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Dual Booting Macs with Windows 10 using K2000

Our institution was a Ghost campus and using Ghost I was able to easily image all macs using a computer built in audit mode and putting the drivers on the image. The other option we had was to use deploy studio to capture the image and re-deploy it that way, but that had other problems like partition sizing and speed that we didn't want to deal with.  All this aside, i'm here to describe my experience with imaging a Mac with the k2000.

Since I had searched the itninja site looking for some information on how to dual-boot a computer using the k2000 and found NOTHING, I thought it would actually be difficult.  WOW was i wrong.

To start I build my Windows 10 image using the k2000 following the instructions here: https://dell.app.box.com/s/wun9qwuw2sj6lg827kpv9yhj5s7u0px2 and then capture the image.  This creates the windows image on a single partition which is VERY IMPORTANT.

I then image the mac with a fresh 10.11 base image with no software on it at all.  Once imaged i partitioned the drive.  This part of the process is more important than you may think because it puts the Windows partition at disk0s4.  I can't find the documentation i read before, but i believe you cannot boot Windows on a partition higher than 4.

I then create a pre-installation Task with the following information in it:
select disk 1
select par 1
remove all noerr
select disk 0
select par 4
format fs=ntfs label="windows" quick
active
assign letter="C"
select disk 1
select par 1
assign letter="D"
exit

Then i boot from my Windows 10 PE created USB drive (again from the documentation linked above), deploy the system image with the pre-installation task above in it and wham-o it works! 

Setting the driver feed is another important part!  On my k2000 i have new folders setup for windows 10 like below:
\\k2000\drivers_postinstall\Apple_inc\windows_10_x64\iMac13,1
\\k2000\drivers_postinstall\Apple_inc\windows_10_x64\Macmini6,2
depending on what the driver feed building tool finds for me.  You also need to download the Windows 10 drivers from the macs themselves since they are not provided on Apples website as easy as they were before.

This page shows which models of Mac you can install Windows 10 on.  
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204990

If you're using windows 7, you can head here to get the bootcamp drivers.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205016

IN ORDER FOR THE DRIVERS TO WORK YOU MUST EXTRACT ALL THE .EXEs THAT ARE IN THE SUB FOLDERS! I say that in CAPS to get your attention, otherwise the drivers will not work.

On an existing machine i set the computer to always boot to Windows and that allows the computer to reboot multiple times and set itself up immediately after imaging.  If you're working on a brand new format/install (fresh out of the box or all partitions were wiped) you'll need to boot back up to the USB drive and go to recovery and open up command prompt and run "bootsect /nt60 c: /mbr" to set the mbr correctly.  Once you do that you'll be able to hold ALT (or use bootcamp or refit) to select the Windows partition.

The same process SHOULD work with Windows 7, but all i've tried it with is Windows 10.  If someone else could also try and replicate what i've done or find errors with the process, that would be great.  I'll update the post if i'm out of order or things are wrong but this is all spewing out of my head as i type.

Good luck! 

***UPDATE***

With new 16,2 iMacs I found out that they don't seem to have the legacy bios available anymore, so running "bootsect /nt60 c: /mbr" doesn't do anything.  A work-around I found is to image with KACE, boot into Mac OS and run WinClone and select "make EFI bootable" You also will need to disable SIP during your mac deployment workflow.

Good Luck!

-Steve Davis

Comments

  • Thanks for the post. I have two questions:
    Did you partition the drive using Disk Utility or the BootCamp Assistant?

    Did you have to add any special drivers to your KBE in order for it to work on the Mac? - chucksteel 8 years ago
  • I used Disk Utility. We've also done the process using DeployStudio to image the mac and partition the hard drive all in one step.

    The only drivers that I loaded onto the thumb drive were the ones for the Windows 10 KBE that i got from http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/enterprise-client/w/wiki/11530.winpe-10-driver-pack

    When i built the KBE i made sure that those drivers were the only drivers in the folder.

    -Steve - scdavissmith 8 years ago
  • Updated my diskpart command:

    was:
    select disk 0
    select par 4
    format fs=ntfs label="windows" quick
    active
    exit

    needs to be:
    select disk 1
    select par 1
    remove all noerr
    select disk 0
    select par 4
    format fs=ntfs label="windows" quick
    active
    assign letter="C"
    select disk 1
    select par 1
    assign letter="D"
    exit

    I can explain to people if needed.

    -Steve - scdavissmith 8 years ago
    • why did you change it to disk 1? - Veeohla 8 years ago
      • selecting Disk1 is choosing the USB drive and changing the drive letter so the install doesn't get confused. I had it fail before when i didnt do that and changing the letter made everything work. - scdavissmith 8 years ago
  • I actually pull the usb out after I connect to the KACE to prevent the error - Veeohla 8 years ago
    • I think I put it in there as a CYA type of thing... just in case i forgot to pull out the thumb drive it's covered. - scdavissmith 8 years ago
      • I've been struggling trying to get Windows 7 on the new iMacs this last week since Apple put that new security boot in place....I use to have a pre install task that did something similar to yours except it was selecting par 3(pre bootcamp 6.0 seemed to make the windows par 3)... but yeah it will image the partition but OSX tells me that it can't bless it now. Hopefully it doesn't give me problems with Windows 10 since I've manually installed it on 1 machine already - Veeohla 8 years ago
  • One thing to note is i dont use bootcamp at all. I manually create the partitions. I'm not positive if that changes things or not but when i create them it makes them 4. You should be able to do what i did above and just set the partition to 3 instead of 4 and it should work. you should also be able to do it with win7, you'll just need to have the right drivers in the right space on the k2.

    ALSO Dell needs to fix this so i could reply to you again... - scdavissmith 8 years ago
    • I've used DeployStudio to partition it for me while dropping the OsX image to the machines. The ones I'm having a problem with are the 16,2 iMacs. Apparently there's something in the firmware preventing me from "Blessing" the windows partition. - Veeohla 8 years ago
      • Do you get an error or something when you boot off the thumb drive and run "bootsect /nt60 c: /mbr" ? - scdavissmith 8 years ago
  • I'll let you know, I'm heading to my office now. - Veeohla 8 years ago
  • the selected disk is not a fixed mbr disk the ACTIVE command can only be used on fixed MBR disks.... this is what happens with the new iMacs when i try to select and make the windows partition the active one - Veeohla 8 years ago
    • is it a fusion drive? What happens when you go into diskpart and do list disk? - scdavissmith 8 years ago
      • SSD drives. Diskpart works. I can view the disk, partitions, volumes. can format the drive and stuff... won't let me make it active though - Veeohla 8 years ago
  • what happens if you just skip the "active" part? also try to get the drive ready and just image w/out the diskpart process. if the drive is formatted fat32 it should work. - scdavissmith 8 years ago
    • I've tried and it will deploy the image but then not be able to boot into it - Veeohla 8 years ago
      • boot to the restore area and look to see if the files are there. they may have gone to the D drive? or are the correct files on C? - scdavissmith 8 years ago
  • they're there but still OSX won't "Bless" the partition for me.... I ended up just using VMFusion - Veeohla 8 years ago
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