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owmyeyes · Feb 14, 2010, 01:47 PM

Hi,

I tried to install Bootcamp on my GF's Mac. It appears to have failed. Here's what I did :

Launched Bootcamp under Applications
Set 32gb as the Windows partition
Clicked on "Partition"
It prompted me to insert a Windows CD, which I did.
There was only one C: partition in the list when the Windows installer asked me to choose a partition.
I aborted the installation
It booted DOS
I restarted the mac while holding the Option key, only the Windows partition is shown.

It seems like the Master Boot Record, or whatever it's called for a Mac, is screwed up. Any idea?

Note : I had a SP1 Windows CD, which could explain the mess up in the MBR. Also, I didn't click on any "Format" or "Erase" option.

ghporter · Feb 14, 2010, 07:21 PM

Welcome to our forums!

Part of the process Boot Camp follows during installation is to mark the hard drive to boot from the "C:" partition-this is most likely done by the Windows Installer rather than Boot Camp. Your aborting the install probably just left an entry in the boot record incorrect, which is fixable. There is supposed to be only one "C:" drive, which is the one you need to choose. The other partitions are reserved for OS X, and messing with those is Trouble.

From your description, you cannot have done anything to the disk that isn't fairly easy to fix. Your next step should be to boot the computer from the OS X installation disc, and then choose "Disk Utility" from the Tools menu. When it comes up, select the OS X partition (probably called "Mac HD" unless your GF changed it). Select "repair" and let Disk Utility fix it. That should pretty much do it for OS X. Now you can select the incomplete Windows partition and delete it. When you are all done you can start the process again, remembering that there really should only be one partition with a DOS-style drive letter, and that's the one you MUST pick for Windows to install on.

Was that helpful?

owmyeyes · Feb 14, 2010, 10:21 PM

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, there seems to be only one partition (C

and no mac partition. I cannot use "repair", it's grayed out.
I am about to try my luck on partitionning the drive again, as it states that there is no partition table and it's not formatted. This way, I might be able to sneak in using testdisk. However, I'm a bit scared, the goal here is to backup any existing data before it explodes.

Thanks for your help!

ghporter · Feb 15, 2010, 06:14 AM

There's no reason for "repair" to be grayed out if you used Disk Utility from the OS X install DVD. If you boot from the DVD you can repair any drive or partition with DU.

owmyeyes · Feb 15, 2010, 10:18 AM

Granted, but I don't see the mac partition, only the disk root is shown and it won't let me click on Repair. I used DU from the mac os x dvd. Is there still hope?

ghporter · Feb 15, 2010, 07:29 PM

Can you select the drive itself? Try to repair that.

NightyKnight · Feb 28, 2010, 04:28 AM

I have the exact same problem! the repair option is greyed out so I'm stuck in the same limbo...is there any other way around it?

ghporter · Feb 28, 2010, 06:54 AM

Did you select the whole drive? Did you get to Disk Utility from the installation DVD?

NightyKnight · Feb 28, 2010, 11:36 AM

Yes I used Disk Utility with the installation disk and the only drives that are listed are:
-150 GB Hitachi
-MATSHITA DVD (and right below it indented in is Mac osx install DVD)

Looking under First Aid for the 150 GB Hitachi, I cannot verify or repair - they are greyed out. Under Partition, there is nothing listed under Volume Scheme either which is frightening.

I wonder if there is something in terminal that I can tinker with. Because like he said in the first post, only the Windows partition pops up which is very peculiar.

Thank you for replying!!

NightyKnight · 01:48 PM

I haven't the slightest knowledge of these things...but it seems like Boot Camp made the entire hard drive boot up as "Windows"...I'm not sure what it was originally called, but my guess of what to do would be to modify what the hard drive is being recognized as.

New discovery!! With no CD inside, the hard drive boots itself past a white screen (no Apple logo but with sound) and then hangs at the same white screen with a flashing folder with a question mark in the middle.

Before with the windows install cd, if no action to choose where to boot was done (by holding down the option key) it would simply hang at a ms dos screen with a blinking cursor.

I'm going to look up on the blinking question mark folder a bit more now...

(ignore the bottom line! I can't delete it because I'm using my iPhone)

at a ms-dos screen when the Windows CD

Spheric Harlot · Feb 28, 2010, 01:22 PM

Perhaps you tried to install Windows on the Mac partition?

That will royally screw up both, leaving you pretty much only the option of formatting the whole shmeer and re-installing from your Time Machine back-up.

ChrisF · Feb 28, 2010, 02:49 PM

The problem is that XP Service Pack 1 doesn't recognize the formatting scheme used by Bootcamp and as a result the installer got rid of your Mac data. Sounds like it's time to restore from a backup.

ghporter · Feb 28, 2010, 05:53 PM

Originally Posted by ChrisF

The problem is that XP Service Pack 1 doesn't recognize the formatting scheme used by Bootcamp and as a result the installer got rid of your Mac data. Sounds like it's time to restore from a backup.

It's not just that. If you format the Windows partition in FAT32, SP1 can (maybe) install. But in the change to SP2, Microsoft completely changed the structure of drivers; ALL Mac hardware drivers in Boot Camp are in the SP2 model, which SP1 or bare XP cannot use. That means much of your Mac's hardware is useless even if you can get the install at all.

NightyKnight · Feb 28, 2010, 09:43 PM

the Installer got rid of my mac data? I didn't let it install though. I let Boot Camp carry me to the Windows Setup stuff but I aborted it when I didn't see the partition I needed. So I didn't let any formatting or installation take place. is it still possible to boot from my original mac osx installation?

NightyKnight · Feb 28, 2010, 10:57 PM

Hey! From using the directions on this site (InsanelyMac Forum > [How to] Setting Your Partition "Active" Using Fdisk in MacOSX) I've managed to see two different partitions in terminal. One is a DOS FAT 16 and the other is Extended LBA and Seems to me to be my original installation of osx. Initially the dos fat 16 partition was marked as active with an asterisk, but now I've switched it over to the extended lba partition. now instead of my computer booting up into a blinking cursor in msdos, it just hangs on a white screen...

I'm going to post ip a pic of what I ended up doing in terminal with my iPhone in my next post.