Repairing Boot Camp after creating new partition

I know that when you convert an existing JHFS+/X volume to be encrypted, the volume is resized slightly to make room for the header/gap area for Core Storage. The GUID for the partition is changed from HFS+ to the GUID for Core Storage. So the GPT is being altered. As appears to be the case, if you have more than four partitions (in the GPT), Apple's tools indiscriminately blow away the hybrid MBR, replacing it with a PMBR, and that's why Windows doesn't boot.

What's interesting is that the slice number for your Windows partition changed. Can you post the result from:

sudo gpt -r -vv show disk0

diskutil list

diskutil cs list

First one displays the GPT contents. Second lists devices and slices. Third lists core storage devices. All are read-only commands.

FWIW, the volume contained within the Core Storage partition, when mounted, gets a whole disk (a virtual disk) value. i.e. with a normal HFS+ volume, its partition is designated as something like /dev/disk0s2, meaning disk0 slice 2 (or partition 2). Once that slice becomes Core Storage, the encrypted volume within ends up behaving as a logical device at something like /dev/disk1.

Hi Christopher, this is the result, hope it helps.

thanks again

Last login: Sun Aug 19 22:41:02 on console

Jeremys-MacBook-Pro:~ Jeremy$ sudo gpt -r -vv show disk0

Password:

gpt show: disk0: mediasize=750156374016; sectorsize=512; blocks=1465149168

gpt show: disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0

gpt show: disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1

gpt show: disk0: 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 388671920 2 GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

389081560 1269536 3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

390351096 780988168 4 GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

1171339264 262144 5 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

1171601408 293545984 6 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

1465147392 1743

1465149135 32 Sec GPT table

1465149167 1 Sec GPT header

Jeremys-MacBook-Pro:~ Jeremy$ diskutil list

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *750.2 GB disk0

1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 199.0 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3

4: Apple_CoreStorage 399.9 GB disk0s4

5: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 134.2 MB disk0s5

6: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 150.3 GB disk0s6

/dev/disk1

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_HFS Data *399.5 GB disk1

Jeremys-MacBook-Pro:~ Jeremy$ diskutil cs list

CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)

|

+-- Logical Volume Group 35102E9D-7E60-4C09-976B-5EEE57C14FEA

=========================================================

Name: Data

Size: 399865942016 B (399.9 GB)

Free Space: 16777216 B (16.8 MB)

|

+-< Physical Volume DC68ACC4-1CBB-49D4-B71E-B1B19F55154B

| ----------------------------------------------------

| Index: 0

| Disk: disk0s4

| Status: Online

| Size: 399865942016 B (399.9 GB)

|

+-> Logical Volume Family F18F9484-61D3-427A-A9D5-55CBC4F79AF6

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

Encryption Status: Unlocked

Encryption Type: AES-XTS

Conversion Status: Complete

Conversion Direction: -none-

Has Encrypted Extents: Yes

Fully Secure: Yes

Passphrase Required: Yes

|

+-> Logical Volume FE8E8548-E956-487C-9A8F-9342260D3C61

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

Disk: disk1

Status: Online

Size (Total): 399530393600 B (399.5 GB)

Size (Converted): -none-

Revertible: Yes (unlock and decryption required)

LV Name: Data

Volume Name: Data

Content Hint: Apple_HFS

Jeremys-MacBook-Pro:~ Jeremy$

Interesting

Partition 2 is normally the Macintosh HD volume, this is a 185GB partion for you and I'm not sure what's on it, other than it's marked as being HFS+.

Partition 3 is a 620MB Apple Boot partition, which I'm 99% certain is the Lion Recovery HD.

Partition 4 is 372GB Core Storage partition, inside of which will be your File Vault 2 volume. Normally I expect partition 2 to be converted to Core Storage and encrypted on the fly - at least that's what Lion did.

Partition 5 is a 128MB Apple Boot partition and I'm not exactly sure what that's for, maybe it's the Mountain Lion Recovery HD? Why is it separate from partition 3? I've heard of other people upgrading to Mountain Lion and they end up with two Recover HD's as options when booting and holding the option/alt key at the start up chime. Do you get that? I don't have a good explanation for this unless somehow your intent was to maintain a Lion and Mountain Lion dual-boot configuration, and in effect triple boot with Windows (which by the way is not something I'm aware of that Apple supports).

