gtolj2

Q: Boot Camp Partition Not Shown on Boot Screen

Hello, yesterday I purchased a new 2015 15" MBP Retina (running Yosemite 10.10.5) to replace my aging Early 2011 13" MBP. The old machine had two partitions on a 480GB SSD: 1 for OS X and 1 for Windows 7. I used Migration Assistant to successfully import all of my OS X files from my old computer, and I made an image of the existing Boot Camp partition using WinClone and the old computer in Target Disk Mode.


However, after creating a Boot Camp partition on the new computer (by using a friend's Windows 8 install disk) and loading the WinClone image onto the new partition, the Boot Camp partition does not show up on the boot screen (when holding the Option key); also, the recovery partition is not present. Also, if I try to set BOOTCAMP as the startup partition in System Preferences, I get a message that "The bless tool was unable to set the current boot disk."

 

I have already tried the solution in a similar thread (Re: Repairing Boot Camp after creating new partition), using 4 instead of 5 as the partition to be moved to the Hybrid MBR, to no avail.

 

Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer me a solution!

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015), OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Oct 20, 2015 7:13 PM

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Q: Boot Camp Partition Not Shown on Boot Screen

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  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 20, 2015 7:44 PM in response to gtolj2
    Level 7 (24,115 points)
    Safari
    Oct 20, 2015 7:44 PM in response to gtolj2

    1. You have ELC on the 2015 which does not allow 'bless'. There is a new feature called System Integrity Protection.

    2. Winclone between 2011 and 2015 Macs will not work as documented by TwoCanoes - https://twocanoes.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/204433039-Winclone-Image-Compati bility-with-512b-and-4K-Block-Size-on-2015-MacBooks . You should ask for a refund if 2015

    3. You should consider instilling a new copy of Windows and migrate your files using Windows Migration Assistant. Be aware, that this will not get your applications.

  • by gtolj2,

    gtolj2 gtolj2 Oct 21, 2015 5:10 AM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 21, 2015 5:10 AM in response to Loner T

    Thank you for the detailed response! I have some replies to your answers:

     

    1. My computer actually came with Yosemite 10.10.5, so I don't think System Integrity Protection is included

    2. I checked the device and allocation block sizes using the command in the link you provided, and this is what I got:

         Device Block Size:        512 Bytes

         Allocation Block Size:    4096 Bytes

        It appears that the block size on my new computer should be compatible with the old one; please let me know if that is wrong.

    3. I know that Boot Camp claims that Windows 7 is no longer supported on the MBPR 15", but does Windows 7 work if installed properly? I would really prefer to not have to buy a copy of 10.

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 21, 2015 5:30 AM in response to gtolj2
    Level 7 (24,115 points)
    Safari
    Oct 21, 2015 5:30 AM in response to gtolj2

    Can you post the output similar to the following on the old and new Macs?

    Pre-2015 Macs will generally show the device block size (or logical sector size) as 512 bytes and 2015 Macs 4096 bytes.

    pre-2015_Mac$ diskutil info / | grep "Block Size"
    Device Block Size: 512 Bytes
    Allocation Block Size: 4096 Bytes

    2015_Mac$ diskutil info / | grep "Block Size"
    Device Block Size: 4096 Bytes
    Allocation Block Size: 4096 Bytes

    Can you verify that your MBP is a 2015 model by checking About This Mac? You are saying you bought it new, was it from Apple or from a reseller who may have Yosemite on a 2015 Mac from older stock. Normally Apple will not sell Macs with older OS versions. Please do not post the serial number of your Mac.

  • by gtolj2,

    gtolj2 gtolj2 Oct 21, 2015 5:36 AM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 21, 2015 5:36 AM in response to Loner T

    I purchased this machine brand new from the Apple Store near my location (About This Mac: MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015), OS X Version 10.10.5 (14F27)).

     

    Terminal outputs are exactly the same for both machines:

    2011-MBP-13$ diskutil info / | grep "Block Size"

       Device Block Size:        512 Bytes

       Allocation Block Size:    4096 Bytes

    2015-MBPR-15$ diskutil info / | grep "Block Size"

       Device Block Size:        512 Bytes

       Allocation Block Size:    4096 Bytes

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 21, 2015 5:44 AM in response to gtolj2
    Level 7 (24,115 points)
    Safari
    Oct 21, 2015 5:44 AM in response to gtolj2

    1. When moving from 2011 to 2015 Mac, your Windows must be 'sys prepped' or generalized.

    2. Windows 7 requires legacy boot (MBR and GPT, both are required).

    3. The first boot of W7 will run a chkdsk.

  • by gtolj2,

    gtolj2 gtolj2 Oct 21, 2015 6:17 AM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 21, 2015 6:17 AM in response to Loner T

    1. Would omitting this step single-handedly make the Windows partition unbootable? I've created WinClone images before without running sysprep and imported them without any issues. I can try running sysprep, erasing the BOOTCAMP partition and re-imaging.

    2. Does this require any additional steps? I'm running 10.10.5 and Win7 on my 2011 MBP 13".

    3. Seems pretty standard for WinClone, thanks.

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 21, 2015 7:24 AM in response to gtolj2
    Level 7 (24,115 points)
    Safari
    Oct 21, 2015 7:24 AM in response to gtolj2

    If you are going between two different models of Mac, the SysPrep removes all hardware-specific elements, so new drivers can be installed on the target machine. Look at the following menu...

