iMac won't start

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My friend just bought a brand new iMac with 1TB HDD. Because he's not so familiar with OS X so he asked to partition OS X with 200GB space only, the rest will use with Windows 7. I did this for him and the space for Windows drive was 700+ GB, then when I was installing Windows 7, I partition 200GB for the system drive and the rest for 'Data' storing. After Windows 7 set up with bootcamp installed, I restarted the computer into OS X, but the bootcamp drive won't show and when I went into the Disk Utilities, the 700+ GB that I partitioned was still in one drive in OS X and is still a raw disk. In Windows I can see it, so I formatted the 500+ GB into NTFS, and it worked perfectly. However, after rebooted the machine, I can't get into either Windows or OS X.

Hope my description makes sense! Please help!!!

Many Thanks!!!
 
robduckyworth

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what happens when you hold down option (alt) at start up?
 
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when I hold the option key, it shows only 1 option for me to choose, it's 'windows' and when I choose 'windows' it freezes when it comes to the black screen!!! :(
 
robduckyworth

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can you boot from your original Mac OSX CD? try a repair disk on the mac partition.
 
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put the OS X dvd in and tried to boot from the dvd, but it wouldn't show the OS X drive, that's why couldn't repair with this method!
 
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are you sure you havent erased the entire OSX partition when you "formatted the 500GB to ntfs through windows?" you should always do it through bootcamp.

you may have to do a wipe and reinstall if this is the case. hope you backed up.
 
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This entire thread is confusing.... How exactly did you partition your friend's machine? Did you use the Boot Camp assistant or Disk Utility? If you used the Boot Camp assistant did you read the instructions or print them out first? It also sounds like you created two partitions in Windows?

I agree with robduckyworth that you likely overwrote your OS X partition with all the partitioning and formatting that you did. You probably need to start over by reinstalling Snow Leopard. Make sure that before you do, that you reset the PRAM|NVRAM first. See this KB article.

And when setting up Windows 7 again, there is no need to create two partitions nor make them as large as you did. A 200 GB partition for Windows 7 is enough to install the most demanding games or apps.
 
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robduckyworth said:
are you sure you havent erased the entire OSX partition when you "formatted the 500GB to ntfs through windows?" you should always do it through bootcamp.

you may have to do a wipe and reinstall if this is the case. hope you backed up.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure at all, cos when I formatted the 500GB in windows it works ok until I restarted and then the OS X just disappear completely and the Windows won't start!!!
 
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chscag said:
This entire thread is confusing.... How exactly did you partition your friend's machine? Did you use the Boot Camp assistant or Disk Utility? If you used the Boot Camp assistant did you read the instructions or print them out first? It also sounds like you created two partitions in Windows?

I agree with robduckyworth that you likely overwrote your OS X partition with all the partitioning and formatting that you did. You probably need to start over by reinstalling Snow Leopard. Make sure that before you do, that you reset the PRAM|NVRAM first. See this KB article.

And when setting up Windows 7 again, there is no need to create two partitions nor make them as large as you did. A 200 GB partition for Windows 7 is enough to install the most demanding games or apps.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure how the partition was done, because there was one person did this before I re-installed Windows 7 for my friend, and the 700GB for Windows was there, and I partitioned this 700GB into 200GB & 500GB, 200GB used to install the Windows and 500GB used to store data. Once the Windows installed with Bootcamp driver set up properly, it worked ok until I formatted the 500GB in Windows to NTFS, then the whole thing just went wrong!!!
 
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well, i think we have identified the problem. you have wiped a critical part of your OSX partition through fomatting it to ntfs.

follow the chscag's article. reinstall osx, then reistall bootcamp. dont do any partitioning through windows itself! use bootcamp.
 
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I'm not sure how the partition was done, because there was one person did this before I re-installed Windows 7 for my friend, and the 700GB for Windows was there, and I partitioned this 700GB into 200GB & 500GB, 200GB used to install the Windows and 500GB used to store data. Once the Windows installed with Bootcamp driver set up properly, it worked ok until I formatted the 500GB in Windows to NTFS, then the whole thing just went wrong!!!
Click to expand...

I agree with robduckyworth. Either you munged your OS X partition when you re-partitioned the 700 GB into two partitions, or possibly switching the file system to NTFS. It more than likely happened when you repartitioned Windows. The Windows 7 disk manager is sometimes difficult to understand.

