I need to be able to run 2018.12.x on an iMac (intel) that can not go back to Mojave.  So I am thinking of making a bootable drive with Windows 10 and running Boot Camp.

Anybody doing this?  Any huge problems?

Thanks,

Jef

i moved dozens of workstations to bootcamp during the height of covid so we could use zcentral remote boost. It can be more finnicky than a purpose built windows machine, but if you get the initial build right, it works just fine for media composer. 

NYnutz:

i moved dozens of workstations to bootcamp during the height of covid so we could use zcentral remote boost. It can be more finnicky than a purpose built windows machine, but if you get the initial build right, it works just fine for media composer. 

This.

The most common issue we faced was conflict with the AMD drivers.

We eventually moved away from it. We still have some running but the software config has not changed for 1.5 - 2 years.

Thanks Dave and Dom,

Any hints on things to look out for on a Boot Camp set up?  It has been AGES since I did this.  (We ran DS on Boot Camped Mac Pros!!)

Jef

Like Dom said, the AMD drivers can be a tricky. And they are different for the various flavors of apple AMD hardware.   

https://www.bootcampdrivers.com/ can help you sort out what should work for your specific hardware.  

other than that, a few things i found:  

1 - the apple bootcamp utility doesn't always install all of the drivers in windows 10. After you run through the util and first-time windows setup, you should end up with a second partition that contains the bootcamp drivers and utilities. It may not mount with a drive letter, and in this case, the driver installs fail, but windows will still run. You'll need to assign a drive letter in disk utility, and install the drivers. 

2 - windows 10 1909 doesn't like to upgrade to 20h1+. Install from a current Windows 10 21H2 ISO. You can download it using rufus, if you have a windows machine, or you can use the windows 10 media creation tool from microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10  

3 - you should run apple software update several times to make sure the machine firmware gets fully upgraded.   

4- same rules as any other windows machine: power plan is critical to performance! 

Thank you for the detailed info.

I have not touched Windows since we retired our DS (wiping my eyes) so some of this will require some google time.

Another question: Do you think I will have troubles if I use a smallish SSD as the Boot Camp Boot drive?  This is a last generation before Apple silicon iMac.

Jef

i think the capacity question can only be answered by what you need/intend to install. Adobe apps are pretty giant. Media Composer, much smaller. I'd say bare minimum 100GB, ideal minimum is probably 150GB. With smaller boot disks in windows 10, you'll need to disable hibernate to avoid eating all available capacity with the hibernate system file.   

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-client/deployment/disable-and-re-enable-hibernation

NYnutz:

Like Dom said, the AMD drivers can be a tricky. And they are different for the various flavors of apple AMD hardware.   

 

https://www.bootcampdrivers.com/ can help you sort out what should work for your specific hardware.  

 

other than that, a few things i found:  

1 - the apple bootcamp utility doesn't always install all of the drivers in windows 10. After you run through the util and first-time windows setup, you should end up with a second partition that contains the bootcamp drivers and utilities. It may not mount with a drive letter, and in this case, the driver installs fail, but windows will still run. You'll need to assign a drive letter in disk utility, and install the drivers. 

2 - windows 10 1909 doesn't like to upgrade to 20h1+. Install from a current Windows 10 21H2 ISO. You can download it using rufus, if you have a windows machine, or you can use the windows 10 media creation tool from microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10  

3 - you should run apple software update several times to make sure the machine firmware gets fully upgraded.   

4- same rules as any other windows machine: power plan is critical to performance! 

I am making progress.  Got the system working - sort of.  I don't think Thunderbolt is working yet.

I have a Decklink Studio 4k in a Sonnet Echo Express SE-I TB3 box. Works great on the Mac side.  I have not been able to get Windows to see that yet. I installed MC 2018.12.15 first, then Blackmagic Desktop Video.

I am still trying to get through all the Apple Software Updates.  These keep crashing on install.

Also, I did not really understand your note 1.  I am not sure I see a second partition on my external boot drive (a 1TB SSD).  I do have the sneeking suspicion that not all the drivers are installed.  I had to manually install some drivers from a Windows Support folder Bootcamp made as the setup found there hangs on "enumerating ..."  Google says that this is because I am using an external boot drive.

Luckily, this is more of a proactive exercise rather than a deadline driven problem.  I just need a way to deal with project with classic Title Tool elements and other things from the 2018 era.  Really sad.

Thanks for the help so far.

Success!  I had missed one bit of the procedure.  Thunderbolt and Blackmagic card seem to be working now.

Jef

To add to this - I am running Media Composer 2022.7 under BootCamp in a recent 13" MacBook Air (16GB RAM). It's just a testbed, really, but it works fine.