Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Need help with my Bootcamp partition

S

Sevin

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 21, 2014
17
0
I have the newest 21.5" iMac with Mavericks. I installed Windows 8 via Bootcamp and gave it 125 gigs to work with. Everything worked fine for several months, until I got VMWare Fusion yesterday and tried to use it to boot into Windows so I didn't have to keep booting in and out of my computer to access the drive. VMWare Fusion apparently corrupted the drive because it kept saying "there was a problem with your PC" when I tried to boot up. This lasted for about the first 15 times I tried to boot into my Windows partition via VMWare. I then tried to boot in the old way of restarting the computer while holding down option and selecting the drive, but it showed nothing but a black screen. I've tried booting into the drive via the old way and via VMWare probably about 100 times since then. I keep getting different screens when I boot now. Sometimes I'll see the Windows logo and that's it and it will progress no further. Sometimes I'll see the windows logo with "please wait" below it, but it still will not progress. Other times it's just black.

This drive contains 80 gigs of information I really would like to keep. I have a backup external drive, but it's using Time Machine to back up my main drive and can't back up the Bootcamp drive since it's NTFS. I still have access to the Bootcamp drive in Finder, where I can see all of its contents.

How can I correct this? Can I just copy all of the contents into the backup drive without using Time Machine backup and then wipe my Bootcamp partition and replace its contents with the stuff from the backup or what? I have no idea what to do.

If anyone needs any more info, please ask. I'd really like to get this resolved quickly as I have work I need to do on my Windows side.
 
Sevin said:
How can I correct this? Can I just copy all of the contents into the backup drive without using Time Machine backup and then wipe my Bootcamp partition and replace its contents with the stuff from the backup or what? I have no idea what to do.
Click to expand...

I think that would be the best way and have you updated your version of mavericks anytime soon because that might be causing issues and if you haven't then just reinstall windows the way you first did it.
 
Mohammed1 said:
I think that would be the best way and have you updated your version of mavericks anytime soon because that might be causing issues and if you haven't then just reinstall windows the way you first did it.
Click to expand...

Well I mean yeah all my updates are automatically installed so I am up to date. So will copying everything onto the external drive and then re-obtaining the Windows installation stuff on a flash drive work? I can just reinstall Windows via Bootcamp again and copy everything from my backup to the new Bootcamp drive? What about the old partition? What happens to it?
 
Sevin said:
Well I mean yeah all my updates are automatically installed so I am up to date. So will copying everything onto the external drive and then re-obtaining the Windows installation stuff on a flash drive work? I can just reinstall Windows via Bootcamp again and copy everything from my backup to the new Bootcamp drive? What about the old partition? What happens to it?
Click to expand...

Well if I was in your position I would copy all my files to a external hardrive and redo the process of bootcamp and then if your problem continues you need to either contact apple or try to use something Virtual Box where you can use Windows while using your mac (its not as good but its a last resort) or you could reinstall mavericks because I had an issue with my bootcamp and I fixed it after the reinstall. Good Luck
 
Mohammed1 said:
Well if I was in your position I would copy all my files to a external hardrive and redo the process of bootcamp and then if your problem continues you need to either contact apple or try to use something Virtual Box where you can use Windows while using your mac (its not as good but its a last resort) or you could reinstall mavericks because I had an issue with my bootcamp and I fixed it after the reinstall. Good Luck
Click to expand...

But what if the data on Bootcamp is corrupt? Why else wouldn't it boot? And is it really as simple as copy-pasting everything from the Bootcamp drive to my external backup drive? Can I just copy everything back over and overwrite everything from the new Bootcamp drive once I reinstall?

scapec said:
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/


just copy everything through the finder?
Click to expand...

I really don't want to have to buy anything. Plus, I'd just be copying everything out of Finder if that will work so I'm not actually using the drive.
 
Before re-installing everything, you might want to try to repair your current windows installation. Boot on your windows 8 installation dvd(or usb stick) then press R when the option comes up.

I've never tried with anything else but I used to use Parallel desktop to use my bootcamp partition from within osx and it works well.

