Why didn't my Windows partition show up in the Startup Disk preference pane?

Question

I install Windows(XP after that 7) on my MBP with Boot Camp and every thing was fine but after a while in System Prefences -> Startup Disk my windows partition was lost and when I want to switch to my windows must restart my Laptop and Press Down option during startup. I can't switch directly from my OS X.

anyone know how can I solve this. or why this is happened?

Answer 1

Did you by any chance install the NTFS-3G driver?

It's a known bug (for quite some time, now). When installed, you can no longer have the Windows partition in the Startup Disk prefpane.

Answer 2

You shouldn't have to eject your Bootcamp disk from your Desktop. As soon as you do that, it's unavailable to the system until you reboot.

A quick tip: if you don't want your Bootcamp drive to display on your OS X Desktop, boot into windows and then rename your C: drive to a name that starts with a period. OS X will treat it as a "hidden" file and not display the icon. Been using that trick since Bootcamp was in beta and have never had a problem with it.

Answer 3

I found a solution, if you haven't already. I'm assuming here that you have already uninstalled the NTFS-3G Driver

Browse to /yourhdd/Library/ and search that folder for a file called com.tuxera.NTFS.plist - I found mine in .../Library/Filesystems/NetFSPlugins

Open that file with a property list editor. I used Open with Property List Editor 2.1

Look for a Property, Disable Driver, change it's value to 1, and restart, should be fixed.

Answer 4

I had this issue with the latest version of Tuxera NTFS and El Capitan. I reinstalled Tuxera, restarted and all game good again. My bootcamp drive was accessible again via the desktop.

Answer 5

In the NTFS control panel, there is an option to uninstall. I did that, and, without restarting, I have the option again!