Bootcamp Corrupted OSX partition

[Abhra]

Hello there, I have a MAC desktop and have been using it for a while now. It has MAC OSX 10.4 installed on it. I wanted to install the Windows operating system on my MAC, so i used Boot Camp utility to make a separate partition for Windows. I created the partition and rebooted the system to install Windows. When the lists of available partitions appeared, the system only displayed one partition which did not have matching size with the one i had created. Therefore I rebooted the system just to check my OSX operating system but it was not present on the system. So now I cant boot the system with any of the operating system. Can use of Bootcamp corrupt the OSX partition? If any of you guyz have a solution please let me know as i want to recover all the data from my OSX partition as soon as possible.

[Rajesh4mLA]

I don't think that Boot camp has deleted the OSX partition on your system. It is possible that the creating a partition with Boot camp must have hidden the OSX partition. You can unhide all the partitions which were existing on your computer and boot OSX without any problems. Press the power button to start your MAC. Once you hear the startup chime, press and hold the OPTION key. Keep the Option key pressed till the system shows all the drives which are present. Now select the drive from the list which contains OSX and boot from it.

[mv]

The operating system is still present on the drive as the system is not displaying an empty folder icon with question mark. If the operating system is missing from the system, it displays an empty folder with a question mark. As you are not getting this display that means the operating system is still present on the system. Try booting the system in Single User mode. To boot the system in Single User mode, press the power button and immediately press and hold Apple and S key. Pressing this keys will force the computer to boot in single user mode. Now run the disk utility on the hard disk and check its consistency.

[Devasis]

If you have the Install disk of MAC OSX then it will be easy for you to solve the problem. Insert the Install disk in the drive and start the computer. Boot the system from the Install disk. Now Run the Disk utility on the hard disk. Let the disk utility check the consistency of the disk. After the test procedures are over the utility will display all the errors it had found while running the tests on the hard disk. Repair the errors by highlighting and selecting repair option from the list. If the Problems are irreparable then there is no option but to format the drive again.

[SalVatore]

I also faced the same problem when i used boot camp utility to make partition for Windows Installation. This problem occurs due to improper creation of the partition by Bootcamp. It seems that the boot camp converts entire hard disk in to one partition so that the Windows can be installed on it, which deletes the existing partitions of OSX. I am afraid that there is no other way in which you can save your data as you will have to format the drive and then install a fresh copy of operating system on your computer.

[Lillebror]

I hope that you were using Time machine for backing all your data. You should always have a backup up of all the applications and data which is important for you while installing the any 3rd party application on the MAC system. Boot camp utility is not recommended by Apple and hence usage of it on MAC system should be avoided. You can try to install OSX in Archive/ Install mode. In Archive/ Install mode the applications which are installed on the earlier operating system and all the data is saved and not affected while installing new operating system. It is the only way in which you can save the data and applications on your system.