Win 7 pwd in Bootcamp stopped working; should I erase partition and reinstall?

Joined
Jan 28, 2009
Messages
34
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Your Mac's Specs
MBP 11,3 (15" Retina, Feb 2015), 2.8/4.0 GHz Core i7-4980HQ, 1TB SSD/4-lane PCIe, 16GB RAM, Yosemite
I've got Bootcamp (BC) with Win 7. For some reason, Win 7 stopped recognizing my password. Some questions:

Anyone have this issue?

Should I just erase the BC partition and start from scratch? I wouldn't lose any data.

Also, if I erase and start from scratch, is there any issue creating a new BC partition on a FireVault encrypted drive? I don't recall if my drive was encrypted when I first installed BC, and I have read that partitioning an encrypted drive is problematic (but I'm not sure if this applies to BC).

If there is an issue creating a new BC partition on an encrypted drive, then does the BC Assistant offer the option of just reinstalling onto the existing BC partition?


Thanks!
 
Joined
Jul 24, 2013
Messages
5,073
Reaction score
758
Points
113
Location
Ohio (USA)
Your Mac's Specs
2023-14" M3max MBPro, 64GB/1TB, iPhone 15 Pro, Watch Ultra
I don't know if this will help. I will admit to no knowledge in this area but I found an apple link that seems to indicate you can reinstall.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201456

Also if you google using bootcamp on an encrypted drive there are a lot of problems. I couldn't find anyone who got it to work without messing up the bootcamp install but I only did a quick look see.

Lisa
 

Slydude

Well-known member
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Nov 15, 2009
Messages
17,596
Reaction score
1,072
Points
113
Location
North Louisiana, USA
Your Mac's Specs
M1 MacMini 16 GB - Ventura, iPhone 14 Pro Max, 2015 iMac 16 GB Monterey
I haven't tried Bootcamp partitions from an encrypted drive but my gut instinct is that it is a problem waiting to happen. I suspect that the Bootcamp partition was created before FileVault encryption was applied.

If the FileVault encryption is only being applied to the OS X partition it might be possible to reinstall Windows without having to decrypt the drive, recreating the Win partition from scratch, then encrypting the drive again.
 

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
Does anyone know if FileVault 2 is compatible with Boot Camp? Boot Camp partitions are formatted to NTFS, so I wonder if FV2 will work?
 

Slydude

Well-known member
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Nov 15, 2009
Messages
17,596
Reaction score
1,072
Points
113
Location
North Louisiana, USA
Your Mac's Specs
M1 MacMini 16 GB - Ventura, iPhone 14 Pro Max, 2015 iMac 16 GB Monterey
Based on my earlier post, and your question Charlie, I got a little curious and did a quick search. If I am understanding this statement correctly the BootCamp partition woulds be left unencrypted.

The second issue with FileVault 2 is that it only encrypts the startup drive. If you have additional drives or partitions, including a Windows partition created with Boot Camp, they will remain unencrypted. For these reasons, FileVault 2 may not meet the stringent security requirements of some organizations. It does, however, fully encrypt the Mac's startup partition, which is where most of us (and most applications) store important data and documents.
Emphasis mine
FileVault 2 - Using Disk Encryption With Mac OS X

This is what I suspected. I figured that if encryption were applied to both the OS X an BootCamp partition that was a recipe for a first class disaster.

Wonder what FileVault 2 does with a VM file?
 

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
Thanks Sly, that's what I was thinking also. I certainly can't imagine someone using two forms of encryption; one for their OS X partition and another for the Boot Camp partition. Can you think of the mess that would be if something should go wrong?
 
OP
C
Joined
Jan 28, 2009
Messages
34
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Your Mac's Specs
MBP 11,3 (15" Retina, Feb 2015), 2.8/4.0 GHz Core i7-4980HQ, 1TB SSD/4-lane PCIe, 16GB RAM, Yosemite
Thanks guys. I decided to just start over again, erasing the old partition. I did this for the following reasons:

1) I realized the BC assistant has to be able create a BC partition on a FV-encrypted drive, since encryption is the default option for Mac laptops.

2) I realized that, of the time it takes to create a Win 7-based BC partition, recreating the partition itself is just a small fraction (most of it is doing the interminable update/restarts required to get Win 7 up to date).

So given that it would work, and given that starting from scratch added little extra time, it made sense to do a completely clean reinstallation.
 
Joined
Jun 6, 2015
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Reinstalling Bootcamp with no loss os data

Thanks for the info you have but how do I go about reinstalling from a backup?
I am not very au fay with the Apple system and need advice in simple terms please.?
 

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