Windows fails to detect the Mac Pro's boot disk.
Windows fails to detect the Mac Pro's boot disk.
I'm facing issues installing Windows 10 on my Mac Pro 5,1. The bootable media isn't showing up in the boot picker. The drive is a 16GB Kingston USB 2.0 formatted with ExFat and MBR. I've copied the ISO to it before, but it doesn't work now. It seems the problem might be with my Mac itself. I could switch to another USB if I had one available, or I'm looking for alternative solutions.
Are you required to engrave the drive? I’m unfamiliar with Mac systems, though I assumed most installation media needed engraving to include a bootloader.
Use a USB drive formatted with FAT32 for optimal Windows installation on Mac. This format supports larger files than FAT32, which can handle files up to 4 GB. If you need to create an installer for Windows 10 2018 or newer, consider splitting the install.wim file, as it reaches about 4.92 GB. ExFAT is compatible but doesn't meet the same size requirements for Windows installers.
The simplest method without depending on third-party tools is using "dd," which is also present on macOS. The syntax remains consistent with Linux, such as sudo dd if=windows.iso of=/dev/diskN, where "/dev/diskN" matches the USB drive. It has consistently functioned well for me, though it isn't the most intuitive way.
Hm.... you're right, though not directly because of "dd". Etching a bootable image with "dd" is, in general, fine but it depends on the ISO file itself as "dd" will clone whatever the source is. If it's a hybrid ISO, it will work just fine. But it appears the current Win11 ISO from Microsoft is just a standard ISO 9660 image for optical media only. I'm not sure how recent this is as I don't recall it being a problem the last time I installed Windows, which admittedly wasn't in the recent past. But I don't recall ever resorting to special tools. It may well be that my brain has blocked out the traumatic experience. Why Microsoft have opted for this when hybrid ISOs have been a thing for a very long time is a mystery and so MS. One could repack the image, make it hybrid, then "dd" it, but at this point you may as well use an all-in-one tool.
@RomantheFabulous Is this an earlier macOS release? If it was built for Intel processors, those older versions included a Bootcamp utility that let you launch the OS and format a drive for Windows installation. It handled drivers automatically. In reality, the only official method was using Windows Installer on an external storage device like USB or CD. There might have been another approach, but it’s more complicated to execute correctly. I remember it required making a MBR/FAT32 partition from macOS/OSX and designating the installer drive as the boot device. After that, you restarted the system and pressed specific keys to access the boot menu, then used the external drive with the installer to complete the setup.
Setting up from a USB drive is straightforward. I’ve managed to install Linux without much hassle, though there’s a specific step that works across all systems. Press the Options key while holding it down. Insert the USB containing the burned ISO file. Power on your computer. Once it starts, take off your finger from the Options key. This method is simpler than installing on an old Windows machine and dealing with BIOS settings.