AppleinWilmington
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Q: Bootcamp disappears after creating third partition

I use my Mac mini as a secondary computer for home use and wanted to expand the partition space on the Windows side. I carved a third partition out of the Mac side to create 64GB to extend on the Windows side, but when I restarted the computer, the Windows partition doesn't show up--even though Disk Utility shows the partition still exists and the files are still there.

 

Here is the partition dialogue window (the 160GB space is the Bootcamp space; the smaller slice of the pie is the 64GB third partition):

 

Screen Shot 2015-09-30 at 8.58.13 AM.png

Is the Bootcamp partition recoverable in any way?

Mac mini, OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on Sep 30, 2015 7:41 PM

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AppleinWilmington

Q: Bootcamp disappears after creating third partition

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  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Sep 30, 2015 7:44 PM in response to AppleinWilmington
    Level 10 (270,411 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 30, 2015 7:44 PM in response to AppleinWilmington

    If you read the Boot Camp documentation then you would have learned that there can be only two partitions - OS X and Boot Camp. Adding a third partition will effectively prevent Boot Camp from booting up.

  • by AppleinWilmington,

    AppleinWilmington AppleinWilmington Sep 30, 2015 7:52 PM in response to Kappy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 30, 2015 7:52 PM in response to Kappy

    Unfortunately I did not read that documentation--poor planning on my part. Are there any steps I can take to reinstate Boot Camp?

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 1, 2015 6:36 AM in response to AppleinWilmington
    Level 7 (23,643 points)
    Safari
    Oct 1, 2015 6:36 AM in response to AppleinWilmington

    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.

  • by AppleinWilmington,

    AppleinWilmington AppleinWilmington Oct 1, 2015 2:31 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 1, 2015 2:31 PM in response to Loner T

    Thanks for reaching out Loner T--sorry for the wait.

     

    diskutil list:

    /dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

       #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

       0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk0

       1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1

       2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            274.9 GB   disk0s2

       3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

       4:                  Apple_HFS Untitled                64.2 GB    disk0s4

       5:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                160.0 GB   disk0s5

     

    diskutil cs list:

    No CoreStorage logical volume groups found

     

    sudo command 1:

    gpt show: /dev/disk0: mediasize=500107862016; sectorsize=512; blocks=976773168

    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 976773167

          start       size  index  contents

              0          1         PMBR

              1          1         Pri GPT header

              2         32         Pri GPT table

             34          6        

             40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B

         409640  536977800      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

      537387440    1269536      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

      538656976  125355824      4  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

      664012800     262144        

      664274944  312498176      5  GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

      976773120         15        

      976773135         32         Sec GPT table

      976773167          1         Sec GPT header

     

    sudo command 2:

     

    Disk: /dev/disk0 geometry: 60801/255/63 [976773168 sectors]

    Signature: 0xAA55

             Starting       Ending

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

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

    1: EE 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [         1 -  976773167] <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

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 1, 2015 3:40 PM in response to AppleinWilmington
    Level 7 (23,643 points)
    Safari
    Oct 1, 2015 3:40 PM in response to AppleinWilmington

    Do you want to set up a shared partition or do you want to extend the existing Windows partition?

  • by AppleinWilmington,

    AppleinWilmington AppleinWilmington Oct 1, 2015 4:35 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 1, 2015 4:35 PM in response to Loner T

    Extend Windows, if at all possible.

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 1, 2015 4:49 PM in response to AppleinWilmington
    Level 7 (23,643 points)
    Safari
    Oct 1, 2015 4:49 PM in response to AppleinWilmington

    1. Backup OSX and Windows (we can make it bootable as it is now, if you want).

    2. Convert the 64Gb to Free Space.

    3. Check Windows Disk Management to ensure the 64Gb chunk shows up as Free Space. Resize using either diskpart ( https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc731894.aspx ) or Disk Management and test.

  • by AppleinWilmington,

    AppleinWilmington AppleinWilmington Oct 1, 2015 5:29 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 1, 2015 5:29 PM in response to Loner T

    Sounds good! How do we make it bootable again?

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 1, 2015 5:42 PM in response to AppleinWilmington
    Level 7 (23,643 points)
    Safari
    Oct 1, 2015 5:42 PM in response to AppleinWilmington

    We need to check a few things first.

