Getting Back To The MacOS From W10 (Installed Via Bootcamp). Sr Citien; Help Please

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Hello,

Have tried most everything, but would like to take one more stab with this here, as I believe I have tried most everything and anything. The amount of time I've put into this is considerable.

In my 80's now, and although I can probably do it, would truly love to not have
to take the unit back to an Apple store. Our nearest one is closed for the summer, remodeling.

So, some history,

Installed W10 using Bootcamp.
Got the new Windows Activation Lic. they wanted also.

W10 seems to be working just fine. No apparent problems.

But, nothing I've tried allows me to get back to the Mac OS side.

a. Have tried, many, many times, re-starting holding down the alt key, the start key, both together,
etc. Seems to have no effect. Using a Logitech 780 wireless keyboard. Have also tried a wired keyboard.

The Apple keyboard seems to do nothing. It said it is recognized [not the exact wording], but has no effect.

(it does ask me for my PIN each time it re-starts; have tried holding all these keys down
both before and after the login PIN screen appears.)

b. There is no Bootcamp Control Panel (icon) anywhere.
Not on the Taskbar, or in the ^pop up additionals.

If I go to Settings, and the Personalize options, hoping to select Boot Camp Control Panel for the task bar,
it does not show in the list of items you can place on the taskbar, or anywhere. Do a search for Boot Camp
and/or Boot camp control panel does nothing. Also tried searching as one word; bootcamp.

c. I am truly out of ideas. If I wanted a W10 pc, as my wife points out, continually, we would have bought a dedicated one.
We really want to be able to use the Mac OS again.
Either solely, and we won't ever try the Windows side.
Or, what really would be nice, would be to use both, as intended.

It is hard not to believe there is something, simple, as usual, that I am missing.

Any thoughts would be most appreciated.

Thanks,
Bob
 
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Can you provide some basic info about your Mac?

Model and year?
Startup drive type and related information? size? used space? free space? format type?

With the wired keyboard connected, can you try restart/startup and hold down "command & R" until you see the loading bar? If your Mac is a late 2011 (or later,) this should get you into your Mac Recovery drive. If you do get to Recovery, see this, https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314, and be sure to read all information and links.

Please be sure to have a backup of all your important data, as you will probably need to wipe the drive to get back to using Mac OS X/OS X/macOS.
 

IWT


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Welcome, Bob. Thanks for posting. Well, I'm a geriatric so you must be a dinosaur:):D

Personally, I offer little in the way of help; but one of the key questions that those wiser than I will ask is: what macOS are you running and on which model of Mac?

Reason is that in macOS High Sierra if your main internal drive is a Solid State Drive, it will have been converted to Apple's File System (APFS) and this may affect how Boot Camp works.

In the sincere hope that you will not take offence, as I know you have tried everything and probably be running out of patience; I'm nonetheless including Links which cover APFS and the "old" HFS+ systems.

I'm sure you've done it all but........

In particular, when you restart your Mac, it is the alt/option key ONLY which you hold down - and keep holding down until this appears:

S1.png

Here are the Links - just to make sure, then wiser counsel can take over. Hang in there, Bob.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT208123
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/gui...your-mac-in-windows-or-macos-bcmp29b8ac66/mac
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/gui...with-boot-camp-control-panel-bcmp1c70f878/mac

Ian
 

IWT


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Hi Robert

Any luck?

Ian
 
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From Bob: Re Previous Quest. About Getting Back To The Mac OS From W10

Hi Ian,

Thanks for interest and help; nice of you and very appreciated.

I have quite a collection of Logitech keyboards and Mice built up over the years.
One is brand new, a few reasonably new, and some old.

Absolutely none of them would work.
Tried all the bottom row keys, individually, and in combinations.

They (all) did work as far as typing, and the other normal functions.
Just no "switching" back to the Mac OS.

But-

A quite old Dell labeled WIRED keyboard works like a charm.
If I use the ALT key on it, Presto !

No idea why this one, and none of the others.

Thoughts ?
Bob



Hi Robert

Any luck?

Ian
 

IWT


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Thoughts? Nothing constructive, I'm afraid.

You said in your first post that you had tried an Apple Keyboard, which might have been my only comment. It is, I suppose, just within the bounds of possibility that when you used the Apple KB, you were trying some of the other key combinations rather than just Alt/Opt; but I doubt it. I'm sure you tried everything with each KB.

Well, life's like that sometimes and, hey, you've got something that works. Well done you, Bob.

Ian
 

Slydude

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Is it possible that some of the Bootcamp drivers were not properly installed? Might be worth re-installing the Bootcamp drivers just to be sure. I believe it's possible to do that withoout reinstalling Windows but I could be wrong. I don't spend a lot of time keeping track of Bootcamp issues.
 

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