Bootcamp option is missing during boot after removing linux partition

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Bootcamp option is missing during boot after removing linux partition

Hi,

Some time ago I had Linux installed on my MacBook Pro 2019 along with Windows and MacOS. Recently I've deleted the Linux partition and Windows boot option disappeared during boot, but still is present as option in Startup Disk.

Also BOOTCAMP disk is visible in Finder and the file structure seems to be correct in there.

I tried my best to restore the option with gdisk, but failed.

Here is output of frequently asked commands in similar threads:

diskutil

➜  ~ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     314.6 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         749.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                251.2 GB   disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +749.0 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD - Data     63.3 GB    disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            10.1 GB    disk1s2
   3:              APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 10.1 GB    disk1s2s1
   4:                APFS Volume Preboot                 5.9 GB     disk1s3
   5:                APFS Volume Recovery                2.4 GB     disk1s4
   6:                APFS Volume VM                      20.5 KB    disk1s5

fdisk

➜  ~ sudo fdisk /dev/disk0
Disk: /dev/disk0        geometry: 15205/255/63 [244276265 sectors]
Sector size: 4096 bytes
Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
 #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1: EE    0   0   2 -    4 199   9 [         1 -      76805] <Unknown ID>
 2: AF    4 199  10 - 1023 254  63 [     76806 -  182861562] HFS+
*3: 07 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [ 182938368 -   61337856] HPFS/QNX/AUX
 4: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused

gpt

➜  ~ sudo gpt -r -vv show disk0
gpt show: disk0: mediasize=1000555581440; sectorsize=4096; blocks=244276265
gpt show: disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0
gpt show: disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1
gpt show: disk0: Sec GPT at sector 244276264
      start       size  index  contents
          0          1         MBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2          4         Pri GPT table
          6      76800      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
      76806  182861562      2  GPT part - 7C3457EF-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  182938368   61337856      3  GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7
  244276224         36
  244276260          4         Sec GPT table
  244276264          1         Sec GPT header

Could you please help me with restoring Windows boot option? (preferably without reinstalling windows)

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 14.3

Posted on Feb 23, 2024 11:47 AM

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Answer 1

HWTech

Level 9

60,674 points

Feb 25, 2024 9:56 AM in response to HouseSparr0w

You can try booting a Windows installer to see if it can repair the Windows startup issue automatically.

Otherwise you will most likely need to figure it out on your own since the only contributor that I know who ever posted here for fixing partition issues has not been seen for several years. You can look for posts by @LonerT to see if you can figure out their secrets to understanding the partition layouts that you seek. I doubt modifying the partition is really going to help though...it will be much easier to attempt to fix the Windows boot issue itself.

Sometimes you can even use Linux & GRUB2 to be able to jump into the Windows system where you may be able to modify the Windows boot configuration files to deal with the changed partition layout. I have done this a few times in the past, but I was not successful last time and it is not something I can really explain since you must understand both GRUB2 command interface and also UEFI booting & Windows bootloaders. You basically boot to a GRUB2 interface, then issue the necessary commands to mount the Windows partition, search for the proper Windows .efi file that is a Windows startup file/bootloader, but there are multiple .efi files. If you have the correct settings you should be able to have GRUB2 boot the Windows bootloader .efi file. It has been years since I last attempted this so I don't recall which .efi file to use. I only discovered it by trial & error myself.

You can try creating a bootable rEFInd USB stick to see if it will properly detect the Windows bootloader on the Windows partition instead of the Windows bootloader on the hidden ESP partition. I know rEFInd will auto detect bootable operating systems, but if those systems are broken then it will still likely have the same issue. rEFInd does allow you to customize the boot process so maybe you can use it to point to the Windows bootloader on the Windows partition so you can get into Windows to try & fix the Windows boot configuration.

I know that you should never modify the partitions on a Mac after Windows has been installed since it will always break Windows' ability to boot.

I hope you have a good backup of both your macOS & Windows data.....if not, then you should do so now before you do anything else while you still can do so.

Good luck.

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Bootcamp option is missing during boot after removing linux partition

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