Bootcamp- your device ran into a problem and needs to restart

Question

Have had many successful USB Windows 10 installs before. Not sure what's going on here. I have tried creating the USB with a PC using Rufus, Hasleo, and windows media creation tool. No matter, same error - upon first boot on my macbook, it tells me that the device ran into a problem and needs to restart. Is this an issue with my mac installation?

Apple specs- MBP 13" 2017 with touchbar T1 chip OSX 11.4

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI ⁨EFI⁩                     314.6 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS ⁨Container disk1⁩         500.0 GB   disk0s2
/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +500.0 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume ⁨Macintosh HD⁩            22.4 GB    disk1s1
   2:              APFS Snapshot ⁨com.apple.os.update-...⁩ 22.4 GB    disk1s1s1
   3:                APFS Volume ⁨Preboot⁩                 283.4 MB   disk1s2
   4:                APFS Volume ⁨Recovery⁩                622.9 MB   disk1s3
   5:                APFS Volume ⁨VM⁩                      1.1 MB     disk1s4
   6:                APFS Volume ⁨Macintosh HD - Data⁩     69.3 GB    disk1s5
/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk2
   1:                        EFI ⁨WINTOUSB⁩                104.9 MB   disk2s1
   2:       Microsoft Basic Data ⁨WinToUSB⁩                1.0 TB     disk2s2

Good point about the bootcamp - I guess it's really just a dual-boot.

The windows build I am working with is 212H.

Thank you for your assistance..

Answer 1

Apple has not used an USB flash drive to install Windows since about 2015. Instead Apple has opted for booting the Windows installation software from the same drive as Windows is to be installed on. After Windows is installed, the installation software is converted to free space and then this freee space is added to the preceding partition.

Borrowing from this answer, below is the instructions for creating a bootable Windows 10 installer. This was tested on a older version of macOS and older release of Windows 10.

1. Download the latest Windows 10 ISO file from the Microsoft website Download Windows 10 Disc Image (ISO File).

   Note: This answer was tested using 1909 (September 2019) update.

2. Download Window Support Software. Open the Boot Camp Assistant application. From the menu bar, select Action->Download Windows Support Software. By Default, the files should download to WindowsSupport folder in your home folder. When the popup shown below appears, enter your password then click on the Unlock button.

   

When finished, quit the Boot Camp Assistant.

3. Plug in the external drive. Open the Disk Utility application. In the pulldown menu in the upper left corner of the Disk Utility application, make sure Hide Sidebar is not checked off and Show All Devices is check off, as shown below.

   

   Highlight the external drive and select the Erase button. Enter the following in the popup window, then click on the Erase button.

   

   When finished erasing, click on the Done button. With the external drive still highlighted, click on the Partition button. Make the following changes in the order given below.

   Note: The size entered below has to be large enough to create a volume that can hold the Windows ISO and Window Support Software files. The value of 16 GB should provide more that enough space. However, a smaller value can be substituted.

   • Click on the + button.

   • Enter a size of 16 GB.

   • Enter the name WINSTALL.

   • Select the ExFAT format.

    
   The result should appear as shown below.

   

   Click on the Apply, Partition, and Done buttons in the given order. When finished, quit the Disk Utility.

4. Using the Finder application, mount the Window 10 ISO file and copy the contents to the WINSTALL volume. Next copy the contents of the WindowsSupport folder to the WINSTALL volume. In your case, the result should appear as shown below.

   

5. Open a Terminal Application window and enter the following commands. These commands create labels that will eventually appear below the Mac Startup Manager external drive icons.

   bless --folder /Volumes/WINSTALL/efi/boot --label "Install Windows"
   mkdir /Volumes/WINSTALL/label
   bless --folder /Volumes/WINSTALL/label --label "Windows"
   

   When finished, quit the Terminal application.

6. Restart the Mac and immediately hold down the option key until the Startup Manager icons appear. Boot from the external drive by selecting the external drive icon labeled Install Windows.

7. The first window to appear should be similar to the one shown below.

   

   The rest of this step is only important if you need to open a Command Prompt window.

   Proceed as one would for a GUI installation of Windows. When a window similar to the one shown below appears, press the shift+F10 key combination.

   Note: If you press the shift+F10 key combination before the image below appears, then the Windows installer may not have loaded drivers from the Windows Support Software.

   

   The result should be the appearance of the Command Prompt window shown below.