2006 Mac Pro: Easy 64-BIT Windows 10 native installation (no bootloaders or EFI hacks)

[penhaphi]

Well, I never did get "Bob" to work, so I came up with another way all by myself. Last night I was literally dancing around the room when I saw the Windows 10 logo appear on the screen after a normal reboot. I have been working on this for several days and many times was going to give up but my perseverance has paid off. And it was all down to your original post flyinmac so thank you!

In messing around with "Bob", I noticed that (1) I could create a normal VMware virtual machine (defined as Windows 7 32 bit), point it at the Windows 10 ISO install file, and it would happily start the Windows 10 installation. (2) I could create a "Boot Camp" virtual machine and this happily ran the XP installed on my boot camp partition (but doesn't prompt for / allow OS installation). My idea was to edit the .vmx file for the standard boot camp virtual machine created by VMware such that it would install the Windows 10 software. So basically a merge of the .vmx configs for (1) and (2). It didn't work quite how I planned as I will explain but this approach got the install done (more by luck than design I think ...)

My System:
- Standard 2006 Mac Pro 1.1, 8Gb RAM, standard nVidia GForce7300 video card, running OSX 10.6.8.

Software I used:
- Windows XP Professional (from an install CD of an old DELL laptop I used to have)
I actually think the steps would work with XP, Vista or Windows 7. You just need a working installed windows on the boot camp partition that VMware will be happy to use.
- Windows 10 Home on USB3 stick (I bought this on amazon from microsoft, but the only part I used was the product key that came with it, you can throw away the USB3 stick!).
You need to download a 64 bit ISO file from microsoft here https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10ISO and then burn this onto a DVD, Don't explode the ISO file into the component files just literally burn the file as it is onto the DVD (need a dual layer DVD as the file is too big for normal single layer one). VMware doesn't recognise the windows 10 install files when they are exploded, but it's very happy to accept a .iso file as an install media, even if it thinks it is windows 7. I also copied the same ISO file onto a windows formatted USB2 stick.
- VMware Fusion 5.0.5 (I downloaded this from the VMware website here https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/info?slug=desktop_end_user_computing/vmware_fusion/5_0 but don't click the "get free trial" button as that just takes you to the page for the latest versions and V7/V8 keys wont work on V5. You will need a V5 product key to install the software when you run the download package but you cant get this from VMware as they no longer support the version (I contacted them and tried, was willing to pay for one, but they wouldn't help) It's amazing what you can find on the internet if you search for the words "vmware fusion 5.x serial keys")...)

These are the steps I took:
1. Use boot camp to create a windows partition (for mine I divided the 250GB disk equally in two)
2. Use boot camp to install the XP software (don't bother trying to install W10 here it cannot be done! I know I tried so many different ways, it's impossible)
3. During the XP install I chose the option to reformat the partition (not sure if this was necessary but it's what I did)
4. Make sure that the XP is working fine. Mine was, although the screen resolution was poor. I didn't mess around trying to sort this out as the XP is just temporary.
5. Download VMware 5.05 from here https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/info?slug=desktop_end_user_computing/vmware_fusion/5_0 and install and activate with product key you have obtained as described above
6. Create a VMware virtual boot camp machine. For me this worked immediately and fired up the windows XP I had already installed. I wasn't sure if it had taken a "copy" so I created some files on the XP desktop whilst within the VM machine and shut it down, then I rebooted the mac into XP natively and hey presto the files on the desktop were there. This confirmed that VMware is actually running the version of windows on the physical boot camp partition. This is what made me think I could use this to get a re-install done...
7. Create a normal VMware virtual machine based on Windows 7 32 bit, give it 4GB RAM. During the creation of the VM point it at the Windows 10 64 bit ISO file (I used my USB2 stick for this) and let it open. For me this started the windows 10 install. When I saw that blue Windows 10 logo for the first time on this MAC I knew I was getting close.... I closed the VM down. No point in continuing with the install here. This is the second part that really made I think I can get this to work. VMware is happy to install Windows 10 to a normal virtual machine and it's also happy to run an existing windows install off the physical boot camp partition. Why can't it combine the two?
8. This is the tricky bit. You need to manually edit the .vmx file for the boot camp virtual machine. I am ok with Unix so I used terminal and "vi" to do the editing. I saved a copy of the original file first. Now I made several changes by comparing the normal windows 7 virtual machine .vmx with the boot camp .vmx file. What I was trying to do was to get it to install Windows 10 from the USB2 stick on startup. It didn't actually do this (it wouldn't install from the USB stick ever), but I noticed (maybe this was luck, maybe it only happens with those lines added in the file) that if I have the ISO 10 DVD in the drive when I start up the modified boot camp VM it gives the message "click any key to boot from the CD". I clicked and it opened the ISO file on the DVD and I saw the windows logo!!! The first time I did it it failed with an obscure error part way through. I then noticed that the Boot Camp VM only had 0.5GB of RAM allocated so I made it 4GB by editing the .vmx file and re-tried. It worked! The install ran completely with a few restarts. Do Not Install the Windows 10 product key here. Select "continue without product key". I completely installed Windows 10 within the modified VMware Boot Camp machine. Note that the boot camp vmx file is not in the same place as the normal virtual machines you create. However a little searching in Unix finds the location easily. It's here in this folder ~/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/Virtual Machines/Boot Camp/Boot Camp.vmwarevm whilst the normal virtual machines are here (this example is where to find "bob") ~/Documents/Virtual Machines.localized/bob.vmwarevm These are the lines I added to the Boot Camp vmx file. I have uploaded both original (old) and modified vmx files:

