Windows Boot Option Gone

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Windows Boot Option Gone

Hi,

I'm using a mid 2012 Macbook Pro with Yosemite installed and have been running a Windows 8.1, now 10, partition on my computer for awhile. Usually I can boot into either OS by powering off and holding the option button, but suddenly the option to boot in Windows is gone. Since I'm not sure what exactly caused this and I'm having trouble understanding the solutions other people have had on here, I'm just going to list everything that happened in the hopes that I can get this fixed.

I upgraded to Windows 10 a few days ago with no problems.
I decided I wanted to use essentially only Windows on my Mac, so I started to try to resize the partitions which were 150GB for Windows and 350GB for Yosemite, give or take.
I wasn't able to resize the core partition since Yosemite doesn't allow that without difficulty, so I first turned off FireVault and rebooted, which didn't seem to do anything at all. Then I updated Yosemite, which I have been neglecting for a couple of months. After the updates had finished, I was able to resize the core partition. I think turning off FireVault fixed this but I'm not sure.
I then booted in Windows and moved all of my files over there and resized the partition using a third party tool, MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition.
Then I booted back into the Mac partition and began deleting any other files I didn't need since I wouldn't be opening that partition very often. I could have deleted essential files to the system, but I really hope I wasn't that stupid.
After I got the partition to about 60GB, I resized it again to give the Windows partition more room to resize.
When I tried to boot into Windows, the option was gone, leaving just the Mac partition, EFI, and my flash drive.
Going back into the Mac partition, I checked in Disk Utility and found everything looking very normal, with my Windows partition at about 80GB with ~100GB to spare. So I haven't deleted anything, I just can't open it.

I think that's all I need to say on this, I've tried messing around with terminal but I really have no idea what I'm doing there...

I can't just reinstall Windows because I will lose all my files, so there must be a way around this!

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)

Posted on Aug 10, 2015 8:04 PM

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Answer 1

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 10, 2015 8:35 PM in response to nearclouding

nearclouding wrote:

I decided I wanted to use essentially only Windows on my Mac, so I started to try to resize the partitions which were 150GB for Windows and 350GB for Yosemite, give or take.

This is problematic on any Mac older than late 2013, because Windows and OS share different partitioning methods which are kept in sync by BCA only during initial installation. Any subsequent changes can lead to data loss including catastrophic failures. It is also documented in Boot Camp 5.1: Frequently asked questions - Apple Support .

nearclouding wrote:

I wasn't able to resize the core partition since Yosemite doesn't allow that without difficulty, so I first turned off FireVault and rebooted, which didn't seem to do anything at all. Then I updated Yosemite, which I have been neglecting for a couple of months. After the updates had finished, I was able to resize the core partition. I think turning off FireVault fixed this but I'm not sure.

If FileVault was in progress, then yes, otherwise the Yosemite upgrade also verified your disk, which allowed you to change partitioning. This is where you should stop.

nearclouding wrote:

I then booted in Windows and moved all of my files over there and resized the partition using a third party tool, MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition.

Then I booted back into the Mac partition and began deleting any other files I didn't need since I wouldn't be opening that partition very often. I could have deleted essential files to the system, but I really hope I wasn't that stupid.

After I got the partition to about 60GB, I resized it again to give the Windows partition more room to resize.

When I tried to boot into Windows, the option was gone, leaving just the Mac partition, EFI, and my flash drive.

Going back into the Mac partition, I checked in Disk Utility and found everything looking very normal, with my Windows partition at about 80GB with ~100GB to spare. So I haven't deleted anything, I just can't open it.

Now the two different structures of disk partitioning see different representations and are giving you conflicting information.

It may be possible to fix this, but please do not change any partitioning with any tool. You will just compound your problems further.

Please post the text 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 2

nearclouding Author

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Aug 10, 2015 8:41 PM in response to Loner T

Thank you so much for replying, I thought everything was going really well so it bites to see I may have made a huge mess out of things...

diskutil list

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.3 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage 146.9 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.1 MB disk0s3

4: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 150.0 GB disk0s4

/dev/disk1

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD *145.8 GB disk1

Logical Volume on disk0s2

4196F3F2-010F-459C-8C23-44805300642A

Unlocked Encrypted

/dev/disk2

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: FDisk_partition_scheme *8.0 GB disk2

1: DOS_FAT_32 WININSTALL 8.0 GB disk2s1

diskutil cs list

CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)

|

+-- Logical Volume Group 9156A5CF-7F9E-4785-9E84-715B5F2364CF

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

Name: Macintosh HD

Status: Online

Size: 146939727872 B (146.9 GB)

Free Space: 829698048 B (829.7 MB)

|

+-< Physical Volume 218D1B11-250B-492F-BBF7-C0358C34F8B6

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

| Index: 0

| Disk: disk0s2

| Status: Online

| Size: 146939727872 B (146.9 GB)

|

+-> Logical Volume Family 9E0337E1-FBC4-4F81-95DA-58BFB2FF081A

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

Encryption Status: Unlocked

Encryption Type: AES-XTS

Conversion Status: Converting

Conversion Direction: forward

Has Encrypted Extents: Yes

Fully Secure: No

Passphrase Required: Yes

|

+-> Logical Volume 4196F3F2-010F-459C-8C23-44805300642A

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

Disk: disk1

Status: Online

Size (Total): 145774477312 B (145.8 GB)

