Windows – Ghost partition, Windows BSOD

bootbootcamppartitionwindows

Today I was trying to set up Windows on my MacBook Pro (15", Late 2011) over BootCamp.

I used the modified Info.plist-trick to create a bootable Windows 8 USB-drive and create a Bootcamp partition. After this was done, I tried to install Windows, but I ran into the problem of Windows not accepting the pre-made partition, so I deleted it and rebooted once again into the Windows installer to install it.

Everything went fine, but in the last bit of the installation process, it aborted – telling me that it couldn't change my boot configuration.

After this, it froze, so I held the power button down until it restarted. I couldn't boot from the newly created (hard drive) "EFI boot" section, so I booted the Recovery and tried to delete the two new partitions (the windows and the "Microsoft reserved" one). But it wouldn't let me delete the ~130MB partition named disk0s4. Even from Internet recovery, I couldn't get rid of it.

Next thing I did was try to run the Windows installer again, but from this point on, the installer would crash in a BSOD, almost instantly restarting my PC shortly after. I thought it had to be the disk0s4-partition that is causing all of this, so I made another effort deleting it – and I made it using the disk utility on my OS X. Having only one partition left, I tried rebooting, only to see that the "EFI boot" was still there. (note: this is not by USB-Drive, it has a hard-drive icon whereas the USB drive has a USB one)

I don't really know what to do from here to fix all this. I have no idea where this "EFI boot" is coming from (there is only one partition and a lot of unallocated space on my HD) and why my Windows installer is crashing.

I hope somebody can help me despite my long (but detailed) question.

Edit:
fdisk output:

Disk: /dev/disk0    geometry: 60801/255/63 [976773168 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
 #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1: EE 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [         1 -  976773167] <Unknown ID>
 2: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused      
 3: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused      
 4: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused

gpt output:

      start       size  index  contents
          0          1         PMBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2         32         Pri GPT table
         34          6         
         40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
     409640  486812704      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  487222344    1269536      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  488491880  488281255         
  976773135         32         Sec GPT table
  976773167          1         Sec GPT header

diskutil output:

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            249.2 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

Seems like there is a hidden partition…

Best Answer

Chasing Ghosts

You have successfully removed all windows partitions from your disk, but you have not yet removed all files added during your attempt to install windows. What is left are files in your EFI partition. The ghost is being caused by the file efi/boot/bootx64.efi stored in the EFI partition.

Open a Terminal window and enter the following command.
```
sudo diskutil mount /dev/disk0s1
```
From a Finder window, open the EFI disk. Next open the EFI folder. Remove the Boot and Microsoft folders.
When finished, enter the command below.
```
diskutil unmount /dev/disk0s1
```

Choosing an Installation Method

Generally the "modified Info.plist-trick" is just that. It is a trick. As far as I know, you can put the Windows installation files on the USB flash drive, but can not boot from this drive to install Windows. Generally, only the 2012 and newer models can boot the Windows installer from a USB port. If you succeeded, then your model must be the exception.

If you have an internal working optical drive, then this the preferred method to install Windows. If you need to buy a DVD, you are better off with a RW DVD. It will take longer to burn, but it is reusable. It is not sufficient to just burn the iso file to a DVD. You must burn the image stored in the iso file to the DVD.

There are two methods for installing operation systems on Macs. The first is the legacy BIOS/MBR method and the second is the EFI/GPT method. It is my understanding that the 2011 models are suppose to install Windows using the legacy BIOS/MBR method. From your post, I assume you were trying the EFI/GPT method.

You can choose which partition or media to boot from by holding down the alt/option key at startup. If a Windows installation DVD is in the Macs optical drive, you will get a DVD icon labeled "Windows". You can select this to install Windows using the BIOS/MBR method. There also may be a DVD icon labeled something like "EFI". You probably do not want to select this icon, since this will install using the EFI/GPT method.

A word of caution. If you using the BIOS/MBR method for Windows, you can not use any Windows software to change the disk partitioning. This must only be done from OS X. However, you can use Windows to format a partition.

Related Solutions

I think I messed up the Fusion Drive on the 1TB iMac (with BootCamp)

Theoretically everything is fine with your Fusion Drive. Fusion Drives look like this. Disk0 is your SSD with 121 GB and disk1 is your HDD with ~1 TB (~1.121 TB summed up).