I removed these lines
ide1:0.autodetect = "TRUE"
ide1:0.startConnected = "FALSE"

I added these lines (/Volumes/WININSTALL is my USB2 stick device - obviously you will have to use whatever your's is called)
mem.hotadd = "TRUE"
ide1:0.fileName = "/Volumes/WININSTALL/Win10_1607_English_x64.iso"

and modified these lines
memsize = "512" was changed to "4096"
guestOS = "winxppro" was changed to "windows7"
softPowerOff = "TRUE" was changed to "FALSE"
ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-raw" was changed "cdrom-image"

So the purpose of the above was to try and get the boot camp vm to read the install ISO from the USB stick. This never worked, but it did allow me to boot it from a DVD which also had the ISO on it and that worked. Bizarre but what the hell it worked!

When you edit the vmx file make sure you exit the VMware application and re-launch for the changes to take effect. You need the app to re-read the config file.
9. Reboot the MAC holding down the option key and select to boot from the boot camp windows partition. The screen goes white, then black, and then flickers, and then you see the Windows 10 logo.
10. Activate Windows 10 and use the product key now.
11. The video resolution here is rubbish. Windows claims to be looking for the drivers but I found it never found them so you need to do this manually. Go here www.geforce.co.uk/drivers and search for the geForce 7300 driver and download the file 309.08-desktop-win8-win7-winvista-64bit-international-whql.exe and run it from within windows. This "exe" is the install program and it does everything. I ran this from within windows 10 and my display switched to full resolution automatically. Nice
12. I also noticed the speakers didnt work. Go here https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1721?locale=en_US and download boot camp drivers 5.1.5640. The file you want from this is called RealtekSetup.exe and it installs the speaker drivers which now also work too
13. Drink a lot of beer to celebrate!

Note that you can now uninstall VMware if you want. I'm going to keep it just in case I ever need to re-install. And this article will be my guide...
See attached copies of the standard boot camp vmx file and the one I modified. The modified one is the one I used for the final install!

Good luck! Don't give up...

 

[flyinmac]

Well, I never did get "Bob" to work, so I came up with another way all by myself. Last night I was literally dancing around the room when I saw the Windows 10 logo appear on the screen after a normal reboot. I have been working on this for several days and many times was going to give up but my perseverance has paid off. And it was all down to your original post flyinmac so thank you!

In messing around with "Bob", I noticed that (1) I could create a normal VMware virtual machine (defined as Windows 7 32 bit), point it at the Windows 10 ISO install file, and it would happily start the Windows 10 installation. (2) I could create a "Boot Camp" virtual machine and this happily ran the XP installed on my boot camp partition (but doesn't prompt for / allow OS installation). My idea was to edit the .vmx file for the standard boot camp virtual machine created by VMware such that it would install the Windows 10 software. So basically a merge of the .vmx configs for (1) and (2). It didn't work quite how I planned as I will explain but this approach got the install done (more by luck than design I think ...)

