Q: Boot Camp is no longer visible in OS X but is bootable via ALT

Greetings,

I'm running a MacBook Pro (mid 2010) Yosemite 10.10.2, 1TB HDD, 8GB RAM, Windows 7 Ultimate in Boot Camp.

I have a very similar situation to that of gytis90210 who wrote this thread:

Bootcamp partition is no longer visible and bootable

Like gytis90210 I had a situation where I needed to increase my Boot Camp partition and I followed the same instructions that he or she did:

how to resize my bootcamp partition without deleting  itit

Essentially what I did was to, from the OS X side, use Disk Utility to reduce the size of my primary MAC OS partition, and then switch to the Windows side, my BOOT CAMP partition, and using a free app called Mini Tool Partition Wizard (MTPW) expand my Boot Camp partition.  Everything on the Windows side worked without a hitch, just as in this YouTube tutorial.  However, when I returned to the OS X side I noticed that BOOT CAMP was no longer visible as a volume in the side bar of Finder.  I double checked this anomaly using Disk Utility and noticed that my OS X partition did in fact reduce to ~ 900 GB from its previous ~980 GB, but my Boot Camp partition was somehow renamed disk0s4, and the size seemed to remain at ~20 GB instead of the increased ~100 GB I achieved on the Windows side using MTPW.

Unlike gytis90210 I am able to switch between MAC OS and BOOT CAMP (DISK0S4 ?) using the ALT key during restart without any problem.  For this I am grateful.  However, this situation poses a significant problem when it comes to backing up my volumes.  I use Data Backup 3 (DB3) to regularly do versioned backups of my entire HDD and now it can't find Boot Camp to backup that volume.

In the above cited thread by gytis90210, "Bootcamp partition is no longer visible and bootable", a Level 5 community member named Loner T assisted in solving the problem.  Both gytis90210 and Loner T appear to be familiar with and competent in using Terminal.  Regrettably I am unfamiliar with using this advanced tool, but am willing to try if someone is patient and willing to walk me through the steps.  It appears, based on Loner T's ability to assist gytis90210 that this problem is solvable, however, I do not want to assume that the steps used in gytis90210's case will be the same in mine.  So I haven't attempted to duplicate this solution in my situation. I fear by tinkering "under the hood" with Terminal might cause more problems since I really wouldn't know what I was doing. Hence, I am appealing to those who, like Loner T, are savvy in using Terminal and who can aid me in solving this issue.

Alternatively, and perhaps as a last resort, I am curious if using Disk Utility I can just delete DISK0S4 and create a new BOOT CAMP partition of the desired size and then just restore its contents via DB3's restore function?  I've contacted Prosoft Engineering, the makers of DB3, and inquired if DB3 backsup the OS in Boot Camp as well as all my other data.  Here is their reply:

• "Data Backup was not made or intended to be used with NTFS formatted volumes such as your bootcamp volume. We cannot provide suggestions for the operation you are trying to perform as we do not support it not [sic] have we tested it even though Data Backup may backup those files."

When I look at my backed up volume it appears to include a Windows folder that has all the components of Windows 7, but I cannot be certain that this will indeed restore Boot Camp to its pre-problem state.  Perhaps someone more familiar with restoring Boot Camp in this manner might shed light on the situation.  Here's a screenshot of what my DB3 compressed backed up BOOT CAMP volume looks like if it'll help:

Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.  Thank you kindly in advance.