Can't install windows on bootcamp, with secondary HDD (optibay). A problem that many experiences but few knows the cause

Hi,

I've exactly the same problem, but I've found that it does not depend on the partitions.If I put any additional HDD without any partition, the windows cannot boot, only black screen and blinking cursor. It does not matter if the ssd/hdd in the original slot or in the optibay.

Please help!

Many Thanks

Zoltan

There are two separate issues.

1. Trying to install Windows after making hardware changes, for example, removing the Optibay and putting a HDD.

2. Trying to run Windows after it has been successfully installed using the original configuration, after hardware is modified. For example removing HDD to Optibay.

What year/model is your Mac?

OP can/could have create a Hybrid MBR to suit partitioning needs, as necessary.

Hi,

First of all many thanks for your answer!

My actual configuration:

MID 2012 Macbook Pro,

250 Gb OCZ vector in the original place ( Yosemite and Windows 7),

500 Gb Original macbook HDD in optibay.

I can install windows without any error, its working fine, Yosemite also working fine. Also they working fine in the original HDD bracket and also in optibay. The problem only came up if I attach 2 drives in the machine.

Windows 7 stops booting. I've tried to install win on the second hdd also, also with dvd drive inside. Nothing helped, still black screen if the Drive present in system.

BR

Zoltan

There is a known set of issues on the older Macs due to SATA speed for drives attached in the Optibay. You have a 2012 MBP. On the OSX side, can you see the drive in Optibay and read it without any errors? Can you Repair (via Disk Utility) the Optibay disk?

Please also see

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DDAMBS0GB/

http://blog.macsales.com/11895-2011-macbook-pro-sata-problems-resolved

Yes, I know these threads.

And yes I can check, repair, do everything without any problem. Only the speed is lower in optibay, because of the sata gen2.

If you have the OCZ SSD in place in main bay and Windows on the 500GB HDD in the Optibay, can you boot Windows in safe mode from the HDD?

Can you post the output of the following Terminal commands with both disks in place?

diskutil list

diskutil cs list

sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk1

sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

sudo fdisk /dev/disk1

Right now I've changed back the HDD in the optibay for my data drive. So I have OSX and Win7 on the SSD in the original bay.

Cannot boot into safe mode. I cannot get the boot menu.

Somi-MacBook-Pro:~ djsomi$ diskutil list

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *240.1 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_HFS Macbook SSD 209.2 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3

4: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 30.0 GB disk0s4

/dev/disk1

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: FDisk_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk1

1: Windows_NTFS 500HDD 500.1 GB disk1s1

Somi-MacBook-Pro:~ djsomi$ diskutil cs list

No CoreStorage logical volume groups found

Somi-MacBook-Pro:~ djsomi$ sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

gpt show: /dev/disk0: mediasize=240057409536; sectorsize=512; blocks=468862128

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 468862127

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 408589160 2 GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

408998800 1269536 3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

410268336 1360

410269696 58591232 4 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

468860928 1167

468862095 32 Sec GPT table

468862127 1 Sec GPT header

Somi-MacBook-Pro:~ djsomi$ sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk1

gpt show: /dev/disk1: mediasize=500107862016; sectorsize=512; blocks=976773168

gpt show: /dev/disk1: MBR at sector 0

start size index contents

0 1 MBR

1 1

2 976773166 1 MBR part 7

Somi-MacBook-Pro:~ djsomi$

Somi-MacBook-Pro:~ djsomi$ sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

Disk: /dev/disk0 geometry: 29185/255/63 [468862128 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 - 408589160] HFS+

3: AB 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 408998800 - 1269536] Darwin Boot

*4: 07 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 410269696 - 58591232] HPFS/QNX/AUX

Somi-MacBook-Pro:~ djsomi$ sudo fdisk /dev/disk1

Disk: /dev/disk1 geometry: 60801/255/63 [976773168 sectors]

Signature: 0xAA55

Starting Ending

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

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

1: 07 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 2 - 976773166] HPFS/QNX/AUX

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

Please run the following commands (these change the boot ability of the HDD - disk1). Please ignore the i386 MBR error message.

sudo fdisk -e /dev/disk1

p

setpid 1

07

flag 1

p

w

y

Reboot and test if Windows from the HDD can be booted.

Hi,

I've tried it, not helped. But with this commands we modified the second hdd boot parameters.

I've discovered that, If I attach a clean HDD in the optibay, without any partition, the issue is came up immediately.

Its the same, If I have a win7 only HDD in the original bay, and a clean hdd in optibay. So if 2 drive present in the system, the issue came up.

So it seems some HW realted issue for me.

THX!

SATA speed issues for disks in the Optibay on older Macs cause Windows to fail.

I've tried with sata gen.1 gen.2 and gen.3 drives also. 😟

As a test, can you install the Optical back in Optibay and try to boot Windows form the main SSD partition?

If I remove the HDD from the optical drive port everything is working fine.

Meanwhile I found that the HDD partition is getting damaged if I put high load on that drive, so finally I've removed the optibay, and restored the ODD.

The conclusion this model is not able to handle optibay fine, not suggest to buy for anybody. 😟

BR

Zoltan