Windows Partition Won't Mount in OS X

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Level 1

13 points

Windows Partition Won't Mount in OS X

Hi,

I just used Boot Camp to install Windows. I had Windows XP installed on my MacBook Pro awhile ago, but after I got it back from a hard drive repair I didn't put Windows back on. I recently downloaded the Windows 7 RC from Microsoft's site and used boot camp to install it. The install seemed to go fine, and I was in Windows setting up stuff for awhile. When I booted back into OS X, my Windows partition would not show up on the desktop, and would not appear in the Startup Disk preference. In Disk Utility, it shows up as grayed out with the generic name "disk0s3". When you try to mount it from there, it gives the error "The disk "disk0s3" could not be mounted. Try running First Aid on the disk and then retry mounting." Since I formatted it as NTFS (no other choice for Windows 7), I can't do a verify or repair on the disk.

Going into Terminal and doing a "diskutil list", I see the 50 GB windows partition labeled as "Microsoft Basic Data." I've been looking around for a fix but can't find anything. Many people were complaining about this issue on these discussion boards back in 2007 but there was no real solution found.

While I can still boot into Windows by restarting and holding option, it's very frustrating to not see the disk in OS X. Does anyone have a permanent fix for this? I know it can't just be something with Windows 7 because people were having this issue years ago. Could really use some help with this. Although I don't really have anything installed beyond Safari, Firefox, iTunes etc it would just be a hassle to have to reinstall, and it may end up doing the same thing.

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Adam

MacBook Pro 2.5 GHz Penryn (MacBookPro4,1), Mac OS X (10.5.7), 4GB PC5300 (667 MHz), GeForce 8600M GT with 512 MB VRAM, 250 GB HD

Posted on Aug 3, 2009 12:46 AM

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Answer 1

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Aug 3, 2009 5:38 AM in response to ABassCube

When you installed 7, did you delete and create your NTFS partition? Something back then probably.

If the volome name for Windows partition has "." in front that means "hidden" so check the Properties and rename the volume and see if that helps first. Then boot from the DVD you created and select REPAIR.

I would also schedule a chkdsk for Windows volume on next startup.

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Answer 2

ABassCube Author

Level 1

13 points

Aug 3, 2009 11:12 PM in response to The hatter

That didn't work. The volume is obviously not hidden, I know about hidden files, and it wouldn't cause Disk Utility to behave the way it did. I tried the chdsk from Windows, says there are no issues.

I tried restoring the partition in Boot Camp Assistant and doing it again, reinstalling Windows 7 and it's the same problem. One thing to note is that when I first tried to create the Boot Camp partition, it failed because there wasn't enough contiguous space for the size of the volume. I probably should have reformatted the drive at this point, but instead I did a defrag in TechTool Pro. It got Boot Camp to make the partition, but the issue I'm having might have something to do with that. Unfortunately, I'm thinking the only thing to do is to backup and reformat completely.

I really don't want to have to do that, so if anyone has any other suggestions it would be greatly appreciated. If I don't figure out a solution by later tomorrow I'm just going to end up reformatting.

Adam

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Answer 3

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Aug 4, 2009 5:46 AM in response to ABassCube

Some people deliberately named Windows to ".Windows" so the volume won't mount.

Maybe it is TechTool that is at fault.

I've installed Vista and 7 RC dozens of times. Delete the partition Boot Camp Assst. created, then create or just select the unformatted partition - don't leave it as it was - as target.

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Answer 4

ABassCube Author

Level 1

13 points

Aug 11, 2009 11:47 AM in response to The hatter

So I reformatted completely, restored from Time Machine and did the whole Boot Camp partition and Win 7 install again. SAME problem. Can't figure out what's going on. Right now I'm just dealing with it. Windows does work, I just can't view the partition from OS X. To restart into Windows I can just restart with option held, but it's kind of annoying not to see the partition.

If anyone has any other suggestions, please post them. I'm hoping Snow Leopard will fix whatever issue in Leopard is causing this, and I'll try and redo it when it comes out.

Adam

Message was edited by: ABassCube

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Answer 5

ABassCube Author

Level 1

13 points

Aug 18, 2009 8:49 PM in response to ABassCube

Alright, well I finally made progress! I had heard from other people who had this issue that installing NTFS-3G and MacFUSE didn't help, so I didn't bother before. However, I tried it just for the **** of it, and it definitely improved things. When I first restarted after installing both NTFS-3G and MacFUSE, I got a message saying that the Windows partition was unmounted "uncleanly" or something to that effect. I was given two options: to Ignore, or to Force the partition to mount. When I chose Force, it actually mounted successfully. The name on the partition was for some reason "Untitled", even though when I boot while holding option it shows the partition as "Windows". But it mounted fine, and I could write to it. I booted back into Windows, and found that under Windows the drive was also unnamed. So I named it Windows, went back into OS X and the name stuck.

The only remaining issue is that OS X still doesn't recognize it as a startup volume in the Startup Disk system preference. So in order to boot into Windows, I still need to restart with option held down; however, that's not a major issue. I was mainly concerned with being able to see files on the Windows 7 partition and transfer files from OS X to Windows and vice versa. So I'm basically happy, although I'd still be a bit happier if Startup Disk would see it as a bootable volume.

I'd still be interested to hear any other thoughts about this issue. It must be a known issue by now, since there was a very similar thread about this back in 2007, and still not fixed in Leopard seemingly. If anyone knows what may have caused this issue, or how one would have gone about fixing it without installing ntfs-3g/MacFUSE, I'd be interested. Still hoping the issue will be fixed under Snow Leopard.

Adam

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Answer 6

Aug 27, 2009 4:57 AM in response to ABassCube

I had the same scenario. So I went to Disk Utility. My Windows partition named "WINDOWS 7" (renamed in Windows) was unmounted. So i right clicked on it and there was available option "Mount" in context menu. (I have NTFS-3G and MacFUSE installed)

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