My System:
- Standard 2006 Mac Pro 1.1, 8Gb RAM, standard nVidia GForce7300 video card, running OSX 10.6.8.

Software I used:
- Windows XP Professional (from an install CD of an old DELL laptop I used to have)
I actually think the steps would work with XP, Vista or Windows 7. You just need a working installed windows on the boot camp partition that VMware will be happy to use.
- Windows 10 Home on USB3 stick (I bought this on amazon from microsoft, but the only part I used was the product key that came with it, you can throw away the USB3 stick!).
You need to download a 64 bit ISO file from microsoft here https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10ISO and then burn this onto a DVD, Don't explode the ISO file into the component files just literally burn the file as it is onto the DVD (need a dual layer DVD as the file is too big for normal single layer one). VMware doesn't recognise the windows 10 install files when they are exploded, but it's very happy to accept a .iso file as an install media, even if it thinks it is windows 7. I also copied the same ISO file onto a windows formatted USB2 stick.
- VMware Fusion 5.0.5 (I downloaded this from the VMware website here https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/info?slug=desktop_end_user_computing/vmware_fusion/5_0 but don't click the "get free trial" button as that just takes you to the page for the latest versions and V7/V8 keys wont work on V5. You will need a V5 product key to install the software when you run the download package but you cant get this from VMware as they no longer support the version (I contacted them and tried, was willing to pay for one, but they wouldn't help) It's amazing what you can find on the internet if you search for the words "vmware fusion 5.x serial keys")...)

These are the steps I took:
1. Use boot camp to create a windows partition (for mine I divided the 250GB disk equally in two)
2. Use boot camp to install the XP software (don't bother trying to install W10 here it cannot be done! I know I tried so many different ways, it's impossible)
3. During the XP install I chose the option to reformat the partition (not sure if this was necessary but it's what I did)
4. Make sure that the XP is working fine. Mine was, although the screen resolution was poor. I didn't mess around trying to sort this out as the XP is just temporary.
5. Download VMware 5.05 from here https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/info?slug=desktop_end_user_computing/vmware_fusion/5_0 and install and activate with product key you have obtained as described above
6. Create a VMware virtual boot camp machine. For me this worked immediately and fired up the windows XP I had already installed. I wasn't sure if it had taken a "copy" so I created some files on the XP desktop whilst within the VM machine and shut it down, then I rebooted the mac into XP natively and hey presto the files on the desktop were there. This confirmed that VMware is actually running the version of windows on the physical boot camp partition. This is what made me think I could use this to get a re-install done...
7. Create a normal VMware virtual machine based on Windows 7 32 bit, give it 4GB RAM. During the creation of the VM point it at the Windows 10 64 bit ISO file (I used my USB2 stick for this) and let it open. For me this started the windows 10 install. When I saw that blue Windows 10 logo for the first time on this MAC I knew I was getting close.... I closed the VM down. No point in continuing with the install here. This is the second part that really made I think I can get this to work. VMware is happy to install Windows 10 to a normal virtual machine and it's also happy to run an existing windows install off the physical boot camp partition. Why can't it combine the two?
8. This is the tricky bit. You need to manually edit the .vmx file for the boot camp virtual machine. I am ok with Unix so I used terminal and "vi" to do the editing. I saved a copy of the original file first. Now I made several changes by comparing the normal windows 7 virtual machine .vmx with the boot camp .vmx file. What I was trying to do was to get it to install Windows 10 from the USB2 stick on startup. It didn't actually do this (it wouldn't install from the USB stick ever), but I noticed (maybe this was luck, maybe it only happens with those lines added in the file) that if I have the ISO 10 DVD in the drive when I start up the modified boot camp VM it gives the message "click any key to boot from the CD". I clicked and it opened the ISO file on the DVD and I saw the windows logo!!! The first time I did it it failed with an obscure error part way through. I then noticed that the Boot Camp VM only had 0.5GB of RAM allocated so I made it 4GB by editing the .vmx file and re-tried. It worked! The install ran completely with a few restarts. Do Not Install the Windows 10 product key here. Select "continue without product key". I completely installed Windows 10 within the modified VMware Boot Camp machine. Note that the boot camp vmx file is not in the same place as the normal virtual machines you create. However a little searching in Unix finds the location easily. It's here in this folder ~/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/Virtual Machines/Boot Camp/Boot Camp.vmwarevm whilst the normal virtual machines are here (this example is where to find "bob") ~/Documents/Virtual Machines.localized/bob.vmwarevm These are the lines I added to the Boot Camp vmx file. I have uploaded both original (old) and modified vmx files:

