Bootcamp problems

In Native Mode Bootcamp does not recognize that the Windows disk exists.

Does it mean you cannot see Bootcamp in System Preferences -> Startup Disk? If you restart you Mac and hold Alt/Option key, do you see the Windows disk as an available selection?

The answer is no, Windows disk is not available-"does not recognize that the Windows disk exists."

In virtual mode, Windows tries to install, but fails with error messages: Startup failed VMware-Virtual IDE HD, from which I conclude that it can find the disk, but cannot connect to the operating system on it.

There should be no additional installation of Windows, if Bootcamp is being imported. However, if this is referring to VMware Tools being updated, do you get an error message?

My error in communicating. I should have said, Windows tries to boot, but fails with error messages. Sorry.

When I load my Windows 7x64 startup disks and attempt to do maintenance on the Windows system, I get the message that the maintenance package on the disk is not compatible with the version of Windows I am attempting to repair.

What is the 'maintenance' you are trying to execute? Where did this startup Windows disk come from? Did you upgrade to W10?

Please read my comment. My Windows system is version 7 - 64 bit. I have the start-up disks for that system. When I load them there is a maintenance option. I checked that path due to the error message I received when Windows failed to start up. No, I did not upgrade to Windows 10.

I know that I can clean the Windows disk and start over with Bootcamp and a new install on Windows. However, I will lose the program files on that disk and I need them. At this time I have no way to access the Windows disk.

Shutdown the MP, remove the El Capitan disk physically from the Mac, and test Windows.

Certainly that is a possibility to try. My sense is that Boot camp has lost its pointer(s) to the Windows disk and removing the El Capitan disk will not change that. Interestingly, if (while in Mountain Lion) I go to "system preferences" and look at the choices I have for startup disks, the Windows disk shows there as an option. I have tried that, however as expected without bootcamp I end up with a blinking curser and blank screen.

I do have one fall back position and that is I have backup cd copies of the programs/documents as of January this year. Thus the possibility of erasing the Windows disk and re-installing Bootcamp and Windows is not as bad as I originally thought.

________________________

Thanks for your questions and suggestions.

Loner T,

Sorry for the delay in responding. Had an early morning meeting and then had to get El Capitan started, Safari setup and do an update to El Capitan (now at 10.11.6). I don't have all the answers to your questions but thought I'd get off what I do while I work on the rest. Thanks for your patience and helpfulness.

ORGramps-RK

Does Windows boot properly, when you select it from the ML installation.

No

If you switch to El Capitan, can you post the output of

diskutil list

diskutil cs list

When booted in El Capitan, please run the following two procedures,

Reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support

How to Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

and test.

Do you have any third-party NTFS software?

New turf to me. Did a search and have unix executable files named NTFSCP, NTFSCAT, NTFS-3G. I did not knowingly seek and download those files-perhaps they came as a result of BootCamp or VMware Fusion? In ML I can see the Windows disk and identify the files in it. Might ML automatically us the NTFS capability to enable me to see those files? Through ML I have downloaded the critical files I need to my FAT formatted thumb drive. Unless ML has polluted those files, I have covered my bases re what I need from the Windows disk should I need to erase it and start over.

In El Capitan Disk Utility, what does the Windows disk show up as?

Interestingly, when I try to open the El Capitan Disk Utility I get an error message "You can’t use this version of the application “Disk Utility” with this version of OS X. You have 'Disk Utility' 13." In System Preferences the Windows disk shows as a possible startup disk. I have not yet tried to open the system using that, but expect I will get another blank screen as when I tried it on ML. Will try after I send this report.

Lone T,

Sorry for the delay, but have done a number of things. But first a reply to your last message re: "UI." The Mac Pro in question is a 2008 (early), not a 2010 (sounds like you are busy helping others - thanks for spending time with me!). Therefore the question do I need to execute your last instruction? If so, please advise how I manually the volume and let the Apple NTFs driver control it. How do I determine for sure that the NTFS driver is not already controlling it?

Now onto what I have done.

When booted in El Capitan, please run the following two procedures,

Reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support

Done

How to Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

Not able to do as could not get the sound to work at startup either through my speaker system or through built in speakers.

and test.

Tested after resetting the SMC, but no change. Still cannot access Windows in either Native or Virtual System mode.

If you switch to El Capitan, can you post the output of

diskutil list

diskutil cs list

Still have not done. In light of your last message should I still do this?

