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Q: Repairing Boot Camp after creating new partition

I'm running OS X 10.8 and Windows 7 x64 Pro.

 

After properly setting up Boot Camp to dual-boot Windows on my Mac mini, I decided to test whether or not it was true that creating another partition (a data partition for OS X) would interfere with Boot Camp.  Wikipedia claims it does interfere but without citing a source, whilst the Boot Camp documentation itself only specifies that the disk must be a single partition _prior_ to setup - there's no mention of whether the disk must be _kept_ that way afterwards.

 

I opened Disk Utility, reduced the size of my OS X parition from 420GB to 80GB, and created a new partition in the unallocated space.  Here's how it looks now:

/___sbsstatic___/migration-images/190/19047693-1.png

When I attempted to proceed with the process, I did receive a warning that doing this (and I quote), "may" cause problems with Boot Camp.  Seeing as it was inconclusive, I thought I'd give it a shot - nothing ventured…

 

Of course, it borked Boot Camp, otherwise I wouldn't be posting here.  Whilst OS X boots just fine, the Boot Camp partition now no longer shows up in the Startup Manager, though it does in the Startup Disk prefPane.  If I do attempt to boot into Boot Camp, I receive the following message on a black screen:

No bootable device --- insert boot disk and press any key

The advice given to someone who had this same problem was, "fix your damaged Boot Camp volume."  But I'm at a loss as to how to do that.

 

So, anyone know how to proceed now so that I can keep my partitions as is, whilst fully restoring normal Boot Camp functionality?

Mac mini (Mid 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Jul 26, 2012 11:28 PM

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Q: Repairing Boot Camp after creating new partition

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  • by Bx029297,

    Bx029297 Bx029297 Jul 3, 2014 10:38 AM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 3, 2014 10:38 AM in response to Loner T

    it says

    could not open MBR file /usr/standolane/i386/boot0: No such file or directory

    Enter 'help' for information

  • by Christopher Murphy,

    Christopher Murphy Christopher Murphy Jul 3, 2014 11:37 AM in response to Bx029297
    Level 3 (555 points)
    Jul 3, 2014 11:37 AM in response to Bx029297

    If you look a the result from the gpt command, you have six partitions. Disk Utility hides EFI System partition, and Recovery HD partitions. I advise you use a VM rather than multibooting. Otherwise you're simply going to have to familiarize yourself with some fairly esoteric partitioning and bootloader knowledge in order to make them all work on baremetal, and understand what kinds of things you can and can't do in various Linux, Apple, and Windows utilities so that you don't cause data loss.

     

    rEFIt is no longer maintained you shouldn't use it. Use rEFInd instead, which is a fork of rEFIt and is actively maintained by Rod Smith who is also the author of GPT fdisk (a.k.a. gdisk). You'll want to read the instructions on how to configure it to use the linux EFI STUB bootloader, that way you don't have to deal with GRUB. rEFInd is a boot manager, strictly speaking it's not a bootloader. It dynamically finds the Windows and OS X bootloaders, and with minimal one time configuration it can locate linux kernels (including new ones when you do software updates) and use the built-in EFI STUB bootloader that's in the kernel itself.

     

    The six partition arrangement you have can be made to work, but there is no correct way to make a hybrid MBR. Apple's tools will not create, and will actively remove (which is why I say don't use Disk Utility for anything) hybrid MBRs anytime there's a GPT with 5 or more entries. For example if you try to repair a disk (vs a volume) in Disk Utility, it does a check of the partition maps and will in effect cause data loss on a disk laid out as yours is, so you either need to plan on not doing whole disk repairs, only volume repairs (I've resorted to only using fsck_hfs from command line in single user mode, I trust Disk Utility so little), or familiarize yourself with how to reconstruct a hybrid MBR on a regular basis. The GPT is safe in OS X and Linux, it's the MBR that's at risk and you can always make a new one of those, since it's a subset of the GPT (that is, it can only contain 4 entries, the GPT can contain 128+). Whereas in Windows booted in CSM-BIOS mode (the mode use when using Boot Camp) the reverse is true, the GPT is ignored and at risk, while the MBR is honored. This is why the MBR and GPT can become out of sync. So especially you don't want to make modifications in Windows because its changes are only reflected in the MBR, not the GPT.