I removed these lines
ide1:0.autodetect = "TRUE"
ide1:0.startConnected = "FALSE"

I added these lines (/Volumes/WININSTALL is my USB2 stick device - obviously you will have to use whatever your's is called)
mem.hotadd = "TRUE"
ide1:0.fileName = "/Volumes/WININSTALL/Win10_1607_English_x64.iso"

and modified these lines
memsize = "512" was changed to "4096"
guestOS = "winxppro" was changed to "windows7"
softPowerOff = "TRUE" was changed to "FALSE"
ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-raw" was changed "cdrom-image"

So the purpose of the above was to try and get the boot camp vm to read the install ISO from the USB stick. This never worked, but it did allow me to boot it from a DVD which also had the ISO on it and that worked. Bizarre but what the hell it worked!

When you edit the vmx file make sure you exit the VMware application and re-launch for the changes to take effect. You need the app to re-read the config file.
9. Reboot the MAC holding down the option key and select to boot from the boot camp windows partition. The screen goes white, then black, and then flickers, and then you see the Windows 10 logo.
10. Activate Windows 10 and use the product key now.
11. The video resolution here is rubbish. Windows claims to be looking for the drivers but I found it never found them so you need to do this manually. Go here www.geforce.co.uk/drivers and search for the geForce 7300 driver and download the file 309.08-desktop-win8-win7-winvista-64bit-international-whql.exe and run it from within windows. This "exe" is the install program and it does everything. I ran this from within windows 10 and my display switched to full resolution automatically. Nice
12. I also noticed the speakers didnt work. Go here https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1721?locale=en_US and download boot camp drivers 5.1.5640. The file you want from this is called RealtekSetup.exe and it installs the speaker drivers which now also work too
13. Drink a lot of beer to celebrate!

Note that you can now uninstall VMware if you want. I'm going to keep it just in case I ever need to re-install. And this article will be my guide...
See attached copies of the standard boot camp vmx file and the one I modified. The modified one is the one I used for the final install!

Good luck! Don't give up...

That's great I'm glad you got it working. I'm sorry I hadn't had time yet to work on your files. The holidays are crazy here. And it's hard to sit down at the computer and troubleshoot things until everything settles.

Thank you for posting the details of your solution. The idea is to try and provide others with a path forward.

These machines may not have much life beyond El Capitan as a Mac. But as Windows 10 computers, they still have some future years ahead of them.

And for now, being able to enjoy both worlds is nice.

I'm happy to hear that you got it working. Congratulations.

 

[Stolvo]

I haven't been running a main thread on the machine. But I did write up one here recently when I upgraded the processors to an 8-core 3.0 GHz and boosted the memory and such.

I posted benchmarks and comparisons on that as well.

As mentioned previously, I planned to skip updating the wifi and Bluetooth. But then I stumbled on a deal I couldn't pass up today. So those parts are on the way now.

Crazy... once you start, it just keeps going.

It's been nice to have the machine revived into a daily use system again.

I had relegated it to a dedicated purpose machine. Until I got tired of having other multiple machines doing tasks that this old Mac Pro could do on its own with some updates.

The main thing holding it back was not being able to run newer software due to lack of recent OS X support.

But getting El Capitan on there brought it back into usefulness.

It's nice to have one machine doing everything now.

If I need Windows, I switch to Windows. If I need modern OS X programs, I boot El Capitan. If I need my old tools, I boot Lion.

And everything else I throw into virtual machines. I have 8 cores now, and tons of RAM. Throwing 2 cores and 8 gigs at a virtual machine is nothing now.

These old machines have a lot of life left in them.

