Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Transfer Windows/Bootcamp Drive to New 2020 iMac

Spk1

Spk1

macrumors member
Original poster
May 11, 2004
74
50
Winnipeg, Canada
It's been a while since I've had to do this as the last time I just took the SSD drive out of my Mac Pro 3,1 and popped it in my Mac Pro 5,1. I'm buying a 2020 iMac with 2TB of storage. My plan is to partition it into two drives: 1TB for Mac and one for 1TB for Windows 7/Bootcamp. I bought an OWC USB-C Drive Dock for both external drives and file migration. The OS of the 5,1 is Mojave, which I'm presently using until the 2020 iMac comes in.

So, what's the best way to proceed? Create the partition, then clone the Bootcamp drive to the new partition? Do I need to do something more or is there a better way?

Another thought is to create a new Windows 10 Bootcamp drive in the second partition and just run the Windows 7 Bootcamp from the OWC external drive. Is this doable?

How much has Bootcamp on Mojave changed from Bootcamp on Catalina? How will this affect my little schemes above?
 
Spk1 said:
It's been a while since I've had to do this as the last time I just took the SSD drive out of my Mac Pro 3,1 and popped it in my Mac Pro 5,1. I'm buying a 2020 iMac with 2TB of storage. My plan is to partition it into two drives: 1TB for Mac and one for 1TB for Windows 7/Bootcamp. I bought an OWC USB-C Drive Dock for both external drives and file migration. The OS of the 5,1 is Mojave, which I'm presently using until the 2020 iMac comes in.

So, what's the best way to proceed? Create the partition, then clone the Bootcamp drive to the new partition? Do I need to do something more or is there a better way?

Another thought is to create a new Windows 10 Bootcamp drive in the second partition and just run the Windows 7 Bootcamp from the OWC external drive. Is this doable?

How much has Bootcamp on Mojave changed from Bootcamp on Catalina? How will this affect my little schemes above?
Click to expand...


You're going to have a few MAJOR issues here:

(1) Macs made in 2015 and newer (also including the 2013 Mac Pro) cannot boot Windows 7, let alone have drivers support for Windows 7. So, you're not getting that iMac to natively boot and run Windows 7 outside of a VM environment (which may be the route you want to go in terms of getting a previous [or even a new] Windows 7 environment to run on this new Mac anyway).

(2) You will not be able to easily clone Boot Camp partitions. You got lucky being able to go from a MacPro3,1 to a MacPro5,1 by merely swapping the drives like that. That's ordinarily a REALLY bad practice as far as Windows is concerned because, unlike with macOS, any given Windows installation isn't going to have the drivers for more than the PC/Mac it was originally installed on.

(3) We're past January 14th, 2020, so I have to throw in the obligatory, "why the hell are you running Windows 7 and not Windows 10?!" song and dance routine. 7 is neither supported nor safe unless you have paid extended support from Microsoft (but even then, it's not really worth it considering 10 can do everything 7 did and then some). Also, you DEFINITELY can't boot anything older than Windows 10 on a 2020 iMac, let alone any 2017-and-newer Mac. Nor can you on the equivalent PC hardware either (you have Microsoft, Intel, and AMD to thank for that nonsense).

(4) Even if you could clone Boot Camp partitions, you now have the T2 chip to contend with. The SSD is controlled by the T2 chip and Windows needs a driver for the T2 chip's storage controller in order to recognize your internal drive, let alone to install and boot Windows from it. Unless that driver is baked into whatever Windows installer or installation you are using (which the Boot Camp Assistant will do for you), your Mac won't even recognize whatever cloned Boot Camp partition you even have.


Given the above, my strong recommendation is to do a clean Boot Camp setup with a fresh installation of Windows 10. If you BADLY need Windows 7; I strongly suggest getting either VMware Fusion, Parallels Desktop, or Oracle VirtualBox, and cloning your existing Windows 7 machine to a VM in use on one of those programs. I'd also heavily firewall it since you're basically inviting all sorts of malware and malicious intrusion into your environment by sticking with Windows 7 seven months after it has been cut off from support.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Spk1
Yebubbleman said:
You're going to have a few MAJOR issues here:

(1) Macs made in 2015 and newer (also including the 2013 Mac Pro) cannot boot Windows 7, let alone have drivers support for Windows 7. So, you're not getting that iMac to natively boot and run Windows 7 outside of a VM environment (which may be the route you want to go in terms of getting a previous [or even a new] Windows 7 environment to run on this new Mac anyway).

