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Level 1

6 points

Booting into BIOS from bootcamp

After having created a bootcamp partition, I realized my original partition size was too small. To repartition I decided to start from scratch and remove the old partition and start a new partition, planning on using a system image to restore the backup of my old bootcamp. All went pretty smoothly until I was trying to use the restore and it told me:

"To restore this computer Windows needs to format the drive that the Windows Recovery environment is currently running on. To continue with the restore shut down this computer and boost it from a Windows installation disc or a system repair disc and then try the restore again."

In light of that, I made a system repair disc in the form of a usb; however, now I can't get into the BIOS menu in order to change the boot order to boot the usb in the first place.

Help...! I've been at this for hours and can't seem to find a way. The UEFI "tile" for booting is also not appearing so I can't boot it up that way, and I apparently can't press F2 fast enough to boot into BIOS that way either. I've ran a bcdedit in command which came back that it is .edi so it should be able to boot but I don't know how....

If anyone has come across this problem and knows a solution that would be greatly appreciated.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.1)

Posted on Feb 17, 2015 11:17 PM

Best reply

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Posted on Feb 18, 2015 5:56 AM

Macs do not run BIOS, but use a compatibility layer called CSM-BIOS. There is no user interface. CSM-BIOS builds the boot device list on the fly based on what is currently plugged in.

acperry7 wrote:

In light of that, I made a system repair disc in the form of a usb; however, now I can't get into the BIOS menu in order to change the boot order to boot the usb in the first place.

Boot into OS X .

Plug-in your Windows USB Repair Disk.

Go To System Preferences -> Startup Disk.

Select your Bootcamp Windows (not your USB Repair).

Click on Restart.

Windows should boot from you USB.

Here is an example of W7 Recovery using USB - https://imgur.com/a/1DaOE#0.

View in context

25 replies

acperry7 Author

Level 1

6 points

Feb 19, 2015 6:55 PM in response to Loner T

Last login: Thu Feb 19 19:47:46 on console

Alexs-MacBook-Pro:~ Perry$ sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

Password:

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 - 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

Alexs-MacBook-Pro:~ Perry$

This is my readout, which looks like it might already be in EFI? Unless the example you had was not an example of EFI?

How do you get the GPT readout?

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Feb 19, 2015 7:17 PM in response to acperry7

You can see the gpt using sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0. The Fdisk entry you posted is called a protective MBR.

On all Macs (rom about 2006+), all disks are GPT (APM was used before that which transitioned around Leopard/Snow Leopard time frame).

http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/hybrid.html

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/ man8/gpt.8.html

http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.23/23.03/APMtoGPT/index.html

acperry7 Author

Level 1

6 points

Feb 19, 2015 9:00 PM in response to Loner T

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 214843744 2 GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

215253384 1269536 3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

216522920 1880

216524800 273709056 4 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

490233856 863

490234719 32 Sec GPT table

490234751 1 Sec GPT header

Alexs-MacBook-Pro:~ Perry$

That is my output. So I just want to be sure, I am NOT in EFI Windows? So I should proceed with what you said before? I just want to be sure before I end up undoing something that was already right.

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Feb 20, 2015 5:07 AM in response to acperry7

Your GPT and MBR are out-of-sync. How was FAT/NTFS - GPT4 created? Was there a failure using BCA?

acperry7 Author

Level 1

6 points

Feb 20, 2015 8:12 AM in response to Loner T

Oh okay, so I would definitely want to redo the partition and reinstall windows. No I didn't come across any errors or failures when using BCA, the only failure was when I was trying to re-image Windows from the backup I made right before I repartitioned and reinstalled

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Feb 20, 2015 10:52 AM in response to acperry7

To be able to restore Windows Image, you should already have Windows installed in EFI mode and up and running.

Please see the options for a restore - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/restore-computer-from-system-image-ba ckup#1TC=windows-7.

Feb 20, 2015 4:07 PM in response to acperry7

You can not use Bootcamp to boot a bios menu, if you have a bios menu installed on an external device, you'd have to download a 3rd party EFI booter.

noam2699

Level 1

9 points

Nov 12, 2016 11:28 AM in response to acperry7

Hey Loner T I could really appreciate if you help me, I'm having trouble with installing Kali Linux on my Macbook Pro (I saw you helping someone on another post but couldn't find it)

Much appreciated!!!

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Nov 12, 2016 11:57 AM in response to noam2699

Please start a new discussion, to avoid confusion.

noam2699

Level 1

9 points

Nov 12, 2016 12:21 PM in response to Loner T

Hey just didUsing Kali Linux via bootable USB

Booting into BIOS from bootcamp