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I'm running Sierra on a Mac pro 5.1 and Windows on a second SSD. So far I'm using a non EFI graphic card and I can just switch between systems through startup disk on mac/Boot Camp menu on Windows.

The point is I would like to upgrade to High Sierra but as far as I've been reading I won't be able to boot into macOS from Boot Camp menu.

Anyone knows some workaround for that?

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I am pretty sure that you should be able to switch between Windows 10 and macOS through the BootCamp-Utility under Windows. I am running a Mac Pro 5.1 with macOS Catalina(APFS Partition) on my NVMe Drive and Windows 10 on a SATA-SSD and I always switch between Windows and macOS either via 'Startup Disk' under macOS, or use the BootCamp Utility under Windows.

I recommend you looking at this Guide from Crystalidea. There are detailed instructions on installing Windows 10 on a Mac Pro 4.1/5.1 and they also show you how to switch between the operating systems even if you don't have an EFI-compatible GPU. With never versions of macOS (particularly when using APFS) it is recommended to install the iMacPro1,1 bootcamp drivers in addition to the MacPro4.1's/5,1's. Download them via brigadier and after installing you should be able to switch between macOS and Windows.

It is also important to mention that installing Windows 10 via USB(EFI mode) is NOT recommended (X.509 Boot Certificates can corrupt the Mac Pro's firmware). Therefore, installing Windows 10 on an NVME SSD should be avoided. I recommend using a Windows 10 DVD and a SATA SSD or HDD as System Disk.

Instructions for brigadier:

  1. Download the MacPro5.1 bootcamp drivers by using brigadier.exe -m MacPro5,1 in CMD under Windows. (launch cmd from the same folder where brigadier.exe is stored)
  2. Edit Bootcamp.msi via InstEd It! (path is: BootCamp/Drivers/Apple)
  3. Launch modified Bootcamp.msi
  4. Download the iMacPro1,1 bootcamp driver (brigadier.exe -m iMacPro1,1) (iMacPro uses BootCamp 6)
  5. Edit the new BootCamp.msi via InstEd It! (BootCamp 6)
  6. Launch modified BootCamp.msi (BootCamp 6)

A personal recommandation is to modify the BootCamp drivers with InstEd It!.

Modification via InstEd It!

  1. Right-click on the BootCamp.msi (path is: BootCamp/Drivers/Apple) and open it with InstEd It!
  2. Search for LaunchCondition on the left hand side. Right click -> Drop Tables
  3. Click 'Save' and launch the edited BootCamp.msi

You should now be able to install the drivers with the incompatibility error. Do that both for the 4.1/5.1 Mac Pro and iMacPro1,1 bootcamp drivers and you should be good to go.

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  • Thank you so much for the detailed information you've provided. Now I'm confident about updating my system. I think I'm stuck to the HS due my graphic card, I own a GTX 980ti which seems there is no driver for Mohave or Catalina or has some performance limitation, please correct me if I'm wrong. I still got a native card for the installation process, which is important to register here for the users which is using a non supported card. – Ricardo Mar 25 '20 at 22:07
  • If you don't mind I need an extra help. Running into a driver issue with my graphic card. Once I've updated to HS, there wasn't a driver for the system version. Then a I find this script (dosdude1.com/highsierra/swupatch.sh.zip) which allows you to install the latest security update. I did it, but still can't find the driver for the macOS 10.13.6 (17G12034). I have no idea what I do now. – Ricardo Mar 26 '20 at 1:05
  • Out of luck! It might be due to the pandemic we are facing. Anyway, the thing to do is sit tight until they figure things out. – Ricardo Mar 26 '20 at 2:34
  • You can download the latest driver for HS via (tonymacx86.com/nvidia-drivers ) . Its the latest available version (387.10.10.10.40.134). If you can't install the latest version of drivers (maybe bc your HS Build is newer than the version which the web drivers are made for), I would either downgrade to a supported build of HS (for example 17G11023) or you can try my modified WebDrivers for HS(drive.google.com/file/d/1RkeuvyiEXxTCkLIjZktZcfxbhhYf_ENd/…) - I edited the Build Number in the driver pkg to match it with yours – xxausstar Mar 26 '20 at 9:40
  • Yes, I was able to install the last Web Driver (387.10.10.10.40.134) but it didn't work, I'm not able to see anything on the screen. As far I'm concern about that, web driver automatically pops up when a new update is available. Does that modified version make any difference in order to load up images on my screen? To be honest I never did a downgrade to a security update, not even know how to do it. – Ricardo Mar 26 '20 at 21:39
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I am not sure how having a non EFI graphics card effects choosing the startup disk from BootCamp installed in Windows. This answer is based on the assumption there would be no effect.

Older versions of Boot Camp can not detect APFS volumes. This problem may solved by using Apple Software Update to download and install a newer version of the Boot Camp Software. However, your Mac is probably to old for this to occur.

If Sierra is installed on a HDD, then an upgrade to High Sierra should result in no conversion to APFS. In this case, the Boot Camp software installed in Windows should be able to make High Sierra the startup disk, just as it now does in Sierra.

However, a conversion to APFS should occur, if Sierra is installed on a SSD. If High Sierra ends up booting from a APFS container, then an alternative would be to create a small (200 MB) jhfs+ formatting volume containing the rEFInd Boot Manager. You can configure rEFInd to silently boot High Sierra. BootCamp installed in Windows will detect this volume with rEFInd as macOS. If set by Boot Camp as the startup disk, then rEFInd will instruct the firmware to boot High Sierra. You need to properly configure the refind.conf file for this to happen.

rEFInd can also be configured to boot other operating systems. However, to choose the default, you will not be able to use Boot Camp. Instead a script can be installed in Windows which will instruct rEFInd which is the startup disk. An example of the execution of one such script is shown below.

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  • Thanks David, really helpful your answer. Yes I'm running Sierra from a SSD and that is what I was afraid of, bootcamp not detect APFS volumes. xxausstar came up with a great solution which I will look into carefully. But again I really appreciate your help buddy. – Ricardo Mar 25 '20 at 21:31

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