Windows 7 in BOOTCAMP won't show up
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I have my refind.conf file as follows. This works on the two MacBook Pro's that I have set up, but fails to detect a Windows 7 BOOTCAMP installation on a Early 2009 Mac Pro. What gives? Anyway, without further ado, the conf file:
Last edit: Doggonit 2012-08-27
It should be working -- in particular, the inclusion of "hdbios" in the "scanfor" line means that it should be detecting the Windows installation. My best guess is that there's something about the partitioning that's causing problems. Does the system boot Windows when you hold down the Option key to get Apple's own boot menu?
For further diagnostics, please install my GPT fdisk and post the contents of both the GPT and the MBR tables, as seen by it. You can do this by typing the following commands:
Please post the complete output here. (Adding four spaces to the start of each line will keep it legible.)
Apologies for not replying sooner, I had to push 24/7 all week to finish something at work.
I downloaded the gdisk-0.8.5.pkg file and I installed it but I cannot find where it installed the application to. As far as I can tell it wasn't installed at all! I tried twice more, but both times, despite allegedly having installed itself, there is no trace that I can find of GPT.
gdisk is a command-line tool. To use it, you launch a Terminal window and then type its name (as in "sudo gdisk /dev/disk0").
Output is as follows:
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.5
Partition table scan:
MBR: protective
BSD: not present
APM: not present
GPT: present
Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.
Command (? for help): p
Disk /dev/disk0: 1953525168 sectors, 931.5 GiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 00002D59-4F73-0000-2349-0000485A0000
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 1953525134
Partitions will be aligned on 8-sector boundaries
Total free space is 13 sectors (6.5 KiB)
Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name
1 40 409639 200.0 MiB EF00 EFI system partition
2 409640 1952255591 930.7 GiB AF00 Customer
3 1952255592 1953525127 619.9 MiB AB00 Recovery HD
Command (? for help): x
Expert command (? for help): o
Disk size is 1953525168 sectors (931.5 GiB)
MBR disk identifier: 0x771010F9
MBR partitions:
Number Boot Start Sector End Sector Status Code
1 1 1953525167 primary 0xEE
Expert command (? for help): q
There's no evidence of any Windows installation on that disk. If you've got two disks on the computer, it's possible that Windows is installed on it, but then I'll need the gdisk output from that disk instead of from the first one. If your computer has just the one disk, then it looks like either Windows is not installed or the partition table was altered, wiping out the Windows installation.
Indeed, you are correct, the Bootcamp Windows was installed on a drive of its own. I tried to run the gdisk via the command prompt as an administrator but this happened:
Last edit: Doggonit 2012-09-10
From Windows, you should use "0:" for the first disk, "1:" for the second disk, and so on, as in "gdisk 1:" to manage the second disk. You can gather this information from OS X using the OS X version of gdisk, as well, using Mac drive nomenclature ("/dev/disk0" for the first disk, "/dev/disk1" for the second disk, and so on). Partitioning is (theoretically) OS-independent, so you should see exactly the same partitions from either OS. (I say "theoretically" because the usual way of installing Windows on a Mac involves using OS-specific differences in how a hybrid MBR is handled. gdisk shows the same data from any OS when viewing a disk with a hybrid MBR, but the Windows and OS X kernels see the disk differently, as do some utilities. This leads to no end of problems.)
Hi Roderick,
Firstly, I would like to thank you for embarking on this endeavor of creating & supporting rEFInd. I have been an avid user of rEFIt and was sad to learn that it was no longer supported.
Now, I have a question regarding whether there is a solution to this problem the OP describes. I am interested as I am in a similar situation.
I have just upgraded my Macbook Alu Unibody (Late2008) with a second SSD in the optical bay. SSD2=Mac OS X Lion & SSD1=Windows7 installed with BootCamp. I currently have rEFInd installed and running on SSD2 under Mac OS X Lion and it works perfectly except that it does not detect Win7 on SSD1.
If you would like I can provide the details from gdisk.
Thank you in advance for your support. Your time and consideration is much appreciated.
~Casey
Yes, please post the gdisk output for both disks. Also, please tell me if you can select the Windows boot option when you hold down the Option key while booting.
Hi Roderick,
Sorry for the delay, work has been keeping me busy. Strangely enough, if I restart from Windows 7 BootCamp, rEFInd will display "Windows Legacy" and successfully boot back into Windows. When restarting from Mac OS X Lion or from a cold boot, rEFInd does not display "Windows Legacy". FYI, I currently have defaults set in the config and have only installed rEFInd under Mac OS X Lion. Should I also be installing rEFInd under Windows 7 BootCamp?
I am able to boot into "WINDOWS" (Windows7 BootCamp) when holding OPTION @ bootup.
Here is the Partition information of the 2 drives:
============
/dev/disk0
============
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.5
Partition table scan:
MBR: protective
BSD: not present
APM: not present
GPT: present
Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.