(2) You will not be able to easily clone Boot Camp partitions. You got lucky being able to go from a MacPro3,1 to a MacPro5,1 by merely swapping the drives like that. That's ordinarily a REALLY bad practice as far as Windows is concerned because, unlike with macOS, any given Windows installation isn't going to have the drivers for more than the PC/Mac it was originally installed on.

(3) We're past January 14th, 2020, so I have to throw in the obligatory, "why the hell are you running Windows 7 and not Windows 10?!" song and dance routine. 7 is neither supported nor safe unless you have paid extended support from Microsoft (but even then, it's not really worth it considering 10 can do everything 7 did and then some). Also, you DEFINITELY can't boot anything older than Windows 10 on a 2020 iMac, let alone any 2017-and-newer Mac. Nor can you on the equivalent PC hardware either (you have Microsoft, Intel, and AMD to thank for that nonsense).

(4) Even if you could clone Boot Camp partitions, you now have the T2 chip to contend with. The SSD is controlled by the T2 chip and Windows needs a driver for the T2 chip's storage controller in order to recognize your internal drive, let alone to install and boot Windows from it. Unless that driver is baked into whatever Windows installer or installation you are using (which the Boot Camp Assistant will do for you), your Mac won't even recognize whatever cloned Boot Camp partition you even have.


Given the above, my strong recommendation is to do a clean Boot Camp setup with a fresh installation of Windows 10. If you BADLY need Windows 7; I strongly suggest getting either VMware Fusion, Parallels Desktop, or Oracle VirtualBox, and cloning your existing Windows 7 machine to a VM in use on one of those programs. I'd also heavily firewall it since you're basically inviting all sorts of malware and malicious intrusion into your environment by sticking with Windows 7 seven months after it has been cut off from support.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your help!

I reviewed my Windows software compatibility with Windows 10 and only one app won't work, so looks like a clean install of Windows 10 for me.

Love that cathartic brand-new Bootcamp install :)
 
Spk1 said:
Thank you for your help!

I reviewed my Windows software compatibility with Windows 10 and only one app won't work, so looks like a clean install of Windows 10 for me.

Love that cathartic brand-new Bootcamp install :)
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that there are several methods for getting apps that, in theory, "won't work with Windows 10" to work with Windows 10 that aren't widely publicized by Microsoft (and yet, are designed by Microsoft for this exact scenario).

On the really quick and easy side of things, you have compatibility mode which tells the operating system to present the app you're trying to run on it as close to an environment of the older OS as is possible. For a majority of apps that will work without issue out of the box in Windows 7, but won't in 10, this works just fine. Where you may have issue is in terms of permissions and needing to "run as Administrator".

But, when all of that fails, Microsoft has an Application Compatibility Toolkit, wherein you can create shim files that you inject into your installed application to make it work in Windows 10. You can also make App-V packages (wherein your application is technically running virtualized with conditions that match your Windows version of choice), but is otherwise effectively running within your Windows 10 environment. (For reference, Office 365 and Office 2019 apps in Windows are App-V packages; and you wouldn't know by looking at them.)

And yeah, brand new Boot Camp installs are fun. I'm not particularly stoked on how much needs to be done to the install media to accommodate the T2 chip (as one day, T2 Macs won't be able to run the latest macOS, but likely still will be able to run the latest Windows 10 and would be good to be repurposed as Windows 10 boxes). But there ya go.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Spk1
Yebubbleman said:
Keep in mind that there are several methods for getting apps that, in theory, "won't work with Windows 10" to work with Windows 10 that aren't widely publicized by Microsoft (and yet, are designed by Microsoft for this exact scenario).

On the really quick and easy side of things, you have compatibility mode which tells the operating system to present the app you're trying to run on it as close to an environment of the older OS as is possible. For a majority of apps that will work without issue out of the box in Windows 7, but won't in 10, this works just fine. Where you may have issue is in terms of permissions and needing to "run as Administrator".

But, when all of that fails, Microsoft has an Application Compatibility Toolkit, wherein you can create shim files that you inject into your installed application to make it work in Windows 10. You can also make App-V packages (wherein your application is technically running virtualized with conditions that match your Windows version of choice), but is otherwise effectively running within your Windows 10 environment. (For reference, Office 365 and Office 2019 apps in Windows are App-V packages; and you wouldn't know by looking at them.)

And yeah, brand new Boot Camp installs are fun. I'm not particularly stoked on how much needs to be done to the install media to accommodate the T2 chip (as one day, T2 Macs won't be able to run the latest macOS, but likely still will be able to run the latest Windows 10 and would be good to be repurposed as Windows 10 boxes). But there ya go.
Click to expand...
Excellent! Thanks again!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back