nearclouding

Q: Windows Boot Option Gone

Hi,

 

I'm using a mid 2012 Macbook Pro with Yosemite installed and have been running a Windows 8.1, now 10, partition on my computer for awhile. Usually I can boot into either OS by powering off and holding the option button, but suddenly the option to boot in Windows is gone. Since I'm not sure what exactly caused this and I'm having trouble understanding the solutions other people have had on here, I'm just going to list everything that happened in the hopes that I can get this fixed.

 

  • I upgraded to Windows 10 a few days ago with no problems.
  • I decided I wanted to use essentially only Windows on my Mac, so I started to try to resize the partitions which were 150GB for Windows and 350GB for Yosemite, give or take.
  • I wasn't able to resize the core partition since Yosemite doesn't allow that without difficulty, so I first turned off FireVault and rebooted, which didn't seem to do anything at all. Then I updated Yosemite, which I have been neglecting for a couple of months. After the updates had finished, I was able to resize the core partition. I think turning off FireVault fixed this but I'm not sure.
  • I then booted in Windows and moved all of my files over there and resized the partition using a third party tool, MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition.
  • Then I booted back into the Mac partition and began deleting any other files I didn't need since I wouldn't be opening that partition very often. I could have deleted essential files to the system, but I really hope I wasn't that stupid.
  • After I got the partition to about 60GB, I resized it again to give the Windows partition more room to resize.
  • When I tried to boot into Windows, the option was gone, leaving just the Mac partition, EFI, and my flash drive.
  • Going back into the Mac partition, I checked in Disk Utility and found everything looking very normal, with my Windows partition at about 80GB with ~100GB to spare. So I haven't deleted anything, I just can't open it.

 

I think that's all I need to say on this, I've tried messing around with terminal but I really have no idea what I'm doing there...

I can't just reinstall Windows because I will lose all my files, so there must be a way around this!

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)

Posted on Aug 10, 2015 8:04 PM

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Q: Windows Boot Option Gone

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  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Aug 10, 2015 8:35 PM in response to nearclouding
    Level 7 (23,970 points)
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    Aug 10, 2015 8:35 PM in response to nearclouding

    nearclouding wrote:

    • I decided I wanted to use essentially only Windows on my Mac, so I started to try to resize the partitions which were 150GB for Windows and 350GB for Yosemite, give or take.

    This is problematic on any Mac older than late 2013, because Windows and OS share different partitioning methods which are kept in sync by BCA only during initial installation. Any subsequent changes can lead to data loss including catastrophic failures. It is also documented in Boot Camp 5.1: Frequently asked questions - Apple Support .

     

    nearclouding wrote:

     

    • I wasn't able to resize the core partition since Yosemite doesn't allow that without difficulty, so I first turned off FireVault and rebooted, which didn't seem to do anything at all. Then I updated Yosemite, which I have been neglecting for a couple of months. After the updates had finished, I was able to resize the core partition. I think turning off FireVault fixed this but I'm not sure.

    If FileVault was in progress, then yes, otherwise the Yosemite upgrade also verified your disk, which allowed you to change partitioning. This is where you should stop.

     

    nearclouding wrote:

     

    • I then booted in Windows and moved all of my files over there and resized the partition using a third party tool, MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition.
    • Then I booted back into the Mac partition and began deleting any other files I didn't need since I wouldn't be opening that partition very often. I could have deleted essential files to the system, but I really hope I wasn't that stupid.
    • After I got the partition to about 60GB, I resized it again to give the Windows partition more room to resize.
    • When I tried to boot into Windows, the option was gone, leaving just the Mac partition, EFI, and my flash drive.
    • Going back into the Mac partition, I checked in Disk Utility and found everything looking very normal, with my Windows partition at about 80GB with ~100GB to spare. So I haven't deleted anything, I just can't open it.

    Now the two different structures of disk partitioning see different representations and are giving you conflicting information.

     

    It may be possible to fix this, but please do not change any partitioning with any tool. You will just compound your problems further.

     

    Please post the text output of the following Terminal commands.

     

    diskutil list

    diskutil cs list

    sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

    sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

     

    The "sudo" commands will prompt for your password, and it will not be echoed back. You may also see a warning about improper use of "sudo" and potential data loss due to "abuse" of the command.

  • by nearclouding,

    nearclouding nearclouding Aug 10, 2015 8:41 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 10, 2015 8:41 PM in response to Loner T

    Thank you so much for replying, I thought everything was going really well so it bites to see I may have made a huge mess out of things...

