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OS X doesnt boot, however it only boots to windows

Problem :


My MacBook air doesn't boot to OS X Yosemite when selected on the "restart in os x" option in the bootcamp icon on the windows task bar.


I have tried pressing the option/alt button, but, the OS X option doesn't not show up either, however prior to today it did show up and I can choose either to boot to windows or MAC.


How can I get my MacBook to boot to OS X Yosemite ?


Any help would be appreciated,

Cheers!


* I tried command + R, then a rotating globe appears with the following caption " this may take some time"

MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2014), OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Aug 18, 2015 2:01 AM

Reply
6 replies

Aug 18, 2015 8:35 AM in response to Naveedw

Can you post the output of the following Terminal commands from OSX side?


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.

Aug 19, 2015 11:07 PM in response to Loner T

Hi Loner T,


I have the same exact problem, and this is in fact the second time this has happened to me after a clean install of Windows 10 on a 2013 Mac Pro. Note the following:

  • I used Disk Utility to create the Boot Camp partition. The option to install Windows in Boot Camp Assistant was greyed out.
  • I used 'gdisk' to convert the MBR from hybrid to protective to bypass the MBR/GPT error in the Windows installer when trying to format the Boot Camp partition to NTFS, as detailed here.


I had no problems rebooting between OS X and Windows shortly after the install, but I believe it's after I had shutdown from OS X, I wasn't able to boot back in. I'm not sure if a shutdown in general caused this issue to arise, but I was last in Yosemite when I had turned off the Mac. Thankfully, I can boot into the OS X recovery partition and manage things there, which is where I restored the Mac partition from a Time Machine backup the first time this happened.


I was able to input the Terminal commands you suggested to Naveedw from there. My SDD doesn't use CoreStorage (No CoreStorage logical volume groups found), so I got no significant output there. Here's what I got otherwise:

User uploaded file

User uploaded file

User uploaded file


Also, when holding down Option after the startup chime, I no longer see "Macintosh HD" as a drive option to boot into. However, in Windows, it appears alongside the C: drive and is even browse-able, but not a startup option in the Boot Camp Control Panel.

User uploaded file

User uploaded file


Extra information:


I found an old thread from 2010 – Restoring "Macintosh HD" GUID – where the user couldn't boot into OS X, perhaps under different circumstances. The solution there involved DISKPART and 'gdisk' for Windows, both of which I looked into. The first part involved using DISKPART to confirm the type/ID of the Mac partition. The second part is using 'gdisk' to change the Mac partition's GUID back to the proper code as noted in this support article: Changing letter designation of Mac OS X partition via Windows can lead to data loss.

User uploaded file

User uploaded file


Where I'm confused is that DISKPART shows the Mac partition type as ebd0a0a2-b9e5-4433-87c0-68b6b72699c7, which is not correct (I assume), but 'gdisk' shows the proper GUID code 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC (Apple HFS/HFS+). I hope this extra information helps, and thank you for your time.

Aug 19, 2015 11:10 PM in response to Loner T

Tried everything i could possibly think of, but was left with the following solution.


Solution: Reinstall OS X, using a secondary mac to download the OS X installer. This was as the EFI was corrupted. Which was primarily caused by the windows 10 upgrade which failed due to "insufficient space", thus affecting all the partitions beyond repair, attempts to verify and repair it resulted in failed outcomes, leaving the only choice of reinstalling OS X.

OS X doesnt boot, however it only boots to windows

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