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Installing Windows 10 in iMac (mid-2010 version)

T

tim618

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 28, 2022
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Hi all, I would like to reuse my old iMac (mid 2010 version) by installing Windows 10. However, I learnt from Apple that the installation of Windows 10 is supported by Bootcamp 6 while my old iMac can only use Bootcamp 5. Does anyone know if Bootcamp 5 can also use to install Windows 10 in iMac mid 2010 and tried that before?

Also, the dvd reader of my iMac got some problem that the disc reading is not reliable. Can the Windows 10 be installed by using a USB drive instead?
 
It’s a few extra steps but it’s definitely possible to install Windows 10 on your machine.

Tutorial:
 
tim618 said:
Hi all, I would like to reuse my old iMac (mid 2010 version) by installing Windows 10. However, I learnt from Apple that the installation of Windows 10 is supported by Bootcamp 6 while my old iMac can only use Bootcamp 5. Does anyone know if Bootcamp 5 can also use to install Windows 10 in iMac mid 2010 and tried that before?

Also, the dvd reader of my iMac got some problem that the disc reading is not reliable. Can the Windows 10 be installed by using a USB drive instead?
Click to expand...
Save yourself a lot of hassle and buy a $5 replacement dvd drive, use boot camp to install win 7 from DVD and upgrade to win 10 or suffer a world of hurt with no audio through imac speakers. You will encounter black screen at login occasionally, just hard reboot and you should be good.
 
I downloaded the Windows 10 ISO and just discovered that a double layer DVD is required. So I tried the installation by using USB boot (only the MacOS and USB EFI appeared on the screen after pressing the Option key) and it kept saying the partition is not allowed for the installation (something about EFI and GPT).

So it seems the installation could only be made by using the installation DVD instead of USB, correct?
 
If you use USB you will have issues with Audio as I stated earlier, you should instal win 8 or 7 and upgrade.
If you don’t mind issues with audio then by all means use usb. Delete all the partitions in the win 10 installer and try again.
 
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tim618 said:
I downloaded the Windows 10 ISO and just discovered that a double layer DVD is required. So I tried the installation by using USB boot (only the MacOS and USB EFI appeared on the screen after pressing the Option key) and it kept saying the partition is not allowed for the installation (something about EFI and GPT).

So it seems the installation could only be made by using the installation DVD instead of USB, correct?
Click to expand...

No it's not correct. You can use the USB to install Windows.
It's about the number of partitions in your internal drive. Windows cannot be installed to a volume number n with n bigger than a specific value.
That's the reason why when you use BootCamp Assistant to create a Windows partition within Mac OS, it will split your current drive in half.
You can also do a more complicated process like below:
1. Install windows on another PC, single volume SSD.
2. Delete the EFI partition on that SSD, if any. (If you plan to dual boot Mac OS and Windows on the same machine, if not, keep the EFI partition)
3. Move the SSD to the iMac.
4. Boot Windows on the iMac. Use OpenCore Legacy Patcher boot menu to select either Mac OS or Windows Partition.
5. If possible, by all means, do not install both Windows and Mac OS on the same physical disk.
 
Finally I succeeded in the installation after days of attempts. Below are the main points "learnt"

- DVD boot seems to be a must since USB boot will always result EFI boot instead of the legacy boot, under which there will be EFI/GPT issue during the partition selection in Windows installation. Even you manage to overcome the EFI/GPT problem, the EFI boot will result audio problem and some others as mentioned by The_Croupier.
- the Bootcamp version doesn't matter much as it serves to provide the Windows drivers only. Due to the "age" of old iMac, drivers for Win7/8 are sufficient to be used in Win 10.

However, when running Win 10 in iMac, the screen will off after a period (power saving?). Apart from setting in power management, any method can make the screen on?
 
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tim618 said:
Finally I succeeded in the installation after days of attempts. Below are the main points "learnt"

- DVD boot seems to be a must since USB boot will always result EFI boot instead of the legacy boot, under which there will be EFI/GPT issue during the partition selection in Windows installation. Even you manage to overcome the EFI/GPT problem, the EFI boot will result audio problem and some others as mentioned by The_Croupier.
- the Bootcamp version doesn't matter much as it serves to provide the Windows drivers only. Due to the "age" of old iMac, drivers for Win7/8 are sufficient to be used in Win 10.

However, when running Win 10 in iMac, the screen will off after a period (power saving?). Apart from setting in power management, any method can make the screen on?
Click to expand...
No issues with the display for me, I just click the mouse and the screen will come on at the login screen. The only issue I have is sometimes it will boot to black screen, a hard reboot usually fixes that.
 
Gosh, I just finish the upgrad e from Sierra to High Sierra and the Windows corrupted (or erased?). Never thought that the macOS upgrade would affect the bootcamp. Need to redo everything again, sighed.
 
Nguyen Duc Hieu said:
I would suggest installing Windows on a separate physical disk.
Click to expand...
Gosh, the High Sierra has changed the drive to APFS and the bootcamp is not that straight forward now. Also, my imac has an internal SSD and internal HDD yet the HDD has disappeared from desktop and even disk utility.