     

    diskutil list

    /dev/disk0

       #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

       0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.3 GB   disk0

       1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1

       2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         146.9 GB   disk0s2

       3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.1 MB   disk0s3

       4:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                150.0 GB   disk0s4

    /dev/disk1

       #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

       0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           *145.8 GB   disk1

                                     Logical Volume on disk0s2

                                     4196F3F2-010F-459C-8C23-44805300642A

                                     Unlocked Encrypted

    /dev/disk2

       #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

       0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *8.0 GB     disk2

       1:                 DOS_FAT_32 WININSTALL              8.0 GB     disk2s1

    diskutil cs list

    CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)

    |

    +-- Logical Volume Group 9156A5CF-7F9E-4785-9E84-715B5F2364CF

        =========================================================

        Name:         Macintosh HD

        Status:       Online

        Size:         146939727872 B (146.9 GB)

        Free Space:   829698048 B (829.7 MB)

        |

        +-< Physical Volume 218D1B11-250B-492F-BBF7-C0358C34F8B6

        |   ----------------------------------------------------

        |   Index:    0

        |   Disk:     disk0s2

        |   Status:   Online

        |   Size:     146939727872 B (146.9 GB)

        |

        +-> Logical Volume Family 9E0337E1-FBC4-4F81-95DA-58BFB2FF081A

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

            Encryption Status:       Unlocked

            Encryption Type:         AES-XTS

            Conversion Status:       Converting

            Conversion Direction:    forward

            Has Encrypted Extents:   Yes

            Fully Secure:            No

            Passphrase Required:     Yes

            |

            +-> Logical Volume 4196F3F2-010F-459C-8C23-44805300642A

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

                Disk:                  disk1

                Status:                Online

                Size (Total):          145774477312 B (145.8 GB)

                Conversion Progress:   Optimizing 89%

                Revertible:            No

                LV Name:               Macintosh HD

                Volume Name:           Macintosh HD

                Content Hint:          Apple_HFS

    sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

    Password:

    gpt show: /dev/disk0: mediasize=500277790720; sectorsize=512; blocks=977105060

    gpt show: /dev/disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0

    gpt show: /dev/disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1

    gpt show: /dev/disk0: Sec GPT at sector 977105059

          start       size  index  contents

              0          1         MBR

              1          1         Pri GPT header

              2         32         Pri GPT table

             34          6       

             40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B

         409640  286991656      2  GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

      287401296    1269760      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

      288671056  395465392       

      684136448  292966400      4  GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

      977102848       2179       

      977105027         32         Sec GPT table

      977105059          1         Sec GPT header

    sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

    Disk: /dev/disk0 geometry: 60821/255/63 [977105060 sectors]

    Signature: 0xAA55

             Starting       Ending

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

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

    1: EE 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [         1 -     409639] <Unknown ID>

    2: AC 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [    409640 -  286991656] <Unknown ID>

    3: AB 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [ 287401296 -    1269760] Darwin Boot

    4: 0C 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [ 684136448 -  292966400] Win95 FAT32L

  • by nearclouding,

    nearclouding nearclouding Aug 11, 2015 6:17 AM in response to nearclouding
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 11, 2015 6:17 AM in response to nearclouding

    After browsing through everyone else's posts to see if I could mimic any of their solutions, I realized my terminal output was different for sudo fdisk /dev/disk0 in that another <Unknown ID> replaces HFS+. Is this a really bad thing?

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Aug 11, 2015 12:04 PM in response to nearclouding
    Level 7 (23,970 points)
    Safari
    Aug 11, 2015 12:04 PM in response to nearclouding

    No. The CS volume is what you have in MBR #2. The issue is related to the gap between GPT3 and GPT4 and a lost NTFS header in this gap.

     

    On a 500g drive, you only have file systems of about 200G (146G + 150G), so there is a 300G shortfall, most likely due to the gap.

     

    Can you use Windows 7 Vanished after Yosemite update... help? as an example, and download Testdisk and GPT Fdisk and start a Testdisk scan and post the output of the Quick Search?

  • by nearclouding,

    nearclouding nearclouding Aug 11, 2015 1:22 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 11, 2015 1:22 PM in response to Loner T

    On following the Testdisk UI guide on Imgur, I cannot make it past the second step, here is what happened:

     

     

    TestDisk is free software, and

    comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.


