Another bootcamp snafu after OSX update; please help.

Thanks for your response!

>>On a Fusion drive, Windows can be installed only on the HDD part using a non-EFI Bootcamp method.

Sorry, I am not sure the relevance of this, likely due to my ignorance. Windows is already installed and has been working fine for many months via bootcamp. I had to get it to the very front of the non-SSD part of the HD or it would not work stably. It merely happens that I had also installed Parallels and it was already accessing that installation of Windows and thus I am still able to use it that way.

>>>>>>diskutil cs list

CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)

|

+-- Logical Volume Group 21379E82-9F5F-46E4-BC59-331C4DA9FE8D

=========================================================

Name: Macintosh HD

Status: Online

Size: 1121815764992 B (1.1 TB)

Free Space: 126976 B (127.0 KB)

|

+-< Physical Volume 5CF2686D-5D4B-4D39-8220-7130AEF7A45E

| ----------------------------------------------------

| Index: 0

| Disk: disk0s2

| Status: Online

| Size: 120988852224 B (121.0 GB)

|

+-< Physical Volume E8D6F2EC-7F40-4806-9AFC-0E5D7F7757E3

| ----------------------------------------------------

| Index: 1

| Disk: disk1s2

| Status: Online

| Size: 199390371840 B (199.4 GB)

|

+-< Physical Volume A88492D5-E59C-488B-946A-3BE3EE0A2180

| ----------------------------------------------------

| Index: 2

| Disk: disk1s6

| Status: Online

| Size: 801436540928 B (801.4 GB)

|

+-> Logical Volume Family C4A6357A-9745-4339-8A04-3C1594B72FDF

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

Encryption Status: Unlocked

Encryption Type: None

Conversion Status: NoConversion

Conversion Direction: -none-

Has Encrypted Extents: No

Fully Secure: No

Passphrase Required: No

|

+-> Logical Volume F782AFC6-0C98-43B2-B384-C1606DDEC7C3

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

Disk: disk2

Status: Online

Size (Total): 1106999902208 B (1.1 TB)

Conversion Progress: -none-

Revertible: No

LV Name: Macintosh HD

Volume Name: Macintosh HD

Content Hint: Apple_HFS

>>>>>>sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk1 (This is where your Bootcamp installation is)

gpt show: /dev/disk1: mediasize=3000592982016; sectorsize=512; blocks=5860533168

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

gpt show: /dev/disk1: Pri GPT at sector 1

gpt show: /dev/disk1: Sec GPT at sector 5860533167

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 389434320 2 GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

389843960 1269760 3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

391113720 1032

391114752 1955307520 4 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

2346422272 1948538880 5 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

4294961152 4088

4294965240 1565305744 6 GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

5860270984 262144 7 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

5860533128 7

5860533135 32 Sec GPT table

5860533167 1 Sec GPT header

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

gpt show: /dev/disk1: mediasize=3000592982016; sectorsize=512; blocks=5860533168

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

gpt show: /dev/disk1: Pri GPT at sector 1

gpt show: /dev/disk1: Sec GPT at sector 5860533167

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 389434320 2 GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

389843960 1269760 3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

391113720 1032

391114752 1955307520 4 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

2346422272 1948538880 5 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

4294961152 4088

4294965240 1565305744 6 GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

5860270984 262144 7 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

5860533128 7

5860533135 32 Sec GPT table

5860533167 1 Sec GPT header

>>>>>>>>sudo fdisk /dev/disk1

Disk: /dev/disk1 geometry: 97451/255/63 [1565565872 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: AC 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 409640 - 389434320] <Unknown ID>

3: AB 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 389843960 - 1269760] Darwin Boot

4: 0C 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 391114752 - 1955307520] Win95 FAT32L

>>>>>>>Apart from TM (/dev/disk9) and a 4GB (/dev/disk3) Flash drive(?), what are these other drives (/dev/disk4 - /dev/disk9)?

