Various issues with installing Windows
Hi all,
I've been trying to install Windows on my iMac well over a dozen times using various methods recommended on various forums such as this and I either cannot get into the Windows installer or the installer will not proceed past the "Copying installation files" part.
Below I will outline my specs, the various methods I've tried and the outcome. Please note that all the attempts were made after a fresh install of the latest Big Sur and using different Windows ISO versions (21H1, 20H2, 2004, 1909).
Hopefully someone will be able to help me resolve this.
Specs:
iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2019)
3GHz Intel Core i5
16GB DDR4
1TB NVME (OS, APFS)
1TB SSD (APFS)
Big Sur 11.5.2
Scenario 1 - Following the Boot Camp Assistant Guide:
- SMC and PRAM reset
- 2x First Aid on Macintosh HD
- Follow the Boot Camp Assistant Guide
- Allocate 500gb to macOS and 500gb to Windows
- Diskutil is open in the background, confirming OSXRESERVED and Bootcamp partition was created by Boot Camp Assistant
- Boot Camp Assistant restarts the computer without prompting for a password (I noticed that some guides have mentioned that they had to type in a password before Boot Camp Assistant restarts the computer)
- Apple logo stays on the screen for about 30 seconds
- After this the flashing folder with a question mark logo appears
- Power off iMac
- Power on iMac
- Boots into Big Sur
- Diskutil shows Bootcamp partition, OSXRESERVED is no longer listed
Scenario 2 - Following the Boot Camp Assistant Guide + holding Option
- SMC and PRAM reset
- 2x First Aid on Macintosh HD
- Same process as Scenario 1 up to powering off iMac
- Power on iMac while holding Option
- Select Windows to boot
- Installer starts
- Commences to screen showing the setup progress
- Does not progress past "Copying installation files (0%)
- Error message pops up saying "Windows cannot locate the disk and partition specified in the unattend answer files <ImageInstall> setting. Make sure the setting references a valid partition and restart the installation."
- Exits and reboots
- Boots into Big Sur
- Diskutil shows Bootcamp partition, OSXRESERVED is no longer listed
Scenario 3 - Following the Boot Camp Assistant Guide + holding Option v2
- SMC and PRAM reset
- 2x First Aid on Macintosh HD
- Same process as Scenario 1 up to Boot Camp Assistant restarting the computer
- Hold down Option key just as Boot Camp Assistant restarts computer
- Select Windows (or EFI) to boot
- Installer starts
- Commences to screen showing the setup progress
- Does not progress past "Copying installation files (0%)
- Error message pops up saying "Windows cannot locate the disk and partition specified in the unattend answer files <ImageInstall> setting. Make sure the setting references a valid partition and restart the installation."
- Exits and reboots
- Boots into Big Sur
- Diskutil shows Bootcamp partition, OSXRESERVED is no longer listed
Scenario 4 - Manual install
- Format USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 sticks in ExFAT and create a bootable USB with the various Windows ISO
- Download the Windows Support Files via Boot Camp Assistant and copy to USBs
- SMC and PRAM reset
- Diskutil to partition the drive (500gb Windows ExFAT)
- GPT fdisk confirms that the MBR partition is not hybrid and is protective
- Restart
- Hold down Option key
- Boot from USB
- Installer starts
- Gets to "Where do you want to install Windows?"
- Correct the partition by
- Deleting the newly created Windows partition
- Select the "Unallocated Space"
- Click "New" to create NTFS partition along with the other partitions Windows requires automatically
- Select the newly created NTFS partition and click "Next"
- There is an error message in the same window saying "We couldn't create a new partition or locate one."
Can anyone offer any tips or advice on anything else I can try to resolve this?
Thank you.
iMac Line (2012 and Later)