Windows Boot Camp Partition replaced by System Reserved after installation

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Level 1

4 points

Windows Boot Camp Partition replaced by System Reserved after installation

Hey there,

I have just created a 60GB Boot Camp partition and installed Windows 7 successfully via a method with virtualbox, someone suggested on stackexchange.

I was able to run and reboot Windows with virtualbox until I restarted my Macbook to try actually booting into Windows.

On the boot selection screen, only Macintosh HD was available.

Then, back on Mac OS, virtualbox didn't let me start up the Boot Camp disk anymore so I checked the diskutil list:

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk1 439.0 GB disk0s2

3: Microsoft Basic Data System Reserved 60.9 GB disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +439.0 GB disk1

Physical Store disk0s2

1: APFS Volume Mac OS X SSD 185.1 GB disk1s1

2: APFS Volume Preboot 22.2 MB disk1s2

3: APFS Volume Recovery 512.1 MB disk1s3

4: APFS Volume VM 4.3 GB disk1s4

Before the reboot the Boot Camp Partition was disk0s3, 60GB.

However, during the installation process, Windows created a System Reserved partition with ~100MB space.

Now, System Reserved is disk0s3 and 60GB so I guess it kind of replaced the Boot Camp partition which completely disappeared.

I am not sure, but I guess this problem has nothing to do with the virtualbox procedure but rather with the windows installation creating the System Reserved partition.

Does anyone have an idea what could have gone wrong or how to fix this?

Would appreciate your help alot!

Ps: Im on High Sierra 10.13.6, MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011)

MacBook Pro, macOS High Sierra (10.13.6), MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011)

Posted on Dec 5, 2018 6:06 AM

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Answer 1

Santhiphap Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 7, 2018 8:19 PM in response to Santhiphap

Is it normal that gdisk still doesnt show the partition name?

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1              40          409639   200.0 MiB   EF00  EFI System Partition
   2          409640       857831527   408.9 GiB   AF0A  Mac OS X SSD
   3       857833472       976773119   56.7 GiB    0700

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Answer 2

Santhiphap Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 8, 2018 7:10 AM in response to Santhiphap

I guess windows does fix the boot process for running in virtualbox but the configuration if wrong for booting on mac?

EDIT:

"When you boot between the physical Apple hardware and the virtual 
VirtualBox hardware, the Windows operating system is going to detect the
 change. For example, the two machines do not share the same MBR. Each 
MBR will have a different signature. Windows stores this signature in 
its boot partition and compares the value with the MBR when booting."

This is what I kind of expected, but how am I supposed to know. I followed a guide that didn't mention anything like this...

I found a new guide now, with a way longer procedure which I might try tomorrow.

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Answer 3

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Dec 17, 2018 5:34 AM in response to Santhiphap

Excellent.

2012 and older models require BIOS/MBR.
2013-2014 can support either BIOS/MBR or EFI/GPT, the default is BIOS/MBR.
2015 and later models require EFI/GPT.

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Answer 4

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Dec 7, 2018 4:33 AM in response to Santhiphap

Do not change the name of the partition using GDisk on the macOS side. Change it from the Windows side using partition properties.

Use the defaults provided by GDisk in steps 9 and 11.

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Answer 5

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Dec 8, 2018 7:34 AM in response to Santhiphap

Instead of VirtualBox, as a test, try VMware Fusion or Parallels, and test. If you are able to boot Windows in Bootcamp from System Preferences -> Startup Disks, it is progress.

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Windows Boot Camp Partition replaced by System Reserved after installation

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