Windows erased the Mac Bootsector or something

[7031]

Last time I tried to install Windows, it went and erased the bootsector or something, and I couldn't boot. No problem, I went and reinstalled X. Anyway, I noticed something:

I'm pretty sure that isn't right. Why is it giving drive letters to the other partitions?

I've tried reformatting, deleting all of the partitions and reinstalling, and still no luck. Any advice?

 

[gumbyx84]

Last time I tried to install Windows, it went and erased the bootsector or something, and I couldn't boot. No problem, I went and reinstalled X. Anyway, I noticed something:

I'm pretty sure that isn't right. Why is it giving drive letters to the other partitions?

I've tried reformatting, deleting all of the partitions and reinstalling, and still no luck. Any advice?

First, Mac dont use boot sectors (I believe). It uses the EFI to boot instead of a MBR. You may have whipped out your OS X install, but it still should have booted.

Second, I am not sure what the problem is. The drive will not be mounted by Win because it can't read HFS. Once Windows is installed, you can just not have it mount the other partitions and you will be fine.

 

[7031]

First, Mac dont use boot sectors (I believe). It uses the EFI to boot instead of a MBR. You may have whipped out your OS X install, but it still should have booted.

Second, I am not sure what the problem is. The drive will not be mounted by Win because it can't read HFS. Once Windows is installed, you can just not have it mount the other partitions and you will be fine.

You're probably right, but after I installed Windows neither Mac OS or Windows would boot. Mac OS would get stuck at the Apple (not the swirling thing) and Windows couldn't find itself.

I'll give it another go just in case though. Wouldn't hurt seeing as I have no data left anyway (backup on another drive luckily).

UPDATE: So far, it's actually going OK. Still installing, but it's gotten to the second part (didn't get that far before)

 

[Consultant]

What is "F" is your OSX partition which is approximately 100GB. You wanted windows on a 30gb partition?

No, it's not "it went and erased the bootsector or something" it's YOU went and erased random partitions, without following the provided directions, and messed up the drive.

Do not delete any partition that bootcamp does not tell you to delete.

 

[7031]

What is "F" is your OSX partition which is approximately 100GB. You wanted windows on a 30gb partition?

No, it's not "it went and erased the bootsector or something" it's YOU went and erased random partitions, without following the provided directions, and messed up the drive.

Do not delete any partition that bootcamp does not tell you to delete.

That wasn't my screenshot btw, but they had the same problem as me.

Basically, what I was wondering is that, surely it shouldn't show drive letters for those partitions? It's just IIRC it only shows it for the bootcamp partition?

Anyway, I didn't actually delete the wrong partition. My data was still there, but neither OS would boot. Sorry if there was some confusion there.

I'm interested as to why that happened, but trust me, I didn't just delete random partitions.

However, I am curious as to whether it was because I had Windows 7 on there before, and maybe that caused issues.