Apricorn Velocity Solo X2 and Boot Camp with Win 7 x64 = Endless Rebooting Loop

I'm about to head down this path. I was initially going to buy 3 of these but I guess I'll go for two, with using an internal slot for bootcamp if necessary.

I'll let you know how it goes when I test it out.

Did you find out anything?

IM having the same issue.... i ordered an original x1 for mac last year, and it would not boot into mac but it would boot into win 7 64. I sent it back..... now i figured i would try with the x2. now mac side works, 64 win 7 does not.... have you tried reload of windows with the apricon x2?

For now, you need to shut down the computer, turn it on again under OS-X and make sure the startup disk is the OS-X one, even if it is on an apricorn or not. After that, restart under OS-X again and shut down via the apple menu.

Turn the computer on again, and immediately after the EFI chime hold the option key pressed. Wait for the boot options to appear on the screen and choose your windows boot disk (on apricorn in this case).

It should boot into windows, after the posting of the apricorn card(s) being detected.

You have to always shut down the computer completely through OS-X when this problem comes back. And the bad news is it will always come back when you shut down via windows, or use restart on any of the two OSs. The only way to avoid this annoyance is to always shut down via OS-X prior to booting into Windows on apricorn via option key. I think something necessary gets written in the EFI partition during the OS-X shut down procedure, but not during the windows shut down procedure or any restart.

There is no solution for this as of now.

Solution?

Dr. Stealth said:

Is anyone successfully using a Velocity Solo X2 to boot Windows with Boot Camp ?

I asked Apricorn about this and they emailed me back that there were some "issues" that they were trying to work out. But that's all they told me and were very vauge.

So, I went ahead and bought one. I have two fresh SSD's, one with Win 8 x64 and one with Win 7 x64 installed. Both SSD's boot fine when in my 2010 MP drive bays. Neither will boot successfully when installed in the Velocity Solo X2. The Apricorn BIOS comes and goes then Windows looks like it's going to start but then it crashes and reboots my mac. Endless loop….

Just wondering if anyone has been successful doing this ?

Thanks !

Click to expand...

I have an Apricorn velocity 2 in my 2010 Mac Pro. Initially, I had attached on it 1 SSD with Mountain Lion and another one with bootcamp Win 7. Boot on Lion was fine but boot on Win 7 always failed. I have now found that if I only attach the Win 7 SSD on Apricorn card and lion SSD on another SATA III PCIe card, windows boots now normally, as well as Lion. I also discovered that if you have another partion windows on a regular drive bay, Win 7 boot on SSD becomes again impossible. Therefore, it seems that windows' boot on Apricorn attached SSD succeeds if no MacOs Lion is also connected to the Velocity solo 2 and also if no other windows partition seats in a regular bay.

Apparently there's a driver conflict issue on some of the X2's when being used in combination with USB3 or USB3/eSATA PCIe cards. Maybe the same issue occurs with multiple X2's? I don't have one to test, only going from reports from other people. Not sure that's playing a role here with Win7, but might be something to consider.

I have one of these cards, with one SSD on it. It's got Mac OS and windows 8 boot camped running on it fine. Leaving all 4 interal bays free for 3.5" data disks

Nox

My experience is:

I have 2 Velocity Solo x2 cards, one with OS X SSD, and one with Windows-8 SSD. Either card by itself will boot and run fine. However if both cards are installed at the same time, the Windows-8 will not boot fully (starts to boot, then displays "Boot drive not found".

I am currently running (Mac Pro 5,1) with OS X on a Sonnet Pro card (RAID-0) and Windows-8 on the Solo x2 card. I also have the CalDigit USB3/eSATA card installed with no ill effects.


-howard

I didn't say it didn't take a little work to get windows 8 booting

try running the windows 8 repair tool.

Nox

I've managed to get Windows 10 Pro Insider preview running on my macpro 3,1 with a velocity solo x2

This procedure also works for Windows 7 & 8.

Needed:
- Refind EFI Bootmanager
- Usb stick with grub4dos
- Physical cd/dvdrom drive in your Mac Pro, without it, bios emulation is no-go!
- Windows 7/8/10 iso on a physical dvd rom.