When your windows partition works again, you could buy winclone. It allows you to clone your bootcamp partition and it's fast. If you ever have any trouble again, winclone will allow you to re-install everything in just one step.

Good luck
 
IlikeMacsSoMuch said:
Before re-installing everything, you might want to try to repair your current windows installation. Boot on your windows 8 installation dvd(or usb stick) then press R when the option comes up.

I've never tried with anything else but I used to use Parallel desktop to use my bootcamp partition from within osx and it works well.

When your windows partition works again, you could buy winclone. It allows you to clone your bootcamp partition and it's fast. If you ever have any trouble again, winclone will allow you to re-install everything in just one step.

Good luck
Click to expand...

I already tried repairing the drive, but it said it was unsuccessful.
 
Sevin said:
I already tried repairing the drive, but it said it was unsuccessful.
Click to expand...

Well, sorry that didn't work out. So, I guess that leaves you with no choice but to re-install everything then.

But all the rest that I said still applies, you would never run into that issue again.

If you have difficulties accessing your windows folders from OSX, you could download linux on a usb stick and boot from it live, then from linux accessing your windows folders.

I always use Ubuntu but any flavour of linux would get the job done
 
IlikeMacsSoMuch said:
Well, sorry that didn't work out. So, I guess that leaves you with no choice but to re-install everything then.

But all the rest that I said still applies, you would never run into that issue again.

If you have difficulties accessing your windows folders from OSX, you could download linux on a usb stick and boot from it live, then from linux accessing your windows folders.

I always use Ubuntu but any flavour of linux would get the job done
Click to expand...

OK, so I copied all of my files from Bootcamp to my backup drive and am re-installing via Bootcamp and a flash drive. Will reinstalling my files be as simple as copy-pasting from my backup drive back to Bootcamp when it's finished installing?
 
Sevin said:
OK, so I copied all of my files from Bootcamp to my backup drive and am re-installing via Bootcamp and a flash drive. Will reinstalling my files be as simple as copy-pasting from my backup drive back to Bootcamp when it's finished installing?
Click to expand...

The folders themselves yes, but you will need to re-install every single application and updates. This is a long process.
 
Alright I'm having a new problem now. I tried using Bootcamp to make a new drive again after I removed the old Windows partition but something isn't working. Bootcamp works great. Everything seemed to install fine and I partitioned a 200GB space for Windows. However, when I restart to complete the installation via the install disk created, it won't work. Most guides I referred to had this being the final and easiest step because apparently Bootcamp is usually the problem and needs some tinkering with to show all the options and get the correct drivers etc. I didn't have any of those problems, but once I got to the Windows side to complete installation, the partition I made with Bootcamp won't work. I know once you've selected the drive you have to click "format" to format it to NTFS so it will work, and this is where most guides end because then it should work and begin installing. However, it does not for me. It gives me the error "Windows cannot be installed on this disk" with no further explanation. I even clicked "delete" on the drive which one guide said would work so the drive would become unallocated space but even that didn't work. Anybody know what's wrong?
 
Sevin said:
Alright I'm having a new problem now. I tried using Bootcamp to make a new drive again after I removed the old Windows partition but something isn't working. Bootcamp works great. Everything seemed to install fine and I partitioned a 200GB space for Windows. However, when I restart to complete the installation via the install disk created, it won't work. Most guides I referred to had this being the final and easiest step because apparently Bootcamp is usually the problem and needs some tinkering with to show all the options and get the correct drivers etc. I didn't have any of those problems, but once I got to the Windows side to complete installation, the partition I made with Bootcamp won't work. I know once you've selected the drive you have to click "format" to format it to NTFS so it will work, and this is where most guides end because then it should work and begin installing. However, it does not for me. It gives me the error "Windows cannot be installed on this disk" with no further explanation. I even clicked "delete" on the drive which one guide said would work so the drive would become unallocated space but even that didn't work. Anybody know what's wrong?
Click to expand...


Hi again, this is a pretty common mistake so don't take this the wrong way but did you select the correct partition, named bootcamp?

Here is a guide that you might want to take a look at, it is pretty complete.