The larger parts of your SSD (disk0s2) and your HDD (disk1s2) are pooled to a CoreStorage LVG (Fusion Drive: disk3) with a size of 967.8 GB. The rest is reserved for EFIs, a Recovery HD (alltogether ~1.3 GB) and your old Windows partition - now probably free space (~152 GB).

The logical volume 'Macintosh HD' (967.8 GB) spans disk0s2 and disk1s2. This is the first 'Macintosh HD' in picture 1. The volume 'Macintosh HD' - it's the one visible on the desktop - should ideally also have about 967.8 GB. This is the second 'Macintosh HD' in picture 1.
In fact it has only 852.67 GB (see picture 3).

In the second picture the logical volume 'Macintosh HD' is the first listed in black, the volume 'Macintosh HD' is the second listed in black, the other two 'Macintosh HD's listed in grey are the parts of your SSD and HDD dedicated to the logical volume 'Macintosh HD'.

In my opinion something went wrong after deleting various partitions with the Bootcamp Assistant/Disk Utility or in Windows.

Preparation:

Detach any external drive (especially your external Time Machine backup drive)
Restart to Internet Recovery Mode by pressing alt cmd R at startup.
The prerequisites are the latest firmware update installed, either ethernet or WLAN (WPA/WPA2) and a router with DHCP activated.
On a 50 Mbps-line it takes about 4 min (presenting a small animated globe) to boot into a recovery netboot image which usually is loaded from an apple/akamai server.

I recommend ethernet because it's more reliable. If you are restricted to WIFI and the boot process fails, just restart your Mac until you succeed booting.

Alternatively you may start from a bootable installer thumb drive (preferably Mavericks or Yosemite) or a thumb drive containing a full system (preferably Mavericks or Yosemite).

Now you may either repair CoreStorage or rebuild your Fusion Drive:

'Repair CoreStorage' (not recommended):

First i would try to check the volume 'Macintosh HD' with Disk Utility. If the volume is corrupted consider a reinstall of Mac OS X.
If the volume is ok quit Disk Utility
Open Terminal and enter diskutil unmountDisk /dev/LVIdentifier and both diskutil unmountDisk /dev/DiskContainingApple_CoreStorageIdentifier
In your case: first diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk3 then diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk0 and diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk1
remove the EFI NO NAME partition with gpt remove -i IndexNumberOfEFINoName DiskIdentifier:
gpt remove -i 4 disk1
Remount the CoreStorage disks and then the Logical Volume:
In your case: first diskutil mountDisk /dev/disk0 and diskutil mountDisk /dev/disk1 and then diskutil mount /dev/disk3.

enter gpt -r -vvv show /dev/diskIdentfierOfApple_CoreStorage to get infos of your HDD CoreStorage disk.
In your case: gpt -r -vvv show /dev/disk1
It should look like this:

-bash-3.2# gpt -r -vvv show /dev/disk1
gpt show: /dev/disk1: mediasize=1000204886016; sectorsize=512;         blocks=1953525168
gpt show: /dev/disk1: PMBR at sector 0
gpt show: /dev/disk1: Pri GPT at sector 1
gpt show: /dev/disk1: GPT partition: type=C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B, start=40, size=409600
gpt show: /dev/disk1: GPT partition: type=53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC, start=409640, size=1671210848
gpt show: /dev/disk1: GPT partition: type=426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC, start=1671620488, size=1269760
gpt show: /dev/disk1: Sec GPT at sector 1953525167                               
     start          size  index contents                                        
         0             1        PMBR                                            
         1             1        Pri GPT header                                  
         2            32        Pri GPT table                                   
        34             6
        40        409600      1 GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
    409640    1671210848      2 GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
1671620488       1269760      3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
1672890248     280634887
1953525135            32        Sec GPT table
1953525167             1        Sec GPT header

