Accidentally erased Windows partition

now it's Mac OS extended (journaled)
(don't even ask why I did this) but I a feeling I'm f'd and will have to back up everything I haven't already lost and reload .
can R-Studio recover the partition? It apparently still has a file system

reinstalled Windows but now it can't find the Ethernet controller driver on either the OS-X or Vista disk!!??
did not do this the first time I installed Vista with Boot Camp ...what the heck is happening?
My experience with Windows is that it always finds the internet before anything else especially for activation etc... I can live without the internet on the Windows partition but I use it for Adobe Premier Pro and Photoshop and I know they will need to talk to the internet because of Adobe's paranoia.
Time Machine restored OS-X perfectly however when machine boots from shut down now it opens Windows ... how do you reset the boot sequence ? It always booted into OS-X by default in the past.

Similar Messages

Erased Windows Partition, how to recover?

I just accidentally erased all of the data on my windows Partition, and need to un-erase it...
The partition is still there, and I erased it with the lowest security options, the one called "Don't erase data" which it says just deletes everything used to access the data, and that it can be recovered with data recovery software...
The problem is that it's format is Windows NT Filesystem (compressed), and therefore I think that normal mac data recovery programs will not work...
So what should I do?
I checked out Data Rescue 3, but it won't let me recover to my mac partition because it is on the same drive... Besides I doubt it would work because I formatted it as NTFS....
Should I try to run windows recovery software through crossover?
Is there mac software that will let me recover files on an NTFS drive?
HELP!!!!!

enn wrote:
I have everything on one partition (/dev/sda2) but the old boot partition is still there in the partition table (/dev/sda1).
I tried grub-install /dev/sda and got:
/usr/sbin/grub-bios-setup: warning: your embedding area is unusually small. core.img won't fit in it..
/usr/sbin/grub-bios-setup: warning: Embedding is not possible GRUB can only be installed in this setup by using blocklists. However, blocklists are UNRELIABLE and their use is discouraged..
/usr/sbin/grub-bios-setup: error: will not proceed with blocklists
You have a weird partition table (grub have no place to put itself after the MBR); Normally the first partition begin not before sector 63. What's the output of fdisk -l /dev/sda. If /dev/sda1 is your small boot partition and is at the beginning of the disk, just delete it and that should work. Otherwise install an MBR in /dev/sda (I think you can do it with lilo -M or the file mbr.bin in syslinux or ms-sys) make your root partition bootable and force instal grub in your root partition (grub-install --force /dev/sda2) and make core.img immutable.You can also repartition with gparted.

How to erase Windows partition with Boot Camp

I used Boot camp to create windowsXP partition, but windows got corrupted and I want to go back to zero by having boot camp erase the windows partition. The boot camp instruction setup guide says to open boot camp assistant, Introduction window and click on the third category " Restore the startup disk to a single volume". However, when I open Boot Camp Assistant there is no Introduction window as shown in the printed guide. Where do I find this so I can restore to a single volume again?
iMac Intel Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Try downloading the brand new Boot Camp version that Apple just posted within the past week (1.1.2 IIRC). Install the new version and it should give you the introduction screen again where you can remove the Windows partition.

Any need to defrag (by (reverse-)cloning) after erasing Windows partition?

I did this before creating the partition because I didn't have enough contiguous space to create it, then started doing it again after erasing the partition thinking it might be safest to assume the space might not get used as efficiently as the space that had been reserved for OS X.
Based on some very quick research, it seems like this was a silly assumption. But I haven't seen any article explicitly addressing whether any kind of hard drive maintenance/optimization might be useful after erasing a partition. Can anyone confirm that this is because it's just not something to be concerned about?
I've already nearly finished by clone/reverse-clone process, but I was thinking about doing it for my girlfriend's computer, too, since it's in the same situation. Looking to save some time.
Thanks in advance.

Here is a link to an excellent user tip by ds store that will likely answer any question.
How to safely defrag a Mac's hard drive

Time Capsule Erased Window Partition

Good Morning,
I recently purchased and set up a time capsule with my macbook pro. All worked well, or so i thought until this morning when i went to start my macbook up in the Windows partition. I created this partition about a month or two before i installed the time capsule. Luckily there wasnt much saved on there as the windows partition was not there when i pressed the alt key on start up... Just wondering if this has happened to anyone else and if so, where did it go? and how can i get it back? Can i simply just run boot camp again or will that wipe my time capsule?
Thanks in Advance!

