Missing BootCamp partition after installing OS X El Capitan

Question

I used to have a 40GB Windows 10 BootCamp partition. I wanted to reduce the size of the partition but having installed El Capitan, I found the the BootCamp volume is &#x27;missing&#x27; ie greyed out in Disk Utility and no longer visible as a startup disk.I saw threads on similar issues (e.g. @Loner T: Boot camp missing after El Capitan - My output) and hoped I might be able to get some assistance in restoring it.Thanks to anyone who can help!User @Loner T asked for the following Terminal outputs to help to specify my particular issue:Last login: Sun Nov 22 14:00:52 on consoleLisas-MacBook-Pro:~ lisa$ diskutil list/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1   2:                  Apple_HFS Holly                   180.0 GB   disk0s2   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3   4:       Microsoft Basic Data                         40.0 GB    disk0s4Lisas-MacBook-Pro:~ lisa$ diskutil cs listNo CoreStorage logical volume groups foundLisas-MacBook-Pro:~ lisa$ sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0WARNING: Improper use of the sudo command could lead to data lossor the deletion of important system files. Please double-check yourtyping when using sudo. Type "man sudo" for more information.To proceed, enter your password, or type Ctrl-C to abort.Password:gpt show: /dev/disk0: mediasize&#x3D;251000193024; sectorsize&#x3D;512; blocks&#x3D;490234752gpt show: /dev/disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0gpt show: /dev/disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1gpt show: /dev/disk0: Sec GPT at sector 490234751      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  351562496      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC  351972136    1269536      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC  353241672   58869176          412110848   78123008      4  GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7  490233856        863          490234719         32         Sec GPT table  490234751          1         Sec GPT headerLisas-MacBook-Pro:~ lisa$ sudo fdisk /dev/disk0Disk: /dev/disk0 geometry: 30515/255/63 [490234752 sectors]Signature: 0xAA55         Starting       Ending#: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]------------------------------------------------------------------------1: EE 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [         1 -     409639] &lt;Unknown ID&gt;2: AF 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [    409640 -  351562496] HFS+       3: AB 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [ 351972136 -    1269536] Darwin Boot4: 0C 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [ 412110848 -   78123008] Win95 FAT32L

Loner T · Accepted Answer

The gap between GPT3 and GPT4 indicates that you have a lost NTFS header in this gap. Can you use El Capitan has deleted my bootcamp windows partition as a reference and download Testdisk and GPT Fdisk and start a Testdisk scan?

