euroBosch

Q: bootcamp resize with OS's tools?

On my 256Gb MBP Retina I have 2 partitions: a 60Gb MacOS and 190Gb Windows bootcamp partition and I would like to increase the size of the Mac partition using the tools that come with Mavericks and Windows 7 without risking to lose any data.


I wonder if this plan will work:

  1. boot in Windows
  2. use Windows 7's Disk Management to shrink the NTFS partition
  3. boot in MacOS
  4. use Disk Utility to extend HFS partition

 

Is there any other solution to extend the MacOS partition without losing my Windows data and without any 3rd party software? (I was thinking about Winclone 4.4 but it doesn't make sense to buy it just to use it once).

 

I have read lots of posts on this topic but none of them provided a clear solution so I am still looking for advice.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4)

Posted on Sep 13, 2014 3:36 AM

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Q: bootcamp resize with OS's tools?

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  • by Loner T,Helpful

    Loner T Loner T Sep 13, 2014 6:39 AM in response to euroBosch
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    Sep 13, 2014 6:39 AM in response to euroBosch

    Do not resize Bootcamp using either DU, or any other Windows utility or third-party tools. The default Bootcamp uses a MBR and GPT, both, which are not kept in synchrony. Winclone keeps them both in sync. If you have an EFI installation of Windows, then you only need Disk Utility, but most of standard Bootcamp installation do not use EFI. Only 2013 and later hardware support EFI cleanly.

     

    Boot Camp 5.1: Frequently asked questions

     

    How 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.

  • by euroBosch,

    euroBosch euroBosch Sep 13, 2014 7:38 AM in response to Loner T
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    Sep 13, 2014 7:38 AM in response to Loner T

    Hi Loner T and thanks for your help!

     

    I have 2 more questions:

     

    1. how do I know if I have an EFI installation of Windows?

    2. I now intend to purchase Winclone 4 to backup the Win partition and maybe try to shrink it with Winclone. Do you think it will work? Is this a better approach? Are there better alternatives to shrink the Win partition, maybe other 3rd party tools other than Winclone?

  • by Loner T,Solvedanswer

    Loner T Loner T Sep 13, 2014 7:57 AM in response to euroBosch
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    Sep 13, 2014 7:57 AM in response to euroBosch

    euroBosch wrote:

     

    1. how do I know if I have an EFI installation of Windows?

    Please post the output of

     

    1. diskutil list

    2. sudo fdisk /dev/<Botcampdisk> where <Bootcampdisk> is disk0, disk1, disk2 based on what you get from 1.

     

    2. I now intend to purchase Winclone 4 to backup the Win partition and maybe try to shrink it with Winclone. Do you think it will work? Is this a better approach? Are there better alternatives to shrink the Win partition, maybe other 3rd party tools other than Winclone?

    Many have had success with Winclone. The other aspect is that TwoCanoes will provide Tech Support once you purchase the product, to help, if you run into any issues.

  • by euroBosch,

    euroBosch euroBosch Sep 13, 2014 8:10 AM in response to Loner T
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    Sep 13, 2014 8:10 AM in response to Loner T

    1. output of diskutil list:

    /dev/disk0

       #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

       0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0

       1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1

       2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            60.1 GB    disk0s2

       3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

       4:       Microsoft Basic Data Windows                 190.0 GB   disk0s4

     

    2. output of sudo fdisk /dev/disk0:

    Disk: /dev/disk0 geometry: 30515/255/63 [490234752 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 -  117461776] HFS+       

    3: AB 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [ 117871416 -    1269536] Darwin Boot

    *4: 07 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [ 119142400 -  371091456] HPFS/QNX/AUX

     

    Any simpler method to perform the shrink of my dreams?

     

    Is it possible to have a 3rd partition for all my data, to share it between MacOS and Win? I tried a few options when I bought the laptop but it appeared not to be possible since it exceeded the maximum of 4 partitions so I gave up after a few hours.

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Sep 13, 2014 8:18 AM in response to euroBosch
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    Sep 13, 2014 8:18 AM in response to euroBosch

    1. Your are using a non-EFI installation.

    2. There is manual method of creating a Hybrid MBR using GPT Fdisk and more than 4 partitions can be supported. The configuration is very fragile and can break at any time. There is a good discussion on this thread - Boot Camp repair via Hybrid MBR fix after 5+ partitions. It is possible to use either an external disk, or a Virtualization solution (Vmware, Parallels, VirtualBox) to share partitions, without using Bootcamp.

  • by euroBosch,

    euroBosch euroBosch Sep 13, 2014 8:30 AM in response to Loner T
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    Sep 13, 2014 8:30 AM in response to Loner T

    The hybrid MBR seems risky so I'd rather abandon this thought.


