Macbook Pro 16 inch

Hello Tim,

I have a shiny new MacBook Pro 16" I’m trying to move BOOTCAMP over to from my old MacBook Pro

I have just bought Winclone for this purpose.

Tried a direct migration from my old Mac to the new one of the BOOTCAMP drive (source mac in target drive mode using Thunderbolt to connect to the new one), and it failed with some gobbledygook about the startup disk not being valid.

I tried searching your support pages and as a result I then did a ‘sysprep’ on the source machine, then tried again, and now the result does start booting on my new mac, but then fails with this BSOD:

Stop code: “SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED”

What failed: AppleSSD.Sys

I see your response immediately above this post saying it worked for you, on a MacBook Pro 16" ,using ‘the same procedure used for migrating to any T2 Mac’.

So here’s the thing - its not obvious what that ‘same procedure for migrating to any T2 Mac’ is - your documentation / training videos (that I’ve seen so far) don’t mention it.

I found one blog post you made dating back to Winclone 7 about what you did about the existence of T2 macs, but that doesn’t directly tell -me- what to do about it now.

So the trouble here is that you seem to be assuming that new users to Winclone know what that means, or how to do it - and searching for that on your site provides ambiguous results for me.

Can you please tell me what that procedure is- and - as a suggestion - can you consider updating the software so that when its running on a T2 Mac, that it :

a) Tells the user they are on a “T2 Mac”; and
b) Tells them what they have to do about that fact for a successful result??

(It would also be helpful if the software, directly, mentioned the need to run ‘sysprep’ ‘on-screen’ as well - this would save your customers ‘avoidably wasted’ attempts (esp since each attempt takes quite a while - even between a pair of high end SSD macs using thunderbolt and target drive mode - which is what I’m doing).

Also - I have a clue from that blog post of yours that maybe the solution has to do with ‘WinPE’ - and I see the checkbox during migration (off by default) about enabling ‘WinPE’ support - but - the help page it links to tells me -what- this does but it doesn’t tell me -why- I might want to do it!

So the issue here is that for someone who isn’t dumb who has not previously had a need to understand (separately) “WinPE” and the special nature(s) of a T2 Mac - your existing documentation and support replies are written as if ‘everyone knows’ about both of those things - but - sincerely - they don’t.

I’ve already tried this several times, each time takes hours, and I feel like, surely, there should be a single ‘known good’ path here that you can have the software directly frame - and without me having to dig deep into the technology around this, when the tool does such a great job of ‘almost’ making the process pain free and automatic. I’m sure the fix is not hard - but - ideally I shouldn’t be having to do this much trial and error to work out that fix.

Hope you can help! The software looks fab in general, but this migration to the latest Mac model (which, surely, is a key/common use case) just isn’t smooth at all - without deep knowledge I don’t have and that I didn’t expect to need…!

The fallback path is a scratch install of Windows, I guess- which kinda invalidates the entire use-case for Winclone for me.

Thanks!

Cheers,
Simon

p.s. potentially useful data point - its a max-spec CPU/RAM MacBook Pro 16 with a 4TB SSD. Any chance its the much bigger SSD that’s somehow an issue?

IMG_21964032×3024 2.07 MB

Hi,
Just got the new MacBook Pro 16 inches base model. Got the license from twocanoes and then began reading the issues with the migration. I read the post on lack of details on migrating to a T2 mac. I am a newbie to Twocanoes software and do not have too much time to experiment. Can you please point me to any step by step procedure to migrate to the new MacBook pro 16 inch 2019 base model. My older system is a MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013). Also do I need 2 copies of the winclone software one on the old computer and one on the new computer? Instructions are not that clear. I want to use twocanoes but if I have to re-install windows and all the software then I will find it of no use and will have to ask for a refund. I really don’t want

I can answer your question about the number of licenses - since I’ve got that far already. And I have the same combination of machines iIm trying to migrate with.

You just need one license (tho, during my experiments so far, I also I managed to activate the license on both machines, which to me seems morally acceptable as long as I’m only using it on one at the time, and only for the purpose of the migration).

That said you -can- operate with it only on the destination machine.

Here’s how I did it:

• Put the source machine into “Target Drive” mode (reboot holding down ‘T’ key)

• Connected that machine to the destination machine using a thunderbolt cable (for the fastest I/O rate possible between the two - there are other approaches including Target drive mode using USB, and using external hard drives or flash drives, too)

• Used Winclone to back up the original BOOTCAMP drive to a file on the target machine (as a backup before fiddling with it).

