Repairing Boot Camp after creating new partition

Hallo guys,

First I want to say thanks a lot to Christopher Murphy, because one and a half years ago I was having problems the same like the 1st post on that topic and with the instructions from Christopher I was able to get back my BOOTCAMP with Windows 7. Now I think that the commands from the 1st post changed something that is making my current problem appear. All was working like a charm till few days ago when I was get a decision to update to Mavericks.

Previously I was with Mountain Lion 10.8 and with Windows 7 on Bootcamp. The hardware is iMac Late 2010 27'' with 1Tb SATA HDD.

Few days ago I have deleted the BOOTCAMP partition and resized the disk to only 1 partition (with Bootcamp wizzard). Then I made a boot usb stick with Mavericks and then started the installation of Mavericks from my USB Stick. I have deleted all partitions and created a new one when the installation asked me to choose a partition. So everything was fine and Mavericks is ok and working great. Now the problematic part.

I have created a Bootable USB Stick with Windows 8.1 first. I used some windows program to made it which I was using before and never had a problems on normal Computers (PC, not Apple) to boot and installing that windows from the same USB Flash Stick and the same Windows 8.1 and so on. I started Bootcamp Wizzard on my new Mavericks and than I notice that I have only 2 options there:

1. Download drivers

2. Install windows 7 or later version

I have already the bootcamp software support drivers downloaded before and I have leave only the second tick checked.

I tried to press Continue, but the Wizzard told me that it doesn't recognize a Windows DVD and cannot continue. Asked me to insert a Windows DVD and to continue.

Now it's time to say that my DVD device is not working and I cannot use it.

So I was thinking that the problem is coming from my USB Stick and tried few other programs to make a bootable usb stick with windows. That doesn't help.

I started to read and googling the internet. I tried few options from some guys with a close problems. Reset with Options+CMD+P+R, to format USB Stick fully etc. Then I found that if I install daemon tools and mount a Windows 8.1 ISO the Bootcamp Assistant will continue on the next step and will build the BOOTCAMP partition. I made that and restarted the computer with the USB Stick plugged in. I got a message that there're no system disk and to insert one and to press any key to continue (or something like this). Then I made a hard restart and tried to hold the ALT (Option) key after the startup chime. I got the list of bootable devices, but the usb stick wasn't there 😟 Only Mavericks partition and HD Recovery one. Tried few more things with no luck.

Then I found a topic where a few guys explaining how to get the 1st option on Bootcamp Wizzard (Create a Windows 7 or later version install disk). I changed the plist file in Bootcamp Assistant, then signed the app with xcode tools and yahoo, I got that option enabled.

I made again a bootable usb stick with windows 8.1 from ISO with the Bootcamp Assistant 1st option. Then when I restarted the Mac keeping the ALT pressed it was a surprise that the USB stick with windows 8.1 showed up. I started Windows 8.1 setup, entered the serial number and then I selected the BOOTCAMP partition and the Next button wasn't active and error message was written that:

"Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, Windows can only be installed to GPT disks."

I tried format, delete partition, create new etc with no luck. Then I tried to recreate the bootcamp partition with Disk Utility, but with ExtFAT format and again no luck. I found another topic on internet where some guys are talking that only Windows 7 can be installed in that way on Mavericks BOOTCAMP. I don't know that this is true or not, but I tried with Windows 8.1, Windows 8.0 and now I'm going to get a Windows 7 from a friend these days, but I don't think that it will work.

Is there someone who can help me out somehow or to tell me some tips or opinions what to do next?

Here are few infos:

Julians-iMac:~ julianstefanov$ df -h

Filesystem Size Used Avail Capacity iused ifree %iused Mounted on

/dev/disk0s2 558Gi 53Gi 505Gi 10% 13861731 132462763 9% /

devfs 191Ki 191Ki 0Bi 100% 661 0 100% /dev

map -hosts 0Bi 0Bi 0Bi 100% 0 0 100% /net

map auto_home 0Bi 0Bi 0Bi 100% 0 0 100% /home

/dev/disk0s4 372Gi 2.7Mi 372Gi 1% 0 0 100% /Volumes/BOOTCAMP

Julians-iMac:~ julianstefanov$

Julians-iMac:~ julianstefanov$ diskutil list

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_HFS iMac 599.3 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3

4: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 400.0 GB disk0s4

Julians-iMac:~ julianstefanov$

Julians-iMac:~ julianstefanov$ diskutil cs list

No CoreStorage logical volume groups found

Julians-iMac:~ julianstefanov$

Julians-iMac:~ julianstefanov$ 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: /dev/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 1170595968 2 GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

1171005608 1269536 3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

1172275144 56

1172275200 781248512 4 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

1953523712 1423

1953525135 32 Sec GPT table

1953525167 1 Sec GPT header

Julians-iMac:~ julianstefanov$

Julians-iMac:~ julianstefanov$ 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 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 1 - 409639] <Unknown ID>

2: AF 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 409640 - 1170595968] HFS+

