Can't boot into Windows 10 with Boot Runner

I’m having problems getting Windows 10 to load with Boot Runner. I’ve read through several posts here, and I hope I’m covering all the bases with the below info.

  • MacPro 4,1 flashed to 5,1
  • Two SSDs, one with 10.13.6, the other with Windows 10
  • When I choose Windows from the Boot Runner screen, the Mac reboots, but just comes back to the Boot Runner/Mac login.
  • If I select the Windows drive as Startup Disk in System Preferences, I end up with “no bootable device”. But interestingly, if the Win10 disk is the only drive in the computer, it boots right into the OS.
  • I am able to successfully mount the Windows EFI partition using the sudo diskutil mount disk0s2 command.
  • I have not tried disabling SIP as I was hoping that I wouldn’t need to do that by using Boot Runner.
  • I tried running sudo bless --device /dev/disk0s4 --setBoot --nextonly, but it didn’t work (got “no bootable device” error), but I’m not sure if I’ve done it right. Do I run it on the Windows EFI partition (disk0s2) or the “Windows” partition (disk0s4)?

Here’s the output of diskutil list

Acroyear:~ jack$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:           Windows Recovery                         523.2 MB   disk0s1
   2:                        EFI NO NAME                 104.9 MB   disk0s2
   3:         Microsoft Reserved                         16.8 MB    disk0s3
   4:       Microsoft Basic Data Windows                 999.6 GB   disk0s4

/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk2         1000.0 GB  disk1s2

/dev/disk2 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +1000.0 GB  disk2
                                 Physical Store disk1s2
   1:                APFS Volume Acroyear                224.6 GB   disk2s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 21.7 MB    disk2s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                519.2 MB   disk2s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      20.5 KB    disk2s4

Thanks

  • Jack

Looks like the EFI partition is disk0s2 rather than disk0s1 and you have a Windows recovery partition. This can happen if you format the drive with Windows rather than Boot Camp Assistant (or Disk Utility). Boot Runner current requires the EFI partition to be the first slice (like disk0s1). We hope to resolve this in a future update.

tim

Any idea if it’s possible to rearrange the partitions, even if I need to get another utility to do so?

Jack

Joining this discussion as facing a similar issue - Bootrunner now paid license somehow not getting my Windows Pro volume boot up. My system is;

  • MAC PRO 5.1 2010
  • Sonnet PCIE SSD controller with two SSD on it 1. Mojave and 2. Windows PRO
  • Seperate SSD in de drive bay with a Mojave-Test boot drive

This Windows has not been setup by Bootcamp, but cloned to an SSD drive from a previous system and updated all drivers for the MAC PRO. I’ve been working with this for quite a while now but the reason for me looking to this product is that I don’t have Mac EFI GPU (Radeon Vega 64 although a " metal card" not having the OSX EFI bios so will not show a " bootscreen" when pressing the [Option-key] at start up of the Mac.

I really hope this can be solved easy as i need for my audio/video both world OSX and Windows.

Leave me to say, that looking at your instruction clips I don’t know why I don’t get the Bootrunner app in the menubar in Mojave - don’t know if this comes with the " single runner" license.

See below output of Diskutil;

ast login: Sat Oct 19 15:13:40 on console
diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (external, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.9 TB disk0
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_APFS Container disk2 1.9 TB disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (external, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: FDisk_partition_scheme *1.9 TB disk1
1: Windows_NTFS MAC-PRO-W10-BOOT 999.2 GB disk1s1
2: 0x27 534.8 MB disk1s2
3: Apple_HFS 493.9 MB disk1s3

/dev/disk2 (synthesized):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: APFS Container Scheme - +1.9 TB disk2
Physical Store disk0s2
1: APFS Volume MOJAVE-BOOT 187.4 GB disk2s1
2: APFS Volume Preboot 24.0 MB disk2s2
3: APFS Volume Recovery 510.3 MB disk2s3
4: APFS Volume VM 20.5 KB disk2s4

/dev/disk3 (internal, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk3
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk3s1
2: Apple_APFS Container disk5 499.9 GB disk3s2

/dev/disk4 (internal, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk4
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk4s1
2: Apple_APFS Container disk6 1.0 TB disk4s2

/dev/disk5 (synthesized):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: APFS Container Scheme - +499.9 GB disk5
Physical Store disk3s2
1: APFS Volume MOJAVE-TEST-BOOT 94.2 GB disk5s1
2: APFS Volume Preboot 23.1 MB disk5s2
3: APFS Volume Recovery 510.3 MB disk5s3
4: APFS Volume VM 20.5 KB disk5s4

/dev/disk6 (synthesized):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: APFS Container Scheme - +1.0 TB disk6
Physical Store disk4s2
1: APFS Volume CATALINA-TEST-BOOT 864.3 KB disk6s1