They are flash drives, See below, with them unplugged:

diskutil list

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *121.3 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage 121.0 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 134.2 MB disk0s3

/dev/disk1

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *3.0 TB disk1

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage 199.4 GB disk1s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.1 MB disk1s3

4: Microsoft Basic Data WInOS 1.0 TB disk1s4

5: Microsoft Basic Data WinStor 997.7 GB disk1s5

6: Apple_CoreStorage 801.4 GB disk1s6

7: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 134.2 MB disk1s7

/dev/disk2

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD *1.1 TB disk2

Logical Volume on disk0s2, disk1s2, ...

F782AFC6-0C98-43B2-B384-C1606DDEC7C3

Unencrypted Fusion Drive

/dev/disk7

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *282.3 MB disk7

1: Apple_HFS Parallels Access 282.2 MB disk7s1

>>>>>>>If you have created an additional partition on WinSTOR after Bootcamp was installed, that can be problematic as well.

No. The two Windows partitions were created at the same time from within OSX at the time that Win81 was installed as part of trying to get Win81 to run stably from bootcamp. Essentially, I made a huge mistake buying the machine with the fusion drive instead of just stuffing in a big SSD, but Apple didn;t offer an especially large SSD when I placed the order, and the fine folks at the Apple Store insisted the Fusion drive would work just fine for what I wanted - essentially the ability to run Windows on an iMac with the very occasional ability to login to OSX via Bootcamp for testing. They proved to be wrong, but Apple refused to alter the setup of the machine because it was custom ordered, so I am stuck with the Fusion Drive until the machine is out of warranty. I would have preferred a single 2TB partition for Windows but that simply wouldn't ever run stably.

Thanks again!

B

Hi again Loner T, and thanks again...

1. Test 1- Bootcamp volume shows in Finder.

>>>Yes

2. Test 2 - Bootcamp volume shows Windows files.

>>>Yes

3. Test 3 - System Preferences -> Startup Disk has WinOS (Bootcamp) as bootable and can be selected.

>>>Yes

4. Test 4 - Select WinOS/Bootcamp and Restart. Does Windows come up?

>>>Yes...and no. I get exactly the same error / loop as mentioned in my first e-mail. But there is more, see below, please.

The error code that you have is related to Windows BCD (Boot Configuration Data) being corrupted. If Windows does not come up, see if the Repair attempt gets you any further than the previous attempts.

>>>After getting the error/loop again I hard booted, went into the OS-choosing dialogue, and somewhat surprisingly there are now three HDD icons instead of two. One is OSX, and the other two are Windows. Choosing one of the Windows options puts me into that same loop again. Choosing the other gets me a DOS text-type message that Windows failed to start, the further gist of which is error 0xc000000r and it mentions files in \Boot\BCD and that Boot Config Data is missing. This wasn't there before I did the "repointing" you showed me how to do.

I tried using the Win81 Startup Repair via USB and it doesn't work at all. It effectively hangs on the second screen (the one after one chooses keyboard language) - one can choose neither repair tools nor to turn off the PC and the attempt eventually nets an error code 80004001, after which the machine reboots itself.

I then booted back into OSX and ran the same commands as before to show the state of the discs:

diskutil cs list

sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk1

sudo fdisk /dev/disk1

diskutil list

The first two seem to show exactly the same results as in my most recent previous response to you.

The third one shows this, with the obvious difference on the last line:

sudo fdisk /dev/disk1

Disk: /dev/disk1 geometry: 97451/255/63 [1565565872 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: AC 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 409640 - 389434320] <Unknown ID>

3: AB 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 389843960 - 1269760] Darwin Boot

*4: 07 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 391114752 - 1955307520] HPFS/QNX/AUX

The fourth one is the same as before except the reference to /dev/disk7 now reads /dev/disk4 as below:

diskutil list

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *121.3 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage 121.0 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 134.2 MB disk0s3

/dev/disk1

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *3.0 TB disk1

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage 199.4 GB disk1s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.1 MB disk1s3

4: Microsoft Basic Data WinOS 1.0 TB disk1s4

5: Microsoft Basic Data WinStor 997.7 GB disk1s5

6: Apple_CoreStorage 801.4 GB disk1s6

7: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 134.2 MB disk1s7

/dev/disk2

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD *1.1 TB disk2

Logical Volume on disk0s2, disk1s2, ...