If I have 2 internal SSD your idea is a good one.
 
tim618 said:
Gosh, the High Sierra has changed the drive to APFS and the bootcamp is not that straight forward now. Also, my imac has an internal SSD and internal HDD yet the HDD has disappeared from desktop and even disk utility.

If I have 2 internal SSD your idea is a good one.
Click to expand...

If your HDD is a small one (2TB or lower), why not thinking of replace it with an SSD?
 
Nguyen Duc Hieu said:
If your HDD is a small one (2TB or lower), why not thinking of replace it with an SSD?
Click to expand...
This is an old computer and replace the hdd would cost me the same for getting a 2nd PC.

After whole day playing with the High Sierra and even managed to skip the APFS, I still cannot install the Windows. It keeps saying the selected partition is GPT.
 
After whole day playing again I finally finished the Windows 10 installation on High Sierra.

The bootcamp in High Sierra prompted me that my iMac is not supported by Win10. So I had to create the partition using the disk utility.

At the beginning the installation stuck at the GPT issue. No idea if it is related to APFS so it took me a long time to bypass the APFS during the High Sierra installation (using the command in Terminal was in vain and need to modify the minstallconfig.xml). It also took me some time on converting the drive to hybrid GBT/MBR format with the gdisk.

Even though, the installation kept sticking at the Windows logo when using legacy boot up but strangely not EFI boot up (yet my iMac has to use the legacy boot up mode) . And to my suprise it was caused by the NVRAM and the NVRAM reset cleared the final hurdle.

Learnt much during these days and thanks for everyone's advice here.
 
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Nguyen Duc Hieu said:
No it's not correct. You can use the USB to install Windows.
It's about the number of partitions in your internal drive. Windows cannot be installed to a volume number n with n bigger than a specific value.
That's the reason why when you use BootCamp Assistant to create a Windows partition within Mac OS, it will split your current drive in half.
You can also do a more complicated process like below:
1. Install windows on another PC, single volume SSD.
2. Delete the EFI partition on that SSD, if any. (If you plan to dual boot Mac OS and Windows on the same machine, if not, keep the EFI partition)
3. Move the SSD to the iMac.
4. Boot Windows on the iMac. Use OpenCore Legacy Patcher boot menu to select either Mac OS or Windows Partition.
5. If possible, by all means, do not install both Windows and Mac OS on the same physical disk.
Click to expand...
the above IS correct.
But I have a simple question just to get started: Which macos on 21.5 mid-2010? I've installed a SSD and today am installing some version of macos - which is the question: as a startpoint which macos is "best" for the imac? I realize "best" is subject to opinions but ideally I want to format APFS and at least High Sierra. I will be installing 16gb ram but not upgrading the i3 or the radeon gpu, which is working fine after 12 years. Then windows 10. I recently sold a MBA with the base config i5 & 4gb on which I had installed Monterey, and that worked better than big sur or catalina - slow, but the drivers behaved better - cleaner.
 
The_Croupier said:
If your not upgrading your gpu then I wouldn’t bother with any OS past High Sierra.
Click to expand...
pretty much my conclusion, but check me on this: the most 'weighty' factor being that there are NO video upgrades that are just going to work well over any significant period of time on all usual/expected Mac purposes & applications, and browsers, and devices [usb ports full]. It appears to be a constant stream of patches, Terminal intervention fixes, workarounds, then its time to upgrade to the next macos iterative change..... ad infinitum. If that is NOT the case, then i'm looking for the video card/gpu in view...
oh, and importantly: High Sierra on APFS ? or revert?
 
also, to be fair I should say that I AM running Monterey at this moment, with the original Radeon 4xxx gpu, and the only GPU issue I've seen thus far, after actually hands-on using the system and deliberately trying out a number of functions over about a week now, is the well-known sleep/wake fragmentation/artifacting/etc. I turned off sleep and it doesn't manifest now, but of course life would be much better with adequate sleep :)
 
tim618 said:
After whole day playing again I finally finished the Windows 10 installation on High Sierra.

The bootcamp in High Sierra prompted me that my iMac is not supported by Win10. So I had to create the partition using the disk utility.

At the beginning the installation stuck at the GPT issue. No idea if it is related to APFS so it took me a long time to bypass the APFS during the High Sierra installation (using the command in Terminal was in vain and need to modify the minstallconfig.xml). It also took me some time on converting the drive to hybrid GBT/MBR format with the gdisk.

Even though, the installation kept sticking at the Windows logo when using legacy boot up but strangely not EFI boot up (yet my iMac has to use the legacy boot up mode) . And to my suprise it was caused by the NVRAM and the NVRAM reset cleared the final hurdle.

Learnt much during these days and thanks for everyone's advice here.
Click to expand...
So you are saying that when encountering the GPT error you zapped the pram and were able to get around it through that?
 
Hi, i try install windows 10 and the installer run well, i remove all partitions from my ssd (yes, macos too, i wnat to install windows only) and when the windows installer reboot the imac dont show any imags only black screen and i dont use other usb with ubuntu because the boot selector dont appear with option key. I have a mid-2010 imac with gpu update to AMD-firepro m-5100. Any help? Thank you
 
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