In 2017, I post an article “Upgrade SSD on Mac with BootCamp Portion”, after I successfully upgrade my Mac Pro 15 from 512GB to 1TB.
Well, 2 years came and gone, my other Mac Pro 13 is facing the same problem, running out of space. It is Mac Pro 13 early 2015 model and has 512 GM on it. and again, I have BootCamp implemented on it, both Mac OS and BootCamp portions are about the same size.
I went to OWC (Other world Computing) web site (this is the site that specialized in Apple products, it is highly recommended among many other sites). And found 2TB SSD is available at the price of $650 with Upgrade Kit, and $580 without upgrade kit. 1TB SSD is about the half price.
2 years ago, when I did my first upgrade, I wanted to go up to 2TB SSD, but it was not available at that time. I was excited to see it is available now.
Thinking I have an upgrade kit with me, to save some money, I decided to buy the SSD without upgrade kit. (later on, I realized it is not a smart decision. But I managed to recover from it, I will get to it in detail later).
This is my plan: upgrade my Mac Pro 15 from 1TB to 2TB, and then upgrade my Mac Pro 13 from 512GB to 1TB.
Preparation work:
Back up Bootcamp partition using WinClone. As the time goes by, WinClone has progressed from Version 6 to version 8, but I have got free upgrade to WinClone 7. I paid another $20 to upgrade it to WinClone 8. I installed the WinClone 8 to my Mac Pro 13 and leave WinClone 7 on my Mac Pro 15.
And I used Time Machine in both computers to back up the Mac systems volume.
Okay, all preparation works are done, it is time to open the box.
I first replaced the 1TB SSD with 2TB SSD. And put the 1TB SSD into the Upgrade Kit enclosure.
Then I start the Mac computer into Disk utility and try to copy the system volume into the new SSD.
The external SSD went dark in the middle of copying. I took a closer look and realized the SSD chip is a bit thicker. It does not fit well in the enclosure. (should I have had the newer enclosure, there would be no problem).
I then turned to the Time Machine backup. And I got the system up with “Restore from Time Machine”. First hurdler overcome.
Then, I used the WinClone7 created BootCamp partition ion and restored the volume image into it.
Boot up the computer with Window patriation, to my surprise, I got the following message:
INACCESSABLE BOOT DEVICE
I had no idea how to fix it, almost to give it up.
I did some search using google, and found a article in TWOCANORS knowledge base, Resolving INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE Error after restoring Winclone image
When migrating Windows between different hardware or hard drives, Windows may start up with a INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE error. This error is caused by the lack of the correct mass storage device driver. To resolve this issue, the correct mass storage device driver can be injected into Windows. This document outlines what is needed to inject the correct mass storage driver into Windows.
Following up the steps, I injected the mass storage device driver into windows system. And finally, my windows 10 back to live, with bigger volume. The second hurdler is conquered.
Move on to m y Mac Pro 13.
I replace the 512 GB SSD with 1TB SSD.
Use Time machine restored the mac Volume.
Start the Mac without issue.
Used WinClone 8 to restore BootCamp image to Bootcamp partition.
Start the Windows 8.1 without issue. (I am suspect that WinClone 8 is smarted than WinClone 7, it fix the INACCESSABLE BOOT DEVICE issue automatedly. If you are going to do what I did. Install the latest version WinClone might save you from some unnecessary drama.
Last, but not least, I want to upgrade my Bootcamp windows from 8.1 Enterprise to Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise.
I have MSDN subscription, so I went to MSDN and downloaded Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019. And load the ISO into a USB drive and run the setup in windows.
Guess what, after it completed installation process, I realized my previous windows OS, applications and files are gone, I got a new fresh installed windows 10! This is not what I want, I want to do in place upgrade rather than fresh installation.
Luckily, my WinClone image is there, I started mac and re-run WinClone restored the Bootcamp partition, then start over again.
Did some search, and found this article in MS web site:
It says: In-place upgrade from Windows 7, Windows 8.1, or Windows 10 semi-annual channel to Windows 10 LTSC is not supported.
I am dead in the water! I told myself.
Did not want to give it up, I continue my search.
And I found this link Download Windows 10 Disc Image (ISO File). in MS site
Interesting enough, after I downloaded the ISO, copied it to a USB drive, run the setup in windows.
About 30 minutes, installation completed. Restart the windows to, got a screen telling me the system is updating. And it last very long time. I decided to let it do its stuff overnight and I went to sleep.
The next morning, I rush to my home office and restarted the computer, the machine started nice looking window 10 screen with my previous app and data / accounts in place. God is great, I got my windows 8.1 in placed upgraded to Windows 10!
