I'm trying to get into Windows 10 setup on my Mid-2012 non-Retina MacBook Pro via making a bootable USB with Rufus and a recent copy of Windows 10 but when I choose the USB drive (named EFI Boot on the boot selection menu on Mac) it freezes.
I've read I have to disable secure boot but best I could find was holding Command+R while booting which went into a menu and most relatable thing I could find was to enable firmware password or something like that but I saw in screenshots that that menu has option for disabling Secure Boot which my Mac does not have. I forgot which OS number I am on macOS.
Original problem is I'm stuck in a boot loop with Windows 10 and it's gotten so bad at destroying Windows that it can't fix itself via the menu which comes after an unsuccessful boot (with self diagnose and etc). I've read currently my best bet is to go into Windows setup and use repair available there.
More information: I have removed the DVD drive and installed an SSD which Windows is installed. Original HDD still holds the macOS and half of it is formatted as NTFS for Windows and I installed the windows via Bootcamp.
Thanks.
1 Answer
I believe you are suppose to install Windows 10 to BIOS boot on your model Mac. Since the Windows 10 installer ISO file available for download from Microsoft contains a file greater than 4 GB in size, you will need to have installed High Sierra or newer version of macOS. This will provide the necessary firmware update to allow booting from ExFAT formatted volumes. You will need to use the Boot Camp Assistant application to download the Windows Support Software. You can create a ExFAT formatted USB flash drive Windows 10 installer by copying the files from the mounted Windows 10 ISO and the Windows Support Software to the flash drive. To BIOS boot the installer, you will need to hold down the option key at startup until the Mac Startup Manager icons appear. Select the external drive icon with the label Windows. If an icon with this label does not appear, then you will need to BIOS boot from the internal drive.
