Q: Bootcamp booting clobbered by Yosemite upgrade

Thank you for replying, Loner T.

Perhaps I misunderstand your request to run MSINFO32 but that's a Windows program.  The cause of this thread is that I am no longer able to boot into Windows on the MBP. I can see the contents of the Bootcamp partition in Finder so if there's a file I can look for in there, that is possible. But running any Windows programs is not possible, to my knowledge.

FYI, during my first attempt to upgrade from Mavericks to Yosemite it errored out citing “a mismatch between the MBR and GPT partition maps…”

I was able to fix it. See this thread.  That experience gave me the impression that the Windows installation uses MBR. Between fixing the mismatch and running the Yosemite installer I booted into and used both OSX and Windows 8.1 several times with no probs.

Thanks again!

Model Identifier: MacBookPro9,1

Last login: Mon Sep 21 11:31:52 on console

My-MacBook-Pro:~ me$ sudo dd if=/dev/rdisk0s4 count=1 2>/dev/null | hexdump -C

Password:

00000000  eb 52 90 4e 54 46 53 20  20 20 20 00 02 08 00 00  |.R.NTFS    .....|

00000010  00 00 00 00 00 f8 00 00  3f 00 ff 00 00 b0 d0 1d  |........?.......|

00000020  00 00 00 00 80 00 80 00  ff 4f bf 1d 00 00 00 00  |.........O......|

00000030  00 00 0c 00 00 00 00 00  02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|