_______________

In one of your messages you suggested pulling the EC disk and trying startup to see if the system would work properly.

Done, and the answer is no. The system in Bootcamp Native mode or in Virtual system cannot find the Windows disk.

Lastly, I did one additional thing as I was seeing EC having trouble booting (it would get part way (not yet to login) and then restart. I'm an old retired computer science professor and I recall in earlier Macs the start-up disk should be in slot one or two. Since I had the EC disk in slot 4 and Windows in slot 2, I re-located the drives as follows: ML-1, EC-2, Windows-3 and Back-up in 4. EC is now starting every time I restart. At least that change seems to have helped one problem.

Thanks for your help and patience. I await for your next response. It may be tomorrow morning before I get back to you

If you switch to El Capitan, can you post the output of

diskutil list

Last login: Thu Aug 18 22:06:37 on ttys000

Rexs-Mac-Pro:~ RexK$ diskutil list

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk0

1: Microsoft Basic Data 499.9 GB disk0s1

/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk1

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1

2: Apple_HFS OS X 499.2 GB disk1s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk1s3

/dev/disk2 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk2

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk2s1

2: Apple_HFS Backup 999.9 GB disk2s2

/dev/disk3 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk3

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk3s1

2: Apple_HFS El Capitan 499.2 GB disk3s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk3s3

/dev/disk4 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Untitled UDF Volume *4.7 GB disk4

Rexs-Mac-Pro:~ RexK$

______________________________________________________

diskutil cs list

Last login: Thu Aug 18 22:09:39 on ttys000

Rexs-Mac-Pro:~ RexK$ diskutil cs list

No CoreStorage logical volume groups found

Rexs-Mac-Pro:~ RexK$

______________________________

These lists were run on El Capitan with disks assigned as follows"

Windows-1, EC-2, ML-3, Backup-4

Thanks again for your time and effort in this "matter." Please advise next steps.

ORGramps-RK

Loner T,

I have looked at the report I sent you and am puzzled as to the disk numbering. I have looked at the system report and sure enough the disk numbering does not agree with the bay assignment. Oh well. In any event attached is a snap shot I took of the system report for the only WDC disk in the system on which is loaded EC.

All for tonight. Thanks again for your efforts.

Typically, your BC/Windows disk (disk0 for now) when dedicated to Windows is partitioned as an MBR disk, not as a GPT disk. It is possible to convert it an MBR disk. Do you have a good backup of Windows?

I read that you are wanting to erase and reformat the Windows disk. Yes I have backups. I have the original Microsoft system disks and a January 2016 backup of both Windows 7 and the one major application that I use on Windows. In addition, yesterday (while on ML) I downloaded the main application and document files from that application to a thumb drive formatted in FAT. Will ML pollute (convert) those files or will they be usable by Windows? If we need to erase and rewrite the Windows disk I would like to use the most recent application files if possible.

On the matter of converting to MRB format, I believe that VMware Fusion is looking for a GPT disk. Please see attached image with VMware Fusion error message.

Through ML via Terminal:

Last login: Fri Jan 8 08:16:29 on console

Eugenes-Mac-Pro:~ rex$

Last login: Fri Aug 19 10:09:14 on console

Eugenes-Mac-Pro:~ rex$ sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

Password:

Disk: /dev/disk0 geometry: 60801/255/63 [976773168 sectors]

Signature: 0xAA55

Starting Ending

#: id cyl hd sec - cyl hd sec [ start - size]

------------------------------------------------------------------------

1: EE 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 1 - 976773167] <Unknown ID>

2: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused

3: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused

4: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused

Eugenes-Mac-Pro:~ rex$

sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

Last login: Fri Aug 19 11:30:24 on ttys000

Eugenes-Mac-Pro:~ rex$ sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

Password:

