cant switch between windows 7 and osx. only windows will boot holding option key on reboot does nothing

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cant switch between windows 7 and osx. only windows will boot holding option key on reboot does nothing

Have installed windows 7 on a new partition through boot camp. I am running Yosemite but can no longer access os x. Will only boot to windows and can't install boot camp in windows. It states that 64 bit not compatible with my machine 13" macbook 2009. Tried installing 32 bit boot camp but win7 is 64 bit. Any ideas greatly appreciated as i am relatively new to mac.

MacBook, OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)

Posted on May 23, 2015 11:02 AM

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Answer 1

Loner T

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May 23, 2015 1:36 PM in response to neil4770

What is the year/model of your Mac? Please check System requirements to install Windows on your Mac via Boot Camp - Apple Support for drivers appropriate for your Mac. If you bypassed BCA to install a version of Windows not supported on your Mac, you will have problems.

Please also see Boot Camp: Set the default operating system.

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Answer 2

neil4770 Author

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May 23, 2015 4:57 PM in response to Loner T

Hi My mac book is a late 2009 13 inch. I did go through all the recommendations and used Boot camp in OS X. it downloaded the supporting software, partitioned the hard drive and allowed the installation of 64 bit 7 ultimate. I tried to install the supporting software downloaded and that's where I get the error this machine doesn't support bootcamp X64. now the unit boots direct to windows and the apple icon doesn't show. Even when I hold the option button on reboot.

in storage manager of windows, I can see the partition but just cant access it.

any ideas?

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Answer 3

Loner T

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May 23, 2015 7:19 PM in response to neil4770

Please run

Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support

How to Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

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Answer 4

neil4770 Author

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May 24, 2015 2:33 AM in response to Loner T

Hi and thanks for the info. I have tried both of the options and nothing changes. When resetting the NVRAM, I don't get the reboot it just carries on to windows.

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Answer 5

Loner T

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May 24, 2015 5:50 AM in response to neil4770

Do you have a Boot Camp option in Control Panel?

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Answer 6

neil4770 Author

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May 24, 2015 6:24 AM in response to Loner T

Hi no nothing there either. I cant even get it to boot from DVD to do a clean install - not that I really want to as I have a lot of data that hasn't been backed up.

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Answer 7

Loner T

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May 24, 2015 6:56 AM in response to neil4770

Can you install OS X: Installing OS X on an external volume - Apple Support and boot from this external disk?

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Answer 8

neil4770 Author

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May 24, 2015 7:57 AM in response to Loner T

Hi. I would need a mac to do that by the looks of it.

I have managed to get into disk utilities through a mac OSX disk and have deleted windows, unfortunately it seems there is no start up disk option for my OS X. and now when I boot I get the message insert boot device and press any key.

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Answer 9

Loner T

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May 24, 2015 8:04 AM in response to neil4770

You already have a Mac. You can use it to install OS X on an external disk. If you are able to boot from the MAC OS X DVD and run DU, it is possible to fix the Mac when booted from this DVD.

Can you look at the output of

gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

Does it look similar to

gpt show: /dev/disk0: mediasize=256060514304; sectorsize=512; blocks=500118192

gpt show: /dev/disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0

gpt show: /dev/disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1

gpt show: /dev/disk0: Sec GPT at sector 500118191

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 250392096 2 GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

250801736 1269536 3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

252071272 664

252071936 248045568 4 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

500117504 655

500118159 32 Sec GPT table

500118191 1 Sec GPT header

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Answer 10

neil4770 Author

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May 24, 2015 10:50 AM in response to Loner T

Hi and thanks again.

Since deleting windows I have managed to install snow leopard on that partition. from there I can access all my files but still cant boot to my main OS. the output from the command shown is no such file or directory. I am guessing that Windows has written over this to point to the other partition. In older windows it was possible to alter a file named boot.ini is there something in OS X that is similar?

My main partition still does not show in the start up disk choices.

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Answer 11

Loner T

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May 24, 2015 1:36 PM in response to neil4770

Do you now have two OS X installations? One on the original partition and one with SL on a partition which contained Windows? If you can boot into SL, what do you see in System Preferences -> Startup Disk? Is you original OS X a Yosemite installation?

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Answer 12

neil4770 Author

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May 24, 2015 1:54 PM in response to Loner T

No I cant see the Yosemite in start up disk only SL and network startup. I can access everything through disk utility.

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Answer 13

Loner T

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May 24, 2015 2:04 PM in response to neil4770

If it is Yosemite, which uses a CoreStorage volume/volume group, SL knows nothing about it and cannot see it. If you power cycle and hold the Alt/Option key, do you see a Yosemite option?

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