Cannot Boot to OS X by Default

Hello All,

I have been looking for a solution to the problem I am having, but it doesnt seem that anyone has a very similar issue that I have found yet. I am trying to change the default boot on my MacBook Pro from my Windows 7 boot camp to OS X. Everything is working fine, I can hold option to get to OS X, but I always forget and it always tries to boot to Windows...

I have found the Startup Disk option in Mac, and the only option there is "Macintosh HD Mac OS X, 10.7.2" I have also found the Boot Camp menu in the control pannel in Windows and the only option there for Startup Disk is "BOOTCAMP Windows"

I have seen plenty of posts telling me to chance the options in these two places, but I have no options... Any ideas?

Thanks,

Calvin

G'day and welcome to the forums.

Highlight by single clicking that Macintosh HD OS X.7.2 and it will be surrounded by a blue 'halo' in Startup Disk. Did you print and read the guidelines and then download the drivers and burn to a CD prior to installing Windows. This will place the Bootcamp Control Panel next to the network option.

I'm not sure what you are saying... I have the Mac HD selected on the OS X side, and while do have the boot camp option in the control pannel in windows, there are no other options to boot to.

Yes I printed, followed the directions, and installed the drivers.

When you reboot your MBP with the option key held down, what do you see? You should have three choices when you boot with the option key held down: MacIntosh HD, Recovery Partition, and Boot Camp. Was your machine preinstalled with Lion or did you do an upgrade yourself?

I have never seen his issue before. Both options always showed up both in OSX Startup Disk and The Bootcamp panel on Windows 7.

What version of OSX are you running? Lion 10.7? Snow Leopard 10.6?

As you are using Lion try this:-

Boot and hold down the Option key until the drives available appear. Move curser to Mac OS X.7.2, click, and let it open. Go into System Preferences, it is in the Dock and also appears in the Applications folder. There you should see under System 'Startup Disk'. Open that and two options two options appear, one for Bootcamp usually first, and another for Mac OS X.7 on Macintosh HD.

Click once on the icon of Mac OS X.7 and it will be surrounded in blue. That means your MBP will boot in Lion.

When you are in Windows 7, if you have loaded all the drivers, there is a little icon in the bottom bar besides the Internet Connected box. Click on that and there will be a Boot Camp Control Panel option. Select that and choose to restart in Lion.

Harry, I missed it at first also but if you carefully read his post he says that the Bootcamp drive does not even show up in system preferences/Startup Disk. I have never in my life seen that happen and have Windows boot up! He also is saying with the Bootcamp drivers installed in Windows and going to the Bootcamp panel, the OSX drive does not show either! Time to call Rod Searing from Twilight zone!

dtravis has it right. I am running Lion, preinstalled and when I reboot and hold option I see all three options.

cbgroves said:

dtravis has it right. I am running Lion, preinstalled and when I reboot and hold option I see all three options.

Click to expand...

OK, that's a good sign. If all three options are showing when you use option to boot up that means they should all work. (and in fact they do) The Recovery partition will not show up in the startup panel because it's hidden.

Let's do a PRAM reset before anything else: See this LINK.

If that doesn't work, I suspect your Boot Camp partition has somehow taken on a hidden attribute (like the Recovery partition) and that may be why it's not showing up. Post back and we'll try to figure something out.