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Unable to boot to Windows from external drive on MacBook Pro 16"

H

HoosierInFL

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 9, 2007
192
15
I'm trying to use Windows 10 on an external USB-C drive on my MacBook Pro 16" and I can't get it to work. I've looked at numerous tutorials and tried all the steps, but when I try to boot to the drive, the Mac gives an error stating that Mac OS needs to be reinstalled on that drive, even though it's the Windows drive.

Steps I've tried:
- Downloaded Windows 10 ISO from my Mac and placed it on my Windows 10 PC.
- Used WinToUSB to transfer Windows onto the external drive
- Used Rufus to transfer Windows onto the drive using Win To Go mode.
- Lowered boot security from Recovery Mode section.
- Gave Full disk access to System Preferences so that the external drive shows up in Startup Disks. When I select the external drive from there, it says the bless tool can't select the drive for booting.

The drive I'm using is a Sandisk Extreme 1tb USB-C 3.1 Gen2

I'm stumped. Anyone have an idea?

Thanks.
 
Windows To Go has been discontinued, maybe that is why it doesn't work.
 
I figured it out. I had to completely turn off the system protection in order to make it work.
 
How did you 'completely turn off the system protection'? I had Windows 10 working on my old MacBook, but my new system would just get stuck and not fully boot into windows.
 
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