Lion ate my Windows Partition

[LiamR]

Liam's Rant for the day:

Friday morning I woke up to find that Apple's latest instalment of OSX, Mac OS 10.7 Lion is available for download. I downloaded it and hurried off knowing I'd install it later on that day.

Opened up my MacBook Air all excited to install it, tapped a few buttons, selected where I wanted it and before you know it was installed. Sounds simple and easy, huh?

Until.....

Later that afternoon I headed into a meeting, knowing I had all the software I needed on the PC side of things, I shut down my Mac, turned it back on, held down the Alt key only to not see the Windows Option anymore.

"Where the hell has my Windows Partition gone?"[SUB]I think to myself.[/SUB]


After spending a solid hour googling and tweeting (those who follow me on twitter would have seen my tweets about it) It appears I can't find a solution, I could see the partition, so I knew all my files were there and safe. But, since I'm a PC guy by nature I thought I best not try to recover everything, and would take my laptop down to the 'Genius Bar'. "Argh" I thought, the soonest I could get into the Genius Bar, was Tuesday at 3:30. Meaning I'd go 5 days without using Windows. I was a PC stuck in a Mac World. Everybody at work laughed at me.

So, now I bring you to today, where I stumbled out of bed after being sick all day (I'm pretty sure it's the plague, but nevertheless, I'll solider on.) and started 40min drive down Ferry Road, catching every traffic light possible. (Yes, not Apple's fault, but it's god damn annoying.) When I arrived at the Apple store (And, to their credit, there is always action going on in that place, great vibe) where the people behind the Genius bar chatted for 20mins instead of serving me early.

When I got served, my conversation is as follows.

Apple store genius: Hi, my name's Ana, welcome to Apple, how can I help you?
Liam: Hey there, I've been having some problems. I installed Lion on my Mac, and now BootCamp won't work, it can see the partition on Disk Manager, but Mac refuses to see it as a Windows partition in System Preference, or boot to it at all. Can you help me restore it?
Ana: Um. What is a Partition?
Liam (Already wanting to bang my head against a wall): Um. It's like my hard drive is split into two sections, one for PC, and one for Mac.
Ana: Ohhh right, and your saying your windows one is broken?
Liam: Well, Windows isn't loading. Can you take a look? *Hands her my Mac*
Ana: Woah, this is Lion.
Liam: Yeah, sorry. I've got stuff open, just close it all down, it's all saved.
Ana: *Struggles to close a full screen app, and gets confused when I move my cursor to the top right corner the screen saver comes on*
Ana: So, it seems your Windows Partition is gone. It has been deleted.
Liam: But I can see it, look, it's right here. *Opens disk manage and shows her my windows partition*
Ana: Hmmmm. Let me check Apple.com/support
Liam: *Thinking I could have done that from home* Okay thanks.
Ana: Sorry, don't know how to fix this, looks to me like Windows is gone. Did you back everything up?
Liam: Woah, hold up. Your saying, Lion automatically deletes any Windows partition when it installs?
Ana: Well yeah, didn't it tell you when you installed to back it up?
Liam: Well yeah, it told me to back up Mac. I wouldn't expect to back up my PC when I'm installing Mac.
Ana: Well, you should have anyway. Was your PC backed up anyway?
Liam: Yes. Most of my files are on network drives or up in the cloud. Only thing I've lost is all my applications, their settings and all of the tweaks I've done. Probably will take me a day or two to reinstall everything.
Ana: Good thing you backed up, otherwise you would have been screweddddddddd.
Liam: True. Well, thanks, I guess, I've got some work ahead of me.
Ana: Yeah. Oh wait, take this with you. *Opens up a PDF copy of How to setup bootcamp on my Mac.*
Ana: *Oh, what the? Why is your Mac scrolling backwards?*
Liam: Oh, it's called natural scrolling, it's a new feature of Lion.

I thanked her and walked out. I'm not happy I wasted two hours of my listening to someone fail at computing in general.

Now, I'm an IT guy, so I know what I'm doing here, on a PC that is. But even I felt that I could easily swap T-Shirts and take over her job.

