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Hardware: MacBook Pro Late 2019, 16-inch i7; 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD , AMD Radeon 5300M

Current OS: Monterey 12.7.1, Windows 10 Build 1709 installed via Boot Camp

Expected outcome: Triple Boot

  1. macOS,
  2. Windows 10 Build 1709,
  3. Windows 10 Latest / Recent Build

EDIT: I found a solution. I currently have 3 partitions on my 512 GB SSD that has macOS, Windows 10 Build 1709, and Windows 10 21H1.

I was able to do this by first installing Windows 10 21H1 via Boot Camp as normal. Then in Disk manager, shrink about 100 GB for a new partition, and use that partition for Windows 10 Build 1709. Using a bootable USB made with Rufus, disable secure boot on macOS Recover and use the installation USB to install Windows 10 on the 3rd partition. You'll need to copy the brigadier driver to the installation USB, and in the drive select menu, load the driver selecting AppleSSD64 driver. You will be able to see your internal drives now. After installation is complete, there will be a screen that allows you to select which Windows 10 you want. IMPORTANT NOTE: You MUST NOT install Boot Camp on the 2nd Windows 10, otherwise it'll ruin the whole setup. Just install the Windows 10 drivers manually via Device Manager.

Enjoy!

Note: I specifically need Windows 10 Build 1709 for certain legacy programs, it's very niche but it's a requirement. The second build of Windows 10 doesn't matter as long as it's relatively recent.

Accessories I am using:

  • Samsung SD Adapter for MicroSD
  • Samsung Evo Select 512GB MicroSD / PNY 32GB Elite MicroSD
  • Hiearcool USB C Adapter Hub

So I've been following these two guides on trying to install a second partition of Windows 10 on my MacBook Pro 2019 i7 laptop:

However, I have not had any success in getting the second Windows 10 install. I boot into the EFI BOOT selection after turning on the laptop and holding down the option key. Bootable USB drive goes to the Windows 10 installation screen, but after clicking "Install Now" the following error appears:

Windows Setup could not install one or more boot-critical drivers. To install Windows, make sure that the drivers are valid, and restart the installation.

I was able to successfully get Windows 10 Build 1709 installed via Boot Camp, but have not been able to get an additional partition made for a second installation of Windows 10.

I'd like to note that I made the Windows 10 bootable USB on the MacBook itself, following the tutorials above. I'm not sure if it's any different from making a Windows 10 bootable USB on Windows or not.

I tried two different micro SD cards and both had the same issue, so I don't think it's a micro SD card issue.

How did other people get a second installation of Windows 10 onto their machines? I don't need it to be an elegant solution, so long as there is a way to enter either one of the three operating systems. I don't mind having to reboot multiple times to reach a specific OS either.

If there are any instructions, I don't mind factory resetting the laptop either, as there isn't much data to begin with. But I for sure would like to get all three operating systems onto the machine. The MacOS version doesn't really matter, to be honest. But to reiterate, I absolutely need Windows 10 build 1709, and then some recent builds of Windows 10 as the additional OS.

Also if possible, I'd like the partition split as such: macOS 250 GB, Windows 10 Build 1709 100 GB, Windows 10 recent build 15 GB.

David Anderson
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LegacyLover69
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  • Is there a reason to do this on the bare iron versus a VM or two? – Marc Wilson Nov 19 '23 at 16:36
  • @Marc Wilson yeah I like the native performance of bootcamp, I don't know how the person in one of my linked questions did it, but I'd like to do the same thing. I don't know why it's not working for me as I have the same machine :\ – LegacyLover69 Nov 20 '23 at 06:01
  • How did you determine the machines are the same? I cannot tell whether your Mac is a MacBookPro16,1 or a MacBookPro16,4. – David Anderson Nov 20 '23 at 06:53
  • @David Anderson You're right I'm not sure if it's the exact same model as the one in the links as mine is the MacBook Pro Late 2019 16 Inch AMD Radeon 5300M. I saw the other person had a "2019 Macbook Pro" and thought it was the same thing.

    I don't know if mine has a limitation that the other model doesn't, but I'd like to get a similar setup to theirs.

