Windows Partition corrupt after OS upgrade

Joined
Nov 2, 2014
Messages
5
Reaction score
0
Points
1
So as many people are experiencing after I upgraded to Yosemite I lost my windows Partition. Holding Cntl on boot shows no windows option to boot from. When going to disk utility on the mac side, the windows partition is still there but showing a weird name disk0s4. It is grayed out and I cannot touch it.

At this point I just want to salvage my data from that partition. Please tell me that is possible. I Created a new thread because I am really a complete noob with Macs and a lot of whats in the other threads is foreign language to me. So I need help step by step what to do and where to go.

I am hoping I can salvage all my important data, then just reformat the old windows partition.

Much appreciated for the help and input.

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10)
 

Slydude

Well-known member
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Nov 15, 2009
Messages
17,595
Reaction score
1,071
Points
113
Location
North Louisiana, USA
Your Mac's Specs
M1 MacMini 16 GB - Ventura, iPhone 14 Pro Max, 2015 iMac 16 GB Monterey
It is not unusual for you not to be able to do anything with a Windows partition in Disk Utility. Since the partition appears to still be there try one of the following and let us know the results.

1. Reboot the Mac and immediately hold down the Option key (not Command). If the Windows partition is in the list try to select it and boot from it.

2. If you are not comfortable doing it that way go to System Preferences and open the Startup pane. Select the Windows partition, if possible and choose restart.
 
OP
M
Joined
Nov 2, 2014
Messages
5
Reaction score
0
Points
1
It is not unusual for you not to be able to do anything with a Windows partition in Disk Utility. Since the partition appears to still be there try one of the following and let us know the results.

1. Reboot the Mac and immediately hold down the Option key (not Command). If the Windows partition is in the list try to select it and boot from it.

2. If you are not comfortable doing it that way go to System Preferences and open the Startup pane. Select the Windows partition, if possible and choose restart.

Slydude thanks for help.

There is no windows option when I hold down option key. Under startup disc only Mac Book OSX shows up. Its as if Boot Camp windows start up got corrupted some how.
 

chscag

Well-known member
Staff member
Admin
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
65,248
Reaction score
1,833
Points
113
Location
Keller, Texas
Your Mac's Specs
2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
What version of Windows did you have? And.. do you have a Windows disk and does your Mac have a disk drive? Sorry for the questions but you may be able to repair Windows and get it working again. I don't know why the Yosemite upgrade killed your Windows partition as that should not have happened.
 
Joined
Nov 28, 2007
Messages
25,564
Reaction score
486
Points
83
Location
Blue Mountains NSW Australia
Your Mac's Specs
Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6
Just a sample reply so Apple can check my type is entering as I have been losing it.
 
OP
M
Joined
Nov 2, 2014
Messages
5
Reaction score
0
Points
1
mac does have a disk drive and I do have a windows disk. I have ALOT of important things on that FAT partition and if it can be salvaged before I reinstall windows that would be the course I want to take.
 

Slydude

Well-known member
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Nov 15, 2009
Messages
17,595
Reaction score
1,071
Points
113
Location
North Louisiana, USA
Your Mac's Specs
M1 MacMini 16 GB - Ventura, iPhone 14 Pro Max, 2015 iMac 16 GB Monterey
If you are booted in OS X can you "see" the Windows partition in the Finder? If so, you may be able to find the files that you need and copy them somewhere else before reformatting that partition.
 
Joined
Aug 19, 2014
Messages
792
Reaction score
4
Points
18
you corrupted the ntfs windows partition boot loader sorry you cannot recover from this your data is gone and you will no longer be able to mount the drive you will have to do a full system reinstallation and format the drive completely
 

chscag

Well-known member
Staff member
Admin
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
65,248
Reaction score
1,833
Points
113
Location
Keller, Texas
Your Mac's Specs
2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
mac does have a disk drive and I do have a windows disk. I have ALOT of important things on that FAT partition and if it can be salvaged before I reinstall windows that would be the course I want to take.

You may be able to restore the boot sector of your Windows partition using the repair function with your Windows disk. Do a Google search on how to repair Windows. Be specific and ask about your particular version of Windows: (Likely XP since you say the partition is FAT) Vista, Windows 7, and on up can not be installed on a FAT partition.
 
OP
M
Joined
Nov 2, 2014
Messages
5
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Thanks for everyones assistant on this.

It seems many people are having this issue over on the apple community forums.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6614413

For example.

I just need to know for sure is there no way to get windows boot sector restored with all the data still there. My bootcamp partition is still showing.

I am fairly new to mac and don't know much about it so everyone patience is appreciated.
 
OP
M
Joined
Nov 2, 2014
Messages
5
Reaction score
0
Points
1
So interesting update. I tried to run repair from windows disk . The NTFS partition is now saying bootcamp again, but it still isn't mountable. When I try to fix boot sector from windows DOS using the recovery tool, it can't read the NTFS partition and is only seeing one partition for 500 Gigs. Not sure what else I can do at this point.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top