Windows will not boot to my boot camp partition on a DIY fusion drive - gives “No bootable device found” error

Question

Windows will not boot to my boot camp partition on a DIY fusion drive - gives “No bootable device found” error

I have a MacBookPro 9,1 (mid-2012, non-retina) running OS X 10.8.2. Here is what I have done to my system:

Installed Windows 7 x64 Pro to a boot camp partition; installed all windows updates.
Using WinClone, save an image of this boot camp partition.
Removed optical drive and HDD.
Installed HDD in place of optical drive.
Installed SSD in place of HDD.
Booted to recovery partition, installed OS X on a flash drive.
Booted to flash drive, created fusion drive using [MacWorld's instructions](http://www.macworld.com/article/2014011/how-to-make-your-own-fusion-drive.html)
Booted to recovery partition on flash drive.
Restored system to fusion drive from a Time Machine backup. Unfortunately, it seems that because I never installed OS X on my fusion drive, I do not have a recovery partition. But that's an issue for another day.
Using Boot Camp assistant, created a boot camp partition on my HDD.
Using WinClone, restore my Windows installation from the previously created image.

Now, Windows boots to a black screen telling me that it can't find a bootable device. I have tried a few things to resolve this, all without effect:

I know that VMware Fusion has to prepare a boot camp partition in order to virtualize it, so I figured it might inadvertently fix things. Alas, while it *did* successfully boot my boot camp partition into a virtual machine, I still can't boot into Windows.
I figured I'd just try to reinstall Windows. Surprisingly, my system booted to my Windows install disc, which was in my original optical drive (which I had put in a USB case). But, Windows refused to install, giving me a an error 0x8030024. It seems the solution to this issue is to disconnect all drives but the one on which you want to install Windows, which is something I would dearly like to avoid. It would be a pain, but more than that, I'm afraid it would bork my fusion drive, even if I'm careful to never boot to OS X with the SSD disconnected.
A lot of places said that this error results from a borked MBR, and suggest using a tool like gptfdisk to rewrite it. I followed the instructions [here](https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4144252?start=0&tstart=0), but *that* didn't work either.

I am now completely at a loss as to how to proceed, and Google isn't much help either.

In conclusion, here is some information that you may find helpful:

$ diskutil list /dev/disk0 #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *240.1 GB disk0 1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1 2: Apple_CoreStorage 239.7 GB disk0s2 3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 134.2 MB disk0s3 /dev/disk1 #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *750.2 GB disk1 1: EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1 2: Apple_CoreStorage 648.4 GB disk1s2 3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 650.0 MB disk1s3 4: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 100.9 GB disk1s4 /dev/disk2 #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: Apple_HFS Mayfly *884.0 GB disk2 $ diskutil cs list CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found) | +-- Logical Volume Group 63DC419F-1A09-4C5B-977A-F59F79502CA1 ========================================================= Name: FusionDrive Size: 888087773184 B (888.1 GB) Free Space: 0 B (0 B) | +-< Physical Volume B1B14251-2DB3-491C-9E7A-5C2FD11881BA | ---------------------------------------------------- | Index: 0 | Disk: disk0s2 | Status: Online | Size: 239713435648 B (239.7 GB) | +-< Physical Volume D0BA2837-514D-4620-8E1D-26D18137CA94 | ---------------------------------------------------- | Index: 1 | Disk: disk1s2 | Status: Online | Size: 648374337536 B (648.4 GB) | +-> Logical Volume Family 736A8900-FE9C-4342-A932-EDC35444774C ---------------------------------------------------------- Encryption Status: Unlocked Encryption Type: None Conversion Status: NoConversion Conversion Direction: -none- Has Encrypted Extents: No Fully Secure: No Passphrase Required: No | +-> Logical Volume B4997853-59F8-4480-BB48-3481B2F2A123 --------------------------------------------------- Disk: disk2 Status: Online Size (Total): 884000030720 B (884.0 GB) Size (Converted): -none- Revertible: No LV Name: Mayfly Volume Name: Mayfly Content Hint: Apple_HFS $ sudo gpt -r -vv show disk1 Password: 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 1266356128 2 GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC 1266765768 1269536 3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC 1268035304 280 1268035584 197111808 4 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7 1465147392 1743 1465149135 32 Sec GPT table 1465149167 1 Sec GPT header $ 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 0 0 2 - 1023 254 63 [ 1 - 1268035583] *2: 07 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [1268035584 - 197111808] 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

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), 2.6 Ghz, 8GB RAM, DIY Fusion Drive

Posted on Jan 4, 2013 8:04 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Jan 5, 2013 4:20 AM in response to Ryan Ballantyne

My setup is very similar to your's, Ryan, on a Mac Mini5,2 and the ordering is different and Winclone was not used.

1. New Mini with internal 500GB with Mountain Lion(ML), put into an external FW enclosure, so the Mini can/could be booted using an external drive for contigency.

2. Replaced internal stock HDD (500Gb/5400rpm) with SSD/HDD (256Gb SSD/1TB 5400rpm).

3. Installed W7 x64 on 64GB partition on HDD, which was a single-partition drive to begin with.

4. The remaining HDD partition and the entire SSD was put into a Fusion drive.

5. Using Command-R, new ML installed on Fusion HD.

Here is what I currently have...(Disk0 - SSD, Disk1- 1TB HDD, Disk2 - Fusion, Disk3 - External FW).

diskutil list

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *256.1 GB disk0

1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage 255.7 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 134.2 MB disk0s3

/dev/disk1

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk1

1: EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage 934.5 GB disk1s2

3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 650.0 MB disk1s3

4: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 64.9 GB disk1s4

/dev/disk2

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_HFS Fusion HD *1.2 TB disk2

/dev/disk3

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk3

1: EFI 209.7 MB disk3s1

2: Apple_HFS Rescue HD 371.8 GB disk3s2

3: Apple_HFS Leopard HD 31.9 GB disk3s3

4: Apple_HFS Snow Leopard HD 31.9 GB disk3s4

5: Apple_HFS Lion HD 31.3 GB disk3s5

6: Apple_Boot Lion Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk3s6

7: Apple_HFS Mountain Lion HD 31.3 GB disk3s7

8: Apple_Boot Mountain Lion Recove... 650.0 MB disk3s8

diskutil cs list

CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)

|

+-- Logical Volume Group A8C00490-0E14-401F-AB69-59F37724E8C4

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

Name: Fusion

Size: 1190201270272 B (1.2 TB)

Free Space: 0 B (0 B)

|

+-< Physical Volume 4772013B-5520-4801-9BE5-BCAEF4AEDAB3

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

| Index: 0

| Disk: disk0s2

| Status: Online

| Size: 255716540416 B (255.7 GB)

|

+-< Physical Volume A679A101-3C78-4A59-B5EE-A4339210CFAD

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

| Index: 1

| Disk: disk1s2

| Status: Online

| Size: 934484729856 B (934.5 GB)

|

+-> Logical Volume Family 5EF5C7CA-0B9C-4169-82A1-41C84F206672

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

Encryption Status: Unlocked

Encryption Type: None

Conversion Status: NoConversion

Conversion Direction: -none-

Has Encrypted Extents: No

Fully Secure: No

Passphrase Required: No

|

+-> Logical Volume 1512657C-ED13-4B31-82C6-7AECBBCA7F98

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

Disk: disk2

Status: Online

Size (Total): 1185508581376 B (1.2 TB)

Size (Converted): -none-

Revertible: No

LV Name: Fusion HD

Volume Name: Fusion HD

Content Hint: Apple_HFS

sudo gpt -r -vv show disk1

gpt show: disk1: mediasize=1000204886016; sectorsize=512; blocks=1953525168

gpt show: disk1: Suspicious MBR at sector 0

gpt show: disk1: Pri GPT at sector 1

gpt show: disk1: 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 1825165488 2 GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

1825575128 1269544 3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

1826844672 126679040 4 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

1953523712 1423

1953525135 32 Sec GPT table

1953525167 1 Sec GPT header

Reply

Answer 2

Jan 6, 2013 12:34 AM in response to Loner T

The issue, it seems, was that the hard drive was in the optical bay. I found claims that Windows was designed not to boot from external drives, and that if you put an HDD in an optical bay and try to boot Windows from it, it will fail.

I have no idea if this is an accurate statement, but what I do know is this: when I switched my HDD back to its original position and put the SSD in the optical drive bay, Windows started booting again as though nothing had happened. The fusion drive still worked, too.

Anyway, that Mini never had an optical drive, right? I suppose you wouldn't run into the issue, then.

Reply

Answer 3

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Jan 6, 2013 2:22 AM in response to Ryan Ballantyne

Ryan Ballantyne wrote:

The issue, it seems, was that the hard drive was in the optical bay. I found claims that Windows was designed not to boot from external drives, and that if you put an HDD in an optical bay and try to boot Windows from it, it will fail.

Hmmm... not sure if this makes any logical sense. More than likely, the OS path for windows to boot, similar to 'multi(0)disk(0)partition()' was pointing to the incorrect location.

I have no idea if this is an accurate statement, but what I do know is this: when I switched my HDD back to its original position and put the SSD in the optical drive bay, Windows started booting again as though nothing had happened. The fusion drive still worked, too.

The hardware path is the likely culprit. Glad to see it worked and you are up and running.🙂

Anyway, that Mini never had an optical drive, right? I suppose you wouldn't run into the issue, then.

I use an MBA superdrive as an external DVD, if needed, but very rarely.

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Answer 4

Jun 20, 2014 5:19 AM in response to Ryan Ballantyne

Hello Ryan,

Windows won´t boot from secondary drive. You will need to put your HDD where it originaly was and put the SSD on the optical bay. Don´t worry, it won´t mess with you Fusion Drive, and if you clonned your Windows image correctly, you will be good to go.

I just did yesterday with my Macbook 13" mid-2010. No big deal. Bootcamp is fully working and fusion drive is working nice. Let me know if it works for you. If not, I have another process that I used to install bootcamp (it was quite different from what you did).

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Answer 5

Jun 20, 2014 7:52 AM in response to PauloHGuedes

Hi Bro,

I need help ... i just new to Mac... brought a Macbook Air 11inc.. use bootcamp to Windows 7 home prem - 64... after partition and system restart and show : No bootable Device - insert boot disk and press any key ...

I try press any key but not function.. and also Mac OS is not working.. How can I resolve this issue?

TQ

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Answer 6

Jun 20, 2014 8:27 AM in response to Community User

Hey, what's your Macbook Air model (year)? Are you using DIY Fusion Drive like our friends above? Are you trying to install Windows from USB? Need more info to help.

Also, when your mac starts (when you hear the sound), hold the "option" key. It will then show you your bootable devices. Select Macintosh HD and you will probably be able to log again into your OS X.

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