Patch for macOS Mojave fixes Boot Camp issue on Fusion Drive Macs

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in macOS
Apple has issued a patch for macOS Mojave 10.14.5 that fixes a problem with Boot Camp, one that prevents users from using the tool to produce a new partition on some Macs equipped with a Fusion Drive.




Added to Apple's support pages on Thursday, the brief document offers a download link for the "macOS Mojave 10.14.5 Boot Camp Update. The download itself is equally small, weighing in at just 1.9 megabytes in size.

Apple describes the download as addressing "an issue which prevents creation of a new Boot Camp partition on iMac and Mac mini with Fusion Drive." It is unclear if owners of non-Fusion Drive models encountered similar issues with Boot Camp.

It appears that the patch can be downloaded by any Mac users running macOS Mojave 10.14.5 capable of mounting a Fusion Drive, but considering the description, it is likely to only be of use to certain iMac and Mac mini owners.

Boot Camp is Apple's function that enables a Mac to have a partition set up for running Windows outside of macOS, without needing to use a virtual machine within macOS itself. The feature enables Windows users to continue using their Windows-only apps on their Mac, instead of relying on a separate dedicated Windows PC.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 11
    dualiedualie Posts: 334member
    I have the newest 27" iMac with a Fusion Drive and haven't had any problems with installing or partitioning for Boot Camp. It worked perfectly.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 11
    mretondomretondo Posts: 94member
    I wonder if this fixes the problem when you have two SSD internal drives and want to use APFS. I have a iMac 27" with a fusion drive. My spinning disk died and I replaced it with an SSD. Now I have the 128GB SSD that came with my iMac and a 1TB SSD from OWC. The macOS would not let you add a Boot Camp partition with this configuration. I figured out how to manually do it but it was a real pain. What I don't like about the workaround is it puts the Windows portion on the 128GB stick which is much faster than the SATA SSD. Normally it puts the MacOS onto the 128GB stick and the Mac runs much faster. I might try starting over with this fix and see if this is the problem it fixed.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 11
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,851member
    dualie said:
    I have the newest 27" iMac with a Fusion Drive and haven't had any problems with installing or partitioning for Boot Camp. It worked perfectly.
    Not having an iMac I don't know the answer to this ... now SSDs are so much less expensive can you rip out the Fusion Drive and replace it with an SSD?
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 11
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    MacPro said:
    dualie said:
    I have the newest 27" iMac with a Fusion Drive and haven't had any problems with installing or partitioning for Boot Camp. It worked perfectly.
    Not having an iMac I don't know the answer to this ... now SSDs are so much less expensive can you rip out the Fusion Drive and replace it with an SSD?
    Not for the common user since the iMac screen is glued on now instead of using magnets. Videos showing the process are a little scary to watch.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 11
    Mike WuertheleMike Wuerthele Posts: 6,928administrator
    MacPro said:
    dualie said:
    I have the newest 27" iMac with a Fusion Drive and haven't had any problems with installing or partitioning for Boot Camp. It worked perfectly.
    Not having an iMac I don't know the answer to this ... now SSDs are so much less expensive can you rip out the Fusion Drive and replace it with an SSD?
    Going Thunderbolt external would be faster than the Fusion Drive. Hell, going USB-3.1 type C is too.
    edited June 2019
  • Reply 6 of 11
    OutdoorAppDeveloperOutdoorAppDeveloper Posts: 1,293member
    This "bug" caused me to learn how to install MacOS on an external USB SSD drive. It works WAY better than wasting space on an internal partition. Apple should just support the installation of Windows on an external drive with Bootcamp if for no other reason than making Bootcamp much easier for them to continue to support on Fusion drives.
  • Reply 7 of 11
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,851member
    lkrupp said:
    MacPro said:
    dualie said:
    I have the newest 27" iMac with a Fusion Drive and haven't had any problems with installing or partitioning for Boot Camp. It worked perfectly.
    Not having an iMac I don't know the answer to this ... now SSDs are so much less expensive can you rip out the Fusion Drive and replace it with an SSD?
    Not for the common user since the iMac screen is glued on now instead of using magnets. Videos showing the process are a little scary to watch.
    OMG.  Yet another reason for a new Mac Pro!  Not the Fusion Drive per se just the 'it's all sealed in' part puts me off an iMac.  I keep talking myself out of a mew Mac Pro only to come back and reconsider it. I have a few Dell machines and was able to plop a USBc card in a 2010 Dell Sever for $15 and I sit and look at my Mac Pro 2013 with its USB3 and TB2 and groan.  
    edited June 2019 cgWerks
  • Reply 8 of 11
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,851member
    This "bug" caused me to learn how to install MacOS on an external USB SSD drive. It works WAY better than wasting space on an internal partition. Apple should just support the installation of Windows on an external drive with Bootcamp if for no other reason than making Bootcamp much easier for them to continue to support on Fusion drives.
    It's very doable yourself just not officially supported by Apple or Microsoft if you don't mind using Windows to do it.  You just need two free applications and a Windows Machine or even as I did, use VMWare Fusion with Windows 10.  The programs you need are WinUSB and MiniTools Partition and of course the Windows 10 ISO image.  I've posted many guides for this even here on AI a few years back I seem to recall.  I have several bare SSDs with SATA to USB3 connectors (just a few $s on Amazon) set up this way.  PLus there are tons of other guides on the web.

