Cannot boot into Windows 7 or from W7 Install DVD

Question

Level 1

23 points

Cannot boot into Windows 7 or from W7 Install DVD

[Env: MacBook Pro, "Late 2007" 2.4GHz C2D (MA896LL/A), OS X 10.6.8, Windows 7 x64]

"Up until recently," things had been working ok. I had been wanting to repartition my 320GB HD, but OS X said it couldn't be re-partitioned (one error: "Error obtaining resizing information (is this a Mac OS 9 compatible "wrapped" HFS volume?)"). So I found Drive Genius 3 and it said it was removing Mac OS 9 drivers when I went to resize it there, and now, everything is great! I can resize the partitions inside OS X.

BUT, now I can't boot into my Windows 7 Boot Camp partition. I can select Windows on Boot Camp in the Startup Disk System Preference, but when I restart, I get the error

No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key

If I hold down Option at boot time, Windows is not shown as a boot option.

And, to add insult to injury, I cannot boot from my Windows 7 DVD! I get the dreaded

1.

2.

Select CD-ROM Boot Type:

screen, which, based on searches, seems to imply my MBP is "too old" to support W7 x64. (But it obviously isn't.)

Can anyone help get my Windows booting again? Thanks for any assistance here.

MBP 2.4GHz, 6GB RAM, 320GB HD, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Mar 10, 2012 3:39 PM

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Answer 1

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

Mar 10, 2012 4:18 PM in response to cgtyoder

You had no trouble installing Windows 64-bit?

When the "Select" comes up, try "3" instead (I know, not listed)

There are ways to modify but when you have Windows and HFS, outside of a few like CampTune 9.5 I would

backup (of course, goes w/o saying) Windows and OS X HFS

I thought it was only 2008 that MacBook line got 64-bit support for Windows Vista SP1 64-bit and later. aka, UEFI / EFI64 did not get adopted until then by Apple and MS as well as Intel for 64-bit.

Sounds like DG3 isn't really safe either. Disk Utility in 10.6.8 allows some but limited, maybe for a reason.

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Answer 2

cgtyoder Author

Level 1

23 points

Mar 10, 2012 5:16 PM in response to The hatter

> You had no trouble installing Windows 64-bit?

Nope. My model MBP does indeed have EFI64.

> When the "Select" comes up, try "3" instead (I know, not listed)

No effect pressing 3 (or any other key that I can tell).

I will take a look at CampTune.

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Answer 3

cgtyoder Author

Level 1

23 points

Mar 14, 2012 4:39 PM in response to cgtyoder

A resolution: I was able to get my hands on a W7 x32 DVD, and was able to boot to that. I did a Disk Repair (not sure of the exact name of that but it's the only disk repair option AFAICT) and it found a corrupt MBR, and said it repaired it. I held my breath, rebooted, and... success. All is well now.

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