Boot Camp formatting partition problem

I am encountering a similar problem.

Brief background:

About a month ago I had successfully created a Windows partition using Boot Camp, downloaded an ISO image file of Windows 7 Home Premium (the link for the ISO file provided to me by Microsoft). I never encountered the partition format issue during that installation but the installed software wouldn't accept the product key from my purchased Windows 7 Home Premium software (Microsoft told me to enter the product key from my purchased software to activate the downloaded ISO version). Windows was working but I kept getting prompted to activate and that my OS was not genuine. I would prefer to install from my discs to eliminate the annoying activation alerts. I tried to use my discs initially but I think the external BD drive I was trying to use wasn't able to be recognized by the BootCamp partition. I have borrowed an Apple USB external Super Drive to try this again.

Now, trying to go through this process again, I am having a very similar issue trying to install Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit on my new MBP 13" Retina (Early 2014/A1502) using my genuine Windows 7 installation disc. I create the partition using BootCamp, the process also downloads the support software to a USB flash drive, the installation starts reading from the install disc, and when I get to the point to select which partition to install Windows on I get the message that Windows cannot be installed on the Bootcamp partition because it needs to be of NTFS format. Clicking the format button does nothing and am unable to continue the installation. The wording of the alert message would seem to indicate that the partition is not partitioned in NTFS but I thought Boot Camp automatically creates the partition formatted as NTFS?

Side note: Louisabee, based on other posts I've read about partition size for a BootCamp partition for Windows, you may want to increase the size of your partition to be greater than 32GB. I think I've read that Windows 8.1 would take up most of that just for the OS. I was setting my partition size to 60GB to allow for the OS and any other programs or files you may need on the Windows side.

Any thoughts or assistance from anyone on this formatting issue is appreciated. Thank you.

Same exact problem here. Just picked up a new version of Windows 8.1 Standard Edition and went through the Boot Camp assistant. The system rebooted into windows setup. However when I select the boot camp partition I get the message "Windows cannot be installed on drive 0 partition 4". When I select show more details it says "windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style. Windows cannot be installed to this hard disk space. Windows must be installed to a partition formatted as NTFS."

Help? Seriously?

Have either of you had any success with this problem. I'm going to call Apple and I'll post here if I find a resolution.

For all of you, from the OS X terminal, please provide the output of the following commands. If you have a Fusion Drive (or more than one disk), please mention it as well. It may be helpful to have separate thread for each OP. (The following command do not make any changes to your system. The 'dd' command should be typed exactly to avoid any issues).

1. diskutil list

2. sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/<BootcampDisk> (where <BootcampDisk> should be replaced with disk0, disk1, disk2, based on the output from 1.)

3. sudo fdisk dev/<BootcampDisk> (where <BootcampDisk> should be replaced with disk0, disk1, disk2, based on the output from 1.)

4. If the disk has been formatted to NTFS already then the following command in addition to the first three

sudo dd=if /dev/r[<BootcampDisk>] count=1 2>/dev/null | hexdump -C

This disk here is named disk0s4, disk0s3, etc. Please notice the "r" in front of the disk which is using the raw disk and the slice on which bootcamp is installed.

sudo dd=if /dev/r[<BootcampDisk>] count=1 2>/dev/null | hexdump -C

http://www.123myit.com/2014/03/install-windows-8-1-mac-running-os-x-mavericks/

install windows 8.1 mac running osx mavericks

____

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6522350

I am using Boot Camp v.5.1.0 (473) to install Windows 8.1 Pro and I have been having the same problem.

I am using a MacBook Pro 13” Mid 2012, 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 4GB 1600 MHz DDR3 running OS X Mavericks 10.9.

I had 334 GB free out 500GB and have partitioned 56GB of this for Windows installation.

I am installing from a USB and I have the downloaded support software on the same USB.

I reached at the Windows Setup stage 1: Collecting information. I click on 'Drive 0 Partition 4: Bootcamp' and click Format, then OK.

When this is complete it changes the partition name to 'Drive 0 Partition 4' and still has the warning 'Windows can't be installed on Drive 0 Partition 4. (show details)'.

