You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

BSOD in Win 7 Boot Camp with Pegasus R6

I'm running an early-2011 MacBook Pro with OSX 10.9.5 and Windows 7 on a Boot Camp partition (which I also use with Parallels 11). I've got a TB display daisy chained to a Pegasus R6 and from there to a Dell U2711 monitor. I recently reconfigured the Pegasus array to create an NTFS formatted logical drive to clone my Windows partition to before trying to upgrade to Windows 10 (I know it's not technically supported on pre-2012 models, hence the cloned backup).


As soon as the clone was finished, I tried to reboot into Boot Camp (using my normal Win7 partition, NOT the cloned partition on the Pegasus) but ran into a BSOD reboot loop ("STOP: 0x0000007B..."). I also tried to reboot using the cloned partition on the Pegasus, with the same BSOD result. Since the only thing I had changed since the last time I successfully used Boot Camp was the clone, I rebooted into OSX and erased the clone partition, but left it formatted as NTFS (using Tuxera NTFS). I tried booting into Windows again with the same result. I shut down the system, disconnected all TB peripherals, and tried Boot Camp again. This time, it worked with no problems. After reconnecting the TB cable, I rebooted into OSX, reformatted the Pegasus logical drive from NTFS to HFS, and was able to reboot into windows successfully.


Here's my question: does anyone know why I can't boot into Windows when there's an NTFS formatted logical drive configured on the Pegasus (even an empty one)? I have the latest Pegasus drivers installed on both the OSX and Windows sides, and using MacDrive I can access all the HFS partiitons on the Pegasus when booted into WIndows.


Thanks!

MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2011), Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Jul 21, 2016 5:30 PM

Reply
9 replies

Jul 21, 2016 8:12 PM in response to Zilla52

1. How did you erase the cloned drive?

2. You re-formatted the Pegasus logical drive, not erase it. There is a significant difference with boot code and MBR partitions.

3. You have Tuxera and MacDrive. These can cause corruption on NTFS drives due to possible conflicts with the Apple read-only NTFS driver. Please be careful with these products.

Jul 22, 2016 5:46 AM in response to Loner T

1. I used Disk Utility to format the drive, first as NTFS using Tuxera (BSOD), then as HFS+ (no BSOD). "Erase" is the term DU uses instead of format.

2. I'm aware there are differences between deleting files from a drive and formatting it, particularly with regard to boot sectors, etc. In both cases I re-formatted the logical drive.

3. Thank you for the warning.


Now, any ideas as to why the presence of an NTFS formatted logical drive on the Pegasus would cause a BSOD when trying to launch Boot Camp from an internal drive? Thanks!

Jul 22, 2016 6:06 AM in response to Zilla52

If you check the help of diskutil eraseVolume command (DU uses the same via the UI), it does not remove the partition, but lays down a new file system on that partition.


Can you temporarily remove/uninstall Tuxera, create a FAT32 partition on Pegasus, and then boot Windows and convert the FAT to NTFS and test boot ability of your internal Bootcamp/Windows installation?

Jul 22, 2016 6:16 AM in response to Loner T

I'm not sure all that is necessary. My next step was going to be to launch Boot Camp and format that logical drive directly in Windows to NTFS, then reboot back to Boot Camp to see if the same BSOD occurs. I'll report back what I find.


I have previously cloned my Boot Camp partition to a USB drive (using WinClone) and never had this problem before. I still have no idea why a cloned bootable partition on the Pegasus would cause issues as compared to the same thing on a USB drive...

Jul 25, 2016 5:26 PM in response to Zilla52

After partitioning & formatting the Pegasus logical drive as NTFS while booted into Windows, I was able to start my Boot Camp installation with no problems; however, I didn't try re-cloning my Boot Camp installation to the drive in that configuration. Even if WInClone will clone to a drive configured that way, I don't think that it could be a bootable backup without the EFI partition.


I reloaded OS X and re-partitioned the logical drive again using Disk Utility and set it to FAT32 (which produced the expected EFI partition, etc.). I then launched Windows and re-formatted the FAT32 partition as NTFS and booted back into OS X. I re-cloned my Boot Camp drive to the logical drive again and then tried to launch Boot Camp, but ran into the same BSOD boot loop.


I'm not sure if something has changed over time with regard to what configurations Boot Camp will support, but as I previously stated, a few years ago I maintained a clone of my Boot Camp install on an external USB drive and could successfully boot using either the internal or external drive...