Nope, still not making sense.
First of all..
(although i have been told by apple that you can partition time capsule)
Where did you hear this, a Genius or AppleCare advisor? Because I suspect there is some communication here. You CAN NOT partition a TC.... well... at least not officialy (not going to say any more on that). However, what you CAN DO, is partition an ext drive, and the use Time Machine to backup to one of the partitions on that EXT drive.
When you "installed" the time capsule, I still can't think of any possible way that it woud have DEPLETED your windows partition. The TC is just a physical backup device.
Are you sure you are using the term Time Capsule to represent something else here?

How do I erase Windows partitions in Disk Utitlity?

I'm trying to uninstall Windows from my MBP. I'm currently trying to erase partitions in Disk Utility but it's not working. My ultimate goal is to have my system restored back to my orginial OS X system

You need to erase, partition, and reinstall OSx. Then run Boot Camp Assistant and print and read the Boot Camp instructions. Then run Boot Camp Assistant and follow the printed instructions regarding installing Windows.
You might find it easier to install Windows in a virtual machine using Parallels, Fusion, or VirtualBox rather than using Boot Camp. If the Windows program you need to run is not resource intensive, use the virtual machine method for installing Windows.

Windows Partition No Longer Shows Up After Accidental Premature Closing of Camptune

Mac OS X 10.7.5
I was running Paragon Camptune to expand my Windows 7 partition. The progress bar reached the end and stayed there for about 30 minutes. The Camptune window was then accidentally closed and Camptune quit itself. I restarted the computer but the Windows partition no longer shows up when I try to boot it, only Mac OSX and Recovery Disk. The Bootcamp drive is no longer accessable from System Preferences, and the Bootcamp partition folder is no longer accessable in the Devices area of Finder. Camptune no loner recognizes that there was a partition. Thus, I am no longer able to access the partition's contents or delete it and make a new one.
It would be preferable if I could fix the partition and have it accessable again, however I have no problem with deleting it and making a new partition. Any advice? Thanks for your time.
Here is the information from the Partition Inspector:
*** Report for internal hard disk ***
Current GPT partition table:
#      Start LBA      End LBA Type
1             40       409639 EFI System (FAT)
2         409640   1151635239 Mac OS X HFS+
3     1151635456   1152904991 Mac OS X Boot
Current MBR partition table:
# A    Start LBA      End LBA Type
1              1       409639 ee EFI Protective
2         409640   1151635239 af Mac OS X HFS+
3     1151635456   1152904991 ab Mac OS X Boot
MBR contents:
Boot Code: Unknown, but bootable
Partition at LBA 40:
Boot Code: None (Non-system disk message)
File System: FAT32
Listed in GPT as partition 1, type EFI System (FAT)
Partition at LBA 409640:
Boot Code: None
File System: HFS Extended (HFS+)
Listed in GPT as partition 2, type Mac OS X HFS+
Listed in MBR as partition 2, type af Mac OS X HFS+
Partition at LBA 1151635456:
Boot Code: None
File System: HFS Extended (HFS+)
Listed in GPT as partition 3, type Mac OS X Boot
Listed in MBR as partition 3, type ab Mac OS X Boot

Hi Eric,
Bootcamp does show up in the disk utility but it is grey instead of black like the Macintosh HD.
The following information is available:
Mount Point: Not mounted
Format: Windows NT File System (NTFS)
Owners Enabled: -
Number of Folders: -
Capacity: 274.55 GB
Available: -
Used: -
Number of Files: -
What might be the best way to continue to repair it. I do not have the option to click on "verify disk permissions" or "Repair Disk Permissions".
Should I clone the hard drive in the target disk mode??
I'm not the best at this stuff so any more advice would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!

Upgrade from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion erase my Windows partition?

Dear all,
I know some one might have asked it but I just wanna re-confirm.
Would the upgrade from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion erase my Windows partition? I am currently using Bootcamp on my Macbook Pro (Late 2010 Version) and I do not have parallel desktop. I asked the same question when Lion was released, but HK Apple Store said YES and Melbourne Apple Store said no. I am a bit confused now.
Thank you for answering. Cheers!

Nothing.
That said, you should ALWAYS have a backup as anything can happen at anytime.

I accidentally erased mac os 10.6 while installing windows 7 on macbook air, how do I install back to mac?, I accidentally erased mac os 10.6 while installing windows 7 on macbook air, how do I install back to mac?

I accidentally erased mac os 10.6 while installing windows 7 on macbook air, how do I install back to mac?, I accidentally erased mac os 10.6 while installing windows 7 on macbook air, how do I install back to mac?

Use the Flash Drive that came with your computer it has Snow Leopard installed on it. If you lost it or cannot find it then call Apple and they will replace it for you, I don't know how much they will charge.
BTW when installing MS Windows please follow the directions whether you are using Boot Camp or a vitualialization solution (Parallels, Fusion, etc.) had you done this you would not have had any issues.

