- Joined
- Dec 21, 2015
- Messages
- 11
- Motherboard
- Gigabyte ga-z97x-ud5h
- CPU
- Intel i7-4790K
- Graphics
- Sapphire Nitro+ RX 580
- Mac
Adding a Windows 10 install on a second drive, just wondering how to setup the SSD properly for UEFI install? Formatting etc.
How should I format SSD for Windows 10 UEFI install in Disk Utility?
- Thread starter samthefireball
- Start date
- Status
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2021
- Messages
- 900
- Motherboard
- Asus z590 ROG Maximus XIII Hero
- CPU
- i9-11900K
- Graphics
- RX 6600 XT
- Mac
- Classic Mac
- Mobile Phone
The way to think about it is the Windows installer will be reluctant to choose any drive that appears to have a format, unless it finds an existing Windows install on it.
So what you want is a drive with no format, then Windows will be predisposed to using it.
With Disk Utility the closest you can get to a blank drive suitable for Windows is GPT and MSDOS or exFAT.
Using terminal and dd(1) or ditto you can write a few MB of /dev/zero to get drive to clobber the partition table, effectively making the drive blank.
You can also look up how to invoke the command prompt from Windoes installer and use format command to layout the drive.
As mentioned by trs96 you want GPT (GUID Partition Table) and NTFS, but Windows installer is going to install at least 3 other support ares on the drive as normal operation.
Do not try to share a drive with MacOS without expert skillz
Mainstream Linux (Ubuntu) and Windows co-exist well these days so that's not too risky, but I've seen recent Ubuntu installer (Unity) overwrite OpenCore on NVMe drive unrelated to chosen target drive, which was a nasty surprise.
Save a copy of your hack EFI in a manner you can put it back if needed after your system won't boot from normal macOS
Sometimes you will need to reset NVRAM to recover from an install glitch and get back to previous install on other drive.
So what you want is a drive with no format, then Windows will be predisposed to using it.
With Disk Utility the closest you can get to a blank drive suitable for Windows is GPT and MSDOS or exFAT.
Using terminal and dd(1) or ditto you can write a few MB of /dev/zero to get drive to clobber the partition table, effectively making the drive blank.
You can also look up how to invoke the command prompt from Windoes installer and use format command to layout the drive.
As mentioned by trs96 you want GPT (GUID Partition Table) and NTFS, but Windows installer is going to install at least 3 other support ares on the drive as normal operation.
Do not try to share a drive with MacOS without expert skillz
Mainstream Linux (Ubuntu) and Windows co-exist well these days so that's not too risky, but I've seen recent Ubuntu installer (Unity) overwrite OpenCore on NVMe drive unrelated to chosen target drive, which was a nasty surprise.
Save a copy of your hack EFI in a manner you can put it back if needed after your system won't boot from normal macOS
Sometimes you will need to reset NVRAM to recover from an install glitch and get back to previous install on other drive.
- Status