#85 refit does not boot windows any more
On a macbook pro beginning 2011, I installed windows 7 (sp1 64 bit) using bootcamp, then refit.
I later used windows to add an extra partition for data (an extended one with a logical one inside in fact), to get the following disk scheme:
efi, osx, win os, 128mb free, win data (ntfs, logical partition in an extended one)
So far so good, as I could boot using refit to both osx and windows.
But then I started fiddling around trying to install linux too. I did not take consciously any destructive action, but now refit will not boot windows anymore sad.gif
Actions taken:
- boot a gparted cd. Boot process stops halfway thru saying there are no live disks, whatever that means
- go to the "sync" menu in refit, where I get the message that mbr and gpt are out of sync (gpt still thinks tehre's only 3 partitions in the disk, it knows nothing of windows having changed the mbr), but since the extra mbr partition is extended, no action will be taken at all, bye bye
End result: refit now still shows the same boot menu (one os icon, two windows ones), but when I try to boot windows nothing happens :-(
I still managed to boot windows by booting a gparted cdrom and pick the "boot os installed on harddisk" option. From windows, both its os partition and data partitions are usable.
I also booted in osx, and in the system preferences panel, the "run at next boot" option does not show windows anymore. The disk utility does only show the windows os partition, not the data one.
I think that refit has made some change to the mbr or win boot loader that now prevents it and macos to recognize the windows partition, even though windows can in fact boot perfectly.
Other strange symptoms: in the refit sync tool page both windows partitions are marked as active. I tried to fix that by booting into windows and setting the data partition as not active, to no avail: now that partitions is not marked active anymore in windows, but it still is in refit.
Any suggestions on how to get windows to be bootable by refit without having to have the gparted cdrom instered are welcome - I'd like to avoid reformatting and reinstalling any os if possible...
Thanks
Gaetano
PS: Can close: I installed easybcd, held my breath, hit the 'write to mbr' button and now can boot again from the refit menu. Whew!