I got nearly 10 years out of it as it was. I expect many more years out of it now as it is.

This thing is far from obsolete.

Even if Sierra won't run on it (still to be determined), it's still got a while before El Capitan will be as outdated as Snow Leopard and Lion are now. And it was still kicking with those.

Yes, a good solid base system with expansion slots has lots of room to keep going.

I've got PC's from 2004 that are still going. A few upgrades here and there, and they still run modern software.

It's the modern Macs you have to watch out for. The new Mac Pro, the iMac, and new Mini are pretty much built to be retired earlier (comparatively speaking).

Were you able to get the bluetooth module orking?

I was able to get my mac pro 1,1 running windows 10. Installed most of my drivers from a bootcamp 6 set of drivers and installed realtec drivers from bootcamp 5. I installed both the bluetooth modeul and the wifi module at the same time. I was able to get the wifi working using the broadcom drivers included with bootcamp 6. However i am so far unsuccessful in getting windows 10 to recognize the bluetooth module.

Since I had ordered a used amazon module, I double checked to see if Mac OSX(Mountain Lion) can see it and it connects to devices just fine. I also attempted to install bluetooth drivers from a bootcamp 4 without success.

Thanks in advance.

 

[flyinmac]

Were you able to get the bluetooth module orking?

I was able to get my mac pro 1,1 running windows 10. Installed most of my drivers from a bootcamp 6 set of drivers and installed realtec drivers from bootcamp 5. I installed both the bluetooth modeul and the wifi module at the same time. I was able to get the wifi working using the broadcom drivers included with bootcamp 6. However i am so far unsuccessful in getting windows 10 to recognize the bluetooth module.

Since I had ordered a used amazon module, I double checked to see if Mac OSX(Mountain Lion) can see it and it connects to devices just fine. I also attempted to install bluetooth drivers from a bootcamp 4 without success.

Thanks in advance.

I allowed Windows to find the right drivers for the Bluetooth module on its own. I didn't use bootcamp drivers for it.

In Windows 10 the Bluetooth works great. Using the manufacturer drivers. I'd avoid Apple drivers on everything possible. The manufacturer drivers tend to work better.

I do have Bluetooth issues in OS X. But then again Bluetooth never worked properly for me in OS X even with 10.7.x and the original built-in Bluetooth module for my machine.

But that's fine. My experience is that Bluetooth is essentially useless in OS X for me. OS X doesn't seem to properly support data transfer via Bluetooth with the phones and tablets I've had anyway. Always had to switch to Windows if I wanted to transfer / copy files from my Windows mobile and Android devices to my Mac.

Even back in the PowerPC days, I found Bluetooth to be flunky in OS X... always had to re sync my Apple Bluetooth keyboard. Usually by the time I got it working, I didn't even remember what I had originally intended to accomplish. So I just went back to USB keyboards and data transfers.

But in Windows, it works great if you just skip using Apple's bootcamp drivers, and obtain your drivers from the companies who manufactured the chipsets.

I go straight to the manufacturer websites for things like sound chips, Bluetooth/WiFi, video, etc. it's only when I can't find a suitable driver that I will tell Windows to search through the bootcamp files.

Hopefully you'll be able to find the driver you need on the Broadcom website. If so, try that and see if that helps.

 

[darevk]

update from me: this method saved my life http://sergiomcfly.blogspot.hr/2008/04/select-cd-rom-boot-type-when-installing.html?m=1
so i decided to try with dvd once more and then found that post
it's very easy and it's working I'm so happy that i have installed Windows after many tries

 

[Stolvo]

I allowed Windows to find the right drivers for the Bluetooth module on its own. I didn't use bootcamp drivers for it.

In Windows 10 the Bluetooth works great. Using the manufacturer drivers. I'd avoid Apple drivers on everything possible. The manufacturer drivers tend to work better.

I do have Bluetooth issues in OS X. But then again Bluetooth never worked properly for me in OS X even with 10.7.x and the original built-in Bluetooth module for my machine.

But that's fine. My experience is that Bluetooth is essentially useless in OS X for me. OS X doesn't seem to properly support data transfer via Bluetooth with the phones and tablets I've had anyway. Always had to switch to Windows if I wanted to transfer / copy files from my Windows mobile and Android devices to my Mac.

