scottieg
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Q: Lost boot camp Windows during upgrade to El Capitan

I have 24-inch Mid 2007 iMac.  I was using Boot Camp so that I could also boot into Windows Vista.   I recently upgraded successfully from Mountain Lion to Yosemite.  But then I attempted to upgrade to El Capitan, and the upgrade hung in the middle, never to finish.  I then restarted my iMac and both Mac and Windows partitions were gone. I was able to use Time Machine to recreate my Yosemite instance, but the Windows partition was still missing.  Furthermore, when I try to create a new partition with Boot Camp, , I get an error that says "the startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition."  How do I recreate my WIndows partition (I do have a backup) and my current Yosemite partition. 

Posted on Dec 15, 2015 7:58 AM

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scottieg

Q: Lost boot camp Windows during upgrade to El Capitan

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  • by scottieg,

    scottieg scottieg Dec 16, 2015 6:55 AM in response to Loner T
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    Dec 16, 2015 6:55 AM in response to Loner T

    Thank you for that suggestion.  It will be a few days before I am able to try that.  I will post an update then.

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Dec 16, 2015 6:57 AM in response to Loner T
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    Dec 16, 2015 6:57 AM in response to Loner T

    Post back when you can.

  • by scottieg,

    scottieg scottieg Dec 16, 2015 12:09 PM in response to Loner T
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    Dec 16, 2015 12:09 PM in response to Loner T

    Oh, I found that I have an install USB from Mountain Lion, from when I had upgraded to that a few years ago.  Can I use that for the steps you are suggesting, or would it still be better to create one for Yosemite from my current install?

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Dec 16, 2015 12:16 PM in response to scottieg
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    Dec 16, 2015 12:16 PM in response to scottieg

    If it ML 10.8.5, it may work. The safer option is to create one for Yosemite. You may be able to boot from the ML and get to App Store to download Yosemite.

  • by scottieg,

    scottieg scottieg Dec 21, 2015 5:55 AM in response to Loner T
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    Dec 21, 2015 5:55 AM in response to Loner T

    Loner T: Well, I created an install USB for Yosemite from the desktop of my Mac.  However, when subsequently running it, it went half-way through and just hung.  And now that USB must have gotten corrupted, because it does not show when I try rebooting and holding down the option key.  Plus I am not even able to boot into the regular Mac desktop now. 

     

    I do still have the ML install USB from a couple of years ago, so I think I will need to use that after all.  Could you please review the steps I should take, if that works. 

     

    Thank you.

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Dec 21, 2015 6:11 AM in response to scottieg
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    Dec 21, 2015 6:11 AM in response to scottieg

    1. Try to run SMC and NVRAM Reset and check if you can boot into OS X.

    2. You can always erase the USB and create a new installer.

    3. Boot from your ML USB, if possible. Before we make changes, we should inspect for any unexplained behavior of commands. We should also check the version of ML.

  • by scottieg,

    scottieg scottieg Dec 21, 2015 7:49 AM in response to Loner T
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    Dec 21, 2015 7:49 AM in response to Loner T

    OK, I did the NVRAM reset (without the USB install connected) and went into OSX Utilities. The options it gives me there are:

    Restore from Time Machine Backup

    Reinstall OS X

    Get Help Online

    Disk Utility

     

    What do you suggest I do from here?

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Dec 21, 2015 9:15 AM in response to scottieg
    Level 7 (23,828 points)
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    Dec 21, 2015 9:15 AM in response to scottieg

    Click on Utilities -> Terminal and post the output of

     

    diskutil list

    diskutil cs list

     

    You may need to take screen photographs because there is no way to run Grab. Switching back and forth between Terminal and Safari is an option, but it is tedious.

  • by scottieg,

    scottieg scottieg Dec 21, 2015 12:28 PM in response to Loner T
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    Dec 21, 2015 12:28 PM in response to Loner T

    IMG_0469.JPGIMG_0470.JPG

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Dec 21, 2015 12:43 PM in response to scottieg
    Level 7 (23,828 points)
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    Dec 21, 2015 12:43 PM in response to scottieg

    1. Re-Boot normally.

    2. Install GPT Fdisk - http://sourceforge.net/projects/gptfdisk/ .

    3. Post the output of the following command.

         sudo dd if=/dev/rdisk0s2 count=1 2>/dev/null | hexdump -C

  • by scottieg,

    scottieg scottieg Dec 21, 2015 1:21 PM in response to Loner T
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    Dec 21, 2015 1:21 PM in response to Loner T

    When I reboot normally, it still goes to the OS X Utilities (after asking me which language) and not the Mac desktop  I did reset the SMC and NVRAM.  Do I want to restore from TM backup?

     

    IMG_0471.JPG

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Dec 21, 2015 1:39 PM in response to scottieg
    Level 7 (23,828 points)
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    Dec 21, 2015 1:39 PM in response to scottieg

    Since you have two Recovery HDs, the 'Reinstall OSX' icon has the clue. The image you posted is El Capitan Recovery.

     

    Let us first identify which recovery is which. Shutdown your Mac, boot up and hold the Alt/Option key.

     

    Select the first Recovery HD (this should be disk0s3), and take a photograph. Repeat and choose the next Recovery HD (this should be disk0s4) and take a photograph which is similar to this one. Let us compare the Reinstall OSX images.

  • by scottieg,

    scottieg scottieg Dec 21, 2015 2:35 PM in response to Loner T
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    Dec 21, 2015 2:35 PM in response to Loner T

    Does this image include the detail that you need?  The El Capitan recovery is a vestige of attempted upgrade from Yosemite to EC, which is the original cause of this whole mess.  Note that the R2-D2 icons are something that I added to the Mac hd way back when I was running OS X Leopard.

    IMG_0472.JPG

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Dec 21, 2015 2:49 PM in response to scottieg
    Level 7 (23,828 points)
    Safari
    Dec 21, 2015 2:49 PM in response to scottieg

    1. Can you post the output of the DD command?

    2. Let us test if marking your Windows part as bootable will resurrect Windows. The output of the DD is important, but without seeing it let us test the following steps. Please ignore the i386 MBR error message, but not any others.

     

    sudo fdisk -e /dev/disk0

    p

    setpid 2

    07

    flag 2

    p

    w

    y

     

     

    Reboot and test if Windows will boot.

  • by scottieg,

    scottieg scottieg Dec 21, 2015 4:09 PM in response to Loner T
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    Dec 21, 2015 4:09 PM in response to Loner T

    Just to clarify your last suggestions --

     

    in your suggestion  1), is DD by itself a command?

     

    in your suggestion 2), are each of those eight lines separate commands?  Or are they part of long command?

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