Boot Camp Flaw Leaves Some Users Fuming

Karl Cocknozzle writes "Some users who chose to install Apple's recent beta-offering of Boot Camp without basic precautions (like a full backup) have found themselves unable to boot their Macs to OS X. In a discussion thread on Apple's technical support Web site, more than a dozen users reported that Boot Camp successfully partitioned their hard drive and allowed them to install a working version of Windows, but then would no longer allow them to switch back. The download-agreement page for Boot Camp contains the explicit warning that Boot Camp is still 'Beta' software, and would not be supported if problems arose. On the whole, it sounds like the number of affected users is quite small, but may reflect a common lack of knowledge of what a 'beta' release really is: Not ready for prime-time."

Boot Camp vs. XOM

[mrchaotica]

I've got an Intel Mac, and I've been trying to decide between using Boot Camp or XOM. I'd prefer XOM just because it's Free Software, but it seems like Boot Camp has more momentum among users. Does anyone know what the particular differences between the two are, and which one is better? In particular (to stay on-topic), is XOM likely to cause the same problem mentioned in the article?

Re:And this make the news?

[Cthefuture]

I find that generally if you install Windows first, then it works out of the box. It's Windows that is the unfriendly one about overwriting boot sectors changing partitions and screwing around with things it shouldn't (although this probably makes it easier if all you want to run is Windows).

I also never put my (multi)bootloader on the master boot record because Windows kills that any time you do an install. It's better to put it on another partition and then set that partition to be bootable.

KNOPPIX CD's and similar are a great help for fixing a dorked up install.

Remedy-HFS+ driver for Windows

[Anonymous Coward]

It happened to a friend of mine. He purchased a HFS+ driver for Windows (Mac Drive). Upon installing the driver, he managed to mount the Mac partition under Windows and recover his personal files.

Not that simple

[Ohreally_factor]

I wonder how many of them simply didn't read the instructions that say "Hold Option/Alt down during boot up to switch". I know my boot camp defaults to windows. Minor problem easily overcome.

From reading the posts at the Apple discussion forums [apple.com], it looks like the problem has something to do with the partitioning and/or a corrupted swapfile.

OK, I'll grant that some mac users are as dumb as you are implying, but if you read the thread I posted above, you'll see that not all of the people with this problem are complete idiots.

Thought it happened to me.

[WatertonMan]

I thought this happened to me. But it turned out that the Startup Disk control panel in Windows only worked once I booted at least once into OSX via the option key. I wonder if others had that happened. I was pretty scared because I, like an idiot, didn't back everything up. But now I have Age of Empires III goodness going when I get bored.

They propbably nuke the Mac OS X partition

[Enrique1218]

I just installed the Boot camp yesterday and have Windows on a Mac Mini. Part of that process required me to resize Mac OSX partition to make room for the Windows partition. Then it takes me to the Windows installer which has to format the new partition (Boot Camp doesn't do it) to Fat32 or NTFS before installtion can begin. The windows installer displays the partitions on the disc but it can differentiate the Mac OSX partion from the one for Windows. So, if someone split the drive down the middle during Boot Camp, he/she won't be able to recognized the right partition and they can easily reformat the one with Mac OSX. My suggestion is to partition the drive with two that are of unequal size. Use that to identify the drive during installation.

Re:They propbably nuke the Mac OS X partition

[nsayer]

It's easier than that. According to the documentation, you must always pick the "C:" drive to format / install.

I agree that having them be different sizes makes for an excellent sanity check.

Re:Well...

[kc0re]

The Alpha was probably internal to Apple, and the Beta was public.

I almost deleted my Mac partition.

[all_wet]

I have no experience beyond my own installation, but the steps were to update the firmware, partition, then install. Each step is possibly disasterous, but the install was what almost got me. Good thing I've done more than one XP installation in the past. You know how the XP installation goes, if there's no XP/NTFS-ish partition, the XP installer asks which partition you want to reformat. My Mac Partition showed up highlighted, and not the new XP partition. The new XP partition was all the way at the bottom of the list of partitions. I ALMOST hit return and almost destroyed my MacOS X installation! I can see how a lot of people would make that same mistake. My problem, therefore, was really with the Windows installer, and my own lack of careful reading.

Mount HFS+ partition under linux

[Anonymous Coward]

New 2.6 kernels have HFS+ support. Just boot the mac from a recent live CD, mount the HFS+ partition under linux and retrieve the personal files.
There is one problem, though, which can be easily fixed. For automount most distributions expect apple style partition tables, while the Intel macs use Intel style partition tables, and because of that automount does not work. Just check the partition table of the internal drive , with linux fdisk, identify the HFS+ partition (it has the code af) and mount the hfsplus partition manually:
mount -t hfsplus /dev/hdax [mount directory]
A linux live cd is cheaper than Mac Drive.

Re:I actually blame...

[k12linux]

This is not the layout or speak of a piece of beta software.

You mean like the big heading "Boot Camp Public Beta" at the top of the page?

Or are you talking about the first paragraph in the install guide which is highlighted and says:
Warning: Boot Camp Beta is preview software licensed for use on a trial basis for a limited time. Do not use Boot Camp Beta in a commercial operating environment or with important data. You should back up all of your data before installing this software and regularly back up data while using the software. Your rights to use Boot Camp Beta are subject to acceptance of the terms of the software license agreement that accompanies the software.

Bold mine except the word "Warning" which was both bold, a different color and italicized.

Re:I wonder...

[voisine]

I started the apple discussion thread that article links to. The problem is not with the boot loader, it's repartition-your-drive-on-the-fly tool that's causing the problem. It seems to introduce random errors into the filesystem to the point that fsck doesn't even work in most cases. It causes a kernel panic on boot up. It's pretty henious. The only solution is a reformat and reinstall of the os x partition.

Re:Beta software is buggy?

[k12linux]

Um, that IS the whole point of "beta" software you realize, right?

Don't forget that if you bother to read the install guide (or at least the first paragraph that is highlighted with and labeled "Warning:") Apple tells you to not only back up before trying Boot Camp but also to back up often WHILE USING it.

The Real Problem

[Anonymous Coward]

The real problem here is that too many companies release working software and call it "beta". Google News and Gmail were "beta" for an extremely long time.

Companies need to stop using beta to cover their asses when they release a product, and only use it when the product is at high risk of serious flaws.

And before you say "well you can't predict if serious flaws will occur", know that you very much can, especially when you're a large software house with metrics up the wazoo.

Uhm...

[Anonymous Coward]

This was on MacFixIt two days ago with some fixes:

http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20060411 100445524 [macfixit.com]

Re:And this make the news?

[ckd]

I don't believe this is true, unless there's a firmware update as part of Boot Camp

From TFM:

Step 1:
Updating Your Computer's System Software and Firmware
Boot Camp requires that you have Mac OS X v10.4.6 (or later) and the latest firmware installed on your computer. When you run Boot Camp Assistant, it lets you know if you need to update your firmware or system software.

Re:priceless quotes

[Skuld-Chan]

Luckily jasetheace - who made that comment posts frequently on tons of boards. According to this page this page [uk8ball.net] he works for HSBC [hsbc.co.uk] - a bank...