OSX and Windows 7 Dual Boot

[XanderDude]

it's probably me...

It is probably me but....:

"So boot in Windows 7, and unhide your hidden 200MB partition:

1. In disk management, assign a drive letter for your 200MB hidden partition."

Where the HECK do I do this ?
I Open Disk Management in Windows 7, and I DO see the hidden partition...
But I am NOT able to assign a letter for it. I even tried using DISKPART and all that is giving me is telling me that is not a Volume...

Installation of OSX is a success - if only I could boot it...

I've tried to install Macdrive - then in Windows 7 I am able to give it a letter - but
Still my bootloader Won't let me access my "hidden" partition.

I've tried the CHAIN0 - solution - no way Jose...

 

[mihaibaboi]

It is probably me but....:

"So boot in Windows 7, and unhide your hidden 200MB partition:

1. In disk management, assign a drive letter for your 200MB hidden partition."

Where the HECK do I do this ?
I Open Disk Management in Windows 7, and I DO see the hidden partition...
But I am NOT able to assign a letter for it. I even tried using DISKPART and all that is giving me is telling me that is not a Volume...

Installation of OSX is a success - if only I could boot it...

I've tried to install Macdrive - then in Windows 7 I am able to give it a letter - but
Still my bootloader Won't let me access my "hidden" partition.

I've tried the CHAIN0 - solution - no way Jose...

Try right-clicking on the hidden partition to assign the drive letter. I don't have a Windows 7 at the office right now, but if I remember correctly you should have an Advanced section when you right click on the partition. Hope this helps.

 

[madtownidiot]

windows 7 is not capable of managing HDD file formats other than FAT, exFAT and NTFS. That's your main problem. one possible solution is to triple boot ... windows, OS-x and linux... the GRUB boot loader that comes with ubuntu distros can boot OS-X. There are lots of hackintoshes out there that use OS-X, windows and ubuntu.

 

[XanderDude]

so... you're saying..

So in order for me to get this to work I need to install LINUX as well...
lol
Thank you Microsoft...

 

[XanderDude]

Try right-clicking on the hidden partition to assign the drive letter. I don't have a Windows 7 at the office right now, but if I remember correctly you should have an Advanced section when you right click on the partition. Hope this helps

uhm... Where is it that you recall seeing an Advanced Section ... :sarc:

 

[goncalodionisio]

So in order for me to get this to work I need to install LINUX as well...
lol
Thank you Microsoft...

Well... i have my windows 7 dual booting with leopard 1.5.7 running with no problems, the only disk util used was Gparted just to put my c:/ as bootable drive again after the os x install.

Then, as i've sayed before, created a new mac os entry with EasyBCD and replaced the mbr file (that easybcd creates) with chain0 file that you easly download from internet.

The cain0 file (that originally as no extension) must stay exactly with the name that the mbr file had

 

[goncalodionisio]

It is probably me but....:

I've tried the CHAIN0 - solution - no way Jose...

hi xanderdude,

when you replaced and renamed the chain0 file (that has no extension), did you rename it with the .MBR extension, like the original file?

like this? [file name].MBR

 

[XanderDude]

no I didn't think of that

 

[goncalodionisio]

Ok, that is probably the reason why it didn't work for you.

Try it again, follow my 1st post then don't forget, when you makethea new entry with EasyBCD it creates a new folder in your C:/

I believe it's always as this = C:/NST/nst_mac.MBR

Then download "chain0" file and replace it for the "nst_mac.MBR" file, but make shure it stays with the full name "nst_mac.MBR", .MBR extension included.

 

[XanderDude]

yep...
no luck...

I get Chain load error or similar.
When I try to use the one that EasyBCD makes I first get an error saying something like: Try (hd,0,) No Ang0
Then if I let it simmer, a few seconds later i'm booted into something that looks very similar to the Terminal function in Mac OSX. I don't recall what it is called at the moment but it looks to be a textbased OS of sorts.

I can use TAB to see some commands and it also let me use the LD, CD etc. commands to view folders, files etc.

I've read somewhere that this tool may let me boot the OSX manually, but so far no luck there.

:-((

 

[goncalodionisio]

One more question,

Where are you installing your OS x? In a partition of the same physical disk where you have your windows 7 installed, or in another disk?

I believe that for this method to work you must prepare your os x hd installation as i did, so in the final you have your os x in a partition of the hd0, and that partition must had previously added a drive letter path in windows.

So what i did was, after my windows 7 fresh install, i went to the windows disk manage, i had some (lots) of unpartitioned free space, and created a new partition with 40gb.
I think from here that it is important to give a drive letter path (in my case i choose M:/ ) and gave it the label name 'mac' (so it would stay easly recognized) and formated in FAT32.

When i boot with my iatkos 7 cd in disk util i've formated that fat32 partition as Extended (Journaled) as tutorial.

What i think you making diferent here is the preparation of the hd for the os x install.

So, create a partition in your hd0, give it drive letter path and a label name and format in FAT32.

hope it will help.

 

[XanderDude]

I have the partition on a different disk...
aiight will try your suggestion...

 

[XanderDude]

Then, as i've sayed before, created a new mac os entry with EasyBCD and replaced the mbr file (that easybcd creates) with chain0 file that you easly download from internet.

uhm...
Which version of the easyBCD did you use ?
if you used version 2 (beta) did you use the EFI or MBR settings ?

