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My bootcamp volume disappeared from the Startup Disk menu after the update to Catalina

After I did the update, the Bootcamp volume vanished from the Startup Disk menu. When I held option on startup, the bootcamp volume was there as an option, and worked perfectly fine on the Windows end. The bootcamp assistant on the windows end also worked properly, showing both the mac and windows volume. However, for some reason the bootcamp volume no longer appears under the Startup Disk menu in System Preferences. How can I fix this?

Posted on Sep 13, 2020 9:07 AM

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Posted on Sep 17, 2020 2:11 PM

Notice the highlighted rows. This is causing you to lose boot-ability. It also makes macOS from being unable to see Windows files.


Since you cannot Windows files, you will need to use Testdisk to locate the lost NTFS header. See El Capitan has deleted my bootcamp window… - Apple Community as an example of using Testdisk.

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Sep 17, 2020 2:11 PM in response to shogilance54

Notice the highlighted rows. This is causing you to lose boot-ability. It also makes macOS from being unable to see Windows files.


Since you cannot Windows files, you will need to use Testdisk to locate the lost NTFS header. See El Capitan has deleted my bootcamp window… - Apple Community as an example of using Testdisk.

Sep 13, 2020 12:20 PM in response to Loner T

Output of diskutil list:

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         899.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:       Microsoft Basic Data freeSpace               31.0 GB    disk0s3
   4:       Microsoft Basic Data                         70.0 GB    disk0s4

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +899.0 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD - Data     676.5 GB   disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 83.5 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                525.8 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      8.6 GB     disk1s4
   5:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            11.3 GB    disk1s5


Output of sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0:

gpt show: /dev/disk0: mediasize=1000204886016; sectorsize=512; blocks=1953525168
gpt show: /dev/disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0
gpt show: /dev/disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1
gpt show: error: bogus map
gpt show: unable to open device '/dev/disk0': Undefined error: 0


Output of sudo fdisk /dev/disk0:

Disk: /dev/disk0	geometry: 121601/255/63 [1953525168 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
 #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1: EE    0   0   2 -   25 127  14 [         1 -     409639] <Unknown ID>
 2: FF   25 127  15 - 1023 254  63 [    409640 - 1755859392] Xenix BBT   
 3: 07 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [1756270592 -    9797632] HPFS/QNX/AUX
*4: 0B 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [1766068224 -  187455488] Win95 FAT-32



Sep 17, 2020 8:39 AM in response to Loner T

I can't see my Windows files in the macOS Finder. Should it just be there as a volume? If so, it isn't there.

As for the free space, I unfortunately did use the MPT to take some of the free space into Windows. The only way I am able to see my Windows partition at all is by restarting the computer and holding option to launch the Startup Manager.

Sep 17, 2020 10:30 AM in response to Loner T

Here's the output of gdisk -l /dev/disk0:

GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.5

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.
Disk /dev/disk0: 1953525168 sectors, 931.5 GiB
Sector size (logical): 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 000059E6-6FD0-0000-BD37-000061470000
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
Main partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 33
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 1953525134
Partitions will be aligned on 8-sector boundaries
Total free space is 2989 sectors (1.5 MiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1              40          409639   200.0 MiB   EF00  EFI system partition
   2          409640      1756269031   837.3 GiB   AF0A  Customer
   3      1756270592      1816817663   28.9 GiB    0700  
   4      1816817664      1953523711   65.2 GiB    0700



My bootcamp volume disappeared from the Startup Disk menu after the update to Catalina

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