     

    Winclone-BootOptions.png

  • by gtolj2,

    gtolj2 gtolj2 Oct 21, 2015 2:09 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 21, 2015 2:09 PM in response to Loner T

    I ran sysprep in Windows (generalization on) and re-imaged in WinClone, and the BOOTCAMP partition still does not appear on the boot screen. I tried both options to make it EFI- and legacy (MBR)-bootable, but neither have worked. I have no idea what else to try at this point.

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 21, 2015 2:19 PM in response to gtolj2
    Level 7 (24,115 points)
    Safari
    Oct 21, 2015 2:19 PM in response to gtolj2

    From your new Mac, please post the output of the following commands?

     

    sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

    sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

    diskutil list

    diskutil cs list

  • by gtolj2,

    gtolj2 gtolj2 Oct 21, 2015 3:35 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 21, 2015 3:35 PM in response to Loner T

    MacBook-Pro:$ sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

    Password:

    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 -  977105059] <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    

    MacBook-Pro:$ sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

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

    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 977105059

          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  620911728      2  GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

      621321368    1269536      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

      622590904       1096       

      622592000  354512896      4  GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

      977104896        131       

      977105027         32         Sec GPT table

      977105059          1         Sec GPT header

    MacBook-Pro:$ 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                         317.9 GB   disk0s2

       3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

       4:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                181.5 GB   disk0s4

    /dev/disk1

       #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

       0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           *317.6 GB   disk1

                                     Logical Volume on disk0s2

                                     3101F0A1-87CA-420A-9002-E90B2252BDA2

                                     Unencrypted

    MacBook-Pro:$ diskutil cs list

    CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)

    |

    +-- Logical Volume Group 77749CB4-0350-4404-855A-034AE84DC0FD

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

        Name:         Macintosh HD

        Status:       Online

        Size:         317906804736 B (317.9 GB)

        Free Space:   0 B (0 B)

        |

        +-< Physical Volume 35AB577D-66A0-429D-B87C-6BE5C88CE04A

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

        |   Index:    0

        |   Disk:     disk0s2

        |   Status:   Online

        |   Size:     317906804736 B (317.9 GB)

        |

        +-> Logical Volume Family 628370B1-12AC-472E-BE20-C9F1233215EA

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

            Encryption Status:       Unlocked

            Encryption Type:         None

            Conversion Status:       NoConversion

            Conversion Direction:    -none-

            Has Encrypted Extents:   No

            Fully Secure:            No

            Passphrase Required:     No

            |

            +-> Logical Volume 3101F0A1-87CA-420A-9002-E90B2252BDA2

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

                Disk:                  disk1

                Status:                Online

                Size (Total):          317554483200 B (317.6 GB)

                Conversion Progress:   -none-

                Revertible:            Yes (no decryption required)

                LV Name:               Macintosh HD

                Volume Name:           Macintosh HD

                Content Hint:          Apple_HFS

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 21, 2015 5:27 PM in response to gtolj2
    Level 7 (24,115 points)
    Safari
    Oct 21, 2015 5:27 PM in response to gtolj2

    If the MBR failed, was the output of Fdisk captured? If yes, did it have more than one entry?

  • by gtolj2,

    gtolj2 gtolj2 Oct 21, 2015 5:29 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 21, 2015 5:29 PM in response to Loner T

    If I make the BOOTCAMP partition legacy (MBR)-bootable in WinClone and run fdisk, this is the output I get:

     

    Gregs-MacBook-Pro:~ Greg$ sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

    Password:

    Disk: /dev/disk0 geometry: 60821/255/63 [977105060 sectors]

    Signature: 0xAA55

             Starting       Ending

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

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

    1: EE    0   0   2 -   25 127  14 [         1 -     409639] <Unknown ID>

    2: AC   25 127  15 - 1023 118  59 [    409640 -  620911728] <Unknown ID>

    3: AB 1023 118  60 - 1023 125  19 [ 621321368 -    1269536] Darwin Boot

    *4: 07 1023 142  45 - 1023 246  33 [ 622592000 -  354512896] HPFS/QNX/AUX

  • by Loner T,Solvedanswer

    Loner T Loner T Oct 21, 2015 5:45 PM in response to gtolj2
    Level 7 (24,115 points)
    Safari
    Oct 21, 2015 5:45 PM in response to gtolj2

    The issue you have now is that the 2015 Macs will not support MBR-based OSes (W7 is one). W7 does not have proper EFI support, so neither setting will help.

     

    The CSM-BIOS layer is deprecated in 2015 Macs and these do not support W7. As a test, remove this Winclone image and install W8.1 in EFI and test. Reference - Use Windows 8.1 on your Mac with Boot Camp - Apple Support .

  • by gtolj2,

    gtolj2 gtolj2 Oct 23, 2015 4:58 AM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 23, 2015 4:58 AM in response to Loner T

    So I ended up taking a different path:

    1. Removed WinClone image from new Mac and re-created empty BOOTCAMP partition.
    2. Upgraded Windows 7 on old Mac to Windows 10 (did not run sysprep).
    3. Re-imaged Windows 10 onto new Mac using Target Disk Mode.
    4. Image restoration completed without any issues; no problem setting startup disk in system preferences (previously gave the unable to bless error).

    However, whenever I try to boot into my new Windows 10 partition using either Option on startup or choosing Windows in system preferences, my computer boots directly into OS X. Any thoughts? Do I just need to suck it up and perform a fresh install of Windows 10 and port everything back over manually?

     

    Thank you so much for all of your help!

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