Anyway, unless something significant has changed in Mountain Lion, there isn't a way for Apple's own tools to support Windows booting in such a configuration where there are more than 4 partitions on a disk containing Windows. They simply won't create a hybrid MBR for such a disk.

Hi Christopher, it's jeremy195. (I couldn't change my email address so I created a new account here)

Anyway, I'm not sure if partition 5 is the Mountain Lion recovery, or why it's seperate to partition 3. But I don't have two recovery HD's when I boot, only the usual one (recovery 10.8), which seems to be working fine. I have MacHD, Bootcamp, and recovery. My new MacBookPro is working fine now thanks to the fix you shared. I'm really happy with it. Still getting used to it as it's only two weeks old and I've always used PC until now. Thanks again

Ahh I see what I missed before. The encrypted volume "Data" is a separte partition from "Macintosh HD". So you are only encrypted the Data volume, not Macintosh HD is what it looks like.

Just make sure you keep prolific backups of your data! The layout of your disk is rather non-standard, which doesn't mean it's bad or unstable, but does mean most people and utilities, including Apple's, may not know what to do with it if modifications are attempted. And keep in mind modifications to the disk layout can be initiated by user or by software upgrade installers. And whatever you do, don't ever use a Windows disk utility to try and change the partition layout of volume sizes!

Yes I only encrypted the Data volume. I backup using time machine. It backs up to an external USB drive, also encrypted. Is it better to encrypt the whole drive, including "Macintosh HD"? I'm happy to take advice on a better way to layout the disk.

Since things are working now, I'm reluctant to suggest you change anything.

For most people, the vast majority of things they want encrypted reside in the home folder,i.e. your user folder, which contains your documents, email, any web browser history, anything on the desktop, etc. So it's just easier to use folders to organize than it is to use partitions.

The one advantage of a separate partition that's encrypted, is that this volume is not automatically unlocked by any user who has the ability to login to the computer. You must have a totally separate password to unlock Data. Wheras when you use File Vault 2 on the boot volume, all users who have login ability to the computer, unlock that volume. Now, normally they also have permissions in place to keep them from snooper around other users' folders and files, but that permissions layer is POSIX and ACL based, not encryption.

Ok thanks for your advice. I think I'll keep it as it is for now, seeing as it's all working fine.

cheers

Ok, so I'm not really that Familiar with this, and I'd really appreciate someone walking me through it somewhat step by step

I installed win7 but foolishly didn't give it that much space so decided to create a new partition. I made an NTFS partition.

Similar situation to all, Bootcamp still available in startup disks under prefs, but not bootable.

Cheers

Ben-Scattergoods-MacBook-Pro-2:~ benscattergood$ sudo gpt -r -vv show disk0

gpt show: disk0: mediasize=750156374016; sectorsize=512; blocks=1465149168

gpt show: disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0

gpt show: disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1

gpt show: disk0: 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 1132388040 2 GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

1132797680 1269536 3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

1134067216 211362288

1345429504 119717888 4 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

1465147392 1743

1465149135 32 Sec GPT table

1465149167 1 Sec GPT header

Signature: 0xAA55

Starting Ending

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

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

1: EE 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 1 - 409639] <Unknown ID>

2: AF 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 409640 - 1132388040] HFS+

3: AB 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [1132797680 - 1269536] Darwin Boot

4: 0C 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [1345429504 - 119717888] Win95 FAT32L

These are the two results, I'd really really really appreciate your help!

Cheers

What you want to do isn't possible with Apple's GUI tools. If you'd read the Boot Camp guide, you'd know the only prescribed method is to use Boot Camp Assistant to remove the Boot Camp partition and then start over with a new Boot Camp partition - all with the Assistant. I'm betting you used Disk Utility and now that's why you're in trouble.

The GPT says there is a 10GB section of free space between partitions 3 and 4, unclaimed. And partition 4 is FAT32, not NTFS I'm not sure why you think you created an NTFS partition because Apple's tools can't do this either, and is 57GB.

Anyway it's unclear what you want to end up with.