/dev/disk7 (internal, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.9 TB disk7
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk7s1
2: Apple_APFS Container disk8 1.9 TB disk7s2

/dev/disk8 (synthesized):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: APFS Container Scheme - +1.9 TB disk8
Physical Store disk7s2
1: APFS Volume DATA 876.5 KB disk8s1

The Twocanoes profile:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> PayloadContent PayloadContent com.twocanoes.bootrunner Forced mcx_preference_settings InitiallySelectedVolume MOJAVE-BOOT (disk2s1)
            <key>MarqueeTextPosition</key>
            <integer>0</integer>

            <key>ScrollMarquee</key>
            <true />

            <key>ShowPopoverOnStart</key>
            <true />

            <key>ShowPopover</key>
            <true />

            <key>LimitTimes</key>
            <false />

            <key>DiskLabelFontSize</key>
            <integer>13</integer>

            <key>MarqueeOnScreenTime</key>
            <string>10.0</string>

            <key>MarqueeOffScreenTime</key>
            <string>2.0</string>

            <key>LimitDays</key>
            <array><integer>0</integer><integer>0</integer><integer>0</integer><integer>0</integer><integer>0</integer><integer>0</integer><integer>0</integer></array>

            <key>VolumeDescriptions</key>
            <array>
              <dict>
                <key>UseVM</key>
                <string>false</string>

                <key>VolumeName</key>
                <string>MOJAVE</string>

                <key>VolumeLabel</key>
                <string>MOJAVE-BOOT (disk2s1)</string>

                <key>VolumeType</key>
                <string>1</string>

                <key>VolumeDescriptionRTF</key>
                <string>e1xydGYxXGFuc2lcZGVmZjB7XGZvbnR0Ymx7XGYwIFxmc3dpc3MgSGVsdmV0aWNhO317XGYxIENvdXJpZXI7fX0Ke1xjb2xvcnRibDtccmVkMjU1XGdyZWVuMFxibHVlMDtccmVkMFxncmVlbjBcYmx1ZTI1NTt9Clx3aWRvd2N0cmxcaHlwaGF1dG8KCntccGFyZCBccWwgXGYwIFxzYTE4MCBcbGkwIFxmaTAgVGVzdCBvbSB0ZSB6aWVuIHdhdCBkaXQgZG9ldFxwYXJ9Cn0K</string>

              </dict>
              <dict>
                <key>UseVM</key>
                <string>false</string>

                <key>VolumeName</key>
                <string>WINDOWS 10 PRO</string>

                <key>VolumeLabel</key>
                <string>MAC-PRO-W10-BOOT (disk0s1)</string>

                <key>VolumeType</key>
                <string>2</string>

                <key>VolumeDescriptionRTF</key>
                <string>e1xydGYxXGFuc2lcZGVmZjB7XGZvbnR0Ymx7XGYwIFxmc3dpc3MgSGVsdmV0aWNhO317XGYxIENvdXJpZXI7fX0Ke1xjb2xvcnRibDtccmVkMjU1XGdyZWVuMFxibHVlMDtccmVkMFxncmVlbjBcYmx1ZTI1NTt9Clx3aWRvd2N0cmxcaHlwaGF1dG8KCntccGFyZCBccWwgXGYwIFxzYTE4MCBcbGkwIFxmaTAgT29rIGhpZXIgemllbiB3YXQgaGV0IGFsbGVtYWFsIGRvZXQuXHBhcn0KfQo=</string>

              </dict>
            </array>
          </dict>
        </dict>
      </array>
    </dict>
  </dict>
  <key>PayloadEnabled</key>
  <true/>
  <key>PayloadIdentifier</key>
  <string>MCXToProfile.2223da8a-8c48-4d6c-96c2-3c5a0c847a53.alacarte.customsettings.1f8ddada-215d-4fd7-9635-94a3a5bd6012</string>
  <key>PayloadType</key>
  <string>com.apple.ManagedClient.preferences</string>
  <key>PayloadUUID</key>
  <string>private information so removed by me</string>
  <key>PayloadVersion</key>
  <integer>1</integer>
</dict>
PayloadDescription Included custom settings: com.twocanoes.bootrunner PayloadDisplayName MCXToProfile: com.twocanoes.bootrunner PayloadIdentifier com.twocanoes.bootrunnertest PayloadOrganization PayloadRemovalDisallowed PayloadScope System PayloadType Configuration PayloadUUID private information so removed by me PayloadVersion 1

Thanks for the detailed post. At least one of the issues is the Volume label. It should be set to the exact volume name or device, like this:

MAC-PRO-W10-BOOT

or

disk1s1

I also see that the disk partition scheme is “FDisk_partition_scheme” which is unusual. GUID is usually used and this may cause boot issues as well: