ThBo
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Q: Windows doesn't start anymore after re-adding disk

Im running OSX 10.8.3 on a mid 2012 Macbook Pro.

 

I tried to install Windows 8 Pro with bootcamp and initially i ran into the problem that the Win Setup did not accept the bootcamp partition for installation because it is not on the first disk of the system. I have a SSD (disk0) with MacOSX and a HDD (disk1) with some data which i partioned with bootcamp to also hold the bootcamp partition.

After some research i figured i have to temporarily detach the SSD from the system to allow Windows to install in the bootcamp partition. I did this and it worked perfectly. After making sure that Windows is installed correctly and booting without a problem i reattached the SSD and that is where things went bad.

 

Now when i choose windows as startup device i get the "No bootable device --- insert boot disk and press any key" error.

 

There is another very long thread in this forum which solves a similar problem (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4144252?start=0&tstart=0).

But in that case the problem was that someone added another partition on the same disk which lead to 5 partitions on one disk. That is not my problem since i have only 2 (4 counting the hidden ones).

That is why i am hesitating to do the heavy MBR tweaking suggested in the other thread. I think it is probably not necessary and i would mess it up for sure...

 

Below the info diskutil gives me for reference

 

/dev/disk0

   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *128.0 GB   disk0

   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1

   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh SSD           127.0 GB   disk0s2

   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             700.0 MB   disk0s3

/dev/disk1

   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *750.2 GB   disk1

   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk1s1

   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            621.8 GB   disk1s2

   3:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                128.0 GB   disk1s3

Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Mar 26, 2013 6:37 AM

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Q: Windows doesn't start anymore after re-adding disk

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  • by Christopher Murphy,

    Christopher Murphy Christopher Murphy Mar 26, 2013 11:44 AM in response to ThBo
    Level 3 (555 points)
    Mar 26, 2013 11:44 AM in response to ThBo

    sudo dd if=/dev/disk0 count=1 2>/dev/null | hexdump -C

    sudo dd if=/dev/disk1 count=1 2>/dev/null | hexdump -C


    These are read only commands, they don't change anything. I'd like to see what's in the bootstrap code region of each disk's MBR. If both have code, it confuses the firmware's CSM-BIOS which expects only one disk to be bootable. Post the results for both commands to the forum, include the commands in the paste job, and change the font to andale mono 8pt.

  • by ThBo,

    ThBo ThBo Mar 26, 2013 11:51 AM in response to Christopher Murphy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 26, 2013 11:51 AM in response to Christopher Murphy

    Disk 0 (the ssd with MacOSX):

     

    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  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 fe  |em...c{.........|

    000001c0  ff ff ee fe ff ff 01 00  00 00 af c2 e7 0e 00 00  |................|

    000001d0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|

    *

    000001f0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa  |..............U.|

    00000200

     

     

    Disk 1 (the HD with data and Bootcamp/win):

     

    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  04 2c 00 00 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 20 74 63 48 80 fe  |......(@.. tcH..|

    000001e0  ff ff 07 fe ff ff 00 b8  6d 48 00 a8 e6 0e 00 00  |........mH......|

    000001f0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa  |..............U.|

    00000200

     

    Thank you very much!

  • by Christopher Murphy,

    Christopher Murphy Christopher Murphy Mar 26, 2013 12:13 PM in response to ThBo
    Level 3 (555 points)
    Mar 26, 2013 12:13 PM in response to ThBo

    They both contain boot code. Assuming you haven't rebooted since posting the above, the command to remove the boot code from disk0 is:

     

    sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk0 bs=440 count=1

     

    If you get a resource busy message, then it gets a little more complicated. It's really important to get bs=440 and count=1 in there before hitting return. It's actually not a bad idea to type those first, then backup to type the rest of the command just in case you accidentally hit return. If you were to accidentially hit return after disk0 or after bs=440, it'll instantly start zeroing the ssd, without question.

  • by ThBo,

    ThBo ThBo Mar 26, 2013 12:25 PM in response to Christopher Murphy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 26, 2013 12:25 PM in response to Christopher Murphy

    Unfortunately i got:

    dd: /dev/disk0: Resource busy

  • by Christopher Murphy,

    Christopher Murphy Christopher Murphy Mar 26, 2013 1:07 PM in response to ThBo
    Level 3 (555 points)
    Mar 26, 2013 1:07 PM in response to ThBo

    Ick. I'd try single user mode first, and see if that's more agreeable. It probably won't be, but it's easier than other options and worth a shot. The next option is to use Recovery Disk Assistant to make a recovery USB stick, boot off that, and then use its (hidden) Terminal, which is up in one of the drop down menus when you're at the main menu of choices that includes disk utility and time machine, etc.

     

    You could try Recovery HD itself, but if single user mode doesn't work, then this probably won't work either because Recovery HD is on the same physical disk. You'd need to be booted from a separate disk.

     

    Be warned. Every time you reboot, you must run diskutil list to make sure you're specifying the right physical drive. The disk0 disk1 designations can change on reboots, they're not tied to a particular physical drive connection. IF you boot from a USB stick changes are it will be disk0, and the ssd will be disk1 or disk2.

     

    Also, if you get the error even with a USB stick, it may be because the OS X volume on the SSD is automounted. You can check this with the df command and see if it's listed. If it is, you'll need to do something like

     

    diskutil unmount disk1s2

     

    Obviously make sure you get the device designation right. Now you should be able to run the zeroing command.

