refit does not boot windows anymore

[gggeek]

On a macbook pro beginning 2011, I installed windows 7 (sp1 64 bit) using bootcamp, then refit.

I later used windows to add an extra partition for data (an extended one with a logical one inside in fact), to get the following disk scheme:

efi, osx, win os, 128mb free, win data (ntfs, logical partition in an extended one)

So far so good, as I could boot using refit to both osx and windows.

 

But then I started fiddling around trying to install linux too. I did not take consciously any destructive action, but now refit will not boot windows anymore

Actions taken:

- boot a gparted cd. Boot process stops halfway thru saying there are no live disks, whatever that means

- go to the "sync" menu in refit, where I get the message that mbr and gpt are out of sync (gpt still thinks tehre's only 3 partitions in the disk, it knows nothing of windows having changed the mbr), but since the extra mbr partition is extended, no action will be taken at all, bye bye

 

End result: refit now still shows the same boot menu (one os icon, two windows ones), but when I try to boot windows nothing happens :-(

 

I still managed to boot windows by booting a gparted cdrom and pick the "boot os installed on harddisk" option. From windows, both its os partition and data partitions are usable.

 

I also booted in osx, and in the system preferences panel, the "run at next boot" option does not show windows anymore. The disk utility does only show the windows os partition, not the data one.

 

I think that refit has made some change to the mbr or win boot loader that now prevents it and macos to recognize the windows partition, even though windows can in fact boot perfectly.

 

Other strange symptoms: in the refit sync tool page both windows partitions are marked as active. I tried to fix that by booting into windows and setting the data partition as not active, to no avail: now that partitions is not marked active anymore in windows, but it still is in refit.

 

Any suggestions on how to get windows to be bootable by refit without having to have the gparted cdrom instered are welcome - I'd like to avoid reformatting and reinstalling any os if possible...

 

Thanks

Gaetano

[Radly]

On a macbook pro beginning 2011, I installed windows 7 (sp1 64 bit) using bootcamp, then refit.

I later used windows to add an extra partition for data (an extended one with a logical one inside in fact), to get the following disk scheme:

efi, osx, win os, 128mb free, win data (ntfs, logical partition in an extended one)

So far so good, as I could boot using refit to both osx and windows.

 

But then I started fiddling around trying to install linux too. I did not take consciously any destructive action, but now refit will not boot windows anymore

Actions taken:

- boot a gparted cd. Boot process stops halfway thru saying there are no live disks, whatever that means

- go to the "sync" menu in refit, where I get the message that mbr and gpt are out of sync (gpt still thinks tehre's only 3 partitions in the disk, it knows nothing of windows having changed the mbr), but since the extra mbr partition is extended, no action will be taken at all, bye bye

 

End result: refit now still shows the same boot menu (one os icon, two windows ones), but when I try to boot windows nothing happens :-(

 

I still managed to boot windows by booting a gparted cdrom and pick the "boot os installed on harddisk" option. From windows, both its os partition and data partitions are usable.

 

I also booted in osx, and in the system preferences panel, the "run at next boot" option does not show windows anymore. The disk utility does only show the windows os partition, not the data one.

 

I think that refit has made some change to the mbr or win boot loader that now prevents it and macos to recognize the windows partition, even though windows can in fact boot perfectly.

 

Other strange symptoms: in the refit sync tool page both windows partitions are marked as active. I tried to fix that by booting into windows and setting the data partition as not active, to no avail: now that partitions is not marked active anymore in windows, but it still is in refit.

 

Any suggestions on how to get windows to be bootable by refit without having to have the gparted cdrom instered are welcome - I'd like to avoid reformatting and reinstalling any os if possible...

 

Thanks

Gaetano

 

I have a nearly identical problem.

 

I have a triple-booted Macbook Pro--OS X (10.6.8), Win7/64, Ubuntu 11.04, using rEFIt. That is, I did until about last night. Now I have no options at boot time. When I restart, I get an unusually long delay (about a minute or so), then it boots directly to OS X. I do not get the rEFIt selection screen. I also try rebooting with the Option key down, and get nothing at all; I have to power cycle and restart. When I look at the disk with Disk Utility, I can verify the MacHD and Linux partitions, but the BOOTCAMP partition has neither Verify Disk nor Repair Disk enabled. I can navigate all partitions in Finder.

 

I can run Windows from the Parallels installation just fine. That's not a permanent solution because my software development responsibilities demand high performance that virtual environments are incapable of. But it does tell me that the BOOTCAMP partition itself is functional.

 

When I boot from the OS X install DVD that came with the Macbook, and select BOOTCAMP as the startup disk, it will not boot; I can only boot from the MacHD partition. The Linux partition is not visible as a startup option.

 

From Disk Utiility, when I select the BOOTCAMP partition and click Info, I'm surprised to see No for both Writable and Bootable. The Linux partition, by comparison, is Writable but not Bootable. I never did that before the problem arose, so I don't know if it's normal.

 

I tried reinstalling rEFIt, but that didn't change anything.

 

So, here are the questions I can think of:

 

1. Is there any obvious, reliable solution to recover the boot options?

 

2. In Disk Utility, is there a big risk in Unmounting and Remounting the BootCamp partition? Is that likely to accomplish anything.

 

3. The issue with not being able to Disk Utility--> Verify the BOOTCAMP partition looks like it might be significant. I don't know much about boot loaders, but I wonder if that's where the problem might lie, and if so, how can I repair that?

 

Perhaps this problem is related to Gaetano's?

 

I'm trying very hard to avoid panic, but since my job depends on booting into Windows, this is pretty important to me.

[gggeek]

@Radly: did you try booting off the windows installation DVD and trying to use it to "repair" the windows installation? It did not work for me, but at least it did mark the windows partition as active (when run a couple of times in a row)...

[gggeek]

PS: Fixed! I installed easybcd, held my breath, hit the 'write to mbr' button and now can boot again from the refit menu. Whew!

[srs5694]

On a macbook pro beginning 2011, I installed windows 7 (sp1 64 bit) using bootcamp, then refit.

I later used windows to add an extra partition for data (an extended one with a logical one inside in fact), to get the following disk scheme:

efi, osx, win os, 128mb free, win data (ntfs, logical partition in an extended one)

 

I realize you posted later that you've worked around the problem, but the fact is that your hard disk is in an extremely dangerous state. Your MBR and GPT data no longer match each other. Depending on the details of how this is laid out, you could end up having one OS overwrite another OS's data. OTOH, it could be that there's no risk of this happening, but future partitioning operations could cause you to lose access to your Windows data partition.

 

As a general rule of thumb, you should never attempt to modify a disk with a hybrid MBR (which is what you've got) using Windows' disk partitioning tools. You should also never use extended or logical partitions on a disk with a hybrid MBR. Both practices are recipes for disaster.

 

It's probably possible to repair this damage, but I can't be certain without seeing details of both the GPT and the MBR partition tables. You can provide that information by running the following commands in OS X:

 

sudo gpt -r show disk0 
sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

 

Please post the results here, between [ code ] and [ /code ] tags for legibility.

 

In the meantime, you might want to read up on hybrid MBRs at my Web page on the topic.

 

Note that I read this forum rather sporadically. I'll make it a point to check back regularly for a couple of days, but if you post after that, please send me a PM or an e-mail (you can use the link on my hybrid MBR Web page) to alert me to the new information.