Jul 25, 2016 6:22 PM in response to Loner T

The Promise Pegasus is a Thunderbolt external drive array with hardware RAID support (NOT Apple RAID). In my case, the R6 model, which has 6 4TB disks configured as a RAID 6 array using 5 drives with the 6th drive configured as a hot spare. That RAID array is broken up into 5 logical drives.


Because of the BSOD and my need to run some software in Boot Camp, I already re-partitioned the logical drive to HFS in order to erase the clone and get Windows working again. The output of a diskutil list is pasted below, but it would take several hours to re-clone Windows again to get back to the configuration that causes the problem and do another list. The issue has to be some kind of conflict in the EFI boot loader when it sees two drives with Windows boot sectors... I've read that Win 8.1 and later can boot using EFI vs MBR, so people have been able to get a Boot Camp installation working from an external TB drive. For now I think I'm going to just save a cloned disk image file (vs. a bootable cloned windows installation) on that drive and upgrade to Windows 10. If everything works, I'll try the bootable TB clone again later.


diskutil list

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_HFS User Data 999.9 GB disk0s2

/dev/disk1

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk1

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1

2: Apple_HFS MBPZilla 362.3 GB disk1s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk1s3

4: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 637.0 GB disk1s4

/dev/disk2

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: FDisk_partition_scheme *31.9 GB disk2

1: DOS_FAT_32 BEDROOM 31.9 GB disk2s1

/dev/disk3

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *4.0 TB disk3

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk3s1

2: Apple_HFS Time Machine 4.0 TB disk3s2

/dev/disk4

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *2.0 TB disk4

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk4s1

2: Apple_HFS ShadowProtect 2.0 TB disk4s2

/dev/disk5

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *5.0 TB disk5

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk5s1

2: Apple_HFS Pegasus 5.0 TB disk5s2

/dev/disk6

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *650.0 GB disk6

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk6s1

2: Apple_HFS WinClone 649.7 GB disk6s2

/dev/disk7

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *350.0 GB disk7

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk7s1

2: Apple_HFS MacClone 349.7 GB disk7s2

Jul 25, 2016 6:55 PM in response to Zilla52

Zilla52 wrote:


The Promise Pegasus is a Thunderbolt external drive array with hardware RAID support (NOT Apple RAID).

TB and W7 are problematic. Under normal circumstances, W7 requires a reboot to recognize TB drives.


Is your Daisy chain MBP -> Pegasus -> TB Display -> U2711. What is the connection between TB and U2711?


The issue has to be some kind of conflict in the EFI boot loader when it sees two drives with Windows boot sectors...

Unlikely. When you install Windows via BCA, you have two Windows Bootloaders - the internal disk and the installer. Your 2011 MBP does not support EFI Boot, since it is a preUEFI model. Installing EFI causes more problems. W7 should be installed using BIOS/MBR. You can run msinfo32 and check BIOS mode.


I've read that Win 8.1 and later can boot using EFI vs MBR, so people have been able to get a Boot Camp installation working from an external TB drive.

EFI installations of W8.1/W10 are supported on late 2013 and later models which are UEFI-compliant.


For now I think I'm going to just save a cloned disk image file (vs. a bootable cloned windows installation) on that drive and upgrade to Windows 10. If everything works, I'll try the bootable TB clone again later.

2011 Macs officially do not support W10. An upgrade is possible, but be aware of potential driver issues. You may be better off with all your applications and software on an external D: drive with a C: on the internal drive being OS-only. If you have problems, just erase and re-install Windows on C: (internal disk) and D: can continue functioning independently of the Windows OS on other Macs, which may have a Bootcamp/Windows installed.


Is disk1 an internal disk in the main disk bay of the 2011 MBP?

Jul 25, 2016 7:13 PM in response to Loner T

My TB config is MBP - TB Display - Pegasus - U2711 (via TB to DisplayPort cable). A non-TB Display monitor has to be the last item in the chain because it doesn't actually have TB support or an extra port to continue connecting additional TB peripherals.


Come to think of it, I'm starting to wonder if the last time I had a bootable external Boot Camp clone if it wasn't Windows XP instead of Windows 7.


I realize Win10 isn't officially supported on the 2011 MBP, but I want to do the upgrade before it's no longer free. I can always revert back to Win7 if I run into problems. In any case, I think I've milked this MBP as long as I can. I'm planning to get a new one once the new models come out in (hopefully) a few months.


Thanks for your help!

BSOD in Win 7 Boot Camp with Pegasus R6

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.