Lost Win7 in BootCamp, should I rearrange partitions before fixing MBR?

Question

First, thanks in advance for any help with my situation!Here&#x27;s output from the various programs:sudo gpt -r -vv show disk0gpt show: disk0: mediasize&#x3D;1000204886016; sectorsize&#x3D;512; blocks&#x3D;1953525168gpt show: disk0: PMBR at sector 0gpt show: disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1gpt show: disk0: Sec GPT at sector 1953525167       start        size  index  contents           0           1         PMBR           1           1         Pri GPT header           2          32         Pri GPT table          34           6                  40      409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B      409640   813922264      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC   814331904     1269544      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC   815601448   822423768      4  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC  1638025216      262144          1638287360   315236352      5  GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7  1953523712        1423          1953525135          32         Sec GPT table  1953525167           1         Sec GPT headersudo fdisk /dev/disk0Disk: /dev/disk0    geometry: 121601/255/63 [1953525168 sectors]Signature: 0xAA55         Starting       Ending#: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]------------------------------------------------------------------------1: EE 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [         1 - 1953525167] &lt;Unknown ID&gt;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     John-Shanleys-iMac:~ johnshanley$ gdiskGPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.10sudo gdisk -l /dev/disk0GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.10Warning: Devices opened with shared lock will not have theirpartition table automatically reloaded!Partition table scan:  MBR: protective  BSD: not present  APM: not present  GPT: presentFound valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.Disk /dev/disk0: 1953525168 sectors, 931.5 GiBLogical sector size: 512 bytesDisk identifier (GUID): 0000016F-74B8-0000-125B-0000993C0000Partition table holds up to 128 entriesFirst usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 1953525134Partitions will be aligned on 8-sector boundariesTotal free space is 263573 sectors (128.7 MiB)Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name   1              40          409639   200.0 MiB   EF00  EFI system partition   2          409640       814331903   388.1 GiB   AF00  Macintosh HD   3       814331904       815601447   619.9 MiB   AB00  Recovery HD   4       815601448      1638025215   392.2 GiB   AF00  MacHD2   5      1638287360      1953523711   150.3 GiB   0700  BOOTCAMPSo, here&#x27;s my primary question: I don&#x27;t use partition 4 - MacHD2, anymore and I&#x27;d like to reclaim it and give more to BootCamp. Should I redo the partitions to reclaim this space first and then create the hybrid MBR or is there a better procedure to follow?TIA!

JohnnyJFeenix · Answer

Here&#x27;s some info from another thread I posted to, if it helps:So, I too lost ability to use Bootcamp to start Windows 7 when I upgraded to Mavericks on my 27 iMac (EFI 1.10). I see that I have too many entries in my GPT and so a hybrid MBR needs to be recreated.  Before I do that, I&#x27;m wondering whether I should delete the second OSX partition that I never use. My NTFS partititon is intact, readable and has been backed up to a Winclone image.

Loner T · Answer

A hybrid MBR is fragile, as you have already confirmed with the Mavericks upgrade.You can remove Windows via Bootcamp assistant since you already have the Winclone image. It will delete the Bootcamp partition. Delete MacHD2 in Disk Utility. Create a new partition using the space you need and restore the Winclone image to this partition. There is a step-by-step guide on the Winclone website. The Winclone restore should create the appropriate Hybrid MBR.From Boot Camp 5.1: Frequently asked questionsHow can a Windows partition be resized after Windows is installed?You need to delete the Windows partition using the Boot Camp Assistant, and start over to change the size of the Windows partition. Back up your important Windows files first.

JohnnyJFeenix · Answer

Thanks for the help. I got things back up and running, eventually.Here&#x27;s my adventure, if it helps anybody else that is restoring from a Winclone image: I decided to recreate the hybrid MBR before doing all the partition rearranging and I&#x27;m glad that I did. Everything went fine with adding the partitions and setting the boot flags. I was able to get into Win7 right away. So I decided to install the 2 month&#x27;s worth of system updates and then do a complete backup, for safety sake.Booted back to OSX and tried to get BootCamp Assistant to delete the partition, but that option was not available. Eventually used Disk Utility to delete the unused HFS partition and BootCamp partition. Then used it to make a new resized FAT32 partition. Started up Winclone to do the restore. Their FAQ says that the FAT32 would be changed to NTFS as part of the restore, so I let it do it&#x27;s thing. Restore was successful. I checked the partition list before rebooting and it said that partition 4 was ID type: BF. This struck me as off, should have been 07. But I decided to give it a try. Long story short, Win7 wouldn&#x27;t boot. Started, but seemed to get stuck with some low res, green bars going back and forth endlessly. Tried with the install DVD and Repair option, but ended up at the same green bars. Booted back to OSX, fixed ID type from BF to 07 and restarted choosing Win7 DVD/Repair. This time it actually took a while saying it was fixing "disk problems." It rebooted and all was finally ALL good!Many, many thanks to you and Christopher Murphy for keeping up the 2 year effort to help us BootCampers up and running!

Loner T · Answer

Thank you for posting your adventures. Glad to see it work. One more piece of information to help others.