3: AB 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [1171005608 - 1269536] Darwin Boot

4: 0B 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [1172275200 - 781248512] Win95 FAT-32

Julians-iMac:~ julianstefanov$

Julians-iMac:~ julianstefanov$ sudo dd if=/dev/rdisk0 count=1 2>/dev/null | hexdump -C

00000000 33 c0 8e d0 bc 00 7c 8e c0 8e d8 be 00 7c bf 00 |3.....|......|..|

00000010 06 b9 00 02 fc f3 a4 50 68 1c 06 cb fb b9 04 00 |.......Ph.......|

00000020 bd be 07 80 7e 00 00 7c 0b 0f 85 0e 01 83 c5 10 |....~..|........|

00000030 e2 f1 cd 18 88 56 00 55 c6 46 11 05 c6 46 10 00 |.....V.U.F...F..|

00000040 b4 41 bb aa 55 cd 13 5d 72 0f 81 fb 55 aa 75 09 |.A..U..]r...U.u.|

00000050 f7 c1 01 00 74 03 fe 46 10 66 60 80 7e 10 00 74 |....t..F.f`.~..t|

00000060 26 66 68 00 00 00 00 66 ff 76 08 68 00 00 68 00 |&fh....f.v.h..h.|

00000070 7c 68 01 00 68 10 00 b4 42 8a 56 00 8b f4 cd 13 ||h..h...B.V.....|

00000080 9f 83 c4 10 9e eb 14 b8 01 02 bb 00 7c 8a 56 00 |............|.V.|

00000090 8a 76 01 8a 4e 02 8a 6e 03 cd 13 66 61 73 1c fe |.v..N..n...fas..|

000000a0 4e 11 75 0c 80 7e 00 80 0f 84 8a 00 b2 80 eb 84 |N.u..~..........|

000000b0 55 32 e4 8a 56 00 cd 13 5d eb 9e 81 3e fe 7d 55 |U2..V...]...>.}U|

000000c0 aa 75 6e ff 76 00 e8 8d 00 75 17 fa b0 d1 e6 64 |.un.v....u.....d|

000000d0 e8 83 00 b0 df e6 60 e8 7c 00 b0 ff e6 64 e8 75 |......`.|....d.u|

000000e0 00 fb b8 00 bb cd 1a 66 23 c0 75 3b 66 81 fb 54 |.......f#.u;f..T|

000000f0 43 50 41 75 32 81 f9 02 01 72 2c 66 68 07 bb 00 |CPAu2....r,fh...|

00000100 00 66 68 00 02 00 00 66 68 08 00 00 00 66 53 66 |.fh....fh....fSf|

00000110 53 66 55 66 68 00 00 00 00 66 68 00 7c 00 00 66 |SfUfh....fh.|..f|

00000120 61 68 00 00 07 cd 1a 5a 32 f6 ea 00 7c 00 00 cd |ah.....Z2...|...|

00000130 18 a0 b7 07 eb 08 a0 b6 07 eb 03 a0 b5 07 32 e4 |..............2.|

00000140 05 00 07 8b f0 ac 3c 00 74 09 bb 07 00 b4 0e cd |......<.t.......|

00000150 10 eb f2 f4 eb fd 2b c9 e4 64 eb 00 24 02 e0 f8 |......+..d..$...|

00000160 24 02 c3 49 6e 76 61 6c 69 64 20 70 61 72 74 69 |$..Invalid parti|

00000170 74 69 6f 6e 20 74 61 62 6c 65 00 45 72 72 6f 72 |tion table.Error|

00000180 20 6c 6f 61 64 69 6e 67 20 6f 70 65 72 61 74 69 | loading operati|

00000190 6e 67 20 73 79 73 74 65 6d 00 4d 69 73 73 69 6e |ng system.Missin|

000001a0 67 20 6f 70 65 72 61 74 69 6e 67 20 73 79 73 74 |g operating syst|

000001b0 65 6d 00 00 00 63 7b 9a af 3c b0 3c 00 00 00 fe |em...c{..<.<....|

000001c0 ff ff ee fe ff ff 01 00 00 00 27 40 06 00 00 fe |..........'@....|

000001d0 ff ff af fe ff ff 28 40 06 00 80 e0 c5 45 00 fe |......(@.....E..|

000001e0 ff ff ab fe ff ff a8 20 cc 45 20 5f 13 00 00 fe |....... .E _....|

000001f0 ff ff 0b fe ff ff 00 80 df 45 00 e8 90 2e 55 aa |.........E....U.|

00000200

Julians-iMac:~ julianstefanov$

Thanks in advance!

Julian

Can you start a new thread and post a reference to that on this thread? Please re-post the content from here into the new thread.

Link to new thread: Problem installing Windows (7, 8.0, 8.1) on BOOTCAMP - Mavericks

Thank you for the assistance in advance! I also can't boot to bootcamp

Link to new thread: problem with mbr after partition

Hi,

I'm also having issues with my bootcamp partition after upgrading my mac OS X but my upgrade was to Yosemite. I have also resized my partition before the upgrade. I shrank my mac partition and increased the bootcamp partition. The resize was working until the upgrade.

