Windows installation (APFS related)

[DrunkGranny]

Hi! I am having trouble installing Windows on a SSD that was converted to APFS and acted like my backup drive. I formatted it to JHFS+ and then FAT32/ExFAT with no errors. (There was an additional step needed to format APFS drive, something like "removeContainer"). So, Windows installer won't copy files on it. I tried multiple USB drives, multiple installation images and creating USB installer from both macOS and Windows.

 

[Going Bald]

Why would you want to format FAT32?
Format it HFS+ and then in the Win10 installer format it NTFS. You want to keep the GUID partition table when installing Win10 on a UEFI capable system so Win10 installs UEFI. Formatting the partition FAT32/EXFAT creates a hybrid HFS+/MBR partition table for that partition.

 

[DrunkGranny]

Why would you want to format FAT32?
Format it HFS+ and then in the Win10 installer format it NTFS. You want to keep the GUID partition table when installing Win10 on a UEFI capable system so Win10 installs UEFI. Formatting the partition FAT32/EXFAT creates a hybrid HFS+/MBR partition table for that partition.

Thank you for your help. It turns out you have to unplug all of your drives besides the one you are installing windows on and the issue is not APFS-related at all. Solved now.