After untold installs and reinstalls using every guide on the web, I gave up and tried it one more time. This time I tried to just logically attack the disk problem I was having and respond using some of the info I had come across somewhere in my exhaustive search for answers. Many thanks to Sir Charles and Movemint for their encouragement, and especially to the DellEFI guys; their stuff is good.

Here's how I made it work (and it was really rather easy after all the craziness it took getting here):

Stuff I used:

USB Thumb Drive with Win 7 32 bit Installer (you can find out how to make this in other posts)
USB 123 Boot Thumb Drive (you can find out how to make this in other posts)
USB Thumb Drive with OSX Disc Image (you can find out how to make this in other posts)

This process is going to take a couple of hours, so I recommend having something to do while the installers are running.

Start by boot up with your Win 7 installer thumb drive; agree to the license agreement and when you get to the choice of doing a custom install, choose the custom install.
Hit shift F10 (hold down shift key while also hitting your 'F10' function key)
This will open up a command prompt window; type 'Diskpart', enter
Type 'list disk'
Should see disk 0 and disk 1. Make sure you note which one is your internal hard drive versus the thumb drive. In my case the internal was disk 0.
Type 'select disk 0' but change the 0 for whatever disk the disk list step above was your internal.
Type 'clean'. Warning this step will wipe your drive of EVERYTHING...all data, all partitions, everything, so make sure you really want to go down this path.
Type 'convert GPT'
Type 'create partition EFI size=200'
Type 'create partition primary size=14400
Type 'create partition primary size=14400

Note the above size values were to roughly divide my 32 gig SSD into 2 equal drives with an EFI partition; you can change them to whatever you want, but each OS needs about 10 gig to play with.

Type 'select partition 3'. This is the last partition you just created. If you want to see your partitions type 'list partitions' before this step....you will see all three.
Type 'format fs=NTFS quick'; takes a while....
When complete type 'assign letter c'
Type 'exit' and close the command window. Quit out of the Win 7 installer and turn off the machine.
Put your Boot 123 Thumb Drive and your OSX Image Thumb Drive into the machine and turn it on.
When you get to the prompt, hit 'esc' and type '80' and then hit enter.
You should see the option to boot your Mac OSX Installer. Hit enter again and you should get the grey screen with the apple logo.
Choose your country and when you get to the point of choosing where to install, select 'Utilities' from the drop down menu at the top of the screen and select 'disk utilities'.
On the left you should see your hard drive and either all 3 (or more likely) just the 2 14 gig partitions you created with Diskpart.
Click the one called disk 02 or something like that (not the last one in the list) and then go to the erase tab. I formatted mine with Mac OS Extended (journaled) and entered 'OSX' in the volume name. Once the format is done quit out of disk utilities.
Back in the installer you should see your newly formatted and named partition showing up as a drive icon. Select it and hit install.
When you get to the screen with the button on lower left called 'customize', click that and get rid of the printer drivers and language packs...this will save quite a bit of space.
Let the installer run until finished. Don't upgrade or mess with any of the DellEFI stuff at this point, just finish the install and move on to the Win 7 install.
When finished, turn off the mini and take out all thumb drives. Put the Win 7 Installer thumb drive in and restart.
Get to the 'custom install' menu and choose 'custom'. You should see a list of partitions. You want to install on Partition 3, so make sure to select that one.
Let the installer run;
When the Win 7 installer is done, get your wireless working and do the windows updates to get everything up to speed and working right. There are (at this time) 2 necessary and 3 optional updates....I did them all.
When that is done (a reboot is involved), run Windows (your machine should be booting directly into Windows, without any indication that you have a Mac install) download EasyBCD 1.7.2 (freeware by NeoSmart Software - Google is your friend).
Run the EasyBCD installer within Windows 7. Once installed launch EasyBCD and go through the 'add' boot option to add a Mac OSX boot option. Make sure you select the Generic i86/pc version (something like that...you only have two options, it's not the mac one).
Shut down windows and put your Boot 123 Thumb Drive in and boot the machine.
When you get to the prompt, hit 'esc', type 81 and you should see your Mac OSX as the only choice. Hit enter.
OSX will boot up and once in configure your wireless to work (if you didn't do that during the install).
Run the software upgrade to 10.5.6 (out of the list of upgrades, it was the only one I did).
Remove your Boot123 Thumb Drive and download and install the DellEFI v 1 beta 7 or newer.
Restart the computer and you should see the EasyBCD boot menu with Windows 7 and OSX as choices. Choose whichever you like, they both should be working. You are done.

This seemed to be (by far) the easiest dual boot setup I have seen documented. Once you get the diskpart done, it really is nothing but the two installs done