     – LegacyLover69 Nov 20 '23 at 08:29
  • The two questions you have linked to were asked by user Applelx. In this question, Applelx refers to the Mac as a MacbookPro16,1. So the Macs are the same. – David Anderson Nov 20 '23 at 09:27
  • @David Anderson I see that makes sense then. I'm just wondering how he was able to get a second installation of windows 10 installed onto his machine. I'm trying to get the same result as him, but I have no clue what procedure he used to even get the second windows 10 installed in the first place. – LegacyLover69 Nov 20 '23 at 18:29
  • So I retried using Windows 10 Installation USB made via the media creation tool on a windows computer. I was able to get to the Windows setup screen but it shows no drives. Not sure how to proceed but if anybody has any idea on what to do I'm willing to give it a shot. Image of no drives in windows 10 setup – LegacyLover69 Nov 22 '23 at 04:15
  • Does it have to be Windows 10? It would seem to me you would be better off trying to get a free Windows 11 running. Microsoft states upgrades are still free. I have upgraded a 2018 Mac mini to Windows 11 for free. – David Anderson Nov 22 '23 at 04:38
  • @David Anderson yeah so I'm following this youtube tutorial right now, I was able to load the drivers by downloading the bootcamp drivers via brigadier and copying it onto the USB itself, and selecting the AppleSSD64 driver in that screen that I linked above.

    You bring up a good point, I actually haven't used windows 11 ever but now that you mention it Im considering maybe trying it out. I'll need to see if the programs are compatible with windows 11 or not. The short explanation of this all is that the legacy programs I use are old video games, so it's difficult to tell what will work

     – LegacyLover69 Nov 22 '23 at 04:44
  • Are you are saying that manually installing a driver from a brigadier download allowed access to the internal drive? I should point out that Windows 11 should be free for now. If you install now, you will get a free license. You can always erase Windows 11 and install Windows 10. You will still have the license. If you wait until later, you may have to pay for a license. Windows 10 will be retired in less than two years. – David Anderson Nov 22 '23 at 05:14
  • @DavidAnderson Yes the AppleSSD64 Driver allowed me to access the internal drive.

    So I thought I was making progress and was able to install two instances of Windows 10 on the machine, however it seems that the second Windows 10 (On Volume 5) works, but the initial Windows 10 (Old Build 1709 Volume 3) no longer works. I might try installing the new windows 10 first and then the old build second to see if that makes any difference. If that doesn't work I might have to just accept that I won't be able to triple boot.

     – LegacyLover69 Nov 22 '23 at 09:00
  • So upon more testing, I was able to get two installations of Windows 10 working and I was able to switch between them both seamlessly. It was until I ran bootcamp setup.exe on the 1709 build. I think that's what broke everything. So I guess having two installations of windows 10 both with bootcamp messes things up internally. I'm going to re-do the process tomorrow but omit running bootcamp setup.exe on the second installation. I might manually install the drivers. I'm more hopeful at the moment though. – LegacyLover69 Nov 22 '23 at 10:35

1 Answers1

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Note: After I originally posted this answer, the OP edited the posted question to include the OP's own answer. My answer addresses why my accepted answer to the question "How to install a second Win10 on a Macbook Pro 2019 with Catalina and Windows 10 already installed?" failed to work in the OP's case.

The Windows Support Software for the OP's MacBookPro16,1 has a file which needs a carriage return character (0x0d) to be inserted before each line feed character (0x0a). If you used the Boot Camp Assistant to download the Windows Support Software to "$HOME/WindowsSupport", then the absolute path for this file would be "$HOME/WindowsSupport/\$WinPEDriver\$/IntelMEI/heci.inf"

The answers to the question How to convert DOS/Windows newline (CRLF) to Unix newline (LF) offer a variety of methods for inserting the required carriage return characters. From one of these answers, I offer the following commands.

cd "$HOME/WindowsSupport/\$WinPEDriver\$/IntelMEI"`
vim heci.inf -c "set ff=dos" -c ":wq"

Why user Applelx never mentioned the need to make this correction remains a mystery.

How I Found a the Solution to This Problem

  1. I downloaded the Windows Support Software from Apple for a MacBookPro16,1, then copied this Windows Support Software to a ExFAT formatted flash drive.
  2. I used the Win10_22H2_English_x64v1.iso file from Microsoft and the flash drive to attempt an install of Windows 10 in a VMware Fusion Player virtual machine. I received the same pop that the OP encountered exactly were the OP stated it would occur, as shown below.
  3. At this point, I pressed shift+F10 to open a Command Prompt window. I then entered the command below to view the log file. 
    notepad x:\Windows\panther\setupact.log
    The end of this log file is shown in the image below. The last file referenced is C:\$WinPEDriver$\IntelMEI.inf, which resided on the flash drive.
  4. After shutting down the virtual machine, I used macOS to do a hex dump of the IntelMEI.inf file. From this hexdump, I determined the file was missing carriage return characters.
  5. After correcting the problem, I was able to proceed with the installation of Windows 10.

Additional References

David Anderson
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