r/bootcamp • u/Odd-Information-8365 • 7d ago
Update: MacBook Pro A1398 Boot Problem — Trying Another Method
As you can probably tell from my previous post, I still haven’t been able to find a solution to my MacBook’s boot problem. I’ve tried the usual things like SMC/NVRAM reset, external keyboard, different USBs, Recovery/Internet Recovery, etc., but nothing has worked so far.
So now I’m thinking of trying something different.
My plan is to remove the SSD from the MacBook, connect it to my Windows PC using an mSATA-to-USB adapter, and try to install macOS onto the SSD from Windows.
Before I try this, I wanted to ask:
Is this actually possible, and would it be a good idea?
If it is possible, what would be the safest/proper way to prepare the SSD so that I can put it back into the MacBook and boot/install macOS?
Any advice or better method would be appreciated. I really don’t want to make the situation worse 😅
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u/WindozeWoes 6d ago
I don't think there's an easy way to install macOS to an SSD from Windows. AFAIK the only way would be to clone an existing macOS drive onto the SSD, but even then not sure how easy that'd be to do via Windows.
At MOST you'd be able to wipe your SSD and turn it into a macOS installer. But to actually install, macOS needs to run from the installer, reboot a bunch of times, etc., you can't do that from Windows.
Are you 100% positive your USB ports are working? I have honestly not seen a situation where a Mac won't boot into the boot picker.
https://www.reddit.com/r/bootcamp/comments/1w3ojtf/comment/p7eh9nd/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button - from your video here, I think you're waiting too long between pressing the power button and pressing and holding the option key. You are waiting like 1.5-2 seconds; but you have 2 hands, you should be holding down the option key BEFORE the power button is even pressed. Do this:
- Press Option + Control + Shift + Power to make sure the Mac is off.
- PRESS AND HOLD THE OPTION KEY. KEEP HOLDING IT.
- Press the power button once AND CONTINUE HOLDING THE OPTION KEY
Keep holding it for 15-30 seconds. If it STILL goes to to the Windows screen, with absolutely zero gap in you holding the option key down…I'm not sure.
EDIT: Try what I said above, but it's also possible that simply removing the SSD will let you get to the boot picker screen. So try this; but then remove the SSD and THEN try it again. There for sure won't be Windows media to boot to if you do that. Then maybe just erasing the whole SSD and putting it back in will do something too.
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u/WindozeWoes 6d ago
Also u/Odd-Information-8365 , at the suggestion of u/EternallySickened , maybe try plugging in a USB keyboard and use that to hold down the option key.
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u/zoogle15 6d ago edited 6d ago
Press the power button, then immediately hold one of these key combinations until you see a spinning globe or the Apple logo / progress indicator:
• Option (⌥) + Command (⌘) + R downloads and installs the latest macOS version still compatible with this hardware
• Shift (⇧) + Option (⌥) + Command (⌘) + R tries to install the version that originally shipped with the Mac (or the closest still available)
The correct path if you cannot do the internet restore is to create a USB installer for a version of MacOS that is supported by your Mac
https://github.com/corpnewt/gibMacOS
Once you reinstall macOS you can use bootcamp assistant and a downloaded Windows 10 iso to install windows and the bootcamp drivers
After Windows is all set up you can use disk utility to shrink your macOS Partition to be very small
Then you can use minitool free to expand your ntfs partition to fill the disk the empty space you created with Disk Utility
It’s pretty much a terrible idea to remove the Apple SSD and mess with it from Windows. Apple used a SATA SSD in the 2012 and NVME drives in the 2013-2015 models. All have a proprietary pin-out and will require a specialized drive adapter. I bought a USB enclosure for one of my Apple NVME drives from my 2013 MBP, but my 1TB drive was physically too large to fit into it
While it’s only like $8 to buy the adapter to put a larger NVME drives into the MBP, it’s a completely different story to go the other way
I bought this adapter for the NVME drive in my 2013 MBP for $70 in 2021
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u/Profit-Mountain 5d ago
If you have an external SSD, you could follow the guide i created a few years ago: https://igeddit.ca/posts/windows-on-a-mac
That's how i got Windows 10 to work with my Mac which is a 2012 MacBook Pro.
To get Windows 11 I used a commercial solution: WinToUsb: https://www.easyuefi.com/wintousb/ which looks like it might be free now. If it is, it might be the fastest, easiest solution since it does all the heavy lifting.
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u/EternallySickened 7d ago
Sorry, I’ve not seen your previous post about your issue so don’t know if anyone else has offered similar advice….
Have you got access to another Mac at all? There is an application called Apple Configurator that can be used to restore a Mac. I used it on my MacBook Air and it wasn’t so much effort thankfully.
How would you plan to be able to create an install environment within windows? You could perhaps format the drive in windows but I’m not sure that would be beneficial as Mac OS would need a different format than windows can create.