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Boot Camp Flaw Leaves Some Users Fuming

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the oh-teh-irony dept.

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."

11 of 391 comments (clear)

  1. I wonder... by dev_sda · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  2. Please read before you install.. by kupekhaize · · Score: 5, Insightful
    For the rest of the people that did not bother reading the fine print, it is also recommended that you make a firmware restoration cd before you install the firmware update that makes boot camp work. Otherwise, you could leave your computer in an unbootable state.

    At least with these guys they have the option of doing an erase and install to restore their software to the way it was before. Some people are not able to boot their computers any more without using the firmware restore CD.

    Please, please, please, before trying this type of stuff, RTFM...

    --
    One of these days i'm going to find this 'peer' guy and reset HIS connection!
  3. Partitioning by Universal+Indicator · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I just got my Intel iMac yesterday, and I installed Boot Camp and Windows on it. I am willing to be that what happened was these users didn't know what they were doing. When you use Boot Camp to install XP, Windows exposes the entire partition table when you are installing, which includes a couple of small system partitions. Chances are these users didn't understand that those partitions were necessary and they deleted them while they were installing Windows. It's not Windows' fault, it's ID10T error.

  4. priceless quotes by Ohreally_factor · · Score: 5, Funny
    Some of the posts on the relevant thread at the Apple site contain some priceless quotes from various disgruntled beta testers:

    Apple should consider taking Boot Cramp off distribution immediately ! I am going to keep putting posts in here just to keep this one at the top of the list.... someone from Apple NEEDS to see it and NEEDS to respond.

    Add my name to the growing list. Same problem as reported here by others. Would like to see a response from Apple.

    Apple? This isn't a minor glitch, but a major problem. Barring erasing my drive and reinstalling OS X, I am stuck with an Apple laptop that only runs Windows. Any feedback? I don't want solutions that entail using the command line. I would like something from Apple saying that they recognise the problem and are working on it.

    I am speaking as a career software developer and lifelong Apple devotee. But i'm not touching boot camp again while in Beta and will still be wary beyond that. Apple should have held onto their cards a little longer.
    --
    It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
  5. Re:And this make the news? by mikeal · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There is a big difference though. The issue with dual booting is usually either:

    a)Windows overwrote the MBR and doesn't know how to boot any other OS
    b)Linux or other bootmanager overwrote MBR and doesn't know how to boot windows (this is far less common nowadays but we all remember when it was huge problem)
    or
    c)You chose to install the linux boot manager NOT in the MBR, and the windows boot manager in the MBR takes precedent, so you reboot and go right in to windows.

    With Boot Camp this is different, apple is emulating BIOS inside their own EFI boot manager, so the windows bootloader has no chance of ever affecting the OS X install. This is a bug in apples boot software that is affecting apples OS, not some other OS's software affecting another OS.

  6. Remedy-HFS+ driver for Windows by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  7. Beta is not always a clear term... by MadAnalyst · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's no wonder people are confused. Beta doesn't seem to mean "testing" any longer, it just means great product with a greek letter attached. Or at least that is what I have learned by surfing around at Google.

  8. I almost deleted my Mac partition. by all_wet · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  9. New Ellen Fleiss Ad by Greedo · · Score: 5, Funny

    I was installing Boot Camp on my MacBook. And it was, like, "beep beep beep beep beep".

    And then, like, half my operating systems were gone. And I was, like, ....

    It was a really good operating system, you know?

    So I had to install OS X all over again.

    It was, kinda ... a bummer.

    I'm Ellen Fleiss, and I'm an early adopter.

    --
    Tuus crepidae innexilis sunt.
  10. So its true? by delahappy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Once you go windows you never go back.

    --
    I can throw a one hundred thousand pound walrus right through a brick wall.
  11. Re:And this make the news? by slamb · · Score: 5, Insightful
    back when I took software engineering the definition I was given for beta was: has major bugs but will not lose user data.

    It sounds from the article like it doesn't lose data. The complaining users are saying things like this:

    "This isn't a minor glitch, but a major problem. Barring erasing my drive and reinstalling OS X, I am stuck with an Apple laptop that only runs Windows," wrote a user. "I don't want solutions that entail using the command line. I would like something from Apple saying that they recognize the problem and are working on it."

    There's no data loss here. He can restore the system using the commandline but won't because he refuses to learn. He shouldn't be using beta software.

    Your college definition of beta is oversimplified, anyway:

    • Betas are released to a wider audience than alphas. The purpose is to find problems. If no one released a beta until they were absolutely confident there's no data loss, then no one would ever release a beta.
    • Sadly, some vendors release production versions of software which does destroy entire partitions. I'm still mad about Windows destroying my Linux partition. There's a known bug here. In fact, my situation was different than described, and Windows still destroyed my Linux partition!