Installation:
- Install Refind on your OSX drive.
- On a windows machine, prepare a grub4dos usb stick. See here for instructions http://www.themudcrab.com/acronis_grub4dos.php.

The grubinstaller wil make the right bootsector/mbr on the usb stick for GRUB4DOS.

When the USB stick is ready it should contain:

grldr
menu.lst

My menu.lst is:

title windows 7/8/10
root (hd0,0)
chainloader /bootmgr

Install Windows 7/8/10 from a dvd-rom onto an SSD drive on your Velocity X2. This SSD *MUST* be disk0 so mounted on the Velocity and *NOT* on the 2nd sata connection of the Velocity X2.

If Windows is installed. Boot to Refind and choose the usb stick to boot from.

You'll see the option rom of the Velocity shortly and grub4dos will start then disk0 will boot Windows.

I have not found any other way to boot Windows.

viktorvos said:

I've managed to get Windows 10 Pro Insider preview running on my macpro 3,1 with a velocity solo x2

This procedure also works for Windows 7 & 8.
……………….

You'll see the option rom of the Velocity shortly and grub4dos will start then disk0 will boot Windows.

I have not found any other way to boot Windows.

Click to expand...

Sometimes running a Mac is a right bugger. So much for it just works, well it does for Windows.

viktorvos said:

I've managed to get Windows 10 Pro Insider preview running on my macpro 3,1 with a velocity solo x2

This procedure also works for Windows 7 & 8.

Needed:
- Refind EFI Bootmanager
- Usb stick with grub4dos
- Physical cd/dvdrom drive in your Mac Pro, without it, bios emulation is no-go!
- Windows 7/8/10 iso on a physical dvd rom.

Installation:
- Install Refind on your OSX drive.
- On a windows machine, prepare a grub4dos usb stick. See here for instructions http://www.themudcrab.com/acronis_grub4dos.php.

The grubinstaller wil make the right bootsector/mbr on the usb stick for GRUB4DOS.

When the USB stick is ready it should contain:

grldr
menu.lst

My menu.lst is:

title windows 7/8/10
root (hd0,0)
chainloader /bootmgr

Install Windows 7/8/10 from a dvd-rom onto an SSD drive on your Velocity X2. This SSD *MUST* be disk0 so mounted on the Velocity and *NOT* on the 2nd sata connection of the Velocity X2.

If Windows is installed. Boot to Refind and choose the usb stick to boot from.

You'll see the option rom of the Velocity shortly and grub4dos will start then disk0 will boot Windows.

I have not found any other way to boot Windows.

Click to expand...

Great! After you do this procedure can you then place the Windows SSD on the second sata connector and boot from it with option /alt ?

viktorvos said:

I've managed to get Windows 10 Pro Insider preview running on my macpro 3,1 with a velocity solo x2

This procedure also works for Windows 7 & 8.

Needed:
- Refind EFI Bootmanager
- Usb stick with grub4dos
- Physical cd/dvdrom drive in your Mac Pro, without it, bios emulation is no-go!
- Windows 7/8/10 iso on a physical dvd rom.

Installation:
- Install Refind on your OSX drive.
- On a windows machine, prepare a grub4dos usb stick. See here for instructions http://www.themudcrab.com/acronis_grub4dos.php.

The grubinstaller wil make the right bootsector/mbr on the usb stick for GRUB4DOS.

When the USB stick is ready it should contain:

grldr
menu.lst

My menu.lst is:

title windows 7/8/10
root (hd0,0)
chainloader /bootmgr

Install Windows 7/8/10 from a dvd-rom onto an SSD drive on your Velocity X2. This SSD *MUST* be disk0 so mounted on the Velocity and *NOT* on the 2nd sata connection of the Velocity X2.

If Windows is installed. Boot to Refind and choose the usb stick to boot from.

You'll see the option rom of the Velocity shortly and grub4dos will start then disk0 will boot Windows.

I have not found any other way to boot Windows.

Click to expand...

Hello Victorvos,

After this procedure will your Windows 10 Boot if you install it on the Apricorn's second data connector? I also have a MacPro 3,1 with the Capricorn SoloX2 with two SSD's attached to it. First SSD boots OSX and I would like the second SSD to Boot up Windows 10.

Thanks, so far this is the best solution i have found!