The free space on your HDD has 280634887 blocks. Please calculate the biggest block number dividable through 8. That's 280634880 blocks (á 512 bytes) which equals 143685058560 B or ~143.7 GB. Add the size of your HDD CoreStorage Physical Volume (852666400768 B) The result is 143685058560 B + 852666400768 B = 996351459328 B
Resize your HDD CoreStorage physical volume with diskutil cs resizeDisk HDDPVUUID newsize
In your case: diskutil cs resizeDisk 93892BE8-2B7F-4ABD-A4C3-984495DCD98D 996351459328b
Calculate the maximal size of your CoreStorage Logical Volume in diskutil cs list: (size disk0s2) + (size disk1s2) In your case that's 120988852224 B + 996351459328 B = 1117340311552 B. That should be the size of your refreshed Logical Volume Group.
Resize your Logical Volume with diskutil cs resizeVolume LVUUID LVGSize-128 MB In your case that's diskutil cs resizeVolume D237FFDC-7DA4-41D7-AC13-4CC7E5E8C0A0 1117212311552b. If you get an error (There is not enough free space...) choose a smaller size like 1117148311552b.
Quit Terminal and open Disk Utility.
Check your expanded CoreStorage Volume for errors.
Quit Disk Utility, choose your CS volume as startup disk and restart your Mac

'Rebuild Fusion Drive' (recommended if you have a Time Machine backup)

Booted to Internet Recovery Mode open Utilities → Terminal in the menubar and enter:
diskutil cs list to get the CoreStorage listing.
Copy the Logical Volume UUID, it's the fifth listed.
Now delete the Logical Volume with diskutil cs deleteVolume LVUUID.
In your case: diskutil cs deleteVolume D237FFDC-7DA4-41D7-AC13-4CC7E5E8C0A0.
Copy the Logical Volume Group UUID, it's the first listed in the listing of diskutil cs list.
Then delete the Logical Volume Group with diskutil cs delete LVGUUID.
In your case: diskutil cs delete 1EFE58BC-3613-44C4-86EE-D816F3B66E3E
Enter exit and quit 'Terminal'
Open 'Disk Utility'. Enter 'Ignore' if you are asked to fix the drives.
Choose your SSD and partition it: 1 Partition Mac OS X Extended (Journaled), hit the Options button and choose GUID Partiton table and hit OK and Apply.
Please check that the size is ~121 GB

Example:
Choose your HDD and partition it: 1 Partition Mac OS X Extended (Journaled), hit the Options button and choose GUID Partiton table and hit OK and Apply.
Please check that the size is ~1 TB

Example:
Quit Disk Utility and open Terminal
Enter diskutil list

Example (your disk identifiers and sizes are different of course: Your volume SSD probably has the Identifier disk0s2 and the size 121 GB and your volume HDD probably has the Identifier disk1s2 and the size 1.0 TB):
Enter diskutil cs create "Name" IdentifierSSD IdentifierHDD
In your case probably diskutil cs create "Macintosh HD" disk0s2 disk1s2.

Copy the resulting LVGUUID

Example:
Enter diskutil cs CreateVolume LVGUUID jhfs+ "Macintosh HD" 100%.

Example:
Enter diskutil cs list
Check the size of your Logical Volume. It should have the size ~1.121 TB

Example:
Quit Terminal
Open 'Disk Utility' and check your newly created volume for errors
Quit 'Disk Utility'
Attach your external Time Machine backup drive or check this answer if you use NAS or another network share.
Open 'Restore from Time Machine Backup'
Choose the appropriate Time Machine backup and restore your system
Reboot to your restored system.
Unmount and detach your Time Machine backup drive
Open 'Terminal' and enter 'diskutil list'
Check if your 'Recovery HD' is listed.
If your 'Recovery HD' is missing, usually reinstalling your current system with the latest available system installer (e.g. 'Install OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)' if Mavericks is currently installed) will recreate it without loosing any data. AFAIK Recovery Partition Creator 3.8 will NOT create a Recovery HD on CoreStorage volumes.
After reinstalling the system with the latest available system installer open App Store and install the latest security fixes.

Windows – Does Windows, running on latest Apple computers, see boot disk partitioned as MBR or GPT

If you install Windows with the Bootcamp Assistant from a standard Mac OS X system, Windows always will start from a PMBR/Hybrid MBR partition table embedded in the GUID partition table (Legacy MBR). MBR takes precedence in hybrid configuration even if a EFI boot might be possible.

If you use a non-Bootcamp Assistant EFI install method for Windows (e.g outlined here) Windows will boot in UEFI-mode (compatibility Windows 32bit/64bit) and you will find a * in the Gpt column for disk0.