BootCamp fails to boot
Far too long; tons of diagnostics/review, know very little about this space. Questions at end...
SUMMARY:
Win7 BootCamp partition fails to boot, appears unmountable. Accessible (and mounts) from bootable MAC OS partition, but NTFS flagged as dirty. Cannot proceed through Win7 automated or manual options via either HDD or install DVD. Windows Diagnostics memory test runs from HDD; hence, parts of boot options are accessible, OS is not.
IDEA (naïve, known almost zero):
HW related (above OS level, heat or?) forced reboot while laptop was not being used, rebooted while in Win7 with internal HDD partition/system set to optimize for speed versus removal, exposing unwritten cache. Subsequent testing (with MemTest) returned bad RAM stick (details far below), possible contributor to forced shutdown problems. Now Win7 partition marked as dirty, problems with Win7 boot environment (BCD, bad sector, MFT entries incorrectly marked as used, something).
35% battery; recharged within Win7. No new software/changes, updates manual. White screen, indicative of MAC OS boot. System direct boots to Win7, maybe HW/system forced shutdown above OS level. Power button reboot resulted in failing Win7 boot loop (flash Blue SOD and reboot every 5 minutes). Win7 install DVD, selected Windows Setup (only OS option), returned:
Windows failed to start. Recent HW or SW change might be cause. Insert Win7 install disk, restart, select Repair...
File: \Boot\BCD Status: 0xc00000001
Info: Error trying to read the boot configuration data
Rebooted install DVD per instructions, returned current situation.
Win7 BootCamp partition boot returns:
Blue SOD: UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME: STOP 0xED. 2nd of 4 parameters is 0x9c (bad block/sector perhaps)
Mid 2010 MacBook Pro 17, 8 (2x4) GB RAM, 500 GB SATA internal HDD – straight from store
Mac OS - Snow Leopard 10.6.3 install DVD – upgraded to 10.6.4
BootCamp created 2nd partition with Win7 64 Pro (retail full DVD purchase)
Directly boots Win7 with no interim steps; updates set to manual
Built 2010, never altered. Only used Win7, never boot/touch MAC OS, no problems. No 3rd party or startup items in MAC OS. Very limited 3rd party in Win7; used exclusively for MS Office and data backup (haha).
Attempt Win7 via HDD and Install DVD: Normal Boot, F2 - Windows Boot Manager, F8 – Advanced Boot Options
One OS choice listed/referenced in F2 and F8: HDD is Windows 7, DVD is Windows Setup [EMS enabled]
F2 and F8 text-based, nothing progresses to GUI
F8 options include: 3 Safe Modes, Enable Boot Logging, LKGC, Debugging Mode, etc. HDD additionally has Repair Computer as first selection. After 5 minutes, all choices produce same results:
HDD: flashed Blue SOD and reboot
DVD: stalled (overnight) Black SOD with low resolution mouse pointer
Guessing DVD doesn’t provide install, etc options upon recognition of unbootable Win7 install on partition
MAC OS partition itself acts/appears fine, and interacts with Win7 partition. Win7 partition info ok/correct (mounted, NTFS, SMART verified, used space, total space, etc), icon displayed on desktop, see directories, copy files over wireless network to another PC.
Upon MAC OS normal boot, Win7 partition listed flagged as dirty. Boot log info below.
Note my abbreviation: NTFS-WARN = NTFS-fs warning (device /dev/disk0s3, pid #)
Note my abbreviation: NTFS-ERROR = NTFS-fs error (device /dev/disk0s3, pid #)
- 2.15.23am NTFS driver 3.2 [Flags: R/W]
- 2.15.25am NTFS volume name BOOTCAMP, version 3.1
- 2.15.25am NTFS-WARN: ntfs_system_inodes_get(): NTFS volume is dirty. You should unmount it and run chkdsk
66 minute normal boot; preoccupied dealing with BootCamp partition (2 boot attempt samples, within 10 seconds total time, kernel message repeats 205 and 213 times respectively, about every 19 seconds):
- 2.15.45am disk 0s3: I/O error
- 2.15.45am (my comment – empty line in kernel log – printed each time)
- 2.15.45am (my comment – empty line in kernel log – printed each time)
- 2.15.45am NTFS-ERROR: ntfs_pagein(): Failed (cluster_pagein_ext(), error 5)
- 2.15.45am NTFS-ERROR: ntfs_page_map_ext(): Failed to read page (error 5)
Boot successfully completes; no apparent log of successful mount, exit from attempts or similar. Win7 partition visible, mounted, accessible, etc.