I accidentally deleted my windows partition

I had created a 100GB partition for windows on my 500GB hard disk from BootCamp and accidentally deleted the windows partition and I've got that 100GB free that I cannot use anymore. The partition cannot be resized and that's it. Please suggest a way in which I can get rid of that free space and resize my hard disk without losing ant data.

tug! wrote:
there are 2 options here,
1) use bootcamp assistant to delete your failed partition and reinstall windows. or,
The OP has already deleted it, can't delete it again
2) using disc utility open your hdd (use the original branded name, not the short name of the same drive)
select "partition" highlight your failed partition, click the minus button then click apply. this will give you your 100GB back. from here you will be able to start over with bootcamp again if you wish.
Once more, the partition is already deleted, how can it be deleted again?

I accidentally erased OS X while installing windows 7 on MacBook Air, how do I install back to OS X?

HELP!!!! I accidentally erased OS X while installing windows 7 on MacBook Air, how do I install back to OS X?

Use the Flash Drive that came with your computer it has Snow Leopard installed on it. If you lost it or cannot find it then call Apple and they will replace it for you, I don't know how much they will charge.
BTW when installing MS Windows please follow the directions whether you are using Boot Camp or a vitualialization solution (Parallels, Fusion, etc.) had you done this you would not have had any issues.

I erased my windows partition using disk utility then realized I should have used boot camp, because now I can't resize the original partition and seem to be stuck with a ghost unusable space. Boot Camp now doesn't give me the option to install or re

I erased my windows partition using disk utility then realized I should have used boot camp, because now I can't resize the original partition and seem to be stuck with a ghost unusable space. Boot Camp now doesn't give me the option to install or remove windows partition.

Hi, Ralph,
The problem is that I did erase the partition, using disk utility, but I can't go back to my original disk size pre-partition, as disk utility won't let me do it and gives the message "Couldn’t modify partition map because file system verification failed." When I try to use Boot Camp Assistant it won't let me select the third option to remove windows.

Windows partition erase

Hi every one , I made a partition on my harddisk to use windows on it and now i realese its the stupidest thing i have ever done since i bought my macbook. now i am trying to erase windows and use the 10 GB but i have no idea how , i have erased bootcamp and bootcamp assistance by mistake i guess and now i am lost . i tried the disk utility but i am not really sure how to do through there
can any please help me to remove this and use the space for a better use ???

You can use a utility (that is buy) such as DriveGenius
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/drive_genius.php?PHPSESSID=fbd61ecc44c592bfc8 a5f2623e789bda
to repartition your HD on-the-fly. (I'd suggest backing up important data befoer trying to repartition) It's not cheap, but it does some other functions as well, so depending on your needs, it may be a good investment.
It may be possible to google around and find a way to repartition your HD via Terminal - just be really careful.

How do I COMPLETELY erase the Windows partition from OS X?

I am a frequent Windows user due to the fact that the software I frequently used is Windows-based. Ive been using boot camp since last summer and since then have had to reformat and reinstall windows twice due to malware/spyware taking over my computer. Ive again suffered from some serious malware issues lately that have just absolutely raped the Windows registry. It got bad enough that my school has recently contacted me to inform me of some hackers that they detected accessing my computer while I was connected to their wireless network. As a result, the only way to eliminate these threats is by reinstalling everything all over again. Its a complete hassle, but its the only way around it unfortunately.
My question is... this time around, I want to be absolutely CERTAIN that this harddrive is 100% rid of any sort of spyware, malware, viruses, whatever, before I continue to install a fresh copy of Windows. Last time I did this I used the Boot Camp application in OS X to remove the Windows partition and create a fresh one. Is this the best way of going about cleaning the harddrive? I feel like it was too fast and too simple to truly be erasing ALL of the Windows garbage.
Thanks for your help!
P.S. I know this isnt the place but if anyone has any good suggestions on how to keep Windows secure and free of attackers any advice is greatly appreciated!