Is this normal? The apple store 'Genius' are just responsible for saying, sorry, broken, will send it back to apple?

I thought they had a big red phone at the back to call up Apple HQ if anything goes wrong they can't fix?

When I got home, and to their credit Anat0l & Nigelinoz, had already googled some suggestions and tweeted them to me. Unfortunately, I found out that when you install Lion, it creates a new 'System Recovery' partition of 650mb. Where does it get it from? The start of the next partition, which, just happens to be the start of a Windows Partition (Like every other person who installed windows on a Mac.) and it delete the Master File Record, which essentially means I've lost all my files.

This is the thread I have found, it is a replicate of my problems. Seems my data is gone

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3198690

Now my rant is over. But fuming that I've lost my Windows partition to something like this. So unlike of Apple to have a bug. A huge bug intact.

Has anybody else had this happen to them?

Grr. My rant of the day over. Now back to bed.

 

[samh004]

A few things.

1. The first version of anything Apple is bad, always has been, always will be, you should have known better.

2. If you can backup both before doing a system update, then you should, as sh¡t does happen.

3. Apple is never forthcoming with prerelease software to staff, so why you'd think a genius (yes, I know the name suggests otherwise) would know everything about Lion a few days after the release I don't know.

4. Who says it was a 'bug'...

Overall, you should have known better, but I sympathise that you've lost your data, it's a bummer.

 

[LiamR]

A few things.

1. The first version of anything Apple is bad, always has been, always will be, you should have known better.

Well, it always has a few bugs. But a flaw that deletes the another part of a partition? That is really unheard of. Especially without warning me.

2. If you can backup both before doing a system update, then you should, as sh¡t does happen.

Same goes for above. One of the points of having dual partitions is so that you can service one Operating System (or Partition) while the other stays safe.

3. Apple is never forthcoming with prerelease software to staff, so why you'd think a genius (yes, I know the name suggests otherwise) would know everything about Lion a few days after the release I don't know.

Lion has been in beta form for months. Staff have had training on how to use it already. All the staff spend Thursday night reinstalling all the computers in the Apple store.

4. Who says it was a 'bug'...

Clever marketing tactic? I for one have been forced to use Mac a lot more over the past week. Definatly getting use to Mac, preferring it to Windows now.

Overall, you should have known better, but I sympathise that you've lost your data, it's a bummer.

My data is fine, I'm just annoyed at the day I have to give up to get everything back to normal.

 

[oz_mark]

A few things.

1. The first version of anything Apple is bad, always has been, always will be, you should have known better.

What is version 1 about this?

2. If you can backup both before doing a system update, then you should, as sh¡t does happen.

Stuff happens, but it shouldn't be designed to happen. And if it is designed to happen that way, tell someone

3. Apple is never forthcoming with prerelease software to staff, so why you'd think a genius (yes, I know the name suggests otherwise) would know everything about Lion a few days after the release I don't know.

Because they are supporting this stuff.

4. Who says it was a 'bug'...

Well, if not, why not document that is what is going to do?

 

[samh004]

Lion has been in beta form for months. Staff have had training on how to use it already. All the staff spend Thursday night reinstalling all the computers in the Apple store.

Doesn't sound like it, even though they might have told you they had. I know Apple rarely gives staff, or even phone support staff, training before a release, so I doubt they've had much time on it.

Clever marketing tactic? I for one have been forced to use Mac a lot more over the past week. Definatly getting use to Mac, preferring it to Windows now.

That was meant more as a joke, to get users to switch, haha. But seriously, you bought a mac but don't use it often? I'm not sure where to begin on that one.

What is version 1 about this?

Stuff happens, but it shouldn't be designed to happen. And if it is designed to happen that way, tell someone

Because they are supporting this stuff.

Well, if not, why not document that is what is going to do?

Why take my points to task, they are what anyone with knowledge on the issue would say?

It's a dot.zero release, it'll have bugs. It's also been noted on numerous sites that the GM build had bugs, yet everyone rushes out to buy it and then is shocked when they find bugs. The professionals haven't rushed out to install it though. Funny that.