• Booted the source machine into windows, and ran SYSPREP (CD \Windows\System32\SYSPREP then run SYSPREP and specify “OOBE”, ‘Generalise’, and ‘Shutdown’ (don’t reboot! hold down the option key and reboot back into Mac OS instead!).

• Then rebooted the source machine back into Target drive mode and ran Winclone again on the target machine to create a new system backup file from the ‘generalised’ (generalised hardware driver) windows instance generated by the SYSPREP run [ if you don’t do this, the result won’t boot on your new mac hardware at all - wrong hardware drivers ]

• Created a BOOTCAMP partition on the new machine (the instructions on the video tutorial on the two canoes site don’t work exactly right on the latest MacOS with its use of ‘Volume/Container’ structures. You can convince it to work by fiddling a bit in Disk Utility a bit, though - you need a physical partition, not a volume in a container. The two canoes instructions could use being updated for this bit.

• Ran Winclone on the target machine to expand the saved image file into the new BOOTCAMP partition on the new machine

• Booted into that new partition - which starts firing up properly until the BSOD noted above. You may or may not see the same issue - and this is where I’m up to right now, seeking (as you are) guidance on what to do about my new mac being a ‘T2’ (secure enclave enabled) machine.

Cheers,
Simon

Hi Simon - I totally agree with all of your comments so far. Thanks for sharing your experience with us. I assume that I will get same error message after running Sysprep and transferring againg Bootcamp from my old Macbook Pro 2017 to my new 16" model (with T2). I will save my time and see if the situation will change soon. Would be nice to get some: “Hey we recognised a problem and we are working on it” message from the Twocanoes team which seems to be a one man show from Tim

Thanks Cueni and Simon for your response. Simon Quick question. The new MacBook Pro is Thunderbolt 3 whereas my Late 2013 has Thunderbolt 1. How did you manage to connect them via thunderbolt? Will the apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter work? And back to the main point, Tim Would love a response fro you or someone from TwoCanoes on this as soon as possible.

I just ordered a new MB 16inch to replace my 2013. After reading all the comments here I am very concerned I will run into issues. Also the procedure Tim is describing is not clear. How do you install new bootcamp drivers if the windows image will not load.

At a minimum It would be nice if they put out a video showing exactly what they did to get the image on the new macs and what is the recommended procedure step by step.

I find it a bit irritating twocanoes is promoting it’s winclone software (having time to set up a black friday promotion) while leaving their existing customers in the cold and even still not mentioning or confirming here the problems we all share with the macbook pro 16" on the homepage so that people are aware before buying. I have complete understanding for the fact that it’s a brand new machine and there might be issues beyond your ability at the moment but please be honest to your customers in a sense of keeping them up to date with the status (are you looking into it or not) and mentioning it to newcomers. Not doing so will only generate more unhappy/frustrated clients and I don’t think that’s what you want. The current Winclone 8 does simply not work out of the box with the new macbook pro 16" for which most people will buy it these days. Can you please share a ‘simple’ working solution with all of us here or confirm at least that there are still issues you haven’t sorted out yet. Once it works I will be the first one to congratulate you as well! We’re all waiting for some feedback now… Tx.

The articles I was referring to are:

https://twocanoes.com/knowledge-base/restoring-winclone-7-images-to-the-2018-macbook-pro-and-2017-imac-pro-macs-with-t2-co-processors/

http://twocanoes.com/knowledge-base/resolving-inaccessible_boot_device-error-after-restoring-winclone-image/

I’ll add better information to the purchasing page and the help pages. It was not our intention to obscure this. Migrating to T2 Macs has been an issue before Winclone 8 and the new 16" MacBook Pros and have not had any feedback that it was difficult to find. It applied to Winclone 7 and any Mac that was migrating from a non-T2 Mac to a T2 Mac. Windows is migrated fully, but the mass storage device driver is not in the version of Windows that is being migrated and must be injected. I wish there was a way to inject right from Winclone but we do not currently have a way to do that without the Windows tools

As always, if it doesn’t work for you or you are not satisfied, we will give you a refund. Just click on Refunds in the footer of any page on twocanoes.com and will will process it.

I like the idea of prompting someone when restoring to a T2 to prompt them that there may be an issue. If you are migrating from a T2 to a T2, the driver will already be there so it shouldn’t an issue when restoring.

tim

Tim thanks for responding. Would you mind giving brief step by step instructions to migrate from a non-
T2 to T2 machine. I have a late 2013 MacBook Pro and would like to move my boot camp windows from the old machine to the new one. Tried to make sense of your previous instructions but not sure if I need to install windows using boot camp then restore winclone image into that windows and then inject new driver. If you give the instructions I can try and post back if it works.
Thanks
Arun

Will these essentially be the same steps for getting windows on an external drive for the MB 16 as well? (Currently if I run the software through the external drive installation it completes but when the mac starts to load windows it freezes at the loading wheel and restarts)

yes, that is correct. Inject the most current drivers will resolve issues related to missing / old drivers.

