3TB Fusion / BootCamp

Jazwire · Nov 30, 2012

So unfortunately for me I didn't hear about the incompatibility of BootCamp and the 3TB Fusion drive until after I ordered it.

I don't "NEED" bootcamp, fortunately what I use Windows for currently works fine with Parallels 8. "But" if I run up against something I need for work in the future I do need it for , I would like to be able to do it.

With that said, is the incompatibility something that are "working" on. Or is it something that is a limit of the hardware and basically will never work and they are not pursuing a way to deal with it.

And from my understanding there is no work around for it correct? (Ext HD, Etc..)

I'm torn on canceling the order and reordering with a 1TB drive, but I don't want to go to the back of the queue since I ordered it last night. If its only a temporary problem.

torana355 · Nov 30, 2012

Im pretty sure Bootcamp uses partitioning that in incompatible with 3TB drives at this time, should be fixed in the future afaik. I have bootcamp setup on my 2008 iMac and i went ahead and got the 3TB fusion for my 2012 iMac anyway.

Freis968 · Nov 30, 2012

Can someone please link me to the site that says the Fusion drive will not support bootcamp? Is this all assumption or is there actual facts by Apple stating this?

torana355 · Nov 30, 2012

Freis968 said:
Can someone please link me to the site that says the Fusion drive will not support bootcamp? Is this all assumption or is there actual facts by Apple stating this?

Fact from Apples website. Will have to dig up the link. It does support the 1TB fusion drive, just not the 3TB.

Jazwire · Nov 30, 2012

Freis968 said:
Can someone please link me to the site that says the Fusion drive will not support bootcamp? Is this all assumption or is there actual facts by Apple stating this?

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5446

"Note: Boot Camp Assistant is not supported at this time on 3TB hard drive configurations."

On phone with Apple, they are putting me on hold, while guy contacts engineering, been transferred a few times, hopefully I'll get an answer here shortly.

Galatian · Nov 30, 2012

I think this is an issue with the BIOS emulation Bootcamp is doing. I think BIOS is actually not really supporting 3TB drives. See this PC-World article for more information. I believe it is too much of a hassle for Apple to supper it.

Then again let's wait what will happen with Windows 8. From what I saw people have been successful booting it natively via EFI and hence completing ignoring any BIOS emulation.

Jazwire · Nov 30, 2012

Ok here is what I was told by Apple, who contacted his boss, who contacted someone in engineering.

Good news for the most part:

It is not a hardware incompatibly and it is something they are actively working on to resolve. The bad news is there is no eta, and no guarantee (I expected him to say that though.) But he seemed confident enough to guide me in the direction that if i didn't need Bootcamp out of the box and was ok waiting weeks/months. That I was ok not changing my order to a 1GB version.

So bottom line, if you can live without bootcamp possibly until Feb-March (possibly, who knows they might have a patch next week.) then you are ok.

torana355 · Nov 30, 2012

Jazwire said:
So bottom line, if you can live without bootcamp possibly until Feb-March (possibly, who know might have a patch next week.) then you are ok.

As i suspected, glad i got the 3tb.

barrett14 · Nov 30, 2012

Jazwire said:
Ok here is what I was told by Apple, who contacted his boss, who contacted someone in engineering.

Good news for the most part:

It is not a hardware incompatibly and it is something they are actively working on to resolve. The bad news is there is no eta, and no guarantee (I expected him to say that though.) But he seemed confident enough to guide me in the direction that if i didn't need Bootcamp out of the box and was ok waiting weeks/months. That I was ok not changing my order to a 1GB version.

So bottom line, if you can live without bootcamp possibly until Feb-March (possibly, who know might have a patch next week.) then you are ok.

Is it possible they never come up with a fix?

81Steven · Nov 30, 2012

Jazwire said:
Ok here is what I was told by Apple, who contacted his boss, who contacted someone in engineering.

Good news for the most part:

It is not a hardware incompatibly and it is something they are actively working on to resolve. The bad news is there is no eta, and no guarantee (I expected him to say that though.) But he seemed confident enough to guide me in the direction that if i didn't need Bootcamp out of the box and was ok waiting weeks/months. That I was ok not changing my order to a 1GB version.

So bottom line, if you can live without bootcamp possibly until Feb-March (possibly, who knows they might have a patch next week.) then you are ok.

If anyone can confirm this I'll go for the 3TB

barrett14 · Nov 30, 2012

I ordered the 1TB but would much prefer 3 TB... But I can't afford to get stuck without Bootcamp.. Not sure what to do.. I have already placed my order for the 1TB.

The Phazer · Nov 30, 2012

Jazwire said:
Ok here is what I was told by Apple, who contacted his boss, who contacted someone in engineering.

Good news for the most part:

It is not a hardware incompatibly and it is something they are actively working on to resolve. The bad news is there is no eta, and no guarantee (I expected him to say that though.) But he seemed confident enough to guide me in the direction that if i didn't need Bootcamp out of the box and was ok waiting weeks/months. That I was ok not changing my order to a 1GB version.

So bottom line, if you can live without bootcamp possibly until Feb-March (possibly, who knows they might have a patch next week.) then you are ok.

Good news.

Though I do wonder if, given EFI seems to be working with 64bit Windows 8 quite well save for sound drivers, if it might be easier in the long run to just fix that...

Jazwire · Nov 30, 2012

barrett14 said:
Is it possible they never come up with a fix?

I mean he did say "There is no guarantee" but I took that as a disclaimer based on how our conversation went.

Without actually saying it was heavily implied that it was highly unlikely a fix would not be forthcoming.

Feel free to call Apple (Warning: I was on hold 30min and transferred a few times) but I did not end up with a cookie cutter/low level customer support answer.

Galatian · Nov 30, 2012

The Phazer said:
Good news.

Though I do wonder if, given EFI seems to be working with 64bit Windows 8 quite well save for sound drivers, if it might be easier in the long run to just fix that...

Running it natively with EFI is in any case better then running it with an emulated BIOS! The day Apple updates their drivers to fully support Windows 8 I will get an copy of Windows 8 to run my huge Steam library.

torana355 · Nov 30, 2012

barrett14 said:
I ordered the 1TB but would much prefer 3 TB... But I can't afford to get stuck without Bootcamp.. Not sure what to do.. I have already placed my order for the 1TB.

Im pretty sure you could just create a windows partition using paragon under 2tb manually then use bootcamp to create the windows volume.

barrett14 · Nov 30, 2012

Jazwire said:
I mean he did say "There is no guarantee" but I took that as a disclaimer based on how our conversation went.

Without actually saying it was heavily implied that it was highly unlikely a fix would not be forthcoming.

Feel free to call Apple (Warning: I was on hold 30min and transferred a few times) but I did not end up with a cookie cutter/low level customer support answer.

Are you going to order the 3TB and run the risk they don't fix it?

Galatian · Nov 30, 2012

torana355 said:
Im pretty sure you could just create a windows partition using paragon under 2tb manually then use bootcamp to create the windows volume.

If my assumption is correct then this is no solution, as the legacy BIOS actually does not support drives bigger then 3TB.

Jazwire · Nov 30, 2012

barrett14 said:
Are you going to order the 3TB and run the risk they don't fix it?

I am yes.

2 Reasons -
I got the feeling it was very highly likely a fix would happen.

I don't currently "NEED" BootCamp, in fact I haven't even booted into BootCamp since probably April.
If I currently frequently used BootCamp, then I would of re-ordered it with a 1GB instead. But I don't.

torana355 · Nov 30, 2012

Galatian said:
If my assumption is correct then this is no solution, as the legacy BIOS actually does not support drives bigger then 3TB.

Ok so a Bootcamp update from apple with a redesigned BIOS emulation would be required, correct? If so we could be waiting a while lol

FuriousGreg · Nov 30, 2012

I dunno, it's been quite a while that Bootcamp hasn't been able to utilize drives larger than 2TB... I'd be wary of planning on that changing without a clear announcement from apple.

Galatian · Nov 30, 2012

torana355 said:
Ok so a Bootcamp update from apple with a redesigned BIOS emulation would be required, correct? If so we could be waiting a while lol

That's what I believe the problem is. I can actually see Apple dropping the entire BIOS emulation completely if they can get Windows 8 drivers out and have it work on EFI.

torana355 · Nov 30, 2012

Galatian said:
That's what I believe the problem is. I can actually see Apple dropping the entire BIOS emulation completely if they can get Windows 8 drivers out and have it work on EFI.

Now that would be much more ideal, perhaps they are close to a fix, can only hope.

solomanii · Dec 6, 2012

I use my IMAC more on windows side then MAC side. Am I right in understanding that the Fusion drive is software driven and not native to the hard-drive itself? Basically when I run Windows there will be no advantage from the Fusion setup?

/mm

kaelell · Dec 6, 2012

with regards cancelling order.

You can change your order if the value does not exceed that of the original order without loosing your place.

I did the same. upgraded from i5 to i7 after the original order but because the value would of increased, I took something else out my basket to bring the price back down. I think ordered that 1 item separately (external SSD drive).

elithrar · Dec 6, 2012

solomanii said:
I use my IMAC more on windows side then MAC side. Am I right in understanding that the Fusion drive is software driven and not native to the hard-drive itself? Basically when I run Windows there will be no advantage from the Fusion setup?

/mm

Correct. Boot Camp will partition space on the magnetic disk only, as "Fusion" isn't a controller (hardware) level caching tech. Windows will only use/see the hard drive and not the SSD.

3TB Fusion / BootCamp

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