MP 1,1-5,1 Mac Pro 5,1 Windows 10 install

[bllx]

I am about to create a Windows 10 install on a SATA internal SSD drive in my Mac Pro 2010 5,1 with 144.0.0.0.0 firmware.
Been running Windows 7 on a regular HD for years for games, but now they all want W10 or at least have removed support for W7.

I have read hereabouts that it is not advisable to attempt W10 install via USB stick as it can create corruption, and the advice was to seek the last available W10 installer that fits on a dual density DVD disk.

Can anyone with a similar setup confirm or deny this rumour? And if you have any other tips let me know?

Thanks.

 

[Soba]

I am about to create a Windows 10 install on a SATA internal SSD drive in my Mac Pro 2010 5,1 with 144.0.0.0.0 firmware.
Been running Windows 7 on a regular HD for years for games, but now they all want W10 or at least have removed support for W7.

I have read hereabouts that it is not advisable to attempt W10 install via USB stick as it can create corruption, and the advice was to seek the last available W10 installer that fits on a dual density DVD disk.

Can anyone with a similar setup confirm or deny this rumour? And if you have any other tips let me know?

Thanks.

In this situation, it should be pretty straightforward, though some things might have changed since I last did this. Just download the latest Windows 10 ISO from Microsoft, burn it to a DVD, and boot from the disc. The installer will launch in Legacy BIOS mode (I have seen the installer take up to 20 minutes to start, so be patient) and you can run through the install process. As you said, do not use a USB Windows 10 installer as it can brick your Mac. This has happened to a number of people on this forum, unfortunately.

Installing the Boot Camp drivers on Windows 10 takes some extra steps because the Boot Camp installer refuses to run on Windows 10, but you can get around this easily by manually running each installer from within each subfolder of the Boot Camp driver package.

However, since you already have a functioning Windows 7 install and I presume you might just do an upgrade installation, you might have no need to install Boot Camp drivers. Run through the install, run Windows Update to install any system updates and optional driver updates, and then check Device Manager to see if you need any specific drivers from the Boot Camp driver package.

If you need a functioning Boot Camp control panel in Windows (which allows for easy switching between Windows and macOS as the default boot option), you should be able to accomplish this by installing the Boot Camp package designed for the iMac Pro. You can download this using the Brigadier utility. Try the following instructions, which might be a bit out of date (start at step 9; you do not need to worry about creating partitions because you already have them set up for Windows 7):

How to: Boot Camp without a Boot Screen

[Update 29 Feb 2020: Members reported that this procedure will install Boot Camp 6.1.9 now, which apparently only allow users boot to the latest macOS drive. For those who has multiple macOS drive. This method doesn't work anymore. Also, latest Windows 10 (1909) seems also not allow Bootcamp 5...

forums.macrumors.com

If you do not need a Boot Camp control panel to switch between Windows and macOS, then I recommend not bothering with this.

Let us know how it goes.

 

[bllx]

Many thanks for your detailed answer!

I will be getting on with this in the next few days.
BTW I will not be upgrading my W7 installation as it is on an HD and I have an SSD reserved for W10. Also I woul generally prefer a clean installation over an upgrade.
-Unless you think it would be straightforward to clone the W7 installation from the HD to the SSD and then upgrading the W7 installation would save a lot of hassle…?

 

[Soba]

Many thanks for your detailed answer!

I will be getting on with this in the next few days.
BTW I will not be upgrading my W7 installation as it is on an HD and I have an SSD reserved for W10. Also I woul generally prefer a clean installation over an upgrade.
-Unless you think it would be straightforward to clone the W7 installation from the HD to the SSD and then upgrading the W7 installation would save a lot of hassle…?

Upgrading a Windows installation is not usually a great thing on any system. Do a clean install as planned and simply use your new, blank drive as the install destination. There is no special trick to creating partitions to make this work, so proceed as you would with any PC.

