Problems with Windows USB boot on a MacBook 12 Retina 2017 A1534

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Problems with Windows USB boot on a MacBook 12 Retina 2017 A1534

I have installed Windows 10 on my new bought (old) Macbook (My first Mac since many years). But I cannot successfully boot from external USB Windows because this previously made stick on a Windows 11 machine does not have the drivers for the Touchpad or the keyboard of course and is useless because I am stuck on the start screen. So I tried it attaching an USB hub and a USB Mouse and a USB keyboard. But then it does not boot at all from the external USB drives, not even from a powered hub.

This means I would not be able to restore a backup onto this mac again but would have to reinstall Bootcamp in case of a malfunction and start again installing everything needed.

So I tried to make a bootable Windows copy of the bootcamp installed Windows on the MacBook with DiskGenius. It has worked dozens of time from genuine Windows PCs. But here it fails because the sector sizes do not match. It always gives 512 Bytes for the external storage devices, sticks or SSDs, and says it needs 4096. But these external SSDs were of course formatted with 4096 as usual in Windows.

What can I do to get a bootable external Windows installation with all the neccessary drivers?

(I tried it with a backup of the drivers of the Boot Camp Windows installation made with Double Driver. But when I restored them to a Windows boot drive all the Apple drivers could not be installed.)

MacBook (2017)

Posted on Apr 5, 2025 5:29 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 6, 2025 9:26 AM in response to TechnoMax8

Hello,

It's likely you have a Mac model with a security chip on board. By default, these machines are configured to disallow booting from external media.

Fixing this requires some finesse. When starting up your Mac, hold down the R key to boot into recovery mode. Then, select the Utilities menu in the menu bar. One of the options is the startup security utility. This brings up a menu with your secure boot setting. Select the middle option from among the three – this is the one that allows external media to start.

Your external media should be formatted using a GUID partition table (GPT). If it isn't, you'll need to go back and re-create that medium in the correct format.

from there, you can plug in your external device and hold the option key when you restart your computer. This should bring up a list of bootable volumes. Just select the one you want.

good luck,

Nate

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Answer 2

Apr 12, 2025 10:16 AM in response to Nathan Alden

I solved the problem: If I boot from an external USB Windows from a hub that has a keyboard and a mouse connected to, I can backup the Bootcamp partition. (I only hope that I can restore it too in case of a malfunction.) This did not work with all my hubs but one worked at least.

From this external Windows I could easily encrypt the Bootcamp Windows. (I had done it before from within Bootcamp by changing the TPM requirement in Group Policy. But unfortunately i crashed this Bootcamp installation. And then of course had to repeat everything: Install Ventura from an USB stick (as I had deleted it to win space for Windows). Update to the latest version. Then use the Bootcamp Assistant to make the Bootcamp partion. In this Windows update with the latest Apple support software. And only then starting an inplace upgrade to Windows 11 with a special USB install stick made with Rufus to circumvent the TPM neccessity and several other things too.

So I still can not duplicate my Bootcamp Windows into a externally bootable USB version. But several of my external USB installations worked without problems with this Macbook (except of the missing drivers for the internal keyboard and the touchpad).

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Problems with Windows USB boot on a MacBook 12 Retina 2017 A1534