You should start over:

in disk utility, select your main drive, then partition. erase the boot camp partition, then extend the remaining partition to use all the space to make it one big partition.

Start over with boot camp. If that doesn't work, from disk utility you can create your windows partition without bootcamp, then booting from your windows usb stick you can install windows. When you are done, you can still use your bootcamp drivers. I have 3 oses on my mac and this is how I installed windows.

Sometimes you just need to start over, you might unknowingly have made a small mistake, as long as you don't lose your osx partition your ok.
 
IlikeMacsSoMuch said:
Hi again, this is a pretty common mistake so don't take this the wrong way but did you select the correct partition, named bootcamp?

Here is a guide that you might want to take a look at, it is pretty complete.

You should start over:

in disk utility, select your main drive, then partition. erase the boot camp partition, then extend the remaining partition to use all the space to make it one big partition.

Start over with boot camp. If that doesn't work, from disk utility you can create your windows partition without bootcamp, then booting from your windows usb stick you can install windows. When you are done, you can still use your bootcamp drivers. I have 3 oses on my mac and this is how I installed windows.

Sometimes you just need to start over, you might unknowingly have made a small mistake, as long as you don't lose your osx partition your ok.
Click to expand...

That guide has nothing to do with my error. I've followed many other guides and researched this before coming here, I can't find my particular error anywhere. I've restarted clean about 10 times since I tried first.
 
IlikeMacsSoMuch said:
Did you use successfully that same Windows USB stick before?
Click to expand...

No, it's a different version. I was using Windows 8 before and I didn't like it so now I'm trying Windows 7. And yes I have tried Windows 8 again, though not the same file.
 
IlikeMacsSoMuch said:
White searching on Google for that bootcamp version I found this

Like I told you, sometimes you just need to start over. When you reach the choose a partition step during the install, make sure to select advanced
Click to expand...

I said already that I did all that. I started over like 10 times, I know what I'm doing. I clicked advanced and everything and formatted the drive for NTFS like that guide says, yet it does not work.
 
OK, I got Windows 7 to work somehow but then I realized that was stupid because now I can't copy over my Windows 8 files from my backup drive to that new Windows drive. I tried the exact same process with 3 different Windows 8 .iso's and none of them worked. Same error as before, formatting did nothing. Windows 7 worked because formatting worked and allowed the installation to continue.
 
Sevin said:
OK, I got Windows 7 to work somehow but then I realized that was stupid because now I can't copy over my Windows 8 files from my backup drive to that new Windows drive. I tried the exact same process with 3 different Windows 8 .iso's and none of them worked. Same error as before, formatting did nothing. Windows 7 worked because formatting worked and allowed the installation to continue.
Click to expand...

I thought that you had copied your folders/files on an external hdd?
Can you tell me in detail the steps that you did to copy your data?

And, wasn't Windows 7 that you wanted to install in thé frits place?
 
IlikeMacsSoMuch said:
I thought that you had copied your folders/files on an external hdd?
Can you tell me in detail the steps that you did to copy your data?

And, wasn't Windows 7 that you wanted to install in thé frits place?
Click to expand...

Yeah I copied them to my backup drive just by copy and pasting, but that didn't even work, it missed like 20 gigs of data. And that drive wasn't formatted for Windows and it needed to be formatted for Mac so I couldn't actually use it anyway. And I wanted Windows 8 initially.
 
Sevin said:
Yeah I copied them to my backup drive just by copy and pasting, but that didn't even work, it missed like 20 gigs of data. And that drive wasn't formatted for Windows and it needed to be formatted for Mac so I couldn't actually use it anyway. And I wanted Windows 8 initially.
Click to expand...

To copy data the drive doesn't need to be formatted for windows, maybe some data was corrupted since that bootcamp partition was faulty, sorry about that.

On your windows installation usb stick, is there an option for you to upgrade from windows 7 to windows 8? That could work.

Some people have reported issues with bootcamp partition on fusion drive, did you take the apple care plan? If you did, I would call them maybe they might have more answer for you, or even better take an appointment with one of their so called genius if you have an Applestore in your area.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back