     

    This is why I say a VM is easier. You don't have to deal with any of these issues.

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Jul 3, 2014 11:38 AM in response to Bx029297
    Level 7 (24,596 points)
    Safari
    Jul 3, 2014 11:38 AM in response to Bx029297

    That specific message can be safely ignored.

  • by Christopher Murphy,

    Christopher Murphy Christopher Murphy Jul 3, 2014 11:44 AM in response to Bx029297
    Level 3 (555 points)
    Jul 3, 2014 11:44 AM in response to Bx029297

    *sigh* all you had to do was search this page for jonny and you'd have found the instructions rather than bugging Loner T. I know this stuff is obscure, esoteric, tedious, but it makes things worse on a handful of volunteers when people ask to be spoon fed like this.

     

    Also when hijacking a thread, it's gauche to ask totally unrelated basic questions like how to backup Windows, that's suited for another thread. I suggest if you have anymore questions that you start your own thread and post the URL here. This one is 90 pages of clutter and when more than 1  person hijacks it with their problem, it's hard to keep track of all the responses, who's talking to who and what reply, etc.

  • by Christopher Murphy,

    Christopher Murphy Christopher Murphy Jul 3, 2014 11:45 AM in response to Bx029297
    Level 3 (555 points)
    Jul 3, 2014 11:45 AM in response to Bx029297

    That error message has been there forever and can be ignored. Do you have an >fdisk prompt? If so enter Loner T's commands as he wrote them.

  • by Bx029297,

    Bx029297 Bx029297 Jul 3, 2014 12:02 PM in response to Christopher Murphy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 3, 2014 12:02 PM in response to Christopher Murphy

    sorry to both of you , i'm just really confused.

     

    yes Christopher, let me try now.

    Thanks

  • by Bx029297,

    Bx029297 Bx029297 Jul 3, 2014 12:10 PM in response to Bx029297
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 3, 2014 12:10 PM in response to Bx029297

    this is what i have got:

     

    fdisk: could not open MBR file /usr/standalone/i386/boot0: No such file or directory

    Enter 'help' for information

    fdisk: 1> setpid 4

             Starting       Ending

    #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    4: 0B 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [ 163487744 -  147910656] Win95 FAT-32

    Partition id ('0' to disable)  [0 - FF]: [B] (? for help) 07

    fdisk:*1> flag 4

    Partition 4 marked active.

    fdisk:*1> write

    Device could not be accessed exclusively.

    A reboot will be needed for changes to take effect. OK? [n]

     

    do i need to type anything else or reboot manually?

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Jul 3, 2014 12:16 PM in response to Bx029297
    Level 7 (24,596 points)
    Safari
    Jul 3, 2014 12:16 PM in response to Bx029297

    post.user_wrote.label:

     

    A reboot will be needed for changes to take effect. OK? [n]

     

    do i need to type anything else or reboot manually?

    As long as you type "y" to this question.

     

    Please re-boot and hold the ALT/Option key during power up to see if Windows partition shows up correctly and can bring up Windows when selected.

  • by Bx029297,

    Bx029297 Bx029297 Jul 3, 2014 12:27 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 3, 2014 12:27 PM in response to Loner T

    ok so after holding the ALT/option button i managed to see see three partitions:

     

    mac os x , recovery hd , Windows

     

    i clicked on Windows but i just ended up on the black screen that said : "non system disk

                                                                                                             Press any key to reboot _ "

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Jul 3, 2014 12:36 PM in response to Bx029297
    Level 7 (24,596 points)
    Safari
    Jul 3, 2014 12:36 PM in response to Bx029297

    You will probably need to do a Startup Recovery.

