[sylmini]

What is the easiest way to install XP & OSX ?

I haven't received my 10v with XP, but I'm trying to find the easiest way to dual both OS.

My guess would be to start xp (since it will be already installed,) then go to disk manager and shrink the xp parition to 30GB. This will free up 90GB for OS X. Then follow the guides here to install OS X onto the 90 GB parition. Am I missing something as this seems a bit too simplified, so I'm guessing it's probably going to result in me messing up my 10v. Also, does OS X "know" XP is also loaded on the computer so would it know to offer a dual boot menu on startup ? If anyone knows where I can get a tutorial, please let me know.

thanks.

[conq]

It'll work fine. Just install OSX on the 2nd partition and make sure that is the active partition before running dellefi.

[sylmini]

Originally Posted by conq

It'll work fine. Just install OSX on the 2nd partition and make sure that is the active partition before running dellefi.

I'm not sure how to activate the 2nd partition before running dellefi. Can you give me a quick description of what I should be doing as I don't want to mess up my partitions and take hours having to reload XP....

thanks.

[mfruit]

I assume that this is a MBR disk? If so, you will need to either modify the OSX Installer or restore from a backup (which can be made from a GPT install).

Lots of dual boot threads in the OSX section. Here's one:

http://www.mydellmini.com/forum/mac-...py-ending.html

[conq]

You can do it in XP. See link:
Microsoft Corporation

or you can use any partition software, fdisk, diskpart, etc.

As mfruit stated you do need to modify the installer to install osx on MBR see yhr link he posted.

[sylmini]

I think I can probably boot Ubuntu 9.04 from a usb stick and use gparted to change the active partition. I'm more worried that the mac OS installation will mess up the XP installation.

I've searched around for an explanation of the dellefi application. I don't understand what happens when I pick 80, 81, or 82. If I choose 81, does that mean it's booting from the 2nd partition of the hard drive or is it booting from hard drive #2 ? Once I choose 81, does that mean the laptop will always boot from that partition / device until I re-run the dellefi ?

[mfruit]

Choosing 9F, 80, 81, etc. just selects the boot device for that session

I'm not sure how it chooses which device to use as 80, 81, etc. I just make sure that I label all my partitions appropriately so it's easy to tell which one I'm suppose to boot from.

[sylmini]

My hard drive is partitioned as:

dellutility: 47MB
XP OS: 39.48GB
MAC OS: 51.76GB
Linux OS: 17.58GB

XP is running fine.

When starting the OS X installation, I get to the point where I have to choose the partition to install too. I click the MAC OS 51.76GB (which I format/erase etc.. as mac extended journal) But then I get an error message saying, "You cannot install Mac OS X on this volume. The enable installation on this volume, open Disk Utility from the Utilities menu and repartition this disk as 'GUID Partition Table.' Note: you will lose all data on this disk by repartitioning it."

So my problem is, if I repartition the disk, I will loose my factory installation of XP ? How do I fix this ? Is there a Dual boot XP & Mac OS tutorial available for the dell mini 10v ?

[conq]

See the link mfruit posted. You have to make modification to the osx install to enable osx to be installed on MBR.

[sylmini]

the tutorial mfruit suggested does not seem to work. If you read the thread, there are lots of issues of getting xp and os x to dual boot. (not to mention that I have had to install xp and os x twice today trying to follow some of these tutorials.)

Has anyone on this forum actually been able to get their mini 10v to dual boot with xp and os x ? If so, I'm sure a lot of people would be grateful for a detailed tutorial on how this can be accomplished.