When I click on the warning it says 'Windows cannot be installed to this disc. The selected disc is of the GPT partition style.'

Following are commands and respective output.

$ diskutil list

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 443.2 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3

4: Microsoft Basic Data 56.0 GB disk0s4

/dev/disk2

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: CD_partition_scheme *259.1 MB disk2

1: Apple_partition_scheme 225.6 MB disk2s0

2: Apple_partition_map 17.9 KB disk2s0s1

3: Apple_HFS Idea Net Setter 17.2 MB disk2s0s2

$ sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk1

gpt show: unable to open device '/dev/disk1': No such file or directory

$ sudo fdisk dev/disk1

fdisk: dev/disk1: No such file or directory

I’m not able to understand follwoing 4th command. If it is necessary, please give me exact command based on above output and i will reply the output back.

If the disk has been formatted to NTFS already then the following command in addition to the first three

sudo dd=if /dev/r[<BootcampDisk>] count=1 2>/dev/null | hexdump -C

Please let me know if any one had any success with this problem.

Thanks

Please start a new thread and post a reference to the new thread as a reply on this thread.

The command for gpt/fdisk in your case is

sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

On a 2012 MBP, you should not manually partition the disk via Disk Utility, it should be partitioned by Bootcamp Assistant. Your MBP will not support W8.1 EFI Boot properly.

Hi Loner T,

Based on you request, I have created new thread:

Partition problem while installing Win8.1 on MacBookPro running OSX 10.9

Thanks

Hey Loner T.

I have the Mac Book Air (Early 2014) and I am trying to install windows 8.1 and I am also having the 'Windows cannot be installed to this disc. The selected disc is of the GPT partition style problem.

In terminal I type

sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

and when installing windows again it still gave me the GBT partition style problem.

Following are commands and respective output.

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *251.0 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage 209.4 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3

4: Microsoft Basic Data 40.8 GB disk0s4

/dev/disk1

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD *209.0 GB disk1

Logical Volume on disk0s2

5F2F3075-2BE9-4B92-BB86-29BC3A3B18DE

Unlocked Encrypted

/dev/disk2

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: FDisk_partition_scheme *8.1 GB disk2

1: Windows_NTFS IRM_CCSA_X64FRE_EN-U... 8.1 GB disk2s1

/dev/disk3

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: FDisk_partition_scheme *4.0 GB disk3

1: DOS_FAT_32 USB BOOTCAM 4.0 GB disk3s1

Please post the output of sudo fdisk /dev/disk0. This will show whether there is a valid MBR for Windows to work with.

Here is the output of sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

Starting Ending

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

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

1: EE 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 1 - 490234751] <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

Thank you very much for taking the time and helping me with this issue.

If replying to this forum is difficult please feel free to email me the response at youneedtopark@gmail.com.

Please download GPT Fdisk from SourceForge. It can be used to create a proper MBR that BC is failing to do.

Please post the output of sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0.

Here is the output of sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

gpt show: /dev/disk0: mediasize=251000193024; sectorsize=512; blocks=490234752

gpt show: /dev/disk0: PMBR at sector 0

gpt show: /dev/disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1

gpt show: /dev/disk0: Sec GPT at sector 490234751

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 408908560 2 GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

409318200 1269536 3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

410587736 1448

410589184 79644672 4 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

490233856 863

490234719 32 Sec GPT table

490234751 1 Sec GPT header

So I just download GPT fdisk from http://sourceforge.net/projects/gptfdisk/?source=directory is that all?

Thanks again.

You can create the hybrid MBR using the following steps.

sudo gdisk /dev/disk0

'r'

'h'

2 3 4

Use defaults as suggested, except make partition 4 bootable.

p

w

y

sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

Please capture the terminal input/out and post it on this thread.

After typing sudo gdisk /dev/disk0 inside terminal the following message showed.

sudo: gdisk: command not found

But after I am still confused with the directions. Not really sure what to do afterwards. Thanks

Did Gdisk install successfully? What do you get in response for the two commands. I have included my machine's responses.

type gdisk

gdisk is /usr/sbin/gdisk

ls -1 /usr/sbin/gdisk

/usr/sbin/gdisk