F782AFC6-0C98-43B2-B384-C1606DDEC7C3

Unencrypted Fusion Drive

/dev/disk4

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *282.3 MB disk4

1: Apple_HFS Parallels Access 282.2 MB disk4s1

My Windows8.1 installation still seems to be intact and I can run it via parallels, but to my untrained eye the mystery seems to have thickened somewhat!

I look forward to your next suggestion and, as always, appreciate your time and help very much.

B

Thanks LonerT, bit at this point I feel totally lost.

You may also want to look at http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ht/rebuild-bcd-store-windows.htm

>>>As I have noted repeatedly, I cannot access Win81. That is the whole problem. The BCD rebuild instructions seem predicated on being able to get into Win81 at least via command line. I have no idea how to do that when any attempt to access the OS or even iits repair system just results in an error. Are you suggesting I do this from Parallels?

B

LonerT,

Please ignore my previous response. I did manage to get win81 startup repair to boot by trying a THIRD USB Flash drive. Perhaps the other two were too large? I also learned - by accident - how to make Advanced Startup selectable where previously it had hung the machine. it seems my iMac recognised the wireless keyboard immediately, but it only recognised the trackpad and mouse if I turned them off and back on after the startup repair drive had booted. Regardless, the instructions you suggested seem to have worked. Thank you! I am now booted into Win81 natively on the machine. I will need to leave it running a few days to see if it is stable,but all the work done on it via parallels seems to be intact.

OF the two apparent Windows HDDs which you explained are an artefact of the Hybrid-MBR, I now know that one will still boot me into the error loop, while the other actually puts me into Windows! Hopefully the Startup Disc icon in OSX settings will know which to aim at, but I shall wait to find out.

I am most grateful for your expertise and patience. How do I give you "points"?!

B

>>OSX will pick the bootable partition in Startup Disk. Your Volume names are also different, so that should also be a helpful hint.<<

Funny story....no, if I try to boot into Windows with an OSX restart via Bootcamp it goes into the error loop. It seems I can only get to the working Bootcamp installation by using the alt-command on a manual reboot. If you have any more tricks up your sleve to help with this, I will be grateful again! I am also now trying to figure out why the WinStor partition is no longer visible / recognized from within Win81 but still is from OSX.

B

LonerT,

i will explain in detail tomorrow how I have likely screwed the whole thing up in the hunt to make WinStor visible again. Suffice to say I now have TWO core storage volume groups, and WinStor is no longer visible from anywhere except Disk Utility and Terminal...and it claims to be 100% full. But I am too sleepy to pursue further tonight. I am at least learning a great deal!

IN answer to the other main questions:

Yes, restart to Bootcamp (win81) from within OSX sends me into exactly the same error loop as before.

Yes, WinStor was always visible and accessible from Bootcamp previously. It appeared as my "D" drive and was formatted as NTFS. It was showing as unallocated space throughout today as I was using win81 via Bootcamp. I could not reallocate/format it, which I was happy to do after copying everything over from it to a reserve drive from within OSX this afternoon, Due to my experimenting tonight WinStor is apparently now formatted in the OSX file system and is inaccessible; I delete it in disk utility in order to recreate it, which seemed logical at the time.

No, I was never able to read or even see the OSX partitions from Windows.

A things stand, I can still boot into OSX and into Win81, but I am effectively missing a Terrabyte of the HDD portion of the Fusion drive which used to be (and in a sense still is) WinStor.

