Level 1

8 points

Bootcamp issue, need assistance.

So a break down of what occurred. First off I use a macbook pro mid 2012 still running 10.8.5. I have not upgraded due to compatibly issues with certain apps I use. I had bootcamp installed running Windows 10 and I used that more than Mountain Lion for many months for work. I had bought a product from a store that said it was only compatible with El Capitan. I figured since my mac is capable of booting off 2 partitions (BOOTCAMP/MAC) then I could spilt the mac partition and make a 3rd one as well (EL CAPITAN) just to stay current with the latest OS and boot from that if I need to from time to time. Mostly for non work related stuff. After doing this I was no longer able to boot into bootcamp. I thought if I had deleted El Capitan it would fix the problem but it didn't. Now my Mac only boots into Mountian Lion. However Bootcamp still exists. Terminal & a third party app called Stellar Phoenix Mac Recovery confirmed this. The windows partition is NTFS. Also under disk utility bootcamp shows up as disk0s3 which is greyed out and won't mount. I've read other posts where people experienced similar problems like mine and where able to boot back into windows but I feel like my situation requires a different method of fixing. Does anyone know a way of fixing this? I need to boot back into windows because all my work documents are in there. After recovering these files I will uninstall bootcamp all together because I now I have a separate pc to use but its very important I recover the contents from my c drive. Also my hdd is 2TB. About 750gb for mac and 1.2 tb for windows.

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

Posted on Aug 20, 2016 10:47 PM

27 replies

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 22, 2016 3:56 AM in response to Ash T91

It is a command-line utility which is used from the OS X Terminal. These steps are non-standard and should not be used on regular OS X/BC Windows installations.

Rebuild MBR to match the new GPT information thus resetting the Hybrid MBR. Use defaults for other questions (like partition codes). The only values that need modifications are the Boot flags and step 10. Accept all other defaults that Gdisk offers. Please see thesample Q&A as an example. These steps can be repeated if you make a mistake before you get to Step 12, otherwise start from Step 1 for these steps. Step 6 has numbers which are typed with a space between the numbers. Please see the sample Q&A before you execute these steps.

Sudo gdisk /dev/rdisk0
P (Print list of parts)
R (Recover)
O (print current Hybrid MBR)
H (chooses Hybrid)
Partitions numbers to be hybridized: 2 3
Y (Good for GRUB question)
N (part 2 boot flag)
Y (part 3 boot flag make NTFS bootable partition)
O (print current Hybrid MBR)
W (Write the new MBR)
Y (Yes! write the new MBR)
Reboot

Here is sample Q&A for this section. Please notice the Press Enter/Return.

Place EFI GPT (0xEE) partition first in MBR (good for GRUB)? (Y/N): Y

Creating entry for GPT partition #2 (MBR partition #2)

Enter an MBR hex code (default AF): Press Enter/Return

Set the bootable flag? (Y/N): N

Creating entry for GPT partition #3 (MBR partition #3)

Enter an MBR hex code (default 07): Press Enter/Return

Set the bootable flag? (Y/N): Y

Test 1 - Does Bootcamp Volume show up in Finder?

Test 2 - Can you see files in Bootcamp Volume?

Test 3 - Can you select Bootcamp in System Preferences -> Startup Disk?

Test 4 - If Test 3 is successful, select Bootcamp and Click Restart.

Ash T91 Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 22, 2016 3:38 PM in response to Loner T

Not sure what to do for this step "Unused partition space(s) found. O is not a responce its accepting. It can either be Y/N… would number 10 come after this step?

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 22, 2016 3:46 PM in response to Ash T91

Enter 'N' and press Return/Enter.

Ash T91 Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 22, 2016 4:46 PM in response to Loner T

Nothing has changed. Booting into Windows still gives me a disk read error. There is no bootcamp volume. No Bootcamp on startup disk and it's still labeled as "disk0s3" and greyed out in disk utility.

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 22, 2016 5:06 PM in response to Ash T91

I assumed tested after a Reboot.

Please post the output of

sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

Ash T91 Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 22, 2016 6:07 PM in response to Loner T

Last login: Mon Aug 22 16:41:08 on ttys000

Ashots-MacBook-Pro:~ ashottovmasian$ sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

Password:

gpt show: /dev/disk0: mediasize=2000398934016; sectorsize=512; blocks=3907029168

gpt show: /dev/disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0

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

gpt show: /dev/disk0: Sec GPT at sector 3907029167

start size index contents

0 1 MBR

1 1 Pri GPT header

2 32 Pri GPT table

34 6

40 409600 1 GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B

409640 1560655832 2 GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

1561065472 262144

1561327616 2345701376 3 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

3907028992 143

3907029135 32 Sec GPT table

3907029167 1 Sec GPT header

Ashots-MacBook-Pro:~ ashottovmasian$ sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

Disk: /dev/disk0 geometry: -1539437/4/63 [-387938128 sectors]

Signature: 0xAA55

Starting Ending

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

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

1: EE 0 0 2 - 25 127 14 [ 1 - 409639] <Unknown ID>

2: AF 25 127 15 - 1023 254 63 [ 409640 - 1560655832] HFS+

*3: 07 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [1561327616 - -1949265920] HPFS/QNX/AUX

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

Ashots-MacBook-Pro:~ ashottovmasian$

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 22, 2016 7:00 PM in response to Ash T91

As a test, remove the MBR. This does not change any data.

Run

sudo gdisk /dev/disk0

Reboot and check Finder for the Bootcamp volume. If that does not work, we may need to install El Capitan on an external disk and try to get your data.

Ash T91 Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 22, 2016 7:19 PM in response to Loner T

That didn't work either. Windows on the boot screen isn't showing up either but bootcamp is still on my mac.

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 22, 2016 7:26 PM in response to Ash T91

Do you see any data files through Phoenix tool?

Ash T91 Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 22, 2016 7:31 PM in response to Loner T

I did a full data recovery a few days ago and it went through about 250+ gbs of files and it took a day to complete. It found tons of songs, pictures and misc files but I couldn't locate the specific files I was looking for in my c: drive. I think this is mainly because they are a different format file thats only works for one windows program and also perhaps because Phoenix isn't that good of a program anyway.

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 22, 2016 7:46 PM in response to Ash T91

You can always re-install Windows and the current Windows installation will become Windows.old. If you choose this path, do not reformat the partition, otherwise your data will be lost.

Do you have your Windows Installer USB used to install W7 available? If yes, boot from it, and try to run chkdsk.

Ash T91 Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 22, 2016 9:01 PM in response to Loner T

I do not have the usb installer but I do have the windows 10 disc I used for installation.

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Bootcamp issue, need assistance.