Well, to be brief, I started out with Windows XP.
Using
Acronis Disk Director Suite I created 2 more 'primary' partitions on my HD so 3 total in sequence from the beginning of the hard drive. I then install
Acronis OS Selector but for now
deactivate it. I then create an '
Acronis Bootup Disc' via the Disk Director Suite.
Using Acronis, I set one of the blank partitions as
active, change my bios settings appropriately for MAC (this will take some googling and time for finding
your motherboard's best settings or to find out if it's even compatible. Check here for a progressive and detailed compatibility list for motherboards and other important hardware here -->
Main Page - OSx86)
After setting one of the blank partitions active, I reboot, change my bios accordingly, pop in leopard for boot up and install it. When it's done, and if all goes well and you are now booted up and running in Leopard, I reboot again, pop in the Acronis Bootup Disc created earlier, use it to '
activate' Acronis OS Selector. Reboot, now Acronis OS Selector should start when booting up your computer and it should have automatically found your new MAC OS. It will show as '
unknown operating system' but you can rename it. Now simply double click the OS you want to run today!
For adding Windows 7 or any windows OS for that matter, similar process,
BUT it is important that when you use Acronis to set the intended partition as active for the reboot and install process,
that you HIDE the other Windows partition so it cannot be seen during the install as this can cause issues with two or more Windows OS's seeing each other. Also, for windows 7 specifically, because it is new, Acronis OS Selector does not automatically recognize it in it's boot menu so it has to be manually added. This is a bit tricky but if your savvy the instructions are available here:
Vista disappeared in dual boot - Wilders Security Forums (the example used is for Vista, but it is the same process for Win7).
If those insturctions are too tricky for you, there is a member/moderator named
'MudCrab' on that forum and he usually does it for you if you ask nicely and post him your associated boot files from Acronis.
For more info on using Acronis, all the info you need is here:
Acronis Disk Director Suite - Wilders Security Forums
and here:
Forums | Forums
Both forums are the same community, the first link is a forum that has very recently just been closed and the second one is their new address. The first one though has all the good info archived and still available.
For more info on OSX86/Hackintosh I did most of my lurking and problem solving here:
InsanelyMac Forum (under the OSX86 Header, scroll down)
And here:
Hackint0sh - Powered by vBulletin (again scroll down for OSX86 threads)
The most common and updated distributions available are:
iDeneb (the one that is successful for me) -
iHackintosh Reload! - iDeneb, Hi World! - iHackintosh Reload!
iAtkos -
iATKOS OSx86 Project: Welcome to iATKOS OSx86 10.5 for Intel/AMD
iPC -
http://pcwizcomputer.com/ipcosx86/
For me I started out in all this by watching this first video:
YouTube - How To Dual Boot Windows XP and Mac OS X Part 1 (HD)
Keep in mind that using Acronis to accomplish this work is just
ONE of many tools or bootloaders you have the option of using for the same purpose. It just happened to be what I used.
Good luck!
Funny you should say that, I am only keeping my XP right now to continue running my Ableton Live and all the VST's! Specifically, my CME instrumental keyboard does not have an appropriate driver for Win7 OR Vista for that matter.