Even back in the PowerPC days, I found Bluetooth to be flunky in OS X... always had to re sync my Apple Bluetooth keyboard. Usually by the time I got it working, I didn't even remember what I had originally intended to accomplish. So I just went back to USB keyboards and data transfers.

But in Windows, it works great if you just skip using Apple's bootcamp drivers, and obtain your drivers from the companies who manufactured the chipsets.

I go straight to the manufacturer websites for things like sound chips, Bluetooth/WiFi, video, etc. it's only when I can't find a suitable driver that I will tell Windows to search through the bootcamp files.

Hopefully you'll be able to find the driver you need on the Broadcom website. If so, try that and see if that helps.

The problem I am having is that windows 10 pro does not see the bluetooth modeul at all under device manager. So when i run broad com's installer or apple's packaged installer they close out since they assume that there is no BT on the system.

 

[flyinmac]

The problem I am having is that windows 10 pro does not see the bluetooth modeul at all under device manager. So when i run broad com's installer or apple's packaged installer they close out since they assume that there is no BT on the system.

Is there anything in the device manager that has a triangle or exclamation point next to it? Sometimes you have to "delete" those items and then install the driver to detect it.

Sometimes those items with exclamation points may be incorrectly labeled as to what they are.

 

[redbeardtheweird]

I've tried the method outlined in the first post and boot using the option key method my screens just go into standby mode and it never boots. So I tried to go the rEFInd route. WHen I try an EFI boot it says Invalid loader file! Error: Not found while loading bootmgfw.efi

So I try to boot in legacy mode. Same issue as outlined above. Screen goes black, goes into standby, and nothing ever happens.

Any of you guys got any ideas on what I'm doing wrong? I've mounted the EFI volume in my windows partition and the files referenced are there.

 

[flyinmac]

I've tried the method outlined in the first post and boot using the option key method my screens just go into standby mode and it never boots. So I tried to go the rEFInd route. WHen I try an EFI boot it says Invalid loader file! Error: Not found while loading bootmgfw.efi

So I try to boot in legacy mode. Same issue as outlined above. Screen goes black, goes into standby, and nothing ever happens.

Any of you guys got any ideas on what I'm doing wrong? I've mounted the EFI volume in my windows partition and the files referenced are there.

That is definitely strange. You should always be presented with a boot menu when you hold the option key at startup. Even if no other drives presented, you should at least see the boot menu with your bootable OS X drive on it.

What video card are you using? Original Mac card? Aftermarket?

 

[redbeardtheweird]

That is definitely strange. You should always be presented with a boot menu when you hold the option key at startup. Even if no other drives presented, you should at least see the boot menu with your bootable OS X drive on it.

What video card are you using? Original Mac card? Aftermarket?

I get the EFI boot menu, even see the windows partition. But when I select it, it exhibits the behavior outlined in my post. Sorry for the confusion!

I should also note, I've tried installing windows on a MBR partition, gpt both BIOS and EFI boot schemes, and every combination thereof.

 

[flyinmac]

I get the EFI boot menu, even see the windows partition. But when I select it, it exhibits the behavior outlined in my post. Sorry for the confusion!

I should also note, I've tried installing windows on a MBR partition, gpt both BIOS and EFI boot schemes, and every combination thereof.

OK... It can be a little tricky working with Windows partitions...

The simplest method, is to use bootcamp to create the partition, and then use the above mentioned methods to install Windows onto that partition.

It's essentially a hybrid partition of sorts... It's not exactly MBR, it's not exactly GPT, it's a Mac volume, that is readable by the Mac, but formatted for a MBR installation.

So, on my system, the original setup was a Macintosh formatted hard drive formatted as a GPT Mac OS Journaled drive, then I used bootcamp to create a Windows partition on that drive (dividing the drive in two).

And, then installed Windows into the partition created by bootcamp using the above described methods.

I have since fought with it, to put a copy of the Windows partition onto it's own separate drive. And, I did run into a variety of obstacles. Setting the partition as a standard MBR didn't work, setting it as GPT didn't work. But, directly cloning the partition to the new hard drive did work. It's a hybrid partition of sorts.

I don't know if any of that helps you or not.

