Is It Possible To Upgrade to Catalina WITHOUT Losing My Windows Yet?

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Level 1

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Is It Possible To Upgrade to Catalina WITHOUT Losing My Windows Yet?

Hello,

I've been through this three times and would hope a solution has been found by now.

I've tried Winclone which made a great image of the system but that would not restore from it.

Is there any way yet to upgrade MacOS without losing access to the Windows partition? Does the OS installer still have to rewrite the partition table?

I've had to do a lengthy command line sequence to restore it and I'm just hoping not to have to do that

again. Plus, I'm not sure it would still work with the new OS.

Thanks for any insight.

Jeff

iMac 27" 5K, macOS 10.14

Posted on May 5, 2020 7:33 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

May 10, 2020 10:03 AM in response to gronesy

gronesy wrote:

Just to be clear. Are you running Windows10 on a bootcamp partition and have been able to upgrade from Mojave without losing access to your Windows partition? This has been the persistent problem I've had EVERY time I've upgraded the MacOS.

Yes. I dis not have any issues. In your case, you have an EFI installation, which is much safer than a MBR solution I had on a 2014 iMac.

I really only have one production machine and have waited a while for the bugs to be worked out.

10.15.4 is much better than 10.15.

Have you found any features of Catalina you can't now live without?

I prefer Mojave over Catalina. All 'odd' version of macOS in the last few years have left a lot to be desired. I prefer Sierra over High Sierra. If I could run Snow Leopard on 2019 Macs, I would stay on SL. 😉

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Answer 2

gronesy Author

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13 points

May 6, 2020 3:48 PM in response to Loner T

Hi Lonet T,

Good to hear from you again! Hope all are safe and well now.

You shouldn't know from previous because this is a new machine since my last I believe. It is 27 inch iMac Mid-2017 3.8 Ghz i5.

I don't know if that helps. I installed it using bootcamp from the latest Win10 image.

Jeff

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Answer 3

gronesy Author

Level 1

13 points

May 9, 2020 8:00 AM in response to Loner T

Besides the 32-bit issue, is there any way for me to upgrade to Catalina with my current machine without losing the Windows 10 installation?

Most of the apps listed in the 32-bit listing are either components of apps I've deleted or are able to work in either mode.

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Answer 4

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

May 9, 2020 9:21 AM in response to gronesy

gronesy wrote:

Besides the 32-bit issue, is there any way for me to upgrade to Catalina with my current machine without losing the Windows 10 installation?

If you upgrade (not clean install) Catalina, you should be fine upgrading to Catalina from Mojave, since their is no APFS conversion. APFS conversion can be a challenge.

Most of the apps listed in the 32-bit listing are either components of apps I've deleted or are able to work in either mode.

If that is the case, and you do want features in Catalina, you can upgrade. I have typically installed Catalina on an external disk, tested it for several weeks, before I put it on a critical machine. I also avoid upgrading more than one Mac, with new software, to avoid issues on multiple Macs.

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Answer 5

gronesy Author

Level 1

13 points

May 10, 2020 7:47 AM in response to Loner T

Just to be clear. Are you running Windows10 on a bootcamp partition and have been able to upgrade from Mojave without losing access to your Windows partition? This has been the persistent problem I've had EVERY time I've upgraded the MacOS.

I really only have one production machine and have waited a while for the bugs to be worked out.

Have you found any features of Catalina you can't now live without?

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Answer 6

gronesy Author

Level 1

13 points

May 10, 2020 4:25 PM in response to Loner T

Thank you for your help, Loner T.

I agree with you about the odd number OS releases too. I have an old mac mini that I'd run SL on if I could. I upgraded to just below Sierra, I think, and it ground the performance down.

I'll look at the features of Catalina and see if I need them. I've really been enjoying Mojave and find new things I didn't know it did all the time.

You're a true mac hero and I really appreciate you!

May you and yours stay safe and healthy!

Until next time....

Jeff

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