As for designing so,ething to happen, I knew that Lion would create a new partition for support, and while I'm perhaps more intone with these things that the average consumer, I'm sure it's noted somewhere. Though it's clearly a bug that it eats into the next partition.

 

[TonyHancock]

"Where the hell has my Windows Partition gone?"

Finally a post to cater for my attention span. I always look in my sock drawer when anything goes missing at home.

 

[LiamR]

Doesn't sound like it, even though they might have told you they had. I know Apple rarely gives staff, or even phone support staff, training before a release, so I doubt they've had much time on it.

It's a dot.zero release, it'll have bugs. It's also been noted on numerous sites that the GM build had bugs, yet everyone rushes out to buy it and then is shocked when they find bugs. The professionals haven't rushed out to install it though. Funny that.

As for designing so,ething to happen, I knew that Lion would create a new partition for support, and while I'm perhaps more intone with these things that the average consumer, I'm sure it's noted somewhere. Though it's clearly a bug that it eats into the next partition.

Well....

Apple released the first beta to developers on 6th of June. So there was well over a month of Beta version from Apple. Just like iOS 5 has been released to developers now.

Small bugs in a new program? Sure. But all the major kinks should have been worked out before the final release was put out to the public. That is what a Beta is for. Apple staff have known about Lion for well over a month. Apple have heavily publicised it.

Just because it is version 10.7.0.0 doesn't mean I should expect it to be faulty. This is not the first version of Lion, many, many builds were made for this.

If this is a fault? Shouldn't it be documented, perhaps have a warning that windows WILL be erased upon install of Lion.

 

[Mal]

You occasionally find a bad Apple.

 

[serfty]

Ungghh ... for once I agree with sam ... first version of anything is to be avoided - let other be the guinea pigs and let yourself be dragged (kicking and screaming) to new horizons well after dawn, preferably midday or later.

• Queues are shorter
• Cost is reduced
• Hopefully Service pack 3 or greater
• issues are well known
• etc....

 

[Princess Fiona]

Just found out my iMac is sooo old I can't install Lion
Should I upgrade or wait ?

 

[AdamR]

LiamR, are you sure it is gone. If Disk Utility can still see it, the it must be there. If the partition is there, then the data should be there and you should be able to get it off, whatever else has happened. You may need to use a raw data recovery tool.

I have installed Lion and my Bootcamp partition is unaffected, as it is for a couple of other new Lion users I know. Accordingly, I doubt the explanation in the Apple Support thread saying that it takes the space from the recovery partition from the start of the Bootcamp partition. If that was the case it would do it all the time, I would expect. Mac OSX has been able to do partition resizing perfectly well for years now. It must be a pretty rare glitch.

Two things however. 1, Lion breaks MacFuse NTFS driver for Mac, so if you had that installed, your Bootcamp partition will not show up in Finder on the Mac side until you uninstall MacFuse. 2, The Bootcamp partition does not always appear in the start-up disks System Preference pane (it is not there on mine, and has not been since I first set up Windows on my Mac, but Windows runs fine).

Have you tried starting up holding 'option' to get the choice of partitions to boot from? It should show three - Mac, Windows and the new recovery partition. Or do you only get two.

Apple Geniuses are usually better trained than that. Usually they are real geeks. Even if they haven't had much time on the new release, I would have expected them to know about partitions etc.

 

[ejb]

Slightly OT but.......

I just bought my first Mac. MacBook Pro. I have the option of installing Lion for free but after reading this I am doubting wether I should.

Any experts have an opinion. Currently I have changed nothing and have only used it for about 5 minutes of web surfing so loosing data is not a concern I am just thinking maybe wait for the next version.

ejb


Sent from my iPhone so please ignore auto corrects!

 

[AdamR]

Slightly OT but.......

I just bought my first Mac. MacBook Pro. I have the option of installing Lion for free but after reading this I am doubting wether I should.

Any experts have an opinion. Currently I have changed nothing and have only used it for about 5 minutes of web surfing so loosing data is not a concern I am just thinking maybe wait for the next version.

ejb


Sent from my iPhone so please ignore auto corrects!

If you have nothing on it anyway, you may as well. I find it much better than Snow Leopard.