    Update:  I see WinUSB has now added the feature I used MiniTools Partition for.  So now you just need the one application: https://www.winusb.net
    I forgot to mention you need to go to Apple to get the BootCamp drivers if using these SSDs on a Mac.
    edited June 2019
  • Reply 9 of 11
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,851member
    MacPro said:
    dualie said:
    I have the newest 27" iMac with a Fusion Drive and haven't had any problems with installing or partitioning for Boot Camp. It worked perfectly.
    Not having an iMac I don't know the answer to this ... now SSDs are so much less expensive can you rip out the Fusion Drive and replace it with an SSD?
    Going Thunderbolt external would be faster than the Fusion Drive. Hell, going USB-3.1 type C is too.
    My only tests using a Fusion Drive (not Apple's I should add) would make a floppy drive seem fast lol.  BTW please stop mentioning TB3 and USBc will ya ... I have a 2013 trash can!  ;)
    edited June 2019
  • Reply 10 of 11
    cgWerkscgWerks Posts: 2,952member
    OutdoorAppDeveloper said:
    This "bug" caused me to learn how to install MacOS on an external USB SSD drive. It works WAY better than wasting space on an internal partition. Apple should just support the installation of Windows on an external drive with Bootcamp if for no other reason than making Bootcamp much easier for them to continue to support on Fusion drives.
    I really hope this means Apple is going to put some work into BootCamp again. Not only could the whole process be improved, especially for eGPUs and things like external drives... but the Windows side of BootCamp drivers looks like something Apple did for XP and haven't touched since. (For example, it doesn't support the trackpad in even basic ways.)

    MacPro said:
    Mike Wuerthele said:
    Going Thunderbolt external would be faster than the Fusion Drive. Hell, going USB-3.1 type C is too.
    My only tests using a Fusion Drive (not Apple's I should add) would make a floppy drive seem fast lol.  BTW please stop mentioning TB3 and USBc will ya ... I have a 2013 trash can!  ;)
    That makes me curious how a USB3 external basic SSD (You know, like the ones you can get 512GB to 1TB for $70-$130) would work for BootCamp. I think I once tried putting Parallels on a USB3 HD, and it was kind of unusable.

    Unfortunately, I'm taking up like half my 2018 mini's fast storage with my BootCamp partition. I can't reconfigure right now (ie: take any chances mucking up my system until I finish some coursework), but it would be nice to get that back some day.
  • Reply 11 of 11
    Mike WuertheleMike Wuerthele Posts: 6,928administrator
    MacPro said:
    MacPro said:
    dualie said:
    I have the newest 27" iMac with a Fusion Drive and haven't had any problems with installing or partitioning for Boot Camp. It worked perfectly.
    Not having an iMac I don't know the answer to this ... now SSDs are so much less expensive can you rip out the Fusion Drive and replace it with an SSD?
    Going Thunderbolt external would be faster than the Fusion Drive. Hell, going USB-3.1 type C is too.
    My only tests using a Fusion Drive (not Apple's I should add) would make a floppy drive seem fast lol.  BTW please stop mentioning TB3 and USBc will ya ... I have a 2013 trash can!  ;)
    Good news! TB2 is faster :)
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