Badly boot camped disaster

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Doc Twister Author

Level 1

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Badly boot camped disaster

I have to reset someones iMac but I have been bumping into some problems.

It was badly Boot Camped by a friends son back in 2011.

So badly that he didn't even install the support software.

Running Windows 7 32 Bit Ultimate which is functional but the issue is that the Mac partition has kind of vanished.

Alt at start up brings up EFI, Windows and Recovery options but when I try to use disk utility to try some repairs/wipes the Mac partition is showing but grayed out.

Verify says the partition needs to be repaired but the repair always fails and attempts to erase the HDD fail due to it being unable to unmount the partitions.

Any clue as to why this happened and hopefully a suggestion about how on earth I can fix this mess?

iMac, Windows 7

Posted on Apr 2, 2014 5:09 PM

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Answer 1

turbostar

Level 4

2,941 points

Apr 2, 2014 7:54 PM in response to Doc Twister

since you don't know what else he did or likely didn't correctly do, i'd backup all the important files and re-install both OSX and Windows from scratch

this way you know you're starting off correctly

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Answer 2

Doc Twister Author

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Apr 3, 2014 1:40 AM in response to turbostar

The problem is that I can't get into the Mac partition to do these things so I am currently locked out of everything but Windows 7

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Answer 3

turbostar

Level 4

2,941 points

Apr 3, 2014 10:42 AM in response to Doc Twister

why can't you get into the mac? restart and hold down the option key, what happens

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Answer 4

Doc Twister Author

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Apr 3, 2014 10:53 AM in response to turbostar

I get three options, EFI, Windows and Recovery.

When I go the recovery route Disk Utility shows the Mac partition but it is greyed out.

Both Verify and Repair fail but when I try to erase the data and go full recovery it says that it cannot unmount the volume.

I suspect that it is the windows partition that is stopping me but since I cannot get into the mac partition I cannot remove Boot Camp I cannot proceed.

Since the windows partition works the hardware must be fine.

Any idea how I can resurrect the mac partition as I'm at a loss here.

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Answer 5

turbostar

Level 4

2,941 points

Apr 3, 2014 11:58 AM in response to Doc Twister

Access to another Mac? DL an OSX from the App Store and google how to make a clean USB installer. Plug USB into machine and reboot holding alt, you should be able to boot from the USB.

Use disk utility here to completely erase and reformat drive into one Mac journaled partition then install OSX here

Note this way, everything is deleted

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