02-19-2012, 02:21 AM

I've been on long and arduous journey that started off trying to upgrade a hard drive that was becoming flaky......... finally got there using carbon copy cloning tool (excellent).
BUT when the new disc was created for OSX Lion I decided to switch to Windows 7 to see if everything was OK.

On my machine Windows is a separate physical drive using bootcamp.

But the Windows HD The was not visible when using start up disc preferences so I spent a couple of hours trying to make the windows drive bootable using a combination of bootcamp and the windows 7 install disc and a previous W7 back-up.

Finally I sorted Windows 7 out and all looked fine but when I tried to switch back to OSX via Bootcamp the switch failed and I ended up back in windows!!

Holding down the option key during restart revealed only ONE drive to select from - the OSX drive was not visible. So I ended up back into Windows 7.

I checked the Mac OSX drive which was visible in under My Computer and it looked fine. I opened up Bootcamp Assistant control panel and the expected Mac OSX drive was listed as an option to select.........(!)

It looks like Windows can see the Mac OSX drive but OSX can't!!!

I'm about to try booting the mac in target mode to see if I can figure out what's going on.
Any suggestions welcome!

02-19-2012, 02:39 AM

On your old drive OSX was one partition and Windows another. Did you back up each partition with Carbon Copy separately then restore them one by one? If it's all one backup I am wondering if that would even work as Windows uses a who different partitioning scheme than OSX. OSX has to be GUID for any Intel Mac. Just asking as I have never used CC to back up a windows install on a Mac.

02-19-2012, 03:21 AM

Originally Posted by dtravis7

On your old drive OSX was one partition and Windows another. Did you back up each partition with Carbon Copy separately then restore them one by one? If it's all one backup I am wondering if that would even work as Windows uses a who different partitioning scheme than OSX. OSX has to be GUID for any Intel Mac. Just asking as I have never used CC to back up a windows install on a Mac.

The old Mac OSX drive was only OSX so cloning was mac osxto mac osx. The new HD was booting perfectly from cold after using the CCC tool .......

I have just tried target mode on another mac and the above new OSX hard disc is not visible on the desktop - but the windows discs are!!

How can Windows 7 see this mac osx disc (HFS) but two mac's can't?

It's gonna be a long night!.....

02-19-2012, 03:30 AM

How did you install Windows 7 then? After you restored from the CC backup? Did you use bootcamp? You sure you did not mess with the OSX partition by accident. I know it's showing in Windows but that really does not make sense to me!

This might be a new one for us to try and solve.

02-19-2012, 06:19 AM

Originally Posted by dtravis7

How did you install Windows 7 then? After you restored from the CC backup? Did you use bootcamp? You sure you did not mess with the OSX partition by accident. I know it's showing in Windows but that really does not make sense to me!

This might be a new one for us to try and solve.

I'll be as clear as I can:

1. I have 3 hard drives one original 500GB WD and two new 1TB WD.

2. Smart Reporter was indicating the 3 year old 500GB drive had I/O errors and becoming flaky

3. Decided to clone the 500GB drive on to a new 1TB drive using the Carbon Cloning tool

4 4 hours later checked that the new hd was functioning correctly - it did confirming the CC tool had done its job

5. Windows 7 had previously been installed on the third drive using Bootcamp assistant.
This drive also had W7 back ups.

6. When I tried to test Windows 7 was working OK I noticed the usual bootcamp disc was not visible as a re-start disc option which I found a bit strange.

7. I then wiped the old 500GB drive clean (previously used for osx) to use as a basis for trying to fix the W7 problem - I didn't want to mess with the new OSX hard drive. I remembered the W7 installation disc had options for fixing problems.

8. I fired up Bootcamp Assistant followed the directions selecting the redundant 500GB drive as a "sandpit" and was prompted to load the W7 installation disk. I followed the instructions and reached a point where I could restore Windows 7 using one of my back ups.

9. I selected the restore from backup option....when the back up was complete Iwas asked to restart the computer - which fired up windows 7 and everything looked fine.

10. the problem began when I tried to switch from Windows 7 to OSX.
Bootcamp control panel showed the new OSX hard drive as an option - which I selected.

11. But the reboot into OSX failed and I ended up defaulting back into Windows 7

12. All forms of starting Via the option key etc have only shown the Windows 7 drive option the Mac HD does not appear ie safe mode and verbose mode.

13. I've just tried connecting to this mac using target disc and my macbook pro the mac osx disc does not appear!!

14.BUT in Windows 7 the OSX disc is clearly visiblle as a drive with the correct file structure and files, it shows the HFS format @ 500gb which is correct.

15. I am using OSX Lion I am currently reinstalling the Mac operating system on the reformatted 500gb drive to get Mac OSX running!

16. Just finished a basic install of Leopard as i couldn't find the Lion disc - now up and going but the 1TB OSX disc is not visible............ maybe it has died??

Any constructive advice appreciated!

02-19-2012, 10:29 AM

Assuming you have a Mac Pro (you didn't say), when you did the cloning and the swap did you reset the PRAM to clear the Pro's memory so it could detect the OS X drive?

And, have you tried removing the Windows 7 drive from the machine to see if the drive with OS X was detected?

Also... Lion does not come on disk unless you made one. Reinstalling is done from the Lion recovery partition.

02-19-2012, 03:45 PM

Originally Posted by chscag

Assuming you have a Mac Pro (you didn't say), when you did the cloning and the swap did you reset the PRAM to clear the Pro's memory so it could detect the OS X drive?

And, have you tried removing the Windows 7 drive from the machine to see if the drive with OS X was detected?

Also... Lion does not come on disk unless you made one. Reinstalling is done from the Lion recovery partition.

1. My computer is a Mac Pro (2008)
2. After cloning I didn't reset PRAM - I simply checked the cloned disc by rebooting from it and it worked fine. I don't know what PRAM is?
3. I Haven't tried removing the Windows drive - but I have reinstalled Mac Leopard - the discs that came with the machine - on the reformatted 500GB drive.
4. The above installation works fine - - but the previously cloned OSX Lion disc is not visible under the new operating system
5. My plan was to try and recover from Time machine/time capsule but not sure if this will work with this version of the operating system
6. It's like the OSX Lion hard driven has become "hidden" for some reason that I cannot explain
7. This is the toughest challenge I have seen on the mac in 8 years!
8. If Lion doesen't come on the disc (no wander I couldn't find it!) I must have downloaded from the Apple site...........I'll see if I can find it on my account!

02-19-2012, 09:55 PM

I don't know what PRAM is?

Sometimes, resetting the PRAM can clear out old memory and take care of things like you reported. Sometimes, not always.... Anyway, try that. Reset PRAM.

02-20-2012, 01:35 AM

Originally Posted by chscag

Sometimes, resetting the PRAM can clear out old memory and take care of things like you reported. Sometimes, not always.... Anyway, try that. Reset PRAM.

Hi Thanks for your advice above........ I will give it a try!

The good news is the Mac is up and going and thank god fully recovered using Time Capsule.

This step did require the visible 500GB drive to be reloaded with Leopard, upgraded to Snow Leopard and finally a new install of Lion.

Yes it took many hours! Once Lion was installed I was able to use the new Lion disc recovery process using the Command R at boot up time which allowed me to select a previous back up from Time Capsule - another 4 hours!

I only purchased Time Capsule last week and it has truly saved days of work!
Everything works fine with the recovered OSX environment.

But the mystery still remains of why the new 1TB drive I cloned is not visible in OSX........but visible when in Windows 7.

I will report progress after the PRAM reset.