Macbook Pro With Second Drive - Black Screen White Cursor when Booting to Windows

[kroach81]

I have a 2012 Macbook Pro. I took out the optical and installed the following set up:
128 GB SSD in hard drive slot - Single Partition - Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled) - Mountain Lion Install + Applications and select User folder

750 GB OEM HHD in optibay enclosure - Partition 1 - Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted) - User Data
- Partition 2 - Format: NTFS - Windows 7 Enterprise Install

You probably already know that it is difficult to get Bootcamp and Windows 7 to install on a hard drive in the optibay but I got it to work by using a external hardrive . I opened up the Macbook and disconnected the SSD from the motherboard. I used the OS X install on the external USB to boot and run boot camp. Boot camp created a install usb stick from an ISO of Windows 7 Enterprise (to which I have a legal license) and create a partition for Windows. I went through the reboot (be careful because before you restart you have to unplug the USB hard drive with OS X) and installed Windows 7. Everything worked beautifully and the installed great. I installed programs and rebooted several times with no problems but when I plug the SSD in and try to boot into Windows 7, I get a black screen with a blinking cursor. If I unplug the SSD, I can get Windows to boot just fine. Is there anything I can do to get both OS X booting from the SSD and Windows from the HHD. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[rocketsheep]

If I unplug the SSD, I can get Windows to boot just fine. Is there anything I can do to get both OS X booting from the SSD and Windows from the HHD. Thanks for the suggestions.

Have you found a solution to this problem?

 

[kroach81]

Have you found a solution to this problem?

I really don't think that there is a solution, at least using bootcamp. I scoured the internet and tried multiple configurations of harddrives when installing and then running and none of them worked if I had OS X on the SSD in the harddrive slot and the HHD in the superdrive slot. I ended up resigning myself to 4 partitions, 2 partions of the SSD for OS X and Windows and 2 partitions of the HHD for OS X data and Windows programs and data. In order to make it look like one file system you have to use symbolic links on OS X and there are something like symbolic links in Windows for the same thing but I don't remember their name. Unfortunately, I ended up having to do quite a bit of registry editing because the links messed up Windows Update (a known bug). Not a great solution by Apple.

 

[bonedaddio]

More info

Hi, I followed this gentleman's instructions in this thread, and it all worked perfectly. I'm wondering if you look at this instructions, the issue isn't related to which drive Bootcamp is looking at. There's a step in the instructions (using Winclone, which works super well, I've used it for years with great success) that makes bootcamp reset disk locations or something similar.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1278494/

You may have to start over, but you can most assuredly get what you're trying to do work.
I'm running a late 2011 MBP 15", with 16 gb of ram, a 512gb SSD in the hard drive bay (Mac OSX and Recovery partitions) and put the original 750gb HDD in the optical bay using an adapter (OSX data partition and Win7 64bit OS partition). Works beautifully, and really quick. I put the optical drive in an really slim external USB case, and that works well too.