EDIT:
Forget about it - SUCCESS !!!
Read next comment to see how I did it....

 

[XanderDude]

SOLVED! DualBoot Windows 7 + OSX

Finally, it was a long and hard run but in the end I prevailed.
By the excellent help of some very helpful people

Okay so here is how I got it to work.
After the last tip I received that it might work better having the OS's on the same disk and renaming the chain0 file I finally have a success story of my own... Read on...

I needed to have TWO partitions formatted as FAT to make it work.

First Try:

1. I first tried to just make a new partition on my main disk (Same as my Windows 7).
using Disk Management, Applying a drive letter. Problem was My OSX install disk simply wouldn't boot even with this new partition set as Active.

2. I logged back in to W7 using Diskpart utility to add the ID=af to the OSX partition (The af setting means the partition is compatible with HFS). Now my install disk would Boot osx Setup, But the Volume and Drive Letter info was removed by the ID=af setting.

Successful Try:

1. Deleted the OSX partition, formated it as FAT32, named it OSX
2. Created a new partition on my second drive (1000MB, ID=af) and set that one Active.
3. Rebooted the OsX install disk, using only the -v setting as that worked on my hardware.
4. In The Disk Utility window I reformated the OSX partition to HFS Journaled. and installed OSX
5. on Reboot, I got the error HFS+ partition error.
6. ran Diskpart from the command promt in the Windows Repair utility (on Windows setup disk) to set my W7 partition back to active.
7. Back in W7 i Downloaded EasyBCD 2.0 (Beta build 76) which has the fix for HFS+ partition error. Applied that successfully.
7. Using EasyBCD 2.0 (Beta build 76) to add a startup item to my MBR. Using the MBR setting of course. Closed the application.
8. Opened the folder NST, which is created by EasyBCD and placed a copy of the CHAIN0. Renamed that to nst_mac.mbr.

Before I continue...
I read in several instructions that the Darwin Bootloader could be too quick for you to be able to press F8 and/or choose your OS. So with that in mind.

9. In the same NST folder there is an ISO file containing the file: com.apple.Boot.plist.
This is essentially just a XML-file with boot settings. I extracted the file and added
<key>Timeout</key><string>8</string> to the file and placed it back into the ISO file using MagicISo.
10. Reboot, chose OSX from the boot menu, and VOILA !!

One last tip!
If you try to open your OSX install DVD which you've probably burned yourself (naughty naughty) in W7 you'll not be able to see anything BUT the Windows readable files in the DVD's boot partition. Look closely - there is your precious CHAIN0 file...

oops, almost forgot !
This last posting from me here is Written from my new OS...

 

[A320]

Congrats! Now after all that hard work and many hours to tweak that puppy, you are going to play with OSX for a couple weeks, think "hey this is cool and different and I've got both now!" and then you'll realize that you'll never boot into it again! At least that's what happened to me!

 

[MacGyvr]

i installed mac onto a seperate HDD and then choose which drive to boot at startup. Never had much luck with bootloaders lol

I did the same...works great.

 

[silencescream]

Hi.

Here is my problem. I have everything I need to do this operation, EXCEPT the Windows 7 installation DVD. Windows 7 was already installed on my laptop when I bought it from the store. Is there anyway I can put the windows 7 files on my DVD without losing any data?

Also, do I need to copy all my files on an external hard drive or is it safe enough so I don't need to do this operation?

Thanks.

 

[RiksRiks]

I have the windows Vista / 7 Upgrade Disc from HP, can that work like a Windows 7 Installation DVD? Or do I need to create another one?

 

[XanderDude]

well

you'll never boot into it again!

Lol We'll see... I installed the camelon bootloader and Now OSX is my main boot and I have to press F8 to boot Windows... lol ... but maybe you're right. It was fun to get it working none the less... Thanks for all the help.

Here is my problem. I have everything I need to do this operation, EXCEPT the Windows 7 installation DVD. Windows 7 was already installed on my laptop when I bought it from the store. Is there anyway I can put the windows 7 files on my DVD without losing any data?

Then I suggest you create a System image. Windows 7 comes with an option of creating a system image or hard disk image.
Windows 7 Create a System Image

Also, do I need to copy all my files on an external hard drive or is it safe enough so I don't need to do this operation?

If you know what you're doing you can just shrink your partition and go for it.
But to be on the safe side of things I suggest you make the image copy Mentioned above. :devil:

I have the windows Vista / 7 Upgrade Disc from HP, can that work like a Windows 7 Installation DVD? Or do I need to create another one?

All you need the DVD for is to be able to tell your bootloader which partition is your main bootloader partition. Using DiskPart.exe. So all you really need is to create a repair disk from within Windows 7. A nice tutorial on that in this Forum:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2083-system-repair-disc-create.html

That be all

 

[A320]

you'll never boot into it again!

Lol We'll see... I installed the camelon bootloader and Now OSX is my main boot and I have to press F8 to boot Windows... lol ... but maybe you're right. It was fun to get it working none the less... Thanks for all the help.

Yes it was definitely fun finding out whether or not the machine could run this stuff and learned lots along the way.