Can't boot Win7 with Chimera on Dualbootsystem

[GC333]

When I select Windows to boot in chimera I get: mbr is missing.
(Mountain Lion boots fine.)

I have Win7 on Systemdrive (C: ) - /dev/disk0s3
OSX DiskdriveUtility shows me another partition called: disk0s2
and Win7 DDU shows me another third partition (Microsoft reserved space)

So i think that chimera wants to boot from disk0s3 but the Win7 bootsector is on disk0s2 or disk0s1
I don't get a command promt for the win7 boot option in chimera so I can't test it with: rd=/dev/diskXsY

What can I do? Any suggestions?

 

[ghorwith]

When I select Windows to boot in chimera I get: mbr is missing.
(Mountain Lion boots fine.)

I have Win7 on Systemdrive (C: ) - /dev/disk0s3
OSX DiskdriveUtility shows me another partition called: disk0s2
and Win7 DDU shows me another third partition (Microsoft reserved space)

So i think that chimera wants to boot from disk0s3 but the Win7 bootsector is on disk0s2 or disk0s1
I don't get a command promt for the win7 boot option in chimera so I can't test it with: rd=/dev/diskXsY

What can I do? Any suggestions?

It really doesn't matter where win 7 is located as long as you are booting from Chimera. At the chimera splash screen simply scroll to the left or right and select the reserved space, which is the win7 boot sector. If you do that does win7 boot ok? Also, did you install win7 after you changed the bios to ahci or was it done when the computer was set to ide? Win7 installed with the SATA controller set to ide mode won't work properly when you change it to ahci.

 

[Going Bald]

When I select Windows to boot in chimera I get: mbr is missing.
(Mountain Lion boots fine.)

I have Win7 on Systemdrive (C: ) - /dev/disk0s3
OSX DiskdriveUtility shows me another partition called: disk0s2
and Win7 DDU shows me another third partition (Microsoft reserved space)

So i think that chimera wants to boot from disk0s3 but the Win7 bootsector is on disk0s2 or disk0s1
I don't get a command promt for the win7 boot option in chimera so I can't test it with: rd=/dev/diskXsY

What can I do? Any suggestions?

Does it say System Reserved or Microsoft Reserved and in MS disk utility do you have a ESP partition?

If you have System Reserved partition, this is where your bootloader is and is the icon to select to boot Win7.

If you have ESP and MSR, ESP is where your boot loader is but Chimera can't see it. You have installed Win7 on EFI.
Go back and reformat your Win7 drive partition with OS X disk utility as MSDOS FAT32.
Boot with your Win7 DVD in the drive and hit the function key that allows you to select a boot device during post. You will see 2 Win7 DVD drives, one of which will have EFI in front of it. DO NOT select the EFI DVD if you want to use Chimera to boot Win7. Select the other one. Boot it and install.

 

[GC333]

It could have been that I installed Win7 on IDE and later changed it to AHCI. It was a long tome ago so I can't remember.

And MS disk utility shows 100MB EFI (seems to be the same as ESP) and my NTFS Partition with the installed Win7.
(But I think I've seen 3 partitions for this disk with an UNIX command I don't remember anymore)

Well but after all I think I have to reinstall Windows as "Going Bald" describes.

 

[Hausmeista]

Hi everyone,

I'm encountering the same problem when I select Windows 7 from the Chimera screen:

When I select Windows to boot in chimera I get: mbr is missing.
(Mountain Lion boots fine.)

I have Win7 on Systemdrive (C: ) - /dev/disk0s3
OSX DiskdriveUtility shows me another partition called: disk0s2
and Win7 DDU shows me another third partition (Microsoft reserved space)

So i think that chimera wants to boot from disk0s3 but the Win7 bootsector is on disk0s2 or disk0s1
I don't get a command promt for the win7 boot option in chimera so I can't test it with: rd=/dev/diskXsY

What can I do? Any suggestions?

Has anyone found a solution to this yet? It feels like I've spent hours googeling already but so far no search came up with an idea...

Thank you for any hints!

 

[wlp5]

I was setting up a system for a friend who already had win7 on and I came across similar problems. To get to windows, you need to select the "system reserved" partition. If you're having bootloader, mbr issues on windows, you'll need to repair it. Get/make/download either the win 7 install disk or a win 7 recovery usb. Boot with it and try to repair your bootloader. If it can't find your installation, go to command prompt and make the "system reserved" 100mb partition the active one (google for the commands) and retry. After you repair it it should boot windows but chimera will be gone. Boot with your unibeast usb and re-install chimera and you should be good to go.

 

[Hausmeista]

I was setting up a system for a friend who already had win7 on and I came across similar problems. To get to windows, you need to select the "system reserved" partition. If you're having bootloader, mbr issues on windows, you'll need to repair it. Get/make/download either the win 7 install disk or a win 7 recovery usb. Boot with it and try to repair your bootloader. [...]

Thank you for the quick reply!

While I was preparing to what you suggested, I noticed that when I hit F12 after starting my computer, one of the bootable drives is called 'Windows Boot Manager'. When I choose this drive Windows boots absolutely fine.

I now suppose that the Windows partition and it's boot loader are fine. The only problem seems that Chimera is pointing to the wrong partition to boot Windows. When I choose the Windows partition directly from the boot menu, it comes up with the same message as if I selected it from Chimera...
A reinstall of Chimera did not fix it.

Thanks again for any ideas.
Is there a way to edit the partitions/drives Chimera offers?

 

[RehabMan]

Thank you for the quick reply!

While I was preparing to what you suggested, I noticed that when I hit F12 after starting my computer, one of the bootable drives is called 'Windows Boot Manager'. When I choose this drive Windows boots absolutely fine.

I now suppose that the Windows partition and it's boot loader are fine. The only problem seems that Chimera is pointing to the wrong partition to boot Windows. When I choose the Windows partition directly from the boot menu, it comes up with the same message as if I selected it from Chimera...
A reinstall of Chimera did not fix it.

Thanks again for any ideas.
Is there a way to edit the partitions/drives Chimera offers?

You have installed Win7 in UEFI mode. You're going to have to re-install Win7, being careful to boot the Windows Install media (USB/DVD) in BIOS/Legacy mode (ie. not UEFI).

 

[Hausmeista]

You have installed Win7 in UEFI mode. You're going to have to re-install Win7, being careful to boot the Windows Install media (USB/DVD) in BIOS/Legacy mode (ie. not UEFI).

Thats right. I had to install Windows in UEFI mode because it wouldn't accept a GPT disk.
I chose GPT because it was recommended in this http://www.tonymacx86.com/snow-leop...multibooting-novice-updated-3-12-see-log.html (link).
I didn't expect it to be a problem for the boot loader.

In that case I guess I'll have to keep hitting F12 to boot Windows then. If that's the only drawback, I can live with it. I think it doesn't justify a re-install.

Tank you for your help!

 

[RehabMan]

Thats right. I had to install Windows in UEFI mode because it wouldn't accept a GPT disk.
I chose GPT because it was recommended in this http://www.tonymacx86.com/snow-leop...multibooting-novice-updated-3-12-see-log.html (link).
I didn't expect it to be a problem for the boot loader.

In that case I guess I'll have to keep hitting F12 to boot Windows then. If that's the only drawback, I can live with it. I think it doesn't justify a re-install.

Tank you for your help!

Instead of using a pure GPT disk, what you usually do is setup to a hybrid MBR/GPT. Disk Utility creates such a partition scheme when you have at least one MS-DOS partition in your GPT map. You then install Windows using Legacy/BIOS mode, and it only sees the MBR side.