Within MAC OS, accessing Win7 partition (per action - moving through directories, copying files, etc) results in same 19 second pause starting with I/O error which repeated during boot, with following message:
Disk0s3: I/O error
NTFS-ERROR: ntfs_mft_record_map_ext(): Failed to read buffer of mft record 0x7bc (error 5)
NTFS-ERROR: ntfs_inode_read(): Failed to map mft record
NTFS-ERROR: ntfs_inode_read(): Failed (error 5) for inode 0x7bc. Run chkdsk.
NTFS-ERROR: ntfs_vnop_lookup(): Failed to get inode 0x7bc (error 5)
Then action completes successfully. First 10 actions reference record 0x7bc (under either of 2 login samples), then cycle through 5 additional record references repeatedly, regardless of number of actions.
RAM ISSUE:
2 sticks - Win7 DVD – Memory Diagnostics – Extended Memory Test, 2 passes, 6 hours, no errors
2 sticks - Apple Hardware Test (AHT) – fails with 4MEM/60/....
1 stick - AHT, rotating slots, either stick - no errors
2 sticks - MemTest – fails second half of tests (copy/compare), isolated single stick returning errors both slots
1 stick - MemTest – good stick multiple passes both slots, 15 passes over 8 hours, continue with 1 stick
Note: everything remained same on system overall both before and after stick removal
APPLE STEPS:
Repaired disk and permissions from MAC OS install DVD, ran AHT, reset SMC and NVRAM, reset home folder permissions and ACLS, booted Safe Mode. Booted Single User Mode to run fsck –fy –d on MAC partition, no problems.
Ran fsck with –r to rebuild catalog tree.
Invalid volume file count - (It should be 407050 instead of 406481)
Invalid directory count - (It should be 133011 instead of 132946)
Invalid volume free count - (It should be 56205259 instead of 56213776)
Invalid VHB nextCatalogID
Volume header needs minor repair
(2,0)
Verify Status: VIStat.....
** Repairing volume
** Rechecking volume
** The volume Macintosh HD was repaired successfully
***** File System was modified *****
Ran fsck again, no problems.
GUESSES:
MAC OS partition, GPT and Hybrid MBR ok; boot sequence inside Win7 partition is corrupted. Bad sector, bad MFT, bad BCD, something – trips Win7 boot/repair options badly enough to entirely fail, yet allows MAC OS to interact with Win7 partition eventually. Maybe Win7 fails quickly with boot problems, whereas MAC OS cycles through MFT records until it finds something acceptable. Slow interaction from MAC OS to Win7 partition due to MAC OS constantly negotiating NTFS flags. Bad shutdown left MFT records marked as in use (not properly closed/destroyed upon shutdown) from NTFS, MAC OS sees as dirty and forces chkdsk from NTFS, MAC OS addresses subsequent MFT record. Repeats/cycles over marked in use MFT records.
MAC OS thinks it addressed inconsistency, but might have MFT record marked in use, not referenced from anywhere. MAC OS hopes chkdsk will recover MFT record by linking it somewhere or properly freeing it. Cannot get anywhere to run chkdsk, but if chkdsk leaves record marked in use, MAC OS will again detect corruption and end in circle anyways.
- 1. Data immaterial, but want to preserve MS Office installation on Win7 partition
- 2. Naively seems like OS internals are ok, need to correct step(s) to access good areas
- 3. Why does original full retail Windows 7 DVD, which boots, fail to progress under any options?
- 4. Why does unmountable Win7 partition eventually mount under Mac OS boot?
- 5. Want to run chkdsk, bootrec options within Win7, but cannot access space to do so...
Know nothing about this space; can TestDisk, Easy BCD or similar simply address this – without causing problems with the BootCamp implementation?
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.3)