GPT / MBR mismatch, which one you suggest to fix with gdisk-fdisk??

[ridermarra]

Hello everybody,

I just upgraded to lion and as of course you'll know it creates a recovery partition. This partition creation edits the GPT table in my computer and makes it mismatch from the one contained in MBR.
This makes the Windows drive, not mountable on OS X

I created a Gparted Live CD and booted from it but i'm not really handy with gdisk and fdisk and not really sure of which table to edit.
Here follows my boot table detail.


Current GPT partition table:
# Start LBA End LBA Type
1 40 409639 EFI System (FAT)
2 409640 869722327 Mac OS X HFS+
3 869722328 870991871 Mac OS X Boot
4 870991872 976773119 Basic Data

Current MBR partition table:
# A Start LBA End LBA Type
1 1 409639 ee EFI Protective
2 409640 869722327 af Mac OS X HFS+
3 869722328 870991871 ab Mac OS X Boot
4 * 870991872 976773119 07 NTFS/HPFS

MBR contents:
Boot Code: Unknown, but bootable

Partition at LBA 40:
Boot Code: None (Non-system disk message)
File System: FAT32
Listed in GPT as partition 1, type EFI System (FAT)

Partition at LBA 409640:
Boot Code: None
File System: HFS Extended (HFS+)
Listed in GPT as partition 2, type Mac OS X HFS+
Listed in MBR as partition 2, type af Mac OS X HFS+

Partition at LBA 869722328:
Boot Code: None
File System: HFS Extended (HFS+)
Listed in GPT as partition 3, type Mac OS X Boot
Listed in MBR as partition 3, type ab Mac OS X Boot

Partition at LBA 870991872:
Boot Code: Unknown, but bootable
File System: NTFS
Listed in GPT as partition 4, type Basic Data
Listed in MBR as partition 4, type 07 NTFS/HPFS, active

Has anyone any advice of what to do on the above mentioned programs to fix this issue?

Thanks for your help

 

[balamw]

Thanks for posting some actual data about this.

You have to leave the GPT one alone so as not to break OS X.

I think there is an inherent problem here. You do have a new partition. So if you actually make the MBR version consistent with the GPT one the partition numbers will change vs. before lion.

Maybe you can just leave the recovery partition out of the MBR table?

When I finally upgrade my "production" boxes I will take a snapshot of the partition schemes before and after. So far, Lion is only on an external for me.

B

 

[Quad5Ny]

This is is going to suck for anyone trying to use Bootcamp with BitLocker, as you'll end up with 5 partitions(Hybrid MBR only holds 4).

I wonder what would happen if you deleted the Lion recovery partition, used the free space to extend the OS partition and then re-synced the MBR. Hopefully Apple did not put any boot files on the recovery partition.

 

[ridermarra]

Hello and thanks for the answers, so you think i should leave alone the GPT and modify the MBR to be the same?? the problem is in the GPt the windows drive doesn't show as NTFS..

Second thing is i do not know how to sync or modify any of the to, i've tried booting gparted live and looked at the frisk and disk utility options, but from there I'm not really sure what to do.

Any advice or tutorial or step by step guide??

Thanks

 

[balamw]

Quad5Ny was actually suggesting reverting both partition tables to what they were under Snow Leopard by removing the restore partition. This might be easier, but there is some risk that OS X Lion won't like it.

B