 

[LiamR]

Slightly OT but.......

I just bought my first Mac. MacBook Pro. I have the option of installing Lion for free but after reading this I am doubting wether I should.

Any experts have an opinion. Currently I have changed nothing and have only used it for about 5 minutes of web surfing so loosing data is not a concern I am just thinking maybe wait for the next version.

ejb


Sent from my iPhone so please ignore auto corrects!

I would. Don't let my isolated case stop you from upgrading. It is still quite a good operating system.

 

[LiamR]

LiamR, are you sure it is gone. If Disk Utility can still see it, the it must be there. If the partition is there, then the data should be there and you should be able to get it off, whatever else has happened. You may need to use a raw data recovery tool.

I have installed Lion and my Bootcamp partition is unaffected, as it is for a couple of other new Lion users I know. Accordingly, I doubt the explanation in the Apple Support thread saying that it takes the space from the recovery partition from the start of the Bootcamp partition. If that was the case it would do it all the time, I would expect. Mac OSX has been able to do partition resizing perfectly well for years now. It must be a pretty rare glitch.

Two things however. 1, Lion breaks MacFuse NTFS driver for Mac, so if you had that installed, your Bootcamp partition will not show up in Finder on the Mac side until you uninstall MacFuse. 2, The Bootcamp partition does not always appear in the start-up disks System Preference pane (it is not there on mine, and has not been since I first set up Windows on my Mac, but Windows runs fine).

Have you tried starting up holding 'option' to get the choice of partitions to boot from? It should show three - Mac, Windows and the new recovery partition. Or do you only get two.

Apple Geniuses are usually better trained than that. Usually they are real geeks. Even if they haven't had much time on the new release, I would have expected them to know about partitions etc.

The more I look into it, it seems that if there was a modification after Boot camp to any partition, you'll have problems.

From what I can gather the Lion installer will screw up your Windows partition if you have changed the partitions after you have run the original boot camp setup. Which, naturally, only techies would be doing this.

Could this explain the problem? methinks so.

 

[AdamR]

The more I look into it, it seems that if there was a modification after Boot camp to any partition, you'll have problems.

From what I can gather the Lion installer will screw up your Windows partition if you have changed the partitions after you have run the original boot camp setup. Which, naturally, only techies would be doing this.

Could this explain the problem? methinks so.

Possible, but still sounds odd. What partition changes had you made post Bootcamp?

I know that Windows needs to be in the first three partitions, so if you had made an extra partition at some stage, then the recover partition could push Bootcamp down to fourth and cause problems.

 

[TonyHancock]

Slightly OT but.......

I just bought my first Mac. MacBook Pro. I have the option of installing Lion for free but after reading this I am doubting wether I should.

Any experts have an opinion. Currently I have changed nothing and have only used it for about 5 minutes of web surfing so loosing data is not a concern I am just thinking maybe wait for the next version.

ejb


Sent from my iPhone so please ignore auto corrects!

I have upgraded my two MacBook Airs without any issues.

 

[oz_mark]

Why take my points to task, they are what anyone with knowledge on the issue would say?

Because I disagreed with them. Bugs sure, they happen - but installation processes should account for the more common use cases.

Perhaps Windows is the culprit!

 

[AdamR]

Because I disagreed with them. Bugs sure, they happen - but installation processes should account for the more common use cases.

Perhaps Windows is the culprit!

I wouldn't rule that out. Windows is ridiculously temperamental about booting. I have had more than one routine install/repair render a Windows install unbootable, and not be able to be fixed short of a reinstall.

 

[LiamR]

I wouldn't rule that out. Windows is ridiculously temperamental about booting. I have had more than one routine install/repair render a Windows install unbeatable, and not be able to be fixed short of a reinstall.

While I think major bugs like this shouldn't happen with Lion. I too am aware of 1 in 20 windows installations just deciding it isn't going to happen. Difference is there is enough ways to fix it, be it with startup repair, cmd or safe mode.

Considering Windows can run on any hardware, and Mac can run on what, 5 different computers? I think Windows has a pretty hard job of making everything going smoothly.