive that it came with. But I don't know if it was MBR. Anyway, that install is long gone since I never in my wildest dreams imagined that installing Windows 10 would be a problem...

At any rate, I am starting to think that the CMOS NVRAM might have become corrupted somehow or holding wrong information. So maybe I should clear it. I would have thought this happened when I swapped the CMOS battery when I prepared for MacOS, but perhaps I didn't leave the battery out long enough.

Question is: If I do that, will that screw up my existing MacOS install as it removes the UEFI listing for it? Or is it just a matter of changing the BIOS settings again and booting from the MacOS drive and all the EFI info will be written back to NVRAM and all will be right? (and yes, I have a clone of the disk)

 

[tofeeq]

I also have a problem with Windows 10.
I currently have Mojave on NVMe and Win 10 on HDD (+a copy of mac EFI Clover in HDD EFI).

I tried to add a second partition to the NVMe (ExFat using Disk utillity) and install Windows on it:
1-booted using Win installer USB
2-from there selected the ExFat but Win did not accept to install
3-formatted the ExFat as NTFS using the installer but still Win did not accept to install
4-removed the NTFS using the installer and selected the free space and clicked New (generated a couple of new partitions), accepted to go to next step but then quickly error cannot install.

Another try: booted to HDD Win, formatted the ExFat on NVMe as NTFS, used some cloning software to clone my Win HDD partition on the new Win NTFS NVMe partition. Result: the software has probably played with the partition table of the NVMe to change the size of the new 150 GB Win NVMe to the 75 GB of Win HDD. Very bad that it made my Mac partition corrupt (not more seen by clover) Win NVMe and Win HDD dosent boot as well and are not seen by clover (clover backup on USB, the original HDD clover doesnt boot anymore).

So it seems that I have to install everything from the beginning

Any possibility to get both systems working on the same NVMe?

 

[trs96]

Any possibility to get both systems working on the same NVMe?

I would not try to put Windows and macOS on the same drive. It's only inviting trouble. What I do is have a separate dedicated Win10 machine that I use for that. Maybe about 10-15 percent of the time.

If you want to dual boot on separate drives read and follow the guide by Going Bald in Multi-Booting.

Guide: Multibooting UEFI on Separate Drives

MultiBooting Win10, OS X and Ubuntu on separate drives is as simple a procedure as installing all 3 on the same drive and booting them with Clover ( See http://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/guide-multibooting-uefi.197352/ ). What you need: 3 HDDs or SSDs or some combination of the two. Your...

www.tonymacx86.com

 

[tofeeq]

I would not try to put Windows and macOS on the same drive. It's only inviting trouble. What I do is have a separate dedicated Win10 machine that I use for that. Maybe about 10-15 percent of the time.

If you want to dual boot on separate drives read and follow the guide by Going Bald in Multi-Booting.

Guide: Multibooting UEFI on Separate Drives

MultiBooting Win10, OS X and Ubuntu on separate drives is as simple a procedure as installing all 3 on the same drive and booting them with Clover ( See http://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/guide-multibooting-uefi.197352/ ). What you need: 3 HDDs or SSDs or some combination of the two. Your...

www.tonymacx86.com

Yes, it is surely problematic. I had the dual-boot (Mac NVMe and Windows HDD) easily. Now I thought to install Windows on NVMe to try to play some games (otherwise I do not need Windows).
I can buy a SATA SSD for Windows but Gaming might profit from the NVMe speed, this is why I wanted to use the same drive.

 

[trs96]

I can buy a SATA SSD for Windows but Gaming might profit from the NVMe speed

It makes no difference in gaming when Windows is on an NVMe. The only benefit is that the games load a little faster than an HDD initially. It doesn't affect in game play.

 

[tofeeq]

It makes no difference in gaming when Windows is on an NVME. The only benefit is that the games load faster initially. It doesn't affect in game play.

Oh, that's good to know. Thanks...

 

[craighazan]

Yes it is surely problematic. I had the dual-boot (Mac NVMe and Windows HDD) easily. Now I thought to install Windows on NVMe to try to play some games (otherwise I do not need Windows).
I can buy a sata SSD for Windows but Gaming might profit from the NVMe speed, this is why I wanted to use the same drive.

I agree with trs96, the numbers look good on NVMe but does it make a difference?. I have Windows installed on an NVMe. It doesn’t really load Destiny 2 any faster than it does on a standard SSD. The difference is barely noticeable and D2 is a big game.

 

[pointandclick]

Hello all! I switched from my old Ivy Bridge Gigabyte build to a 9020 several months ago and it's been going mostly well thanks to this guide.

I have had an odd issue though with the system hanging (beachball of death) for 20-30 seconds occasionally. The mouse still responds, but that's about it. Once it passes, all the actions performed during the hang all happen at once. I have swapped out SSD's and even ran MemTest because it's so weird, the system otherwise works great.
Has anyone experienced anything similar?