00000040  f6 00 00 00 01 00 00 00  6a 35 e9 ee 6e e9 ee a8  |........j5..n...|

00000050  00 00 00 00 fa 33 c0 8e  d0 bc 00 7c fb 68 c0 07  |.....3.....|.h..|

00000060  1f 1e 68 66 00 cb 88 16  0e 00 66 81 3e 03 00 4e  |..hf......f.>..N|

00000070  54 46 53 75 15 b4 41 bb  aa 55 cd 13 72 0c 81 fb  |TFSu..A..U..r...|

00000080  55 aa 75 06 f7 c1 01 00  75 03 e9 dd 00 1e 83 ec  |U.u.....u.......|

00000090  18 68 1a 00 b4 48 8a 16  0e 00 8b f4 16 1f cd 13  |.h...H..........|

000000a0  9f 83 c4 18 9e 58 1f 72  e1 3b 06 0b 00 75 db a3  |.....X.r.;...u..|

000000b0  0f 00 c1 2e 0f 00 04 1e  5a 33 db b9 00 20 2b c8  |........Z3... +.|

000000c0  66 ff 06 11 00 03 16 0f  00 8e c2 ff 06 16 00 e8  |f...............|

000000d0  4b 00 2b c8 77 ef b8 00  bb cd 1a 66 23 c0 75 2d  |K.+.w......f#.u-|

000000e0  66 81 fb 54 43 50 41 75  24 81 f9 02 01 72 1e 16  |f..TCPAu$....r..|

000000f0  68 07 bb 16 68 52 11 16  68 09 00 66 53 66 53 66  |h...hR..h..fSfSf|

00000100  55 16 16 16 68 b8 01 66  61 0e 07 cd 1a 33 c0 bf  |U...h..fa....3..|

00000110  0a 13 b9 f6 0c fc f3 aa  e9 fe 01 90 90 66 60 1e  |.............f`.|

00000120  06 66 a1 11 00 66 03 06  1c 00 1e 66 68 00 00 00  |.f...f.....fh...|

00000130  00 66 50 06 53 68 01 00  68 10 00 b4 42 8a 16 0e  |.fP.Sh..h...B...|

00000140  00 16 1f 8b f4 cd 13 66  59 5b 5a 66 59 66 59 1f  |.......fY[ZfYfY.|

00000150  0f 82 16 00 66 ff 06 11  00 03 16 0f 00 8e c2 ff  |....f...........|

00000160  0e 16 00 75 bc 07 1f 66  61 c3 a1 f6 01 e8 09 00  |...u...fa.......|

00000170  a1 fa 01 e8 03 00 f4 eb  fd 8b f0 ac 3c 00 74 09  |............<.t.|

00000180  b4 0e bb 07 00 cd 10 eb  f2 c3 0d 0a 41 20 64 69  |............A di|

00000190  73 6b 20 72 65 61 64 20  65 72 72 6f 72 20 6f 63  |sk read error oc|

000001a0  63 75 72 72 65 64 00 0d  0a 42 4f 4f 54 4d 47 52  |curred...BOOTMGR|

000001b0  20 69 73 20 63 6f 6d 70  72 65 73 73 65 64 00 0d  | is compressed..|

000001c0  0a 50 72 65 73 73 20 43  74 72 6c 2b 41 6c 74 2b  |.Press Ctrl+Alt+|

000001d0  44 65 6c 20 74 6f 20 72  65 73 74 61 72 74 0d 0a  |Del to restart..|

000001e0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|

000001f0  00 00 00 00 00 00 8a 01  a7 01 bf 01 00 00 55 aa  |..............U.|

00000200

My-MacBook-Pro:~ me$

Thank you for replying, Loner T.  Your reply puzzles me.

This can happen if the installation is a BIOS/MBR and the MBR is missing. How do you get to start Windows if this option is missing?

Like I initially wrote, the option to boot the Bootcamp partition is no longer available by holding down Option during boot so I cannot "start Windows".

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

Also, you ask:

What year/model is Mac?

I can't think of anything else to add other than what I've posted previously in this thread:

my MBP (mid 2012, single 500GB SSD)

Model Identifier: MacBookPro9,1

If there's some other identifier please let me know how to find it.

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

Your recent reply asks: "Do you have any third-partty NTFS software? Can you also check Applications -> Utilities -> Console for any bootcamp-related entries."

I have no third-party NTFS software and cannot think of a reason I'd need it at this point.  Please explain how it's relevant.

To answer the second half of your question, here is a screen cap of all references to Bootcamp in Console.

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

Regarding your last request that I perform the following:

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

How to Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

I've already tried resetting NVRAM, with no change in the result, but I'm reluctant to reset the SMC because I don't know how it might affect my ability to use OSX.

I'm curious why you're not replying to my post like other similar (appearing) posts.

Is there something about the reports and screen caps I've posted above that indicate anything special in my case?  

My impression based on conversations with a couple Apple Senior Advisors is my Bootcamp's boot manager was corrupted by the Yosemite upgrade -- a problem that they have no simple fix or tool for (amazingly enough, unlike the countless tools available in Windows like FDISK, EasyBCD, Paragon software, etc.).

I appreciate your willingness to help!

Thank you. I have GDisk.

Thank you, Loner T. I had to travel the past couple days but am now ready to continue. Before making the changes you recommend I would like to make a backup image of my entire drive. Being a Windows IT person I am intimately familiar with imaging drives using programs like Terabyte Image and other tools, but I cannot find any equivalent tool for a dual-boot Mac that employs Bootcamp. For example, Stellar Disk Clone copies the Bootcamp partition but the resulting Bootcamp partition is not bootable or even NTFS any longer. Do you know of any imaging software that one can boot from a USB drive, clone or image a MBP system like mine, and end up with an actually usable dual-boot system?

Thank you for the suggestions, Loner T.  Of the programs you listed only Clonezilla might be able to copy the entire MBP drive and retain the ability to boot from OSX and Bootcamp. Since I'm a long time user of Terabyte's Image for Windows/DOS/Linux I'm currently experimenting with using it (aided by their Support people) to make a perfect clone of my MBP's internal drive before using GDisk to perform the mods you recommended earlier in this thread.

While looking at how my MBP's current 500GB SSD is portrayed by Disk Utility a question for you arises. Here's a screen cap of what I'm seeing.

If the top item in the left pane refers to the physical drive why is the "Capacity" not 512GB, which is the actual capacity of the drive?

Thank you again for responding, Loner T.  You're amazingly patient and helpful.

In your last reply you wrote,

"It is unlikely that such tools understand the LVG/LV abstractions."

Are you saying that Clonezilla and/or Terabyte's Image for Linux may not understand the LVG/LV abstractions?

The first clone I made using Terabyte's program will not boot, though its partition structure is identical.  I disconnected the internal drive to prevent a GUID conflict (clone and original having the same GUID, which causes problems in Windows at least -- don't know about Apple).

Please confirm whether it is feasible to boot a MacBook Pro from an external USB drive when the internal drive is disconnected. (ignoring whether the copy is valid or bootable; just is it possible provided the external drive is a perfect copy of the original?)