I've experimented some with "what to install when" but I use Vista 64-bit which out of the box is at least somewhat more secure.
Questions I asked myself, install Apple Boot Camp 2.x first, early on, as soon as possible to get HAL support and other things?
Power went out and Vista thought my system was a laptop because it could 'see' I had a large 1 hr runtime UPS, so installing APC PowerChute is first and must, and I've seen power blips often enough.
From my reading, the time for a base install of XP SP1 to infection - default install from CD - is about 15 minutes, what is called a "honey pot" to attract and see what gremlins are out there. And there are a LOT of bots and malware out there. 2008 saw a huge jump in SQL-injection malware, and this winter saw some new strains.
SuperAntiSpywear - just bought it to put on my Windows 7 system, about the only such program that works without BSOD or interfering with W7 (Kaspersky, Norton, both beta editions, still have trouble).
Use your router's firewall to harden and lock down your system from 'knocks' on the door, remote login, inbound AND outbound services and to close your ports.
XP SP3 should be more secure out of the box but I've never used it.
http://www.superantispyware.com/
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2007.01.securitywatch.aspx
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/best-programs-to-keep-your-computer-secure/
Windows XP SP3 includes vulnerable Flash Player
Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) ships with an out-of-date version of Adobe's Flash Player that's vulnerable to recently-spotted attacks, according to ...
http://www.pctipsbox.com/vista-sp1-and-xp-sp3-vulnerability-hit-by-malware/
One place I've found to always be reliable (along with ZDNet Security which is excellent as well) is to check TechWorld to learn about new security threats and vulnerabilities.
http://www.techworld.com/
http://antivirus.about.com/od/antivirussoftwarereviews/a/nortonantibot.htm
http://www.pctipsbox.com/windows-7-betartm-official-security-solutions/
Removing partition tables should be fast. It doesn't erase anything. If you are concerned or the MBR was compromised then you would need to reformat the entire drive, which would have to remove OS X as well.

[Solved] KDE 4.4: Dolphin no longer sees Windows partition

This is a bit tricky, but I figure someone may have just have come across this bit of oddity... or hopefully, might have an idea of how to fix it.
A week ago, I did a clean install of Arch and KDE. When I would start Dolphin it would start up and show my Windows partition (labeled like '34 MB Disk' or something like that) in the sidebar. It was real handy: I could click on it and it would mount my Windows partition - easy to get to files on it. A week after this, I decided I needed a swap partition so I used gparted to resize my / partition from something close to:
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32.3kB 23.1GB 23.1GB primary ntfs boot
3 24.3GB 60.0GB 36.7GB primary ext4
to:
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32.3kB 23.1GB 23.1GB primary ntfs boot
2 23.1GB 24.3GB 1258MB primary linux-swap(v1)
3 24.3GB 60.0GB 35.7GB primary ext4
I also labeled the Windows partition to 'Windows'.
When I rebooted, I remember opening up Dolphin and there was a partition named 'Windows' on the Panel sidebar. However, when I went to set up the swap, I noticed that 'fdisk -l' showed the partitions in the wrong order. At the end of the output was the message, "Partition table entries are not in disk order". A bit unsure about this, I learned that I can fix this with fdisk (fdisk in the extended menu has a 'fix partition order' option). After doing this and rebooting, I can no longer seen my Windows partition in Dolphin.
I've tried a couple things, like restarting again, and erasing the dolphin configs (~/.kde4/share/apps/dolphin) with no luck. I'm not sure if this is a HAL problem, or if the partition table entry is a bit corrupt, or what. Was hoping someone had an idea.
Last edited by Gen2ly (2010-03-01 07:53:36)

Um, no. Good question toad. This is what I'm getting:
# mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/win
Unexpected clusters per mft record (-1).
Failed to startup volume: Invalid argument
Failed to mount '/dev/sda1': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/sda1' doesn't have a valid NTFS.
Ok, I've tried a couple things now and got it fixed to a degree. When I installed a swap partition in the middle of the partitions, this altered GRUB's knowledge of the partition tables, and I had to reinstall it. During this I accidentally installed GRUB 'setup (hd0,0)' to the Windows partition. But I don't think this caused the problem. I say this because when I did [wiki]MBR#Restoring_a_Windows_Boot_Record[/wiki] the Windows partition still didn't show in Dolphin. Instead, I had to repair the Boot Sector as described by a friendly guy in the Ubuntu forums. Because this was a Boot Sector issue, it looks like the fdisk command did this. Anyways, I'll describe it quickly here in case anyone else comes across it. What you need to do is boot from a LiveCD and either install TestDisk or use a Rescue CD like Parted Magic that does, then start 'testdisk' and do these steps:
No log
Choose Disk > Proceed
Intel
Advanced
Select partition > Boot
Rebuild BS > Write
And voila, next reboot, I'm able to see and mount my Windows partition again. Phew. So it looked like the problem is fixed, but not quite. When I rebooted and tried to load Windows GRUB hung, it showed one line, something like 'GRUB loading stage2' and it wouldn't go any further. Has anyone run across this before? I use Windows from time to time so, hoping to find a way to get this fixed.
Edit:
Found out more, take a look at this post:
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=92233
Last edited by Gen2ly (2010-03-01 07:54:23)

Accidentally erased Windows partition

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