Thanks as always!

B

Below is what the diskutil cs list looks like now, and the difference will be obvious. I have no idea how to get the Winstor volume back where it was, but am hoping there is a way both to return it and format it as ntfs and get Win81 to see it again. It is empty of actual data - I copied everything out of it knowing I might lose everything.

CoreStorage logical volume groups (2 found)

|

+-- Logical Volume Group 21379E82-9F5F-46E4-BC59-331C4DA9FE8D

| =========================================================

| Name: Macintosh HD

| Status: Online

| Size: 1121815764992 B (1.1 TB)

| Free Space: 126976 B (127.0 KB)

| |

| +-< Physical Volume 5CF2686D-5D4B-4D39-8220-7130AEF7A45E

| | ----------------------------------------------------

| | Index: 0

| | Disk: disk0s2

| | Status: Online

| | Size: 120988852224 B (121.0 GB)

| |

| +-< Physical Volume E8D6F2EC-7F40-4806-9AFC-0E5D7F7757E3

| | ----------------------------------------------------

| | Index: 1

| | Disk: disk1s2

| | Status: Online

| | Size: 199390371840 B (199.4 GB)

| |

| +-< Physical Volume A88492D5-E59C-488B-946A-3BE3EE0A2180

| | ----------------------------------------------------

| | Index: 2

| | Disk: disk1s7

| | Status: Online

| | Size: 801436540928 B (801.4 GB)

| |

| +-> Logical Volume Family C4A6357A-9745-4339-8A04-3C1594B72FDF

| ----------------------------------------------------------

| Encryption Status: Unlocked

| Encryption Type: None

| Conversion Status: NoConversion

| Conversion Direction: -none-

| Has Encrypted Extents: No

| Fully Secure: No

| Passphrase Required: No

| |

| +-> Logical Volume F782AFC6-0C98-43B2-B384-C1606DDEC7C3

| ---------------------------------------------------

| Disk: disk2

| Status: Online

| Size (Total): 1106999902208 B (1.1 TB)

| Conversion Progress: -none-

| Revertible: No

| LV Name: Macintosh HD

| Volume Name: Macintosh HD

| Content Hint: Apple_HFS

|

+-- Logical Volume Group F2365295-E8FD-43AB-83EB-578769A4DDD0

=========================================================

Name: WinStor

Status: Online

Size: 997519781888 B (997.5 GB)

Free Space: 997167456256 B (997.2 GB)

|

+-< Physical Volume D9B7C5BA-960B-4F71-8B45-B77A3E164E60

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

Index: 0

Disk: disk1s5

Status: Online

Size: 997519781888 B (997.5 GB)

If necessary, I am reasonably prepared to nuke the entire drive and begin all over again, though it wouldn;t be my preference. I am in theory well backed up on both the OSX and Windows sides. I use Acronis on both sides (2015 now does OSX) and also TM on the Mac side, though TM only does OSX partitions. Given time - which I have as this is far from my only computer - I can dig out the instructions I used to get everything working right on the Fusion Drive in the first place (it wasn't simple). I must confess, however, I have no clue how to return the machine to its original state, and it is new enough that it has no internal optical drive and I have no DVD with Mavericks on it. I am also somewhat leery of the Win81 backup because, though I know the files are all there, I am now questioning whether the fusion drive will allow a proper restore. But I can always just re-install everything. The data is backed up in multiple locations.

I'll try and deal with the fact I cannot restart directly into the "correct" Windows from OSX after this is sorted. Of course, if I end up having to nuke it and rebuild, that will not be an issue.

Thank you once again!

B

I'd rather not start afresh - at least not now - if you can explain how to get WinStor back where it ought to be and perhaps how to make it accessible. I have a funny feeling I may need to start afresh when Yosemite is released, judging by some of the things I have read. For now, I'd much rather have the machine working optimally!

Thanks.

B