     

    Please see this link http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392

  • by Wheesty,

    Wheesty Wheesty Jul 3, 2014 1:09 PM in response to Christopher Murphy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 3, 2014 1:09 PM in response to Christopher Murphy

    Hello! I was wondering if you guys could please take a look at my thread. I ran "sudo gpt -r -v show /dev/disk0" as well as "sudo fdisk /dev/disk0" already and posted the results. Any help would be greatly appreciated

    Bootcamp partition Black Screen of Death after restore from DMG file + mbr rebuild

  • by Bx029297,

    Bx029297 Bx029297 Jul 3, 2014 2:04 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 3, 2014 2:04 PM in response to Loner T

    Guys none of the solutions suggested by the bootrec.exe tool worked for me.

    So i'm just thinking maybe i need to reinstall bootcamp? or erase my bootcamp partition and restart it from scratch?

     

    thank you for your help though

  • by Christopher Murphy,

    Christopher Murphy Christopher Murphy Jul 3, 2014 2:17 PM in response to Bx029297
    Level 3 (555 points)
    Jul 3, 2014 2:17 PM in response to Bx029297

    "none worked" I don't know what that means other than presumably it doesn't boot Windows. But tell us what did happen for each step, because that'll give a clue where the problem is.

     

    Does the Windows "BOOTCAMP" volume mount (read-only) in OS X? That is, do you see the Windows drive in the Finder and can you see your Windows files in it?

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Jul 3, 2014 2:20 PM in response to Bx029297
    Level 7 (24,596 points)
    Safari
    Jul 3, 2014 2:20 PM in response to Bx029297
  • by Bx029297,

    Bx029297 Bx029297 Jul 3, 2014 3:53 PM in response to Christopher Murphy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 3, 2014 3:53 PM in response to Christopher Murphy

    ok so this is what i did :

     

    I put the windows 7 cd in the dvd drive

     

    Selected a language, time, currency, keyboard, clicked NEXT
      Then clicked 'Repair your computer"

    then there was a box that said "use recovery tools that can help fix problems starting windows"

    *"select the operating system that you wanted to repair,but there were none so clicked NEXT

     

    Clicked  Startup Repair 

    new windows said : Operating System: Unknown or (Unknown) local disk

                                  Startup repair cannot repair this computer automatically , i then clicked "send information about this problem (recommended)"

     

    In the diagnosis and repair details this is what i got:

     

    Startup repair Diagnosis and repair log

    Number of Repair Attempts: 1

        Session details: System Disk = (device) Harddisk0

        Windows directory=

        AutoChk Run= 0

        Number of root causes= 1

     

    under " Test performed" i had

     

    Name: Check for updates

    Result Completed successfully. Error Code= 0x0

    Time taken= 31ms

     

    Test name: System Disk text

    result completed successfully> Error code= 0x0

    Time taken=15ms

     

    Boot manager is missing or corrupted

     

    Repair Action: File Repair

    Result Completed successfully. Error Code=0x15

    Time taken= 0ms

     

    so i went back to the previous page with all the different options: Startup repair, System restore, System image recovery,Windows Memory Diagnosis, command prompt

     

    Couldnt choose "system restore" as i wasn't able to choose any OS.

     

    Clicked Command Prompt

    typed Bootrec.exe /fixmbr, pressed enter

       "The operation completed successfully" ,so i tried to reboot and press ALT/option , clicked on the Windows Icon but got the error

     

    'A disk read error occured'

     

    Boot Windows CD again, command prompt

    typed Bootrec.exe /ScanOS   ,pressed enter

      "Successfully scanned Windows installations"

      "Total identified installations : 0 "

      "The operation completed successfully" , then reboot

    so i tried to reboot and press ALT/option , clicked on the Windows Icon but got the same error

     

    'A disk read error occured'

     

    same for Bootrec.exe /RebuildBcd in the command prompt>

     

    i then tried

    • bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup

    but it said "the store export operation has failed.

                       the system cannot find the file specified''


    That's pretty much all i got the same error from trying to boot windows at the startup..

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