How can the partition table be prepared for Windows with gdisk (GPT fdisk) instead of Boot Camp Assistant? Maybe d3vi1 could shed some light on this?
Problem: Windows HD (NTFS, with XP Pro SP2, restored from drive image) doesn't show up on alt-boot, and if chosen in system preferences, boot up ends at blinking cursor.
History: Partition scheme made hybrid with gdisk. All looks fine:
Partition table scan:
MBR: hybrid
BSD: not present
APM: not present
GPT: present
Found valid GPT with hybrid MBR; using GPT.
Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name
1 40 409639 200.0 MiB EF00 EFI System Partition
2 409640 326475791 155.5 GiB AF00 Lion HD
3 326475792 327745327 619.9 MiB AB00 Recovery HD
4 327745328 726511023 190.1 GiB AF00 Macintosh HD
5 726773760 976773119 119.2 GiB 0700 WINDOWS HD
Disk size is 976773168 sectors (465.8 GiB)
MBR disk identifier: 0x41B241B1
MBR partitions:
Number Boot Start Sector End Sector Status Code
1 1 726773759 primary 0xEE
2 * 726773760 976773119 primary 0x07
Disk Utility says the partition table is fine. Windows sees two partitions, the second one is "Windows HD". It's correctly selected in the "boot.ini". Also added again in Recovery Console with bootcfg. Had a new boot sector written with fixboot. Chkdsk found an error (not more info) but only with p option.
What could be the problem here? What other magic (I didn't do with gdisk) could BC Assistant be doing apart from installing a MBR for the Windows partition? Can I be reasonably sure that fixmbr won't damage my partition table (complains about "non-standard or invalid boot record" as it's probably not familiar with that hybrid thing)?