What I want to achieve is to first of all understand what I did to stop it working and to then solve it.

The partition I created was in MS-DOS, sorry.

I'm still able to see the Bootcamp option under startup prefs but not able to boot.

What I didn't mean to imply was that I'd like an easy fix

Thank you

You created a new partition, that's what caused it to stop working. Once you create a Boot Camp partition, you have to use Boot Camp Assistant to destroy it and create another, or use a 3rd party resizing utility.

Your choices at this point are all limited. The easiest but most tedious is to blow away the disk, and restore from backups, and start Boot Camp from scratch and this time give it enough space.

Hello,

i have been trying for a month now, since i upgraded to mountain lion to re-install windows with no success.

Let me give you the facts:

I have tried the same windows install disk that i successfully had in Snow Leopard.

Tried also to install it from a USB thumb drive. Always after using boot camp to make the partitions, when the computer restarts it gives me a no bootable device error.

I followed the instructions here and ended up with no system disk error.

I cannot understand what the issue is. Here's some information if it can be any helpful at all.

host-178-21-48-54:~ jupe69$ sudo gpt -r -vv show disk0

Password:

gpt show: disk0: mediasize=1000204886016; sectorsize=512; blocks=1953525168

gpt show: disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0

gpt show: disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1

gpt show: disk0: Sec GPT at sector 1953525167

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 1464843776 2 GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

1465253416 1269544 3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

1466522960 688

1466523648 487000064 4 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

1953523712 1423

1953525135 32 Sec GPT table

1953525167 1 Sec GPT header

host-178-21-48-54:~ jupe69$ diskutil list

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk0

1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 750.0 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3

4: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 249.3 GB disk0s4

/dev/disk1

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: FDisk_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk1

1: Apple_HFS Jupe's External Drive 1.0 TB disk1s1

/dev/disk2

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Win7_sp1_32-64_EN-f... *4.5 GB disk2

/dev/disk3

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: FDisk_partition_scheme *2.0 TB disk3

1: Apple_HFS Time Machine 1.0 TB disk3s1

2: Windows_NTFS New Volume 999.9 GB disk3s2

host-178-21-48-54:~ jupe69$

Hi Christopher,

I seem to be having a similar problem and I am really uncomfortable with altering MBRs. I have a Macbook Pro, with a hard drive with three partitions, OSX lion, blank storage in ms-dos format and a bootcamp with windows 8. I also have another hard drive (SSD) that only has Windows 7 installed on it. If I disconnect the 3part hard drive I can boot into windows 7 if I have both drive connected I cannot boot into the windows 7 installation only the windows 8 or OSX. I would really appreciate you helping me on this.

Here is the output to the commands you have asked for earlier on other issues.

sudo gpt -r -vv show disk0

gpt show: disk0: mediasize=256060514304; sectorsize=512; blocks=500118192

gpt show: disk0: MBR at sector 0

start size index contents

0 1 MBR

1 2047

2048 204800 1 MBR part 7

206848 499908608 2 MBR part 7

500115456 2736

sudo gpt -r -vv show disk1

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

gpt show: disk1: Suspicious MBR at sector 0

gpt show: disk1: Pri GPT at sector 1

gpt show: 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 865825120 2 GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

866234760 1269544 3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

867504304 1872

867506176 253687808 4 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

1121193984 343953408 5 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

1465147392 1743

1465149135 32 Sec GPT table

1465149167 1 Sec GPT header

sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

Disk: /dev/disk0 geometry: 31130/255/63 [500118192 sectors]

Signature: 0xAA55

Starting Ending

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

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

*1: 07 0 32 33 - 14 147 19 [ 2048 - 204800] HPFS/QNX/AUX

2: 07 14 147 20 - 1023 223 63 [ 206848 - 499908608] 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 fdisk /dev/disk1

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

Signature: 0xAA55

Starting Ending

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

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

1: EE 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 1 - 409639] <Unknown ID>

2: AF 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 409640 - 865825120] HFS+

3: AB 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 866234760 - 1269544] Darwin Boot

4: 0B 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 867506176 - 253687808] Win95 FAT-32

If there is anymore information I can get you on this let me know

Thanks