Windows Update should find drivers for most of your hardware, but for anything that remains without a driver in Device Manager after you've updated Windows, you can install the individual driver packages from the respective subfolders of the Boot Camp driver package. The drivers are also handy if you're using an Apple keyboard and want the special features of the function keys (such as volume control) to work in Windows. I also suggest downloading the most recent graphics card driver directly from your manufacturer's website, as Windows Update does not usually offer the latest graphics driver.

If you want to use the Boot Camp control panel to switch between Windows and macOS, you will need to run through the instructions for Brigadier to install the iMac Pro package (though again, I'm not certain that this still works). If your graphics card supports boot screens, and especially if you won't be switching very often between Windows and macOS, you might want to save yourself the trouble of installing the control panel altogether and just switch at boot time by holding the Option key to access the Startup Manager / Bootpicker.

 

[bllx]

My graphics card does not support boot screen so I am planning to cointinue using BootChamp to boot into Windows 10, as I have been doing to boot into W7.

 

[bllx]

My 2010 Mac Pro 5,1 managed to burn the latest Windows 10 iso using its internal original optical drive to a dual layer DVD ok, verified ok and mounted, but the next day it refuses to mount it, spits it out every time.
However I have an external USB-connected DVD optical drive I can use that I tested and it mounts and boots from said W10 installation DVD ok.

My question is, people say do not use a USB stick to install W10 on these machines, do it via optical drive instead: so, is it ok to use an external USB-connected optical drive? Or could that potentially cause same problems as installing W10 via a USB stick?

 

[Macschrauber]

You can install it directly from the iso file with a virtualisation App like @Dayo described.

Bare Metal Windows on cMP

PART 1 of 3 This is a guide to installing Windows 10 on Classic Mac Pros without the Boot Camp Assistant. This is one of many ways to implement such a "Bare Metal" setup but is a straightforward method. This guide is for installing Legacy Windows, as opposed to UEFI Windows, but can also be...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[bllx]

Well I went ahead and used a cheap external USB DVD optical drive with my Mac Pro-burned Windows 10 installation DVD, plugged into the rear USB ports of the Mac Pro 5,1; it all worked fine I think.
I checked and it's a Legacy BIOS installation, and I would probably know if I had corrupted my ROM by now.
The DVD installer took over an hour to reach the Windows 10 installation screen, with just a flashing cursor for that hour, but when it did, from Start Install to looking at the settled W10 desktop took 20 minutes including the 2 reboots, installing to a 1TB internal Western Digital SATA SSD.
The video is fine with the original Radeon 5770 but there's no sound, I'll sort that out next. Wifi seems to work with no additional drivers.

 

[prefuse07]

OP, are you running OpenCore? just curious, because I see no mention of it anywhere in this entire thread...

 

[bllx]

No I want to avoid OpenCore for as long as I can on the principle that the less mucking around the better. And I can live with 10.13.6...so far. And I don't have a Metal-compatible video card.

 

[bllx]

Regarding drivers in Windows 10, I ran BootCamp Assistant in 10.13 on my macOS boot volume and downloaded the WindowsSupport driver set it provided: 5.1 I think.
Then I simply ran setup.exe from that WindowsSupport folder of Bootcamp 5.1 drivers in the W10 installation. It ran just as it had run when I installed Bootcamp in W7, no tricks needed with Brigadier, or using CommandLine to run as admin. The installation completed as expected with no issues. I now have sound and Apple keyboard functionality, everything I was used to in the W7 installation. The Startup volume Apple control panel in Windows looks like it will not work but I am used to using BootChamp to choose Windows so I probably won't even try and fix it by attempting to install Bootcamp 6.1 version.
After installing my nVidia no-boot-screen-in-macOS GPU, W10 automatically installed drivers to my surprise, while I was downloading self-same drivers from nVidia. I then installed mine anyway as they were newer.
It all looks and runs great, and was far simpler an operation than I had expected.

 

[Olias]

I planning on doing the same thing and appreciate you reporting back your success.