I've read the thread and tried to implement the fixes involved but it did not seem to work. Either because I missed a key point or it could be another issue.

I've created a new thread with the command outputs you wanted.

Bootcamp partition issue after Yosemite upgrade

Thank you for your help.

I just successfully installed Windows 8.1 Update 1 on BootCamp on Mac OS X Yosemite. Here is a step by step I just wrote, hope it helps y'all:

How to successfully install Windows 8, or above, on Mac OS X Mavericks or above:

Requirements:

1- Windows OS ISO Image file

2- An 8GBs USB Flash Drive

3- A good Internet connection as you will need to download the Windows compatible drivers for your Mac

Steps:

1- Open up Disk Utility and create an additional partition for Windows formatted as ExFat. 100GBs, or above, is recommended as update to the operating system, as well as Apps requiere space on your HD or SSD [This step can be done during Mac OS X's installation process]

2- Open up BootCamp Assistant

3- Make sure only the 'Create a Windows 7 or later version install disk' is checked and your USB Flash Drive plugged in and click 'Continue'

4- Click 'Choose' and select your Windows ISO Image file

5- Select the USB Flash Drive you will be using during the installation process and click continue to confirm

6- Once done, restart your Mac and hold down the 'alt/option' key on your keyboard to bring up the Boot Menu

7- Select the USB Flash Drive named Windows, not the UEFI Boot

8- Install Windows as you normally would

* Remember to press and hold the 'alt/option' key, and select the Windows Partition, whenever the installation process requires your Mac to restart

* http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/jj945423.aspx

* http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/install-windows-on-mac

Hi, Christopher:

I got a similar problem, I tried to resize the OS/X partition to make more room for bootcamp. After using Winclone to backup my bootcamp partition, I used "Disk Utility" to Erase it, and after reboot, I cannot find the bootcamp partition anymore. please see below details.

It is a 3TB drive, the 1.5T bootcamp partition is gone, it seems to be it is there between 3 and 4, but no idea how to get it back. It seems you are really knowledgable in this, thanks for your help in advance.

Last login: Mon Oct 20 15:15:22 on console

Xiangs-iMac:~ xiangni$ sudo gdisk /dev/disk0

Password:

GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.10

Warning: Devices opened with shared lock will not have their

partition table automatically reloaded!

Partition table scan:

MBR: protective

BSD: not present

APM: not present

GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.

Command (? for help): p

Disk /dev/disk0: 5860533168 sectors, 2.7 TiB

Logical sector size: 512 bytes

Disk identifier (GUID): 8F50CF53-5330-4395-89F1-7F43064C6EED

Partition table holds up to 128 entries

First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 5860533134

Partitions will be aligned on 8-sector boundaries

Total free space is 2929686541 sectors (1.4 TiB)

Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name

1 40 409639 200.0 MiB EF00 EFI System Partition

2 409640 975966423 465.2 GiB AF05 Mac OS

3 975966424 977235967 619.9 MiB AB00 Recovery HD

4 3906922496 5860270983 931.4 GiB AF05 Mac Data

5 5860270984 5860533127 128.0 MiB AB00 Booter

Can you start a new thread and post a reference in this thread?

Please post the output of the following in the new thread.

diskutil list

diskutil cs list

sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

Enter you password when prompted.

Hey Tom,

I'm a little late to this party, but hoping to find some help. I can see my WindowsXP Pro partition on the desktop, but after upgrading to Mavericks it won't fully start up. I'll get the usual screens, then the XP loading screen with the blue loading animation. After about 5 passes of the blue thing, it will hesitate and flash a blue screen so fast, that it took me several attempts to snap a photo so I could read it. "Unmountable_Boot_Volume" is the error. It then says to follow these steps... but cuts off and reboots.

One thing of note is that Parallels 10 uses the same XP virtual machine and boots just fine, so I figure XP can't be all that messed up. Maybe a driver issue, not sure. Does Mavericks not support XP? I'm open to Windows 7, but I'd like to backup some stuff first if possible. Maybe I can do that through Parallels?

Please start a new thread with the output of

diskutil list

diskutil cs list

sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

Please post a reference to the new thread on this thread.

OK, thanks. Here's the new thread...

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6644947

I lift my drink to you sir.

I was dual booting with Lion & Win7 and added a partition to try Yosemite which borked booting into Win7.

I used gdisk as you suggested in your post and I was up and running like a charm; now triple booting with Lion, Yosemite & Win7

Thank you!

Hi. I just started a new thread with the info you asked for. It is at Repairing Boot Camp after creating new partition. Thanks for taking the time to help with this.

Hey Chris!!!! I love you!!! Safe my life!!!

Nice tutorial 😉

Thanks a lot!!!

--

Francisco

Even 3 years later, your comment has been the key for that problem, after trying to find a solution for hours, this one has been the only one that's been successful. I've registered in the forum just to express my gratitude .Many thanks about it!!