     

    Select a media (use Arrow keys, then press Enter):

    >Disk /dev/disk3 - 191 MB / 182 MiB (RO)

    Disk /dev/rdisk3 - 191 MB / 182 MiB (RO)



     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    >[Proceed ]  [  Sudo  ]  [  Quit  ]

    I tried both options, but neither seem to be what is required.

    Disk /dev/disk3 - 191 MB / 182 MiB (RO)


     

    Write access for this media is not available.

    TestDisk won't be able to modify it.


     

    - You may need to be root to have write access.

    Use the sudo command to launch TestDisk.

    - Check the OS permission for this file or device.

    - No partition from this disk must be mounted:

    Open the Disk Utility (In Finder -> Application -> Utility folder)

    and press Unmount button for each volume from this disk

    - This media may be physically write-protected, check the jumpers.


     

     

    >[ Continue ] Continue even if write access isn't available

    [ Quit     ] Return to disk selection

    EDIT: Ignore this for now, I must have just done something wrong and am now running the quick search.

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Aug 11, 2015 1:39 PM in response to nearclouding
    Level 7 (23,970 points)
    Safari
    Aug 11, 2015 1:39 PM in response to nearclouding

    Use sudo and run it on rdisk0.

  • by nearclouding,

    nearclouding nearclouding Aug 11, 2015 1:55 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 11, 2015 1:55 PM in response to Loner T

    I managed to do that and now the Quick Search is running, but the steps I took to get there were slightly different from the post on Imgur, so I'm not completely sure I've done everything right. Namely I don't know if I chose the right disk, so here's a screenshot of my process until now. I'm really sorry if everything is going fine and I'm just being paranoid, but I seriously appreciate your help.

     

    Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 3.46.26 PM.png

    Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 3.46.39 PM.png

    Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 3.46.48 PM.png

    Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 3.46.56 PM.png

    Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 3.47.02 PM.png

    Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 3.47.16 PM.png

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Aug 11, 2015 2:01 PM in response to nearclouding
    Level 7 (23,970 points)
    Safari
    Aug 11, 2015 2:01 PM in response to nearclouding

    Let the line with 00% get to 100%. This can take a while.

  • by nearclouding,

    nearclouding nearclouding Aug 11, 2015 3:50 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 11, 2015 3:50 PM in response to Loner T

    So does it make sense that I've had this running for over two hours and it's still at 0%? How long should I expect this to take?

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Aug 11, 2015 4:04 PM in response to nearclouding
    Level 7 (23,970 points)
    Safari
    Aug 11, 2015 4:04 PM in response to nearclouding

    Look at the value before the "/". If it is changing, it is running. IN some cases, I have seen it take overnight.

  • by nearclouding,

    nearclouding nearclouding Aug 11, 2015 8:28 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 11, 2015 8:28 PM in response to Loner T

    I guess that finished a lot faster than I thought it would! Here are the first two screens and I don't know where to go from here.

     

    Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 10.24.47 PM.png

    Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 10.25.17 PM.png

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Aug 12, 2015 5:40 AM in response to nearclouding
    Level 7 (23,970 points)
    Safari
    Aug 12, 2015 5:40 AM in response to nearclouding

    Based on the Testdisk output, this is a table for partition verification.

    nearclouding-NTFS.png

    Does the NTFS size make sense? The other question is that the NTFS End is right where you currently have a MBR entry. Did you add a partition for sharing data between OS X and Windows?

  • by nearclouding,

    nearclouding nearclouding Aug 12, 2015 6:00 AM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 12, 2015 6:00 AM in response to Loner T

    I believe the size makes sense, but I'm not sure how to answer your other question. Here's a screenshot of the partition breakdown in Disk Utility.

    Screen Shot 2015-08-12 at 7.50.39 AM.png

     

     

    As you can see it's sort of messed up, and when I open up the Mac storage, it shows this, so things aren't adding up.

    Screen Shot 2015-08-12 at 7.53.13 AM.png

    The USB is just where I stored Windows when I first installed it.

     

    I only ever wanted two partitions, so the empty space was going to be given to Bootcamp. I wanted it to be close to 50GB to OS X and 450GB to Windows.

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Aug 12, 2015 6:34 AM in response to nearclouding
    Level 7 (23,970 points)
    Safari
    Aug 12, 2015 6:34 AM in response to nearclouding

    In the Testdisk window, scroll down to the MS Data at 391170049 and press 'P' to list files. Can you post a screen shot? Do not use left/right arrow/cursor keys anywhere in Testdisk, because they change partition properties and we do not need to change it.

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