Conversion Progress: Optimizing 89%

Revertible: No

LV Name: Macintosh HD

Volume Name: Macintosh HD

Content Hint: Apple_HFS

sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

Password:

gpt show: /dev/disk0: mediasize=500277790720; sectorsize=512; blocks=977105060

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 977105059

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 286991656 2 GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

287401296 1269760 3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

288671056 395465392

684136448 292966400 4 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

977102848 2179

977105027 32 Sec GPT table

977105059 1 Sec GPT header

sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

Disk: /dev/disk0 geometry: 60821/255/63 [977105060 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 - 286991656] <Unknown ID>

3: AB 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 287401296 - 1269760] Darwin Boot

4: 0C 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 684136448 - 292966400] Win95 FAT32L

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Answer 3

nearclouding Author

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Aug 11, 2015 6:17 AM in response to nearclouding

After browsing through everyone else's posts to see if I could mimic any of their solutions, I realized my terminal output was different for sudo fdisk /dev/disk0 in that another <Unknown ID> replaces HFS+. Is this a really bad thing?

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Answer 4

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 11, 2015 12:04 PM in response to nearclouding

No. The CS volume is what you have in MBR #2. The issue is related to the gap between GPT3 and GPT4 and a lost NTFS header in this gap.

On a 500g drive, you only have file systems of about 200G (146G + 150G), so there is a 300G shortfall, most likely due to the gap.

Can you use Windows 7 Vanished after Yosemite update... help? as an example, and download Testdisk and GPT Fdisk and start a Testdisk scan and post the output of the Quick Search?

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Answer 5

nearclouding Author

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Aug 11, 2015 1:22 PM in response to Loner T

On following the Testdisk UI guide on Imgur, I cannot make it past the second step, here is what happened:

TestDisk is free software, and

comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.

Select a media (use Arrow keys, then press Enter):

>Disk /dev/disk3 - 191 MB / 182 MiB (RO)

Disk /dev/rdisk3 - 191 MB / 182 MiB (RO)

>[Proceed ] [ Sudo ] [ Quit ]

I tried both options, but neither seem to be what is required.

Disk /dev/disk3 - 191 MB / 182 MiB (RO)

Write access for this media is not available.

TestDisk won't be able to modify it.

- You may need to be root to have write access.

Use the sudo command to launch TestDisk.

- Check the OS permission for this file or device.

- No partition from this disk must be mounted:

Open the Disk Utility (In Finder -> Application -> Utility folder)

and press Unmount button for each volume from this disk

- This media may be physically write-protected, check the jumpers.

>[ Continue ] Continue even if write access isn't available

[ Quit ] Return to disk selection

EDIT: Ignore this for now, I must have just done something wrong and am now running the quick search.

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Answer 6

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 11, 2015 1:39 PM in response to nearclouding

Use sudo and run it on rdisk0.

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Answer 7

nearclouding Author

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Aug 11, 2015 1:55 PM in response to Loner T

I managed to do that and now the Quick Search is running, but the steps I took to get there were slightly different from the post on Imgur, so I'm not completely sure I've done everything right. Namely I don't know if I chose the right disk, so here's a screenshot of my process until now. I'm really sorry if everything is going fine and I'm just being paranoid, but I seriously appreciate your help.

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Answer 8

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 11, 2015 2:01 PM in response to nearclouding

Let the line with 00% get to 100%. This can take a while.

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Answer 9

nearclouding Author

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Aug 11, 2015 3:50 PM in response to Loner T

So does it make sense that I've had this running for over two hours and it's still at 0%? How long should I expect this to take?

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Answer 10

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 11, 2015 4:04 PM in response to nearclouding

Look at the value before the "/". If it is changing, it is running. IN some cases, I have seen it take overnight.

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Answer 11

nearclouding Author

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Aug 11, 2015 8:28 PM in response to Loner T

I guess that finished a lot faster than I thought it would! Here are the first two screens and I don't know where to go from here.

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Answer 12

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 12, 2015 5:40 AM in response to nearclouding

Based on the Testdisk output, this is a table for partition verification.

Does the NTFS size make sense? The other question is that the NTFS End is right where you currently have a MBR entry. Did you add a partition for sharing data between OS X and Windows?

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Answer 13

nearclouding Author

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Aug 12, 2015 6:00 AM in response to Loner T

I believe the size makes sense, but I'm not sure how to answer your other question. Here's a screenshot of the partition breakdown in Disk Utility.

As you can see it's sort of messed up, and when I open up the Mac storage, it shows this, so things aren't adding up.

The USB is just where I stored Windows when I first installed it.

I only ever wanted two partitions, so the empty space was going to be given to Bootcamp. I wanted it to be close to 50GB to OS X and 450GB to Windows.

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Answer 14

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 12, 2015 6:34 AM in response to nearclouding

In the Testdisk window, scroll down to the MS Data at 391170049 and press 'P' to list files. Can you post a screen shot? Do not use left/right arrow/cursor keys anywhere in Testdisk, because they change partition properties and we do not need to change it.

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Answer 15

nearclouding Author

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Aug 12, 2015 6:36 AM in response to Loner T

It only says: Can't open filesystem. Filesystem seems damaged.

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