gpt show: /dev/disk0: mediasize=500107862016; sectorsize=512; blocks=976773168

gpt show: /dev/disk0: PMBR at sector 0

gpt show: /dev/disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1

gpt show: /dev/disk0: Sec GPT at sector 976773167

start size index contents

0 1 PMBR

1 1 Pri GPT header

2 32 Pri GPT table

34 411614

411648 976361472 1 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

976773120 15

976773135 32 Sec GPT table

976773167 1 Sec GPT header

Eugenes-Mac-Pro:~ rex$

__________________________________________

sudo dd if=/dev/rdisk0s1 count=1 2>/dev/null | hexdump -C

Last login: Fri Aug 19 12:33:20 on ttys000

Eugenes-Mac-Pro:~ rex$ sudo dd if=/dev/rdisk0s1 count=1 2>/dev/null | hexdump -C

00000000 eb 52 90 4e 54 46 53 20 20 20 20 00 02 08 00 00 |.R.NTFS .....|

00000010 00 00 00 00 00 f8 00 00 3f 00 ff 00 00 48 06 00 |........?....H..|

00000020 00 00 00 00 80 00 80 00 ff 17 32 3a 00 00 00 00 |..........2:....|

00000030 00 00 0c 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|

00000040 f6 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 75 d6 23 4e 07 24 4e 1e |........u.#N.$N.|

00000050 00 00 00 00 fa 33 c0 8e d0 bc 00 7c fb 68 c0 07 |.....3.....|.h..|

00000060 1f 1e 68 66 00 cb 88 16 0e 00 66 81 3e 03 00 4e |..hf......f.>..N|

00000070 54 46 53 75 15 b4 41 bb aa 55 cd 13 72 0c 81 fb |TFSu..A..U..r...|

00000080 55 aa 75 06 f7 c1 01 00 75 03 e9 dd 00 1e 83 ec |U.u.....u.......|

00000090 18 68 1a 00 b4 48 8a 16 0e 00 8b f4 16 1f cd 13 |.h...H..........|

000000a0 9f 83 c4 18 9e 58 1f 72 e1 3b 06 0b 00 75 db a3 |.....X.r.;...u..|

000000b0 0f 00 c1 2e 0f 00 04 1e 5a 33 db b9 00 20 2b c8 |........Z3... +.|

000000c0 66 ff 06 11 00 03 16 0f 00 8e c2 ff 06 16 00 e8 |f...............|

000000d0 4b 00 2b c8 77 ef b8 00 bb cd 1a 66 23 c0 75 2d |K.+.w......f#.u-|

000000e0 66 81 fb 54 43 50 41 75 24 81 f9 02 01 72 1e 16 |f..TCPAu$....r..|

000000f0 68 07 bb 16 68 70 0e 16 68 09 00 66 53 66 53 66 |h...hp..h..fSfSf|

00000100 55 16 16 16 68 b8 01 66 61 0e 07 cd 1a 33 c0 bf |U...h..fa....3..|

00000110 28 10 b9 d8 0f fc f3 aa e9 5f 01 90 90 66 60 1e |(........_...f`.|

00000120 06 66 a1 11 00 66 03 06 1c 00 1e 66 68 00 00 00 |.f...f.....fh...|

00000130 00 66 50 06 53 68 01 00 68 10 00 b4 42 8a 16 0e |.fP.Sh..h...B...|

00000140 00 16 1f 8b f4 cd 13 66 59 5b 5a 66 59 66 59 1f |.......fY[ZfYfY.|

00000150 0f 82 16 00 66 ff 06 11 00 03 16 0f 00 8e c2 ff |....f...........|

00000160 0e 16 00 75 bc 07 1f 66 61 c3 a0 f8 01 e8 09 00 |...u...fa.......|

00000170 a0 fb 01 e8 03 00 f4 eb fd b4 01 8b f0 ac 3c 00 |..............<.|

00000180 74 09 b4 0e bb 07 00 cd 10 eb f2 c3 0d 0a 41 20 |t.............A |

00000190 64 69 73 6b 20 72 65 61 64 20 65 72 72 6f 72 20 |disk read error |

000001a0 6f 63 63 75 72 72 65 64 00 0d 0a 42 4f 4f 54 4d |occurred...BOOTM|

000001b0 47 52 20 69 73 20 6d 69 73 73 69 6e 67 00 0d 0a |GR is missing...|

000001c0 42 4f 4f 54 4d 47 52 20 69 73 20 63 6f 6d 70 72 |BOOTMGR is compr|

000001d0 65 73 73 65 64 00 0d 0a 50 72 65 73 73 20 43 74 |essed...Press Ct|

000001e0 72 6c 2b 41 6c 74 2b 44 65 6c 20 74 6f 20 72 65 |rl+Alt+Del to re|

000001f0 73 74 61 72 74 0d 0a 00 8c a9 be d6 00 00 55 aa |start.........U.|

00000200

Eugenes-Mac-Pro:~ rex$