mandemcole · Answer

Hi @Loner T,Thanks for responding. I followed the instructions you linked to but ran into an error with GPT Fdisk: "Unable to open device &#x27;/dev/rdisk0&#x27; for writing! Errno is 1! Aborting write!"Full outputs are below. Let me know if you need to see any other Testdisk screens?TESTDISK OUTPUT:Last login: Tue Nov 24 08:44:19 on ttys002Lisas-MacBook-Pro:~ lisa$ /Users/lisa/Downloads/testdisk-7.0/testdisk ; exit;TestDisk 7.0, Data Recovery Utility, April 2015Christophe GRENIER &lt;grenier@cgsecurity.org&gt;http://www.cgsecurity.orgNo disk found.TestDisk will try to restart itself using the sudo command to getroot (superuser) privileges.sudo may ask your user password, it doesn&#x27;t ask for the root password.Usually there is no echo or &#x27;*&#x27; displayed when you type your password.Password:TestDisk 7.0, Data Recovery Utility, April 2015Christophe GRENIER &lt;grenier@cgsecurity.org&gt;http://www.cgsecurity.orgTestDisk 7.0, Data Recovery Utility, April 2015Christophe GRENIER &lt;grenier@cgsecurity.org&gt;http://www.cgsecurity.org     MS Data                353243136  490233848  136990713Directory / dr-xr-xr-x     0     0         0  8-Nov-2014 21:45 . dr-xr-xr-x     0     0         0  8-Nov-2014 21:45 .. dr-xr-xr-x     0     0         0  1-Nov-2014 11:11 $Recycle.Bin dr-xr-xr-x     0     0         0  1-Nov-2014 21:41 745951ad17dc7a906e5a934a03 dr-xr-xr-x     0     0         0  1-Nov-2014 18:51 Boot dr-xr-xr-x     0     0         0  1-Nov-2014 11:12 Intel dr-xr-xr-x     0     0         0 22-Aug-2013 16:22 PerfLogs dr-xr-xr-x     0     0         0  1-Nov-2014 21:41 Program Files dr-xr-xr-x     0     0         0  1-Nov-2014 12:08 Program Files (x86) dr-xr-xr-x     0     0         0  1-Nov-2014 11:14 ProgramData dr-xr-xr-x     0     0         0  1-Nov-2014 10:52 Recovery&gt;dr-xr-xr-x     0     0         0  8-Nov-2014 21:44 System Volume Information dr-xr-xr-x     0     0         0  1-Nov-2014 11:10 Users dr-xr-xr-x     0     0         0 28-Dec-2014 05:34 Windows                                                   NextUse Right to change directory, h to hide Alternate Data Stream    q to quit, : to select the current file, a to select all files    C to copy the selected files, c to copy the current fileGPT FDISK OUTPUT:Lisas-MacBook-Pro:~ lisa$ Sudo gdisk /dev/rdisk0GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.1Warning: Devices opened with shared lock will not have theirpartition table automatically reloaded!NOTE: Write test failed with error number 1. It will be impossible to savechanges to this disk&#x27;s partition table!You may need to deactivate System Integrity Protection to use this program. Seehttps://www.quora.com/How-do-I-turn-off-the-rootless-in-OS-X-El-Capitan-10-11for more information.Partition table scan:  MBR: hybrid  BSD: not present  APM: not present  GPT: presentFound valid GPT with hybrid MBR; using GPT.Command (? for help): pDisk /dev/rdisk0: 490234752 sectors, 233.8 GiBLogical sector size: 512 bytesDisk identifier (GUID): 00006F6E-6BE0-0000-CD22-0000E70B0000Partition table holds up to 128 entriesFirst usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 490234718Partitions will be aligned on 8-sector boundariesTotal free space is 58870045 sectors (28.1 GiB)Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name   1              40          409639   200.0 MiB   EF00  EFI system partition   2          409640       351972135   167.6 GiB   AF00  Holly   3       351972136       353241671   619.9 MiB   AB00  Recovery HD   4       412110848       490233855   37.3 GiB    0700  BOOTCAMPCommand (? for help): d   Partition number (1-4): 4Command (? for help): nPartition number (4-128, default 4): 4First sector (34-490234718, default &#x3D; 353241672) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: 353243136Last sector (353243136-490234718, default &#x3D; 490234718) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: +136990713Current type is &#x27;Apple HFS/HFS+&#x27;Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter &#x3D; AF00): 0700Changed type of partition to &#x27;Microsoft basic data&#x27;Command (? for help): pDisk /dev/rdisk0: 490234752 sectors, 233.8 GiBLogical sector size: 512 bytesDisk identifier (GUID): 00006F6E-6BE0-0000-CD22-0000E70B0000Partition table holds up to 128 entriesFirst usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 490234718Partitions will be aligned on 8-sector boundariesTotal free space is 2340 sectors (1.1 MiB)Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name   1              40          409639   200.0 MiB   EF00  EFI system partition   2          409640       351972135   167.6 GiB   AF00  Holly   3       351972136       353241671   619.9 MiB   AB00  Recovery HD   4       353243136       490233848   65.3 GiB    0700  Microsoft basic dataCommand (? for help): wFinal checks complete. About to write GPT data. THIS WILL OVERWRITE EXISTINGPARTITIONS!!Do you want to proceed? (Y/N): yOK; writing new GUID partition table (GPT) to /dev/rdisk0.Warning: Devices opened with shared lock will not have theirpartition table automatically reloaded!Unable to open device &#x27;/dev/rdisk0&#x27; for writing! Errno is 1! Aborting write!

mandemcole · Answer

Just noticed this link in the GPT fdisk intro text and some references to &#x27;SIP&#x27; in the thread you linked: https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-turn-off-the-rootless-in-OS-X-El-Capitan-10-11I&#x27;ll go follow those instructions and try the steps again...

mandemcole · Answer

@Loner T you have saved my machine! Windows is back!The Bootcamp partition is available and bootable again and I&#x27;ve turned SIP back on.Thank you so much for your solution to this problem. I have no idea what I would have done without your help.

Loner T · Answer

Please backup OS X and Windows. Create a Windows System Restore point.