After updating to Maverick, Windows 7 bootcamp partition can't mount

My situation was identical to the that of the following post:

Re: Can't access Bootcamp after partition

So I followed Chris' posted instructions and ended up with the required "*4: 07" (see below, computer name removed). I've rebooted but the partition is still appearing as "disk0s4" in its greyed out state in disk utility. Still not getting the option to boot into Windows 7 when I use the alt/option key.

Blair

Current view of the bootcamp partition in Disk Utility:

FYI, if it helps, this happened after installing Maverick to update my OS 10.6.8. I believe 750 GB is the correct size of the Windows 7 Bootcamp partition. I mention that because a lot of people with a similar issue seem to report the partition size being incorrect after the OS update. Hoping that's a good sign.

Posted on Aug 1, 2014 9:17 AM

72 replies

Aug 3, 2014 2:07 PM in response to Loner T

Tried again with no extra characters, same result. I'm running gdisk 0.8.10. I ran it with: "sudo gdisk /dev/disk0" Does the "sudo" permissions effect last the whole session?

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 3, 2014 2:57 PM in response to blairoverthere

If sudo is used and you are prompted for a password, your previous sudo session has expired. If you enter sudo and do not get prompted, then you are being authenticated using cache. In either case, as long as you have your session up, you should be fine.

Aug 3, 2014 3:03 PM in response to Loner T

So any suggestions for what I should do now?

Aug 3, 2014 3:27 PM in response to Loner T

Maybe its because the starting value for that NTFS partition is also the starting value for the Recovery HD partition? i.e., Number 3 = 203046360.

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 3, 2014 3:27 PM in response to blairoverthere

Sudo sessions are just higher elevated privileges. As long as you have your session up (within gdisk) you should be fine.

Type Control+C.

Type sudo gdisk /dev/disk0.

If you type 'p' you should see the current state of the disk.

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 3, 2014 3:36 PM in response to Loner T

Can you download 0.8.9? I recall Christopher mentioning a bug in 0.8.10.

Aug 3, 2014 3:51 PM in response to Loner T

See here is the output from the 'p' command. Notice the staring point for partition 3. Then compare that with the starting point of the NTFS partition below from the test disk output. They're the same. Did the Mavericks update somehow cause the starting point of my NTFS partition to be given to this "Recovery HD" partition? Because that NTFS partition beginning at 203046360 is the only one showing files that's also big enough to be the right one (750GB).

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 3, 2014 6:58 PM in response to blairoverthere

Mavericks update did not recognize the resized NTFS. It relocated Recovery HD to the same start location. You will need to delete GPT #3 (Recovery HD) entry as well. Recovery HD can always be recreated using Unix dd from another system which has the same OS version. Losing Recovery HD also means file vault will not work, and Command-R will start Internet Recovery rather than local recovery which has a follow-on implication that the Apple servers will provide the OS that originally came with the machine, rather than the latest OS.

My recommendation is to delete GPT #3, and start your NTFS at 203046360. Gdisk is unwilling to accept a start entry that overlaps an existing partition, and it is a safety check so partition dat scan not be corrupted unknowingly.

If that makes Bootcamp work and you can see all your files, you may have to get all your files to another external disk after the NTFS partition is resurrected. You can either use Winclone or a Windows image backup to get the data backed up.

You can also get all your OSX files out.

Then erase and re-install OSX, which will also create a new Recovery HD. Now you can put back Windows (via Winclone) or clean Bootcamp installation.

Since you came from SL (10.6.8) which has no notion of Recovery HD, Mavericks installer did what it thought was correct. My upgrade was from ML (10.8.5) to Mavericks (10.9) so the existing Recovery HD was honored and left alone.

Posters who upgrade from SL to Mavericks directly with Bootcamp should be careful to avoid such issues.

Aug 3, 2014 7:19 PM in response to Loner T

OK, here we go then...

Aug 3, 2014 7:36 PM in response to Loner T

Well, nothing blew up or exploded, so that's good! :-)

So what now? I recall you saying earlier to run a dd command on it. I tried that but simply got this output--nothing like before:

sudo dd if=/dev/disk0s3 count=1 2>/dev/null | hexdump -C

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

00000200

Note I used "disk0s3" because that's what Disk Utility is calling it now rather than "disk0s4" presumably because I deleted 2 partitions and added 1. Next best step?

oh, and got this from fdisk:

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 3, 2014 7:41 PM in response to blairoverthere

1. Do you see a Bootcamp volume in Finder? If yes, can you see contents.

2. Can you post the output of diskutil list, sudo fdisk /dev/disk0 and either sudo gdisk /dev/disk0 -> p or sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0?

3. If you power cycle, can you get to OSX and it boots correctly?

4. If you power cycle, can you see Windows/Bootcamp as an option? If you select it, does it give you any errors 'missing operating system' or something else?

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 3, 2014 7:49 PM in response to blairoverthere

sudo fdisk -e /dev/disk0

setpid edit 3

flag 3

Aug 3, 2014 7:54 PM in response to Loner T

when i run that:

sudo fdisk -e /dev/disk0

Password:

fdisk: could not open MBR file /usr/standalone/i386/boot0: No such file or directory

Mac OS booting and running fine. Disk Utility is same as it used to be but lists the second partition as disk0s3 now.

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 3, 2014 8:03 PM in response to blairoverthere

You can safely ignore the i386 error message. If the MBR has bootcamp, it should show up in Startup disk. Is the size of the NTFS partition 896.24 GB? I recall a 750GB number.

Another test is running Testdisk and checking if you see more files.

Aug 4, 2014 4:52 AM in response to Loner T

Unfortunately I have to go out of town now but will resume this as soon as I'm back. Thanks for all your help on this so far!!

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After updating to Maverick, Windows 7 bootcamp partition can't mount