     

    1. The first block of the current partition using the following command.

         sudo dd if=/dev/rdisk0s5 count=1 2>/dev/null | hexdump -C

    2. Verify that

         a. Bootcamp volume is visible in OS X Finder.

         b. Files are visible in the Bootcamp volume.

         c. Files are familiar Windows files.

     

    You have done some parts of step 2 already.

  • by AppleinWilmington,

    AppleinWilmington AppleinWilmington Oct 1, 2015 5:47 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 1, 2015 5:47 PM in response to Loner T

    Got it:

     

    1.

    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 08 98 27  |........?......'|

    00000020  00 00 00 00 80 00 80 00  ff 47 92 12 00 00 00 00  |.........G......|

    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  0c e7 4f 12 29 50 12 3c  |..........O.)P.<|

    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

     

    2.

    Screen Shot 2015-10-01 at 8.46.23 PM.png

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 1, 2015 7:38 PM in response to AppleinWilmington
    Level 7 (23,643 points)
    Safari
    Oct 1, 2015 7:38 PM in response to AppleinWilmington

    The following steps are non-standard because there is a third user-visible partition. Typically, there are two such partitions in a normal configuration on a single-disk Mac with OS X and Bootcamp. This is fragile and lack of proper backups can lead to potential data loss. Download GPT Fdisk from http://sourceforge.net/projects/gptfdisk/ and install it on the OS X side. The following steps are executed when booted in OS X. If the 64G is converted to Free Space, these numbers (3 4 5) will change back to (2 3 4).

     

    Rebuild MBR to match the new GPT information thus resetting the Hybrid MBR. Use defaults for other questions (like partition codes). The only values that need modifications are the Boot flags and step 10. Accept all other defaults that Gdisk offers. Please see the sample Q&A as an example. These steps can be repeated if you make a mistake before you get to Step 12, otherwise start from Step 1 for these steps. Step 6 has numbers which are typed with a space between the numbers. Please see the sample Q&A before you execute these steps.

    1. Sudo gdisk /dev/rdisk0
    2. P  (Print list of parts)
    3. R  (Recover)
    4. O (print current Hybrid MBR)
    5. H (chooses Hybrid)
    6. Partitions numbers to be hybridized: 3 4 5
    7. Y  (Good for GRUB question)
    8. N  (part 3 boot flag)
    9. N  (part 4 boot flag)
    10. Y  (part 5 boot flag make NTFS bootable partition)
    11. O  (print current Hybrid MBR)
    12. W (Write the new MBR)
    13. Y (Yes! write the new MBR)
    14. Reboot

     

    Here is sample Q&A for this section. Please notice the Press Enter/Return. Accept defaults offered by Gdisk.

     

    Place EFI GPT (0xEE) partition first in MBR (good for GRUB)? (Y/N): Y

     

    Creating entry for GPT partition #3 (MBR partition #2)

    Enter an MBR hex code (default AF or AB): Press Enter/Return

    Set the bootable flag? (Y/N): N

     

    Creating entry for GPT partition #4 (MBR partition #3)

    Enter an MBR hex code (default AB or 0B or 0C): Press Enter/Return

    Set the bootable flag? (Y/N): N

     

    Creating entry for GPT partition #5 (MBR partition #4)

    Enter an MBR hex code (default 07): Press Enter/Return

    Set the bootable flag? (Y/N): Y

  • by AppleinWilmington,

    AppleinWilmington AppleinWilmington Oct 1, 2015 7:59 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 1, 2015 7:59 PM in response to Loner T

    The installation for GPT fdisk fails every time, suggesting that the package is incompatible with my version of OS X. I am running El Cap.

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 2, 2015 3:22 AM in response to AppleinWilmington
    Level 7 (23,643 points)
    Safari
    Oct 2, 2015 3:22 AM in response to AppleinWilmington

    There is a new feature in ELC, called System Integrity Protection. You can temporarily disable it.

     

    1. Boot in Local Recovery (Command+R)

    2. In Utilities -> Terminal type csrutil disable

    3. Install GPT Fdisk

     

    It can be enabled later using csrutil enable .

  • by AppleinWilmington,

    AppleinWilmington AppleinWilmington Oct 2, 2015 11:27 AM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 2, 2015 11:27 AM in response to Loner T

    It's back! Windows partition now bootable and all files are there. Backing up everything now.

     

    Next question: how do I convert the 64GB to free space?

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