 

[redbeardtheweird]

OK... It can be a little tricky working with Windows partitions...

The simplest method, is to use bootcamp to create the partition, and then use the above mentioned methods to install Windows onto that partition.

It's essentially a hybrid partition of sorts... It's not exactly MBR, it's not exactly GPT, it's a Mac volume, that is readable by the Mac, but formatted for a MBR installation.

So, on my system, the original setup was a Macintosh formatted hard drive formatted as a GPT Mac OS Journaled drive, then I used bootcamp to create a Windows partition on that drive (dividing the drive in two).

And, then installed Windows into the partition created by bootcamp using the above described methods.

I have since fought with it, to put a copy of the Windows partition onto it's own separate drive. And, I did run into a variety of obstacles. Setting the partition as a standard MBR didn't work, setting it as GPT didn't work. But, directly cloning the partition to the new hard drive did work. It's a hybrid partition of sorts.

I don't know if any of that helps you or not.

The disk I'm using also has a partition for storage within osx. Also I've tried letting bootcamp do the partitioning and get the same results. As soon as I let windows install, and it's formatted to NTFS osx can no longer mount it. That's expected behavior. But it still boots in fusion.

Does the drive bay is in matter? The fact the drive in questions EFI partition is empty?

 

[flyinmac]

The disk I'm using also has a partition for storage within osx. Also I've tried letting bootcamp do the partitioning and get the same results. As soon as I let windows install, and it's formatted to NTFS osx can no longer mount it. That's expected behavior. But it still boots in fusion.

Does the drive bay is in matter? The fact the drive in questions EFI partition is empty?

I would try it in Drive bay 1 to eliminate that possibility. Otherwise, I don't know what else might be causing the problems in your situation.

 

[redbeardtheweird]

I would try it in Drive bay 1 to eliminate that possibility. Otherwise, I don't know what else might be causing the problems in your situation.

So I put my original 7300 back in and it finally booted into the windows installation media, and let me install windows. Any idea why this wouldn't work with a flashed 5750 that has boot screens?

 

[flyinmac]

So I put my original 7300 back in and it finally booted into the windows installation media, and let me install windows. Any idea why this wouldn't work with a flashed 5750 that has boot screens?

That I don't know. I did the install with my 7300 GT installed. I updated to my 8800 later.

It could be that there was a driver issue. Like the basic drivers didn't activate the 5750.

Curious if after getting it booted with the 7300 as to whether it would work if you switched the 5750 back in?

You could also try the 5750 as a secondary card. Boot with both cards installed. Set up drivers for the 5750, and then after everything is working, then try with just the 5750 and see what it does.

 

[redbeardtheweird]

That I don't know. I did the install with my 7300 GT installed. I updated to my 8800 later.

It could be that there was a driver issue. Like the basic drivers didn't activate the 5750.

Curious if after getting it booted with the 7300 as to whether it would work if you switched the 5750 back in?

You could also try the 5750 as a secondary card. Boot with both cards installed. Set up drivers for the 5750, and then after everything is working, then try with just the 5750 and see what it does.

Once Windows was installed and I could boot from it, I tried putting the 5750 back in. Same issue, screens just go into standby then nothing. I seen an article stating that the EFI and BIOS of this card operate independently, and I may have done something wonky on the BIOS side of the ROM. Like not have a proper block of 512 bytes. It WOUKD explain why every BIOS boot I try has no video. Soooo I'm going to rebuild the ROM, reflash, and try again.

BTW, are you guys BIOS booting or EFI booting?

 

[flyinmac]

Once Windows was installed and I could boot from it, I tried putting the 5750 back in. Same issue, screens just go into standby then nothing. I seen an article stating that the EFI and BIOS of this card operate independently, and I may have done something wonky on the BIOS side of the ROM. Like not have a proper block of 512 bytes. It WOUKD explain why every BIOS boot I try has no video. Soooo I'm going to rebuild the ROM, reflash, and try again.

BTW, are you guys BIOS booting or EFI booting?

Yes, it could be something with the way the card was flashed.

As for booting, I'm using standard EFI

 

[redbeardtheweird]

Yes, it could be something with the way the card was flashed.

