DrFirestone

Q: can't boot my Windows7 partition

I got an used Macbook Pro 15", late 2011. It has the disc drive replaced with an additional hard disk.

I decided to install Windows 7 on the additional disk, which has two partitions: one for mac and the other for windows.

I used the virtual box method to install windows on the macbook, the installation went fine, until the reboot to the real hardware. The windows partition shows up in the mac os settings where I can choose it to boot from it, but when I reboot I end up with a black screen with a cursor...

the method I used:

http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/179486/boot-camp-install-of-windows-7-i ssue-no-bootable-devices?rq=1

If I boot the mac holding the alt key it only shows the OS X drive... But I can see the windows partition on the desktop and browse the windows files...

The original drive (disk0) has one partition and contains OS X, disk1 is the additional drive with two partitions: one for mac files and one for windows.

 

sudo fdisk /dev/disk1

Password:

Disk: /dev/disk1 geometry: 91201/255/63 [1465149168 sectors]

Signature: 0xAA55

         Starting       Ending

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

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

1: EE    0   0   2 - 1023 254  63 [         1 - 1273743359] <Unknown ID>

*2: 07 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [1273743360 -  191404032] HPFS/QNX/AUX

3: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused     

4: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused

 

sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk1

gpt show: /dev/disk1: mediasize=750156374016; sectorsize=512; blocks=1465149168

gpt show: /dev/disk1: Suspicious MBR at sector 0

gpt show: /dev/disk1: Pri GPT at sector 1

gpt show: /dev/disk1: Sec GPT at sector 1465149167

       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  1273071088      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

  1273480728      262632        

  1273743360   191404032      3  GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

  1465147392        1743        

  1465149135          32         Sec GPT table

  1465149167           1         Sec GPT header

 

 

sudo gdisk /dev/disk1

GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.1

 

Warning: Devices opened with shared lock will not have their

partition table automatically reloaded!

Partition table scan:

  MBR: hybrid

  BSD: not present

  APM: not present

  GPT: present

 

Found valid GPT with hybrid MBR; using GPT.

 

Command (? for help): p

Disk /dev/disk1: 1465149168 sectors, 698.6 GiB

Logical sector size: 512 bytes

Disk identifier (GUID): 2079FB32-0170-42A8-89A2-044405B6C35A

Partition table holds up to 128 entries

First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 1465149134

Partitions will be aligned on 8-sector boundaries

Total free space is 264381 sectors (129.1 MiB)

 

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name

   1              40          409639   200.0 MiB   EF00  EFI System Partition

   2          409640      1273480727   607.0 GiB   AF00  MacExtra

   3      1273743360      1465147391   91.3 GiB    0700  BOOTCAMP

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Aug 31, 2016 1:47 PM

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Q: can't boot my Windows7 partition

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Loner T,Helpful

    Loner T Loner T Sep 3, 2016 12:35 PM in response to DrFirestone
    Level 7 (23,543 points)
    Safari
    Sep 3, 2016 12:35 PM in response to DrFirestone

    Can you put the Windows disk in Main bay and test? You may also have to disconnect the second drive from SATA bus, till we can get Windows to work.

  • by DrFirestone,Solvedanswer

    DrFirestone DrFirestone Sep 3, 2016 12:43 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Windows Software
    Sep 3, 2016 12:43 PM in response to Loner T

    Thanks for your reply. I have been searching the internet for a possible cause of my problem. It seems Windows can only be booted from the first (main) internal drive, so I created a second partion on the "main" drive (as opposed the the previous attempts where I was trying to get it working of the additional hdd that replaced the optical drive). It works this time, and both partitions are visible when I boot Mac holding the option key.

  • by Loner T,Helpful

    Loner T Loner T Sep 3, 2016 12:55 PM in response to DrFirestone
    Level 7 (23,543 points)
    Safari
    Sep 3, 2016 12:55 PM in response to DrFirestone

    Good to see it working. Please remember to back up OSX and Windows and create a Windows System Restore point.