    I am now ready to buy Winclone and hope for the best. Do I have better options? Better means less risk, less time spent, less hassle, higher chances to get back to my actual configuration but with other size of partitions.

     

    Sorry for being so demanding, I am pretty new to Macs and I just want to chose the best solution (I am not even aware of all the options).

  • by euroBosch,

    euroBosch euroBosch Sep 23, 2014 6:31 AM in response to Loner T
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    Sep 23, 2014 6:31 AM in response to Loner T

    I finally made it using Winclone (like you said) and followed the steps provided on TwoCanoes website, including deleting the bootcamp partition.

     

    After that, I ran into 2 more problems :


    1. "Startup utility" does not see the bootcamp partition anymore (although I can boot in Windows by keeping Option button pressed) and, the worst:

    2. I lost the backup. In a moment of stupidity I decided to copy all my Windows files to an NTFS external drive while under MacOS. A big part of the files got corrupted and I don't think there is a way to recover my data. Or is it?

     

    Thanks for your help and sorry for the late answer.

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Sep 23, 2014 7:48 AM in response to euroBosch
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    Sep 23, 2014 7:48 AM in response to euroBosch

    euroBosch wrote:

     

    1. "Startup utility" does not see the bootcamp partition anymore (although I can boot in Windows by keeping Option button pressed) and, the worst:

    Do you have any third-party NTFS software? The conflict between Apple NTFS driver and third-party software like Tuxera, Paragon, NTFS-3g can cause problems for Startup Disk.

     

    2. I lost the backup. In a moment of stupidity I decided to copy all my Windows files to an NTFS external drive while under MacOS. A big part of the files got corrupted and I don't think there is a way to recover my data. Or is it?

     

    Apple's NTFS driver is readonly. If anything tried to modify the NTFS filesystem when mounted in NTFS, you can possible have corruption. I have copied the Bootcamp volume using Disk Utility and created an image for safekeeping. Is your source corrupted or it is the destination?

  • by euroBosch,

    euroBosch euroBosch Sep 24, 2014 1:28 AM in response to Loner T
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    Sep 24, 2014 1:28 AM in response to Loner T

     

     

    1. "Startup utility" does not see the bootcamp partition anymore (although I can boot in Windows by keeping Option button pressed) and, the worst:

     

    Do you have any third-party NTFS software? The conflict between Apple NTFS driver and third-party software like Tuxera, Paragon, NTFS-3g can cause problems for Startup Disk.

    Yes, I use Paragon NTFS for Mac because I come from the Windows world and all my files were on the Win partition.

     

    2. I lost the backup. In a moment of stupidity I decided to copy all my Windows files to an NTFS external drive while under MacOS. A big part of the files got corrupted and I don't think there is a way to recover my data. Or is it?

     

    Apple's NTFS driver is readonly. If anything tried to modify the NTFS filesystem when mounted in NTFS, you can possible have corruption. I have copied the Bootcamp volume using Disk Utility and created an image for safekeeping. Is your source corrupted or it is the destination?

     

    Here is what happened:

    -on the Win partition I had a folder with 60Gb of data, the rest up to 200Gb were operating system files or empty space

    -I plugged in an external HDD formatted as NTFS and moved the entire 60Gb folder onto it using Pathfinder (while using Mavericks)

    -uninstalled some programs from Windows in order to minimise space taken on the Win partition

    -used Winclone to compact the data on the partition so it went to about 33Gb (without my data folder which was moved on the external drive)

    -used Winclone to create an image of the partition (strange, it only had 14Gb - I suppose it compressed all the files)

    -deleted Bootcamp partition and reorganised space on drive (extended Mac partition and shrank empty partition - were Windows was sitting)

    -used Winclone to restore the image in the empty space: Windows became functional again

    -copied my data folder from the external HDD back to the Win partition

    -realised that files in the data folder were corrupted (part of them, random)

    The answer to your question would be: the source is corrupted (the external drive). The data got there already corrupted while being moved.

     

    I didn't realise that the files might get corrupt when moving from NTFS to NTFS from MacOS, maybe I should have created an image for safekeeping (with the contents of my data folder as well) but I thought that the process will take much longer and I didn't trust 3rd party tools so I decided to move them myself, just to be sure.

     

    Any chance to recover data from corrupt files?

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Sep 24, 2014 5:02 AM in response to euroBosch
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    Sep 24, 2014 5:02 AM in response to euroBosch

    1. Please uninstall Paragon as a test, and check Startup Disk. I have asked many Paragon owners to let Paragon Tech Support know about the conflicts. Paragon and native NTFS drivers conflict with each other, despite claims to the contrary by Paragon.

     

    2. If you have a Disk Utility DMG file of the NTFS partition before the move, that is the best possible candidate. Moving files requires changes to directory headers and modification dates. I use Testdisk, but in this case, it can be tried, but is unlikely to produce any satisfactory results.