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3TB iMac and Boot Camp

Ok, apparently a lot of folks (like me) bought a 3TB iMac expecting to install Windows 7 only to be greeting with a message from Boot Camp saying it isn't supported on 3TB hard drives .. hey I thought we were beyond these file system limitations, what do I know ;p

It's really easy to get Windows 7 installed, here's the steps (This is *NOT* supported by Apple -- assess your risk before proceeding):

* Just in case create a recovery USB stick - http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433

* Boot into recovery mode

* Launch Terminal

* Remove the coreStorage Logical Volume Group (this is what's preventing you from freely partitioning with Disk Utility)

** diskutil coreStorage list

** diskutil coreStorage delete UUID

* Exit Terminal

* Launch Disk Utility

* Create 3 Partitions, 1TB Each, make sure your Windows partition is 2nd as both the OSX and WINDOWS partition *must* exists below 2.2TB

** Partition 1 - OSX (HFS)

** Partition 2 - WINDOWS (FAT)

** Partition 3 - DATA (HFS) .. store all your iTunes stuff here?

* Exit Disk Utility

* Install OS X

* Create a Windows 7 USB install drive with Boot Camp on another computer

* Boot with your Windows 7 USB install drive, install Windows 7, be careful to choose the correct partition when you format

* Download the Windows 7 Boot Camp drivers - http://swcdn.apple.com/content/down...0guny5bw6vm7to92ilew38ptli0z5/BootCampESD.pkg

* Install Boot Camp drivers

* Enjoy!

Didn't have time to write a book (sorry) but I'll try to check back to answer any questions (no promises).

Cheers!
 
bkervaski said:
Ok, apparently a lot of folks (like me) bought a 3TB iMac expecting to install Windows 7 only to be greeting with a message from Boot Camp saying it isn't supported on 3TB hard drives .. hey I thought we were beyond these file system limitations, what do I know ;p

It's really easy to get Windows 7 installed, here's the steps (This is *NOT* supported by Apple -- assess your risk before proceeding):

* Just in case create a recovery USB stick - http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433

* Boot into recovery mode

* Launch Terminal

* Remove the coreStorage Logical Volume Group (this is what's preventing you from freely partitioning with Disk Utility)

** diskutil coreStorage list

** diskutil coreStorage delete UUID

* Exit Terminal

* Launch Disk Utility

* Create 3 Partitions, 1TB Each, make sure your Windows partition is 2nd as both the OSX and WINDOWS partition *must* exists below 2.2TB

** Partition 1 - OSX (HFS)

** Partition 2 - WINDOWS (FAT)

** Partition 3 - DATA (HFS) .. store all your iTunes stuff here?

* Exit Disk Utility

* Install OS X

* Create a Windows 7 USB install drive with Boot Camp on another computer

* Boot with your Windows 7 USB install drive, install Windows 7, be careful to choose the correct partition when you format

* Download the Windows 7 Boot Camp drivers - http://swcdn.apple.com/content/down...0guny5bw6vm7to92ilew38ptli0z5/BootCampESD.pkg

* Install Boot Camp drivers

* Enjoy!

Didn't have time to write a book (sorry) but I'll try to check back to answer any questions (no promises).

Cheers!
Click to expand...

Awesome.

Question:

Can I do 300gb/300gb for the OSX/Windows partition? The way I'm reading this it should be okay as long as the windows partition starts < 2.2tb?
 
Installing Windows via Boot Camp on a large (2.2 TB or larger ) Drive in Lion (10.7) and later

http://www.twocanoes.com/support/wi...tb-or-larger-)-drive-in-lion-(10.7)-and-later


For those of you with 3TB Fusion systems, I think you can break and re-build the Fusion drive to use the first partition of the hard disk as created in the link above. Follow the instructions widely available on various threads here and use "DrivePartitionID" for the hard disk where the partition is that of the first HFS+ created on the hard drive. The middle partition will be your Windows, and the top partition can be used for data or however you wish as it will not be a part of your Fusion drive.

Good luck...
 
Last edited:
Anyone else do this yet ? My iMac should be here next week... 3T fusion.. What I want to know is if Immediately repartitioning the 3 TB hard drive into three pieces , will that mess up my fusion drive performance??

So I will have 1.12T (OS X and fusion) / 1T (windows) / 1T extra mac storage) pieces ? Approximately.
 
