MBP16 to Mac Pro 2019 Migration Issues

Good evening!

I purchased this app after hearing and reading tremendous things about it and, I must say, the entire process felt efficient and polished.

By all accounts the migration worked, but the issue I’m running into is that each boot attempt sends me back to the Startup Utility screen, along with a message saying it couldn’t successfully load Windows.

My run went like this:

  1. Install Boot Camp on MacBook Pro 16 to a 500GB partition
  2. Let Windows install all of the drivers, restart, and be in a working state
  3. Use Winclone to create an image of the Boot Camp volume
  4. On the Mac Pro, I am using a PCIE which holds an m.2 SSD
  5. Use Winclone to restore the image onto said SSD
  6. Success messages all around and when holding alt on restart, I see two Windows drives
  7. Using either drive sends me to the Startup Utility screen with the above error message
  8. I see two options to boot from: BOOTCAMP and Macintosh HD
  9. BOOTCAMP sends me back to Startup Utility

While I have an external SSD drive to test on, I would much rather be leveraging the m.2 SSD inside of the tower itself. Any thoughts as to why the clone isn’t working outright?

EDIT
As a test I opened the BOOTCAMP partition from Parallels on the Mac Pro and it does work. Everything loads and I can use Windows normally. I’m updating drivers and will give this another shot by trying to load the partition normally.

EDIT 2
Turning off Secure Boot (i.e. “No Security”) gets me into the Windows loading screen at least. Progress! Although it hangs at “Getting Devices Ready” and then shuts down. Performing another restore with a sysprep'd Windows 10.

I have other report of issues with new Mac Pro with Windows on the PCIE SSD. I have asked others to test installing Windows on it directly and see if that works but have not heard of any successes. I have heard that drivers on the PCIE interface show up as external drives so that might be part of the problem that Boot Camp Assistant ignores it.

tim

Tim,

Interesting. Out of curiosity, what would be the best method to install directly to the PCIE SSD?

I’ve tried using Parallels and WinToUSB, which gives me a 100% success message but doesn’t boot. I have some RAM to install today and was considering pulling out the PCIE card, installing Boot Camp directly on the Apple SSD, and then doing a clone that way.

Without any modification the PCIE SSDs do in fact show up as external drives and can be ejected/mounted at will. You can use a Kext file to override this, but it feels largely unnecessary.

I was referencing using Boot Camp Assistant, but seems pretty clear from your explanation that Boot Camp Assistant will see it as an external drive and not give it as an option.

tim

Sigh — so I’ve over this at least a dozen times, trying different moves to see what sticks. Ultimately the furthest I got was a bootable clone that, after the first Windows update, wouldn’t move past the login screen due to none of the USB devices working.

At this point I’ve simply installed Bootcamp directly on the Mac Pro — pulling the PCIE card out and then re-inserting it after completion — and have attempted to move on.

@tperfitt — is there any way to deactivate my license and issue a refund?

I am having the same issue - trying to get Windows running on a non-boot SSD on a Mac Pro 2019. I would like to try Winclone, as I have a functioning BootCamp partition on my boot drive, but need to free up the space on that drive. I do not want to purchase it if this is not going to work.

Thanks for any advice

Sure, send a request here:

https://twocanoes.com/order-assistance-and-feedback/

From what people have tested (I didn’t have an PCIe SSD to test on when I was testing), it shows up as an external drive and there are issues booting from it. As soon as I get access to one, I can give it another try.

tim

Thanks Tim. Please do. Yes PCIE drives definitely show up as an external drive on that machine. However, I also moved it to my Promise J2i where it shows as an internal drive via the SATA cables provided and I could not get it to boot from there either. Please let me know if you ever find any way to get Windows running on a Mac Pro 7,1 via any drive other than the boot NVME’s provided. I have failed numerous attempts. Thanks

In case someone with this issue reads this thread, I finally did get this working (Windows on SSD on PCIE on a Mac Pro 2019). The issue was thunderbolt monitor drivers. I was getting a blank screen during boot as my main monitor is an Apple XDR via thunderbolt. It never hit me that this would be the problem as thunderbolt is in a lot of PC’s now. I finally had a “D’oh” moment and tried connecting an old HDMI monitor and boom, got it done. Does WinClone allow injection of specific drivers? I know there is a new option for injecting SSD drivers. thanks to all who replied

Winclone 8.2 can inject specific drivers (main SSD, keyboard, mouse, and some related ones). I want to expand that as needed, and the thunderbolt comment is very helpful. Thanks.

tim