  • by Christopher Murphy,

    Christopher Murphy Christopher Murphy Mar 26, 2013 1:14 PM in response to ThBo
    Level 3 (555 points)
    Mar 26, 2013 1:14 PM in response to ThBo

    I might have another idea....

  • by Christopher Murphy,

    Christopher Murphy Christopher Murphy Mar 26, 2013 1:32 PM in response to ThBo
    Level 3 (555 points)
    Mar 26, 2013 1:32 PM in response to ThBo

    It's weird to me that fdisk can modify LBA 0 on a busy disk, but dd can't. But whatever, this works:

     

    sudo fdisk -u /dev/disk0

     

    Make certain, with diskutil list, that you're doing this on the correct drive. You will answer y to the question. This removes the code in the first 440 bytes, but leaves the partition entries in the MBR intact, which is what's needed.

  • by ThBo,

    ThBo ThBo Mar 26, 2013 2:07 PM in response to Christopher Murphy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 26, 2013 2:07 PM in response to Christopher Murphy

    I did the fdisk command. It wrote a new MBR. Unfortunately it did not solve the problem. I get the same error message as before.

     

    The mbr dump (with the command from the first post) now looks as below:

     

    00000000  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|

    *

    000001b0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 fe  |................|

    000001c0  ff ff ee fe ff ff 01 00  00 00 af c2 e7 0e 00 00  |................|

    000001d0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|

    *

    000001f0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa  |..............U.|

    00000200

  • by Christopher Murphy,Helpful

    Christopher Murphy Christopher Murphy Mar 26, 2013 2:44 PM in response to ThBo
    Level 3 (555 points)
    Mar 26, 2013 2:44 PM in response to ThBo

    Hmm. What do you get for:

     

    sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

    sudo fdisk /dev/disk1

  • by ThBo,

    ThBo ThBo Mar 26, 2013 2:47 PM in response to Christopher Murphy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 26, 2013 2:47 PM in response to Christopher Murphy
    Disk: /dev/disk0geometry: 15566/255/63 [250069680 sectors]

    Signature: 0xAA55

             Starting       Ending

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

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

    1: EE 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [         1 -  250069679] <Unknown ID>

    2: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused     

    3: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused     

    4: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused  

     

     

     

    Disk: /dev/disk1geometry: 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 - 1214477344] HFS+       

    *3: 07 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [1215150080 -  249997312] HPFS/QNX/AUX

    4: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused     

  • by Christopher Murphy,Helpful

    Christopher Murphy Christopher Murphy Mar 26, 2013 2:56 PM in response to ThBo
    Level 3 (555 points)
    Mar 26, 2013 2:56 PM in response to ThBo

    All of that looks normal. So I'd say zap the PRAM, get back to OS X, and in System Preferences Startup disk panel, click first on OS X, then click on Windows. It's voodoo but maybe that'll work. If not, the next step is booting off Windows install media again and either using Windows Startup Repair, or bootrec.exe directly.

  • by ThBo,

    ThBo ThBo Mar 26, 2013 3:22 PM in response to Christopher Murphy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 26, 2013 3:22 PM in response to Christopher Murphy

    I did the PRAM reset. In OSX Preferences actually only the OSX disk shows up. If i hold option while booting i can choose the Windows partition (which is how i did it so far and which leads to the error).

     

    I already did the Windows automatic repair. It "scans", starts to "repair" and ends up with a "repair failed".  I repeated that about 10 times since i read that it might be necessary to do multiple times.

     

    I also already did the bootrec thing:

     

    BOOTREC /FIXMBR - operation completed successfully

    BOOTREC /FIXBOOT - operation completed successfully

    BOOTREC /SCANOS - finds a windows installation

    BOOTREC /REBUILDBCD - It finds my installation, and when I try to add it to boot list it says element not found.

     

    I also tried:

    Bcdboot C:\windows  which produced "Failure when attempting to copy boot files."

     

    Before that i made sure that the bootcamp partition is active (which was suggested in what i found in my google research) with diskpart.

     

    Im thinking about cloning the bootcamp/windows drive, removing and readding the bootcamp partition with the bootcamp assistant and the restoring the drive from the clone. You think that might work? Im afraid the CCC clone will not contain the necessary windows bootrecord. But maybe i will be able to "repair" that installation with the "automatic repair" or "bootrec.exe" tools.

  • by Christopher Murphy,

    Christopher Murphy Christopher Murphy Mar 26, 2013 4:09 PM in response to ThBo
    Level 3 (555 points)
    Mar 26, 2013 4:09 PM in response to ThBo

    I wonder if this is D: instead of C: because it's the 2nd drive. Instead of typing bootrec each time, do it once by itself like the instructions say, then do an OS scan.

    Bootrec.exe

    /ScanOs

     

    That should scan all disks and let you know which one has Windows on it. Even if it doesn't return anything I'd give D: a shot to see what happens.

  • by ThBo,

    ThBo ThBo Mar 26, 2013 4:26 PM in response to Christopher Murphy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 26, 2013 4:26 PM in response to Christopher Murphy

    Bootrec /scanos returns:

     

    Search for windows installations was successful.

    Total number of windows-intallations: 1

    [1] c:\windows

     

    I tried bcdboot d:\windows without luck. I then tried bcdboot c:\windows /s c: (read that somewhere).

    It returned "copy successful". But unfortunately id did not solve anything....

     

    I would like to take the opportunity to mention that i very much appreciate your efforts. Thank you very much.

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