MBP fails to boot recovery mode

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ChiefBraz Author

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MBP fails to boot recovery mode

What I have done:

1. Created a BOOTCAMP WIN7 partition.

2. Installed WIN7 with no issues.

3. After installing realized that BOOTCAMP partition was too small to accommodate applications.

4. In OSX I used Disk Utilities to create a new partition in hopes to expand WIN7 using computer management.

Note: Did not know at this point that I couldn't resize the BOOTCAMP partition.

5. During reboot the BOOTCAMP partition was missing. Returned to OSX and removed newly created partition in hopes to fix issue. That didn't fix the issue so returned MAC partition back to previous size.

6. Found online for instructions to restore BOOTCAMP partition. Basically, I executed (sudo gdisk /dev/disk0),following commands: r<enter>, h<enter>, 4<enter>, y<enter>, MBR hex code Default<enter>, y<enter>, n<enter>, o<enter>, w<enter>, y<enter>. When I attempted to write this out I received an error. After research I realized that even as root I didn't have the ability to write out the settings. This required me to turn off SIP. So I booted into recovery mode, within Terminal I was able to execute (csrutil disable). No issue. Returned to OSX and at that point I was able to write out the settings. Rebooted and my BOOTCAMP partition was available. At this point I was back to original issue with BOOTCAMP partition too small.

7. Purchased WINCLONE and backed up my BOOTCAMP partition. Deleted BOOTCAMP partition and returned MAC to original hard disk configuration. Back to manufacture settings.

8. Resized drive using Disk Utilities to what I had tried to accomplish. Used WINCLONE to restore BOOTCAMP image. This all worked great. All partitions show up when holding down alt/options during boot. I can enter OSX EC and WIN7.

9. After reaching this point I decided it was important to turn SIP back on. When I attempted to boot into recovery mode using alt/options the MBP displayed the splash screen of loading but then shuts off. So I then attempted to use the command+r which takes me to internet loading recovery. The recovery screen does eventually load and when I try to execute (csrutil enable) I get bash command error command not found.

Note: I have ran disk utility first aid from within OSX EC and internet recovery menu, no errors. Still no luck with entering recovery mode.

Current state: Both operating systems work fine. I was even able to update WIN7 to WIN10 with no issues. I just cannot enter recovery mode to enable SIP.

Any advice?

My next option was to delete BOOTCAMP partition and do a clean install however I am afraid that my purchased software such as FileMaker Pro and WINCLONE will not be available. I do have TimeMachine running and backing up. With that said, when I attempted to restore the wife's iMac it would not allow me to restore the OS using TimeMachine. I'm not sure why but I had to use my image to restore her computer. My MBP FileValt is currently turned off. It was turned on but felt I needed to turn it off to prevent that from being a possible issue. I have done a fresh backup using TimeMachine and also WINCLONE.

thanks in advance.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013), OS X El Capitan (10.11.2), BOOTCAMP: WIN 7 Installed

Posted on Jan 9, 2016 7:55 AM

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Answer 1

ChiefBraz Author

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Jan 9, 2016 6:36 PM in response to ChiefBraz

Update:

1. I just completed a clean install of EC and that corrected my SIP issue. Just want to add that TimeMachine worked great! I was able to restore all applications.

2. Next objective is to attempt to use WINCLONE and install WIN10 image. My hopes is that it won't change my MBR.

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Answer 2

ChiefBraz Author

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Jan 11, 2016 7:28 AM in response to ChiefBraz

Alright everyone, solution found. I believe my issue was due to gdisk. In addition, Bootcamp 6 not installing. So, here's what I did to resolve:

1. Not sure if it was required but I did do a clean install of EC. Formatted entire drive and did a fresh install and also did a time machine restore. As stated above that restored my system back without issue. SIP was enabled and recovery mode was available in local mode.

2. Purchased WINCLONE. Great tool! I then proceeded to use bootcamp and this is where I encountered an error with SIP Enabled. I did have to disable it in order to allow bootcamp to create partition. At first this did concern me however later it wasn't an issue. This time I ensured that the partition was big enough to install Win 7, Office 10, and RIFT (Main purpose of this exercise!).

3. At this point, I still left SIP disabled. I did have a clean image of WIN 7 and was able to use WINCLONE to restore.

4. Upon boot into Win 7, I attempted to install Bootcamp 6 but it was taking forever. I left it on overnight and it still was installing. So I canceled installation of bootcamp and of course that caused errors with keyboard, mouse, and display, etc. The bootcamp icon wasn't in the system tray either.

5. Found on the forum how to go into regedit and discovered that the variable was completely missing for bootcamp. After following the instructions and a reboot my system was still missing bootcamp. This led me to try and install BC 6 again and again it hung up. I canceled out and then opened apple update and was able to get to the file location where it stored BC 6 installer. Purely luck. This time I was able to install using the bootcamp installer and it allowed me to see what was happening and that is when I found that the Realtek Audio driver was holding up the install process. Again, back to forum searches and found where someone had posted how to open task manager, click on more details and kill the RealTeck Audio install process. Once I did that BC 6 completed installation!

That's my story and sticking to it! Yes, I was successful and then enabled SIP and all is happy!

Thanks to the many that post on forums. You did help me out in finding a solution to this problem.

NOTE: As for gdisk, I caution you on using it. I did follow the instructions to the detail and have played with similar application in Linux. At no point do I think I edited the wrong partition. It is definitely one to use as a last resort.

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