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

Several boot partitions - Systemstart takes very long

A

armut

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 9, 2014
66
8
Hello,

yesterday I intalles Windows 10 on my nMP. After my first BootCamp installation I had some problems, so I decided to delete BootCamp from DiskUtilities and install Windows 10 again.

Now I finished the installation, installed all tools and drivers but have now a problem when I restart Windows. It takes much much time to start my System. My screen is black and after 3-4 minutes Apple gong is sounding and system starts.

After this I looked to the partition at startup manager by holding ALT-key.
I saw that there are several partitions. Mac OS, OSX reserved, two Windows partitions and one Windows reserved partition.

I remember that the problems with startup is depending to the issue, that the system is having trouble to decide which partition it should choose.

Now, can you help me how to solve the problem with the partitions so that my startup will not take about 3-4 minutes?

Thank you very much in advance :)
 
Last edited:
For every one who has the same problem, I solved the issue by disabeling the OSX Reserved partition in Disk Utilities. I tried to delete it but it does not work for me. So the solution was to disabling that partition.

EDIT:
It seems not to work. Still very long boot time.
 
Last edited:
Could have to do with having more than 4 partitions on a hybrid GPT/MBR disk. Master Boot Record can only handle 4 partition entries, that maybe conflicting with your Mac's Startup Manager.

Try /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app

diskutil list
Click to expand...

And let us know the output for your Windows disk.
 
Thank you very much for your post but I solved the problem.

It was depending on "Windows.old" on my BootCamp. After deleting that folder via Windows cleaning tool, now it seems to work fine. Restarts just in a few seconds.
 
I'm sorry but the problem is still there. I don't know what's the reason but after deleting "Windows.old" it was starting fine. Now, still same long boot time.
 
Apple recommends that you use Boot Camp Assistant when you delete a Boot Camp partition (see Boot Camp Help for instructions). Not sure if it's the cause of this problem, but it may be related.
 
I'm not sure how Apple deals with Hybrid GPT/MBR disk with BootCamp in Windows after Windows 7( my Mac's only support Windows 7 in BootCamp ).

Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10 seem to create 2 partitions, one for the Windows install and one "Microsoft Reserved" partition. This is a problem if you are installing BootCamp on your OS X boot disk with a Hybrid GPT/MBR partition scheme because Master Boot Record can only hold 4 partition entries.

1. EFI
2. OS X Recovery HD
3. OS X
4. BootCamp/Microsoft Basic Data
5. Microsoft Reserved

As you can see, that's 5 partitions. Windows 7 only has the BootCamp/Microsoft Basic Data partition, not the Microsoft Reserved partition, so it's not a problem.

I don't know why, after you installed Windows, you still had the OS X Reserved partition, from what I read this partition is created by BootCamp and should have been deleted automatically after you installed Windows.

Without knowing how many partitions you have on your boot disk, or if it's Hybrid GPT/MBR, I'm just assuming it is, and that you have more than 4 partitions.

If it were me, I'd delete all the partition but the EFI, OS X Recovery HD, and OS X partition. Then merge all those partitions back into the OS X partition, leaving only 3 partitions and see if the trouble persists.

If the trouble has gone away, try and reinstall Windows with BootCamp.

If the trouble comes back you'll likely need to install Windows in EFI Mode with a pure GPT disk, not a Hybrid GPT/MBR disk. The good news is you can convert a Hybrid GPT/MBR disk without losing your data, the bad news is you'll likely need a USB DVD burner to burn your Windows ISO to and boot from. I don't think you can boot the Windows Installer in EFI Mode from the OS X Reserved partition that BootCamp creates.
 
Last edited:
I had the same problem. Turned out to be a usb drive connected to the back if my monitor. Disconnected that and booting works as expected.

Also there is an issue when rebooting from windows if crossfire is enabled. It can take several minutes of black screen before booting sound comes on. Fixed for me by updating to latest boot camp drivers (or disabling crossfire)
 
Now I think I know what the problem is.
I installed Crimson driver and activated CrossFire. I thint that's the problem.

I don't have any plugged in USBs so it must be the GPU driver.
 
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