Bootcamp only boots through Option key

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Level 1

5 points

Bootcamp only boots through Option key

Hi all,

I currently have a mid-2014 Macbook Pro 13, running Windows 8.1. The OSX partition has been moved to an external disk drive. Currently, there is only Windows 8.1 on the laptop.

Problem is that, recently after booting OSX from an external hard drive, my laptop could no longer boot into Windows properly. If I power on or reboot the machine, it will sit at a blank screen for 10-20 seconds, before showing this message:

NO BOOTABLE DEVICE - INSERT BOOT DISC AND PRESS ANY KEY

However, if I hold down the Option key at startup and select Windows, it would boot without issue.

- Windows 8.1 is installed as UEFI.

- The disk has the GPT partition style (It's probably not the hybrid MBR format BA creates, since I manually started the installation rather than have BA do it for me.

- The disk has a 300MB recovery partition, a 100MB EFI system partition, and then my Windows system partition.

Not sure what I can do to fix this?

Thanks in advance.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014), Windows 8

Posted on May 19, 2015 1:54 AM

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Answer 1

May 19, 2015 10:13 AM in response to Secep

Make the Boot Camp partition the default boot partition. Youir computer will boot to Windows by default. If you want to boot to OSX use the option keywhen powering up and choose OSX.

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Answer 2

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

May 19, 2015 10:14 AM in response to Secep

1. If you remove the OSX external drive and power cycle the Mac, what do you see?

2. How was OSX 'moved' to the external drive?

3. Was Windows Startup repaired after OSX was moved to the external drive?

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Answer 3

Secep Author

Level 1

5 points

May 19, 2015 4:35 PM in response to Loner T

Hey guys. Thanks for your responses.

BobTheFisherman: Bootcamp has already been made the default boot partition since the beginning.

Loner T:

1. The message. Appears whether or not I have the external drive connected: NO BOOTABLE DEVICE - INSERT BOOT DISC AND PRESS ANY KEY

2. Via Disk Utility. I booted up Internet Recovery, and used Disk Utility to create a new partition on the external drive, then cloned the OSX partition over. I then deleted all the partitions from the Mac's SSD before installing Windows.

3. OSX was moved to the external drive before Windows was installed.

The problem only started after booting OSX off the external drive for the first time after installing Windows (which was like.... 2 months?)

Secep.

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Answer 4

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

May 19, 2015 4:52 PM in response to Secep

Can you post the output of the following Terminal commands?

diskutil list

diskutil cs list

sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

The "sudo" commands will prompt for your password, and it will not be echoed back. You may also see a warning about improper use of "sudo" and potential data loss due to "abuse" of the command.

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Answer 5

Secep Author

Level 1

5 points

May 19, 2015 5:04 PM in response to Loner T

Hi Loner T.

Will do tonight once I return home.

Thanks,

Secep.

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Answer 6

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

May 19, 2015 6:06 PM in response to Secep

Do you have any third-party NTFS software installed on the OSX side like Tuxera, Paragon, NTFS-3g or any of it's variants. Parallels can also interfere with booting from System Preferences -> Startup Disk.

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Answer 7

Secep Author

Level 1

5 points

May 20, 2015 1:28 AM in response to Loner T

Hi Loner T,

Below are the outputs of the commands.

diskutil list

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *121.3 GB disk0

1: DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC 314.6 MB disk0s1

2: EFI NO NAME 104.9 MB disk0s2

3: Microsoft Reserved 134.2 MB disk0s3

4: Microsoft Basic Data OS 120.8 GB disk0s4

/dev/disk1

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *499.4 GB disk1

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1

2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 499.1 GB disk1s2

diskutil cs list

No CoreStorage logical volume groups found

sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

gpt show: /dev/disk0: mediasize=121332826112; sectorsize=512; blocks=236978176

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 236978175

start size index contents

0 1 PMBR

1 1 Pri GPT header

2 32 Pri GPT table

34 2014

2048 614400 1 GPT part - DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC

616448 204800 2 GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B

821248 262144 3 GPT part - E3C9E316-0B5C-4DB8-817D-F92DF00215AE

1083392 235892736 4 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

236976128 2015

236978143 32 Sec GPT table

236978175 1 Sec GPT header

sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

Disk: /dev/disk0 geometry: 14751/255/63 [236978176 sectors]

Signature: 0xAA55

Starting Ending

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

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

1: EE 0 0 2 - 1023 255 63 [ 1 - 4294967295] <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

I do not have any NTFS tools installed on my laptop. I did have Parallels in the past, but have uninstalled it from the computer.

Thanks,

Secep

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Answer 8

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

May 20, 2015 3:54 AM in response to Secep

Parallels does not cleanup properly - please see cannot start bootcamp after upgrading to Yosemite. Please look for files discussed in the linked article and clean up, or re-install OSX on the external drive.

You also have Windows RE which indicates that you need to recover Windows, once the NTFS issue is resolved.

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Answer 9

Secep Author

Level 1

5 points

May 20, 2015 6:22 AM in response to Loner T

Thanks, will look into it after my exams -- something that will be in like a month, and top that off with a road trip after, since it still boots up fine via the Option key. I can't afford to need to reinstall Windows in the middle of exams due to the need of software that only operates correctly on Windows.

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Answer 10

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

May 20, 2015 7:17 AM in response to Secep

No worries. Post back when you are ready.

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Answer 11

Secep Author

Level 1

5 points

Jun 1, 2015 3:30 AM in response to Loner T

Hmm... so I booted up OSX again tonight to check up on some data that's still on the OSX installation.

... Only problem is that after I finished, upon choosing Windows from the Startup Disk menu and clicking restart, while it still appears in the Option menu, Windows just gets stuck on the Windows bootup screen (with the turny thing. It just stuck there, normally the screen proceeds to login in less than 10 seconds), so the installation is now completely unusable. Have not installed anything new.

Not sure what to do next... I'm just salvaging data off my IM apps on the drive before wiping the drive for a full reinstallation now, so I can access my IDE to practice coding.

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Answer 12

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Jun 1, 2015 4:37 AM in response to Secep

Are you able to get to Windows Recovery? You can use Windows Recovery from your original installer as shown below.

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Answer 13

Secep Author

Level 1

5 points

Jun 1, 2015 4:54 AM in response to Loner T

Yes I am able to. Checked the disk for errors, and then rebooted itself after "attempting repairs". Again, directing it through with the option key, it gets stuck at the bootup screen with the turny thing.

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Answer 14

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Jun 1, 2015 5:37 AM in response to Secep

Can you look at Troubleshoot and Advanced Options?

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Answer 15

Secep Author

Level 1

5 points

Jun 1, 2015 5:57 AM in response to Loner T

In there is:

- Refresh your PC

- Reset your PC

And in the Advanced Options submenu:

- System Restore (Stuck at "Preparing system restore")

- System Image Recovery (don't have one)

- Startup Repair (that earlier attempt, which failed as mentioned above)

- Command Prompt

- Startup Settings (includes Safe Mode. The all 3 safe mode options gets stuck at that same screen and does not boot)

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