Anyway, follow my first reply about resetting the PRAM NVRAM and then erase the entire drive with Disk Utility. (you will need to remove the partitions first) Create just one partition on the drive, format it as HFS+ GUID, install Snow Leopard and apps. NOTE: You do all the above while booted from your Snow Leopard DVD.

Afterward, use the Boot Camp assistant to create a partition for Windows 7. Make sure you understand what Boot Camp is doing and be careful when it comes time to format the partition. You must use NTFS or Windows 7 can not be installed. And do not create such a large partition for Windows!

And before you start to install Windows, make a backup. Use Time Machine.
 
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Thanks robduckyworth and chscag for your advise!!! I want my hard drive to be partitioned into 3 different drives, 1 for OS X (200GB), 1 for Windows 7 (200GB) and the rest for data storage (working files, movies, music...) how do I partition the 3rd drive for data storage? What format (exFAT, FAT32, Ms-dos FAT...) should I format this data drive to, to be able to use the drive in both OSX and Windows (I understand that FAT32 can't store a single file that is over 4GB)? Thanks!!
 
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well ive never done it, but i would partition inside mac osx first, then run bootcamp, and partition for windows that way. Dont do anything from inside windows. not entirely sure if it would work however. (format the "storage" partition through windows after if you want NTFS, do not create the partition in windows)

as for formats:

NTFS & HFS+ can read from eachother. they just cant write. so where would you be doing the majority of your writing to the disk?

as for fat32, you are correct, only less than 4gb.

FAT32 file size limit - VuzeWiki

so its up to you really.
 
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You can not use Boot Camp if the drive has already been partitioned. It will refuse to install Windows. So that means you have to attempt to do it the same as before which will probably result in the same problem.

The only way you can do what you want is to use Disk Utility from your install DVD. That means installing Windows without using the Boot Camp assistant. It's certainly possible, but not easy and there is always the danger of overwriting OS X.

A common partition accessible by both OS X and Windows would have to be FAT-32. However, FAT-32 limits the max file size to around 4 GB which may mean that some movies could not be placed on the drive. (I have movies that are over 6 GB.) If you use NTFS, you would then need a special driver so that OS X could read and write. Or, you could use HFS+ but then you would need a special driver for Windows to be able to read and write.

So you can see from my reply above that you have a lot of thinking and a lot of work ahead if you decide to do what you want.

Here's what I suggest: Install Windows on one partition - use whatever size you want, and leave the drive with just two partitions. One for Mac OS X Snow Leopard, the other for Windows 7. Buy an external hard drive and load it up with all your movies, music, whatever. Lots easier that way.
 
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chscag said:
You can not use Boot Camp if the drive has already been partitioned. It will refuse to install Windows. So that means you have to attempt to do it the same as before which will probably result in the same problem.

The only way you can do what you want is to use Disk Utility from your install DVD. That means installing Windows without using the Boot Camp assistant. It's certainly possible, but not easy and there is always the danger of overwriting OS X.

A common partition accessible by both OS X and Windows would have to be FAT-32. However, FAT-32 limits the max file size to around 4 GB which may mean that some movies could not be placed on the drive. (I have movies that are over 6 GB.) If you use NTFS, you would then need a special driver so that OS X could read and write. Or, you could use HFS+ but then you would need a special driver for Windows to be able to read and write.

So you can see from my reply above that you have a lot of thinking and a lot of work ahead if you decide to do what you want.

Here's what I suggest: Install Windows on one partition - use whatever size you want, and leave the drive with just two partitions. One for Mac OS X Snow Leopard, the other for Windows 7. Buy an external hard drive and load it up with all your movies, music, whatever. Lots easier that way.
Click to expand...


chscag, i think every question about hard drives/boot camp should be forwarded to you first. lets face it, you are the master! :p
 
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Thanks again to both of you! I've finally done it! I partitioned the hard drive using Disk Utilities. I partitioned to 3 drives, 1 for Mac OS X (200GB), 1 for Windows 7 (200GB) and the rest for Data storage. For the 3rd partition, I formatted it to exFAT which seems to working well on both OS X and Windows, I tried to copy 1 movie file which is a bit bigger than 10GB, and it store properly. My friend is using it now without any problem so far... Really thanks again to both of you, I wouldn't be able to achieve this without the help from you two... :D

chscag: could you tell me the software name that can make OS X read/write NTFS drive format?
 
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could you tell me the software name that can make OS X read/write NTFS drive format?
Click to expand...

Paragon NTFS from Paragon software. $19.95
 

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