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If I sleep MacOS, can I boot into the Windows partition? (bootcamp)

D

darkus

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 5, 2007
388
164
Right now, my way of going between OSes in bootcamp is to shutdown one OS, restart the computer and hold down down option as she boots up and then chose my partition.

However, I have a big project and need to leave all my windows and workflow undisturbed for months, and will just be sleeping my MacOS (rather then shutting down) when not in use.

Problem is, when I wake from sleep it just goes straight to my MacOS login screen.

Is there any way to get into my Windows partition while I sleep MacOS, or do I really have to close everything down and shutdown Mac to get into Windows?
 
darkus said:
Right now, my way of going between OSes in bootcamp is to shutdown one OS, restart the computer and hold down down option as she boots up and then chose my partition.

However, I have a big project and need to leave all my windows and workflow undisturbed for months, and will just be sleeping my MacOS (rather then shutting down) when not in use.

Problem is, when I wake from sleep it just goes straight to my MacOS login screen.

Is there any way to get into my Windows partition while I sleep MacOS, or do I really have to close everything down and shutdown Mac to get into Windows?
Click to expand...
No, not with bootcamp. MacOS has to be shutdown to reboot into Windows/bootcamp.

However, and this is the way I work, run Windows in a VMWare or parallels virtual machine. You don't say what you need windows for. It wouldn't be great for gaming, but almost anything else.
 
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darkus said:
Right now, my way of going between OSes in bootcamp is to shutdown one OS, restart the computer and hold down down option as she boots up and then chose my partition.

However, I have a big project and need to leave all my windows and workflow undisturbed for months, and will just be sleeping my MacOS (rather then shutting down) when not in use.

Problem is, when I wake from sleep it just goes straight to my MacOS login screen.

Is there any way to get into my Windows partition while I sleep MacOS, or do I really have to close everything down and shutdown Mac to get into Windows?
Click to expand...
If you boot into one operating system, you can't run another operating system from a different partition. I don't see how Apple's Boot Camp could overcome this. If I'm wrong on this, someone, please correct me but I don't think so.

It sounds like what you need is Parallels or something similar. When I ran windows on my Mac, that's what I used because I would have access to both at the same time. It would run windows in a virtual machine and nicely integrated it with macOS
 
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Darn

whats funny is that I hibernate my windows 10 and can get into macOS and then back to windows with my state perfectly preserved.

I guess the solution would be to hibernate macos, but it’s funny that there is no such option
 
darkus said:
Darn

whats funny is that I hibernate my windows 10 and can get into macOS and then back to windows with my state perfectly preserved.

I guess the solution would be to hibernate macos, but it’s funny that there is no such option
Click to expand...
On windows, hibernate saves the state written on the SSD so it works, even when completely powered off.


There is a way to have the Mac open everything you had open on shutdown, but I can't find it in the settings. I don't use that because when I start my computer, I want it to start as new not start up with whatever I had open.
 
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darkus said:
I guess the solution would be to hibernate macos, but it’s funny that there is no such option
Click to expand...
macOS has never had a Windows10/11-like hibernate.

What do you use Windows for? How much RAM does your Mac have? Depending on the answers to those, I would strongly recommend Parallels or VMware Fusion. As @bobcomer has said.
 
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Doesn't the "sleepimage" file work like Windows' hibernate? I wonder whether there's some way to exploit that.
 
You can try messing with pmset. I haven't done it in years, so I am not sure how it works now.

The man file says:

Code: 
 hibernatemode - change hibernation mode. Please use caution. (value = integer)

And:

Code: 
hibernatemode = 0 by default on desktops. The system will not back memory up to persistent storage. The system
must wake from the contents of memory; the system will lose context on power loss. This is, historically, plain
old sleep.

hibernatemode = 3 by default on portables. The system will store a copy of memory to persistent storage (the
disk), and will power memory during sleep. The system will wake from memory, unless a power loss forces it to
restore from hibernate image.

hibernatemode = 25 is only settable via pmset. The system will store a copy of memory to persistent storage (the
disk), and will remove power to memory. The system will restore from disk image. If you want "hibernation" -
slower sleeps, slower wakes, and better battery life, you should use this setting.

You could try:

Code: 
sudo pmset hibernatemode 25

Then sleep your Mac, and while it is asleep, force power off. Boot Windows. The next time you boot macOS you could potentially be back where you were.
 
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Arctic Moose said:
You can try messing with pmset. I haven't done it in years, so I am not sure how it works now.

The man file says:

Code: 
 hibernatemode - change hibernation mode. Please use caution. (value = integer)

And:

Code: 
hibernatemode = 0 by default on desktops. The system will not back memory up to persistent storage. The system
must wake from the contents of memory; the system will lose context on power loss. This is, historically, plain
old sleep.

hibernatemode = 3 by default on portables. The system will store a copy of memory to persistent storage (the
disk), and will power memory during sleep. The system will wake from memory, unless a power loss forces it to
restore from hibernate image.

hibernatemode = 25 is only settable via pmset. The system will store a copy of memory to persistent storage (the
disk), and will remove power to memory. The system will restore from disk image. If you want "hibernation" -
slower sleeps, slower wakes, and better battery life, you should use this setting.

You could try:

Code: 
sudo pmset hibernatemode 25

Then sleep your Mac, and while it is asleep, force power off. Boot Windows. The next time you boot macOS you could potentially be back where you were.
Click to expand...
Interesting. That does sound like it would work. But I would have to keep forcing it off and on like you said.

Apple should give us a hibernate option 😀
 
Arctic Moose said:
You could try:

Code: 
sudo pmset hibernatemode 25
Then sleep your Mac, and while it is asleep, force power off. Boot Windows. The next time you boot macOS you could potentially be back where you were.
Click to expand...
Have you tested this with Bootcamp Windows? Does this actually work? I have my doubts, but don't have a test setup.
 
Usually, you can just restart your Mac. When your Mac begins to restart, press and hold the Option (or Alt) ⌥ key on your keyboard. Release the key when you see a window (pictured above) showing all available startup volumes. Then Select the Boot Camp volume, then press Return or click the up arrow.
 
gilby101 said:
Have you tested this with Bootcamp Windows? Does this actually work? I have my doubts, but don't have a test setup.
Click to expand...
I don't see why it wouldn't. The whole point of hibernatemode is be able to wake up even if power has been lost (or battery depleted) and if power has been successfully cut macOS will not know that Windows has been booted in-between.

I haven't had a Bootcamp partition for years, but it is simple enough for anyone who has one to test.
 
Arctic Moose said:
I don't see why it wouldn't
Click to expand...
I can see why it might not. Hibernating may write to disk so that the boot code knows it was hibernated and proceeds from there. I agree that someone needs to test so that we can say if hibernate (rather than gentle sleep) would resolve the OP's question.
 
Unfortunately, when your Mac is in sleep mode, it is not possible to switch to your Windows partition without first logging out of your macOS partition.

Sleep mode is designed to preserve your open documents and running apps in their current state, but it doesn't allow for the computer to access other partitions or operating systems. The only way to access your Windows partition is to shut down or restart your Mac and select the Windows partition during the boot process.

One alternative solution you could consider is using virtualization software like Parallels or VMware Fusion to run Windows as a virtual machine within your macOS partition.
 
Arctic Moose said:
Have you tried it yet?
Click to expand...
No the project is an important one and don't want to take any chances losing my place, so for the time being I got a second Mac and will just be running two side by side. When the project is over then I'm going to try
 
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