As for booting, I'm using standard EFI

Just curious how you're booting a 64 bit kernel with a 32 bit efi? You just using the standard boot manager or a 3rd party efi manager?

 

[cherokeechief]

Just curious how you're booting a 64 bit kernel with a 32 bit efi? You just using the standard boot manager or a 3rd party efi manager?

i had to modify the ISO and create a new install DVD and was able to install 64 bit win 10 pro 64 bit. i used a combination of what i have seen in this forum and also watched Hrutkey Mods videos on uTube. and was able to get mine to work. you must use bootCamp 6 and have to modify it to work after you install windows 10. but after following all the instructions i have mine working just fine. even got windows to reconize that i have SATA hard drives. that is anothr little hack you need to do.also i got it to see all my processors and all 32 gigs of my ram

 

[redbeardtheweird]

i had to modify the ISO and create a new install DVD and was able to install 64 bit win 10 pro 64 bit. i used a combination of what i have seen in this forum and also watched Hrutkey Mods videos on uTube. and was able to get mine to work. you must use bootCamp 6 and have to modify it to work after you install windows 10. but after following all the instructions i have mine working just fine. even got windows to reconize that i have SATA hard drives. that is anothr little hack you need to do.also i got it to see all my processors and all 32 gigs of my ram

Mine works if I use my original gt7300 but not if I use my flased 5750s

 

[flyinmac]

Just curious how you're booting a 64 bit kernel with a 32 bit efi? You just using the standard boot manager or a 3rd party efi manager?

I'm not using any bootloaders for Windows.

Everything I did is described in my first post in this thread.

This technique was effectively the same as if I used bootcamp to format / partition the hard drive. And then used another PC to install Windows 10 64-BIT on that hard drive, and then stuck that hard drive back inside my Mac Pro before activating the license.

I just used a virtual machine to install directly to the drive instead of another PC.
[doublepost=1484813662][/doublepost]

Mine works if I use my original gt7300 but not if I use my flased 5750s

Have you tried using both the 7300 and the 5750 at the same time? Boot with the 7300 as primary (in the slot closest to the CPU's). And put the 5750 in a slot closer to the drive sleds.

See if Windows will boot that way, and then try to obtain the latest Windows drivers for the 5750.

If you can get the 5750 working that way, then try removing the 7300 and see if it will still work with the 5750 installed.

 

[cherokeechief]

i have an ATI Radeon HD 5770, and i got the drivers from ATI and they work. i ended up rolling back the drivers from windows and then i went in and stopped receiving drivers from windows updates. i also had a problem with the the Distibuted COM, and had to do a fix for that, but i got mine working, and it no longer locks up. but i did have to use this one trick to create a 64 bit dvd to install. https://web.archive.org/web/2016040...Id/4/Install-Windows-7-64-Bit-On-Mac-Pro.aspx
and i also used videos form this, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqM2YtinH-LxHE138gAlkcg
and it got me through everything just fine.

 

[redbeardtheweird]

Reflashed the ROM to my GPUs and now all is well. I used a hex compare app to compare my old and newly created rooms and there were a few discrepancies. I can now boot both osx and windows, and with crossfire support! Thanks for all the help guys!

 

[flyinmac]

Reflashed the ROM to my GPUs and now all is well. I used a hex compare app to compare my old and newly created rooms and there were a few discrepancies. I can now boot both osx and windows, and with crossfire support! Thanks for all the help guys!

That's great news. Glad to hear you got it working.

 

[Macintosh/Windows]

I just finished reading the process and steps that flyinmac posted to start this thread and from reading some of these reviews it sounds that it works. My only problem is that I am a visual kind of guy, meaning that I don't fully understand how to follow the steps that flyinmac original posted. So I was wondering if anyone would post a reply of a video showing the process or a set of pictures that would show the process.
I do own VMware and it has Windows 10 already installed on it
I also have a windows 10 ISO file (Have not used yet) Thanks
(I was unsure if it was important to know what my mac specs were or not so here they are)
My mac
OS X Sierra 10.12 (It was jailbroken in hopes of performance boost and to keep it updated)
Mac Pro 3,1 (Early 2008)
32 GB RAM
Nvidia GeForce GTX 680
2x 3.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors