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Mac Pro Bootcamp Hell

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DrLemur

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 2, 2014
46
0
Hey people,

New to these forums. Before I launch into the insane time I've been having trying to get bootcamp to install Windows 8 on my new Mac Pro 6-core 2013 model, I would firstly just like to ask if anyone else has had issues and if anyone out there who has actually got it to successfully install and run.. how they did it and which version of windows they used. It would seem that this machine neither supports Windows 7 (which is idiotic in my opinion!) or my OEM version of windows 8. It seems I have wasted money on both of these because I stupidly assumed (like with any of my other macs) that it didn't matter. That is my own fault for not being thorough of course but either way is there a list of versions that ARE supported for this machine. I can't find that info anywhere.
 
h9826790

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,614
8,546
Hong Kong
I don't have a nMP, but on the oMP, I can simply boot from the disk and install windows without touch bootcamp.

May be you can try that either.
 
J

JoSch

macrumors 6502
Feb 22, 2013
331
105
DrLemur said:
Hey people,

New to these forums. Before I launch into the insane time I've been having trying to get bootcamp to install Windows 8 on my new Mac Pro 6-core 2013 model, I would firstly just like to ask if anyone else has had issues and if anyone out there who has actually got it to successfully install and run.. how they did it and which version of windows they used. It would seem that this machine neither supports Windows 7 (which is idiotic in my opinion!) or my OEM version of windows 8. It seems I have wasted money on both of these because I stupidly assumed (like with any of my other macs) that it didn't matter. That is my own fault for not being thorough of course but either way is there a list of versions that ARE supported for this machine. I can't find that info anywhere.
Click to expand...
You should be able to install Windows 7 on the nMP, but you have to do the partitioning manually.
 
M

MacProCard

macrumors 6502
Jun 3, 2014
299
13
DrLemur said:
Hey people,

New to these forums. Before I launch into the insane time I've been having trying to get bootcamp to install Windows 8 on my new Mac Pro 6-core 2013 model, I would firstly just like to ask if anyone else has had issues and if anyone out there who has actually got it to successfully install and run.. how they did it and which version of windows they used. It would seem that this machine neither supports Windows 7 (which is idiotic in my opinion!) or my OEM version of windows 8. It seems I have wasted money on both of these because I stupidly assumed (like with any of my other macs) that it didn't matter. That is my own fault for not being thorough of course but either way is there a list of versions that ARE supported for this machine. I can't find that info anywhere.
Click to expand...

Congrats. It's not that bad. I setup bootcamp on my late 2013 rMBP and nMP. Used Win8.1 PRO CD. I did have to reset NVRAM on both boxes but everything worked fine after that.

Beware. It is possible for bootcamp to remove a partition if either one of the partitions re-sizes itself. So far encrypting both drives has done the trick for me. No problems to report.

Good luck and enjoy!
 
D

DrLemur

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 2, 2014
46
0
Thanks for the reply. I have not tried resetting NVRAM yet. I'll give that a go. As of the time of writing this I can actually get to the point where Windows 8 Pro has installed only when it gets to the "finished" part I always get the error: "Windows could not update the computer's boot configuration." and then it all shuts down and that's that. Frustrating.
 
M

MacProCard

macrumors 6502
Jun 3, 2014
299
13
DrLemur said:
Thanks for the reply. I have not tried resetting NVRAM yet. I'll give that a go. As of the time of writing this I can actually get to the point where Windows 8 Pro has installed only when it gets to the "finished" part I always get the error: "Windows could not update the computer's boot configuration." and then it all shuts down and that's that. Frustrating.
Click to expand...

Yep. Reset the NVRAM and it should work next time. Do you plan on encrypting the partitions? If so, do the OS X side first!!!

I'd also have a time machine backup in the wings for just in case.
 
D

DrLemur

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 2, 2014
46
0
Ahh my new friend you are a genius!! It worked a charm. All is well and up and running! I can't believe it was so simple a solution. Since the mac pro was straight out of the box I never would have thought resetting the PRAM / VRAM for this issue would make a difference but in fact an apple tech today from Apple actually scoffed at me and made me feel a bit stupid for the very suggestion of trying it and specifically told me not to bother when I brought it up so I never ended up even trying.

Anyway you have no idea the countless hours I've spent over the last week struggling my ass off with this and finding no one to help or suggest anything useful. I could not thank you enough. Finally I can get back to work. Amazing :) :)
 
D

DrLemur

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 2, 2014
46
0
It's still a shame you can't run Windows 7 on these machines and officially at least it seems like Apple is phasing earlier support out but nonetheless I am very happy I can get anything going as I need certain intensive windows apps for my job.

I've been told the reason windows 7 can't be run on the new 2013 MP's is because of the system architecture or something but no idea if somehow someone has found a way to make that happen. I really like W7 more than 8 so I'd be very interested if anyone ever figured out a way to do this without emulation like Vware etc.
 
M

MacProCard

macrumors 6502
Jun 3, 2014
299
13
DrLemur said:
Ahh my new friend you are a genius!! It worked a charm. All is well and up and running! I can't believe it was so simple a solution. Since the mac pro was straight out of the box I never would have thought resetting the PRAM / VRAM for this issue would make a difference but in fact an apple tech today from Apple actually scoffed at me and made me feel a bit stupid for the very suggestion of trying it and specifically told me not to bother when I brought it up so I never ended up even trying.

Anyway you have no idea the countless hours I've spent over the last week struggling my ass off with this and finding no one to help or suggest anything useful. I could not thank you enough. Finally I can get back to work. Amazing :) :)
Click to expand...

I can't take credit for the fix as I found out about it on here. Some really good info to be found.

Glad it helped.
 
J

JoSch

macrumors 6502
Feb 22, 2013
331
105
DrLemur said:
It's still a shame you can't run Windows 7 on these machines and officially at least it seems like Apple is phasing earlier support out but nonetheless I am very happy I can get anything going as I need certain intensive windows apps for my job.

I've been told the reason windows 7 can't be run on the new 2013 MP's is because of the system architecture or something but no idea if somehow someone has found a way to make that happen. I really like W7 more than 8 so I'd be very interested if anyone ever figured out a way to do this without emulation like Vware etc.
Click to expand...

Well, my Macbook is not supporting 64bit Win7, too. But lo and behold, I managed to install it. I can't think of a reason, except driver support.
 
D

DrLemur

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 2, 2014
46
0
I've got it working on the Macbooks too weirdly enough but for some reason I can't get it to install on the 2013 MacPro specifically whatever I do. If anyone else has actually accomplished this miraculous feat without using an emulator I and a host of people who work at NextByte here in Australia would certainly like to hear about any workarounds as we all collectively hate windows 8 as much as the next man :)
 
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