I updated the article here that outlines all the steps:

http://twocanoes.com/knowledge-base/migrate-bootcamp-to-a-new-mac-winclone-8/

I plan on updated the video as well when I get back in to the office.

tim

Hello Tim,

That link you just posted brings up a page saying this:

If you are migrating from an older Mac to a newer Mac (like one with a T2 co-processor) and get a “inaccessible boot device” error, the image that was restored may not have the drivers required for the new hardware. To add the drivers, follow the support article “Resolving INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE Error after restoring Winclone image“.

Unfortunately there are two problems with this:

1. the link allegedly doesn’t point to a new page, it just links back to the very same page (i.e. doesn’t take you anywhere else - no other instructions); AND

2. As per my first posting - the issue I have is not that the partition won’t start booting - but rather than I get a BSOD failure referencing the AppleSSD driver after the boot commences (and it repeated endlessly if allowed to self-reboot)

Help!

Thank you Tim for this feedback. It’s nice that we are heard… I will give it a go as well tonight and let you know the outcome.

Hi Simon, The missing link you mention is probably this one Tim mentioned in a previous reply: http://twocanoes.com/knowledge-base/resolving-inaccessible_boot_device-error-after-restoring-winclone-image/

Here is the link to create a Windows 10 Bootable USB Flash Drive on a Mac

http://twocanoes.com/create-a-windows-10-bootable-usb-flash-drive-on-a-mac/

I corrected the link in the article to the correct one:

https://twocanoes.com/knowledge-base/resolving-inaccessible_boot_device-error-after-restoring-winclone-image/

tim

Does anybody had success? I tried this USB Flash Drive staff. It doesnt show up the Windows Icon on my macbook and the result is the same.

I attempted to do that last night and it didn’t work for me the first time - I did manage to get the USB thumb drive created, and I managed to get my system boot security settings relaxed so that it would boot, but when I booted it the windows instance didn’t work properly and I couldn’t successfully hit the magic ‘Fn-Shift-F10’ to get a command line prompt to come up.
(Touch Bar remained black throughout the boot - i.e. no response to hitting the Fn keyboard key).
I don’t remember precisely the failure mode, I’lll try it all again from scratch when I have a chance later today and post a more specific idea of what broke.

Meantime, I just need to reiterate - Tim - the failure I get is not the 'INACCESSIBLE_DEVICE" BSOD, its a different one (“SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED”), as per the picture I posted in this thread earlier.

If that’s a different issue, then it might need a different resolution; On the other hand, if its actually the same issue, can you please update your remedy page to say that the SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED failure is the same issue? Else its quite confusing - you’re effectively asking me to use the remedy for a different failure mode to fix mine - and so I’m genuinely not sure if I’m fixing the right problem.

The point here is that in general you need to assume your new customers are not experts in this stuff and you need to be clear and unambiguous about remedies, including making sure (please) that the remedy pages do actually reference the full range of possible failure mode BSOD’s for which that’s ‘the fix’.

To be clear - it sounds like this should fix it - but - the ambiguity between the BSOD that page refers to and the failure mode I actually see means I’m really not sure.

Feels like we’ll get there, but - wow - its a struggle

And yes, your instructional video definitely needs to mention the key aspects that matter for new customers with a latest-issue laptop (surely, surely, a common use case for new customers?) - i.e. (a) the SYSPREP utility and its need to be used and (b) this whole rigamarole with having to create a bootable USB drive instance to push new drivers into the BOOTCAMP partition (as well).

Is there any way to avoid the latter steps in the future for other users? Its a seriously complicated set of steps to expect someone to follow for a process that - in the end - is just jamming a few files into a directory. Is there no way to do that more directly (from Mac OS X, dropping the new driver set in directly to the BOOTCAMP partition before booting it up)? Having to fire up an entire windows instance with all this temporary hardware seems like a very long road to a very short destination.

Thanks

Hi Tim,
I tried to boot my USB stick once more to remind me of the failure mode I got (“Windows setup could not install one or more critical drivers”) - see photo attached below.

The windows instance started to boot and then stopped with that dialog box (and - with no keyboard or mouse input processing happening - the only thing I can do from there is a hard-power-off).

Thoughts?

IMG_22284032×3024 1.52 MB