MacCruiZe said:
Anyone else do this yet ? My iMac should be here next week... 3T fusion.. What I want to know is if Immediately repartitioning the 3 TB hard drive into three pieces , will that mess up my fusion drive performance??

So I will have 1.12T (OS X and fusion) / 1T (windows) / 1T extra mac storage) pieces ? Approximately.
Click to expand...
The Fusion drive does not care how you repartition you hard drive. What makes it fast is the SSD. So no impact on performance.
 
jido said:
The Fusion drive does not care how you repartition you hard drive. What makes it fast is the SSD. So no impact on performance.
Click to expand...

What I meant was , will the fusion drive still function. will the SSD still be connected automatically to the HDD? Or will they be separated by the formatting.

It doesn't seem like that big of a deal to reformat it into three pieces from this articles write up. Why isn't everyone just doing this ?
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but when you delete the CoreStorage logical volume group you effectively separate the 3TB into its two constituent components (the SSD and HDD) and break the Fusion drive functionality/automatic tiering. You'd have to rebuild the CoreStorage logical volume to get the Fusion drive to again work as advertised (I didn't see anywhere where you did that).

I'd be very careful with this procedure until it's verified that the Fusion drive still functions properly.
 
You will have to break the Fusion drive in order to create 3 partitions on the hard disk (Fusion can only create 1 partition for BootCamp, and on a 3TB drive it will not work due to Windows 2.2TB issue).

I will be surprised if Disk Utility would automatically repair the Fusion drive using the first partition ... but someone might try and see.

I would anticipate that you will have to manually recreate the Fusion drive using Terminal commands and specify the DiskPartitionID for the hard disk.

Hopefully ... someone will try doing this on a 3TB Fusion iMac and report his experience.
 
3TB Fusion

I have my imac 3TB Fusion now and hope that there will be a fix soon with keeping the fusion running...:)
 
hfg said:
Hopefully ... someone will try doing this on a 3TB Fusion iMac and report his experience.
Click to expand...

Yes, please !! Mine is schedule for delivery Christmas Eve... Let's get some input from someone (smarter than me) who has actually done it so I don't have to be the first one !!

Not much I can do before trying this, no point in migrating all my info over if I'm just gonna have to wipe it to repartition.
 
hfg said:
You will have to break the Fusion drive in order to create 3 partitions on the hard disk (Fusion can only create 1 partition for BootCamp, and on a 3TB drive it will not work due to Windows 2.2TB issue).

I will be surprised if Disk Utility would automatically repair the Fusion drive using the first partition ... but someone might try and see.

I would anticipate that you will have to manually recreate the Fusion drive using Terminal commands and specify the DiskPartitionID for the hard disk.

Hopefully ... someone will try doing this on a 3TB Fusion iMac and report his experience.
Click to expand...

I have done this successfully :) The OP's guide misses some important steps, i followed different guides on the net to do it but all in all it was pretty straight forward.

Here is a link to my thread on this https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1511887/
 
Last edited:
torana355 said:
I have done this successfully :) The OP's guide misses some important steps, i followed different guides on the net to do it but all in all it was pretty straight forward.
Click to expand...

Awesome !! please help ! could you direct me to the guides that helped you make it work?
 
torana355 said:
I have done this successfully :) The OP's guide misses some important steps, i followed different guides on the net to do it but all in all it was pretty straight forward.
Click to expand...

Wow ... that is great! Thanks for posting your experience for others. :)

I knew it would work with partitioning the SSD, and thus assumed the same process would work with the hard drive as well. This will be of great relief for those who have the 3TB Fusion and want to BootCamp Windows.

It is unfortunate that Apple didn't provide a larger SSD option with Fusion so that users who wished could put their Windows on the SSD.



-howard
 
hfg said:
Wow ... that is great! Thanks for posting your experience for others. :)

I knew it would work with partitioning the SSD, and thus assumed the same process would work with the hard drive as well. This will be of great relief for those who have the 3TB Fusion and want to BootCamp Windows.

It is unfortunate that Apple didn't provide a larger SSD option with Fusion so that users who wished could put their Windows on the SSD.



-howard
Click to expand...

Yep i was going to install a 512GB SSD but im not going to bother now that i know how well fusion works and ive got windows 7 working :D Winning.
 