Disk /dev/disk0: 234441648 sectors, 111.8 GiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): BC5AFEC1-23D1-4A4C-9851-4F4E605C20C0
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 234441614
Partitions will be aligned on 8-sector boundaries
Total free space is 13 sectors (6.5 KiB)
Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name
1 40 409639 200.0 MiB EF00 EFI System Partition
2 409640 233172071 111.0 GiB AF00 Mac HDD
3 233172072 234441607 619.9 MiB AB00 Recovery HD
Disk size is 234441648 sectors (111.8 GiB)
MBR disk identifier: 0x00000000
MBR partitions:
Number Boot Start Sector End Sector Status Code
1 1 234441647 primary 0xEE
============
/dev/disk1
============
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.5
Partition table scan:
MBR: hybrid
BSD: not present
APM: not present
GPT: present
Found valid GPT with hybrid MBR; using GPT.
Disk /dev/disk1: 234441648 sectors, 111.8 GiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 2DAA1B1D-2B30-4854-A9EC-A1773D4CCABB
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 234441614
Partitions will be aligned on 8-sector boundaries
Total free space is 264509 sectors (129.2 MiB)
Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name
1 40 409639 200.0 MiB EF00 EFI System Partition
2 409640 70722135 33.5 GiB AF00 Downloads
3 70985728 234440703 77.9 GiB 0700 BOOTCAMP
Disk size is 234441648 sectors (111.8 GiB)
MBR disk identifier: 0xB8FEDD96
MBR partitions:
Number Boot Start Sector End Sector Status Code
1 1 409639 primary 0xEE
2 409640 70722135 primary 0xAF
3 * 70985728 234440703 primary 0x07
Your assistance and support is much appreciated!
~Casey
What happens if you press the Esc key in rEFInd? If that reveals your Windows installation, you can uncomment the "scan_delay" option in rEFInd; that should get things working. (You can adjust the value up or down; one user with a similar problem reports that a delay of just 1 second does the job.)
I will try the Esc key and subsequently scan_delay when I get home from work later tonite. Thanks!
So, I was able to try the above, with no success. Esc key scans and only shows Mac OS X. Likewise, adjusting scan_delay 1 or 5 made no change toward finding Windows. With bootcamp, am I supposed to install rEFInd as well. I am unclear as the Hybrid nature of Bootcamp/Windows is less documented.
I'm afraid I'm near the end of my suggestions. I've seen reports that some Macs have firmware that's just flaky about detecting BIOS-bootable OSes on anything but the primary boot disk, and you may be running into this sort of problem. I do, however, have two suggestions.
The first is fairly non-radical: Install a copy of rEFInd on the ESP on /dev/disk1 (that is, on /dev/disk1s1). Do not use "bless" to add this copy to the firmware's list of boot loaders; just mount /dev/disk1s1 and copy the rEFInd files into a directory (which you'll have to create) called EFI/refind on that disk. When you reboot, you should then see this second rEFInd in your main rEFInd menu, and you'll be able to launch it. There's a chance that the second rEFInd will then detect Windows, although I can't make any promises about that.
The second suggestion is much more radical and could blow up on you: It is to convert the hybrid MBR on /dev/disk1 into a straight-up MBR. This is only advisable if you're not booting OS X from the disk. You can do the job with gdisk; see the gdisk documentation on GPT-to-MBR conversions for details of how to do this. The idea is that a plain MBR might make Windows more obvious to the firmware/rEFInd than a hybrid MBR. The risk is that you might end up with something that's unbootable even via Boot Camp. You can minimize the risk by backing up your GPT data structures with gdisk's "b" option. If things go badly, you can then restore the data structures with the "l" option on gdisk's recovery & transformation menu.
Thanks for your suggestions and support. I will try adding rEFInd to ESP on disk1 and report back. If adventurous enough I may attempt the second suggestion, would be nice to not rely on BootCamp.
I just got a new Mac mini and look forward to installing rEFInd on it as well. Mac OS X Mountain Lion and Windows BootCamp will be on the same disk0, so hopefully will work right out of the box.
If you plan to install Windows 8 to a recent Mac, it might be worth considering trying an EFI-mode install. This is apparently much simpler with Windows 8 than with Windows 7. There's a massive thread on the topic of EFI-mode installs of both versions of Windows here:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=696523
You might want to skip to the end and read just the last couple of pages, since much of the earlier material is about Windows 7 and includes a large number of false leads.
If you can get it to work, an EFI-mode install will bypass complications related to hybrid MBRs and boot loader weirdness. IMHO, it's worth investing a bit of time reading forum posts, and perhaps posting for advice yourself. (With Windows 7, EFI-mode booting seems to be possible on some systems, but it's much harder to get working and so less worth trying.)
Thank you and yes, I will read up. I have been thinking of playing with Windows 8 and that would be nice to have a clean Windows with EFI.