Got it working in a rather simple fashion. Broke the Fusion drive in recovery mode, repartitioned the harddrive with a MAC, Win, MAC partition. Reconnected the MAC partitions and the SSD in a Logical Volume Fusion style and reinstalled Mac OS X. Explained it in great detail on my blog:

http://tmblr.co/ZeDCRyZsh-kC
 
jberends said:
Got it working in a rather simple fashion. Broke the Fusion drive in recovery mode, repartitioned the harddrive with a MAC, Win, MAC partition. Reconnected the MAC partitions and the SSD in a Logical Volume Fusion style and reinstalled Mac OS X. Explained it in great detail on my blog:

http://tmblr.co/ZeDCRyZsh-kC
Click to expand...

VERY VERY NICE. You answered the main question I had -- whether three partitions could be stitched together to form one logical Fusion volume. Evidently they can. It almost makes me wish I hadn't sent back my 2012 iMac...almost. :)
 
jberends said:
Got it working in a rather simple fashion. Broke the Fusion drive in recovery mode, repartitioned the harddrive with a MAC, Win, MAC partition. Reconnected the MAC partitions and the SSD in a Logical Volume Fusion style and reinstalled Mac OS X. Explained it in great detail on my blog:

http://tmblr.co/ZeDCRyZsh-kC
Click to expand...

Nice write up ... I was hoping someone would try adding the remaining HD space as a 3rd Fusion partition join to confirm it could be done. :)

Thanks for sharing the method with all ... :cool:


-howard
 
kfscoll said:
VERY VERY NICE. You answered the main question I had -- whether three partitions could be stitched together to form one logical Fusion volume. Evidently they can. It almost makes me wish I hadn't sent back my 2012 iMac...almost. :)
Click to expand...

One caviat. I am still trying to install windows on the windows partition. I verified that my fusion drive works flawlessly for a couple of days by restoring photos and music from my old imac. All is well in that category.

However like the commenter on my blog it seems hard for windows to install itself. (Simple complain, cannot install). Technically it must be as easy as presented in post 26 from bkervaski. Working on that part now.
 
Hi,

i think i am the commenter on your blog :) Ok i have try it 6 times but with no success. The only difference is that i have installed the Windows Boot stick with
Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool. Not with the BootCamp because i have no
working BootCamp and no second MAC. It is possible that´s that the problem is ? :eek:

and sorry for my bad English i am german.. ;)

Regards

Oliver
 
I've heard somewhere that Win 8 does not have this stupid restriction of 2.2TB. Is it true? Can I install Win 8 on my iMac via BootCamp without struggling with partitions etc... ?
 
I've heard somewhere that Win 8 does not have this stupid restriction of 2.2TB. Is it true? Can I install Win 8 on my iMac via BootCamp without struggling with partitions etc... ?
Click to expand...

I am sorry but i think no it´s the same problem..

Regards

Oliver
 
DigitalDream said:
Hi,

i think i am the commenter on your blog :) Ok i have try it 6 times but with no success. The only difference is that i have installed the Windows Boot stick with
Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool. Not with the BootCamp because i have no
working BootCamp and no second MAC. It is possible that´s that the problem is ? :eek:

and sorry for my bad English i am german.. ;)

Regards

Oliver
Click to expand...

I made my windows 7 usb stick the same way so that is not the issue. I had that same issue with it not wanting to install windows on the partition when i did it my way, you need to format the partition in the windows setup, after that it will still have the error message, then just reboot the iMac off the windows usb stick again then it will work. That being said i didn't merge the last partition into the fusion drive, i left it as a storage partition for my videos.
 
Last edited:
torana355 said:
That being said i didn't merge the last partition into the fusion drive, i left it as a storage partition for my videos.
Click to expand...

hmmm. I fail to install Windows on the partition as well. I formated with diskutil as FAT32 (MS-DOS). The first time booting of the USB drive (generated using DVD/USB tool from windows) it reformatted that partition to NTFS. I can see that in Disk Utility.app in Mac OS X. So the installation of windows -before- restiching might be essential to the success.

I get the same error messages as DigitalDream.

"No Device drivers were found. Make sure that the installation media contains the correct drivers, and then click Ok"

and

"Windows is unable to install to the selected location, error 8x80300001"

I saw this thread and tried the trick of the last post (Xavy Nandez on Monday, December 03, 2012 8:59 PM) without success.

I also heard something of the maximum amount of primary partitions (limit to 4) on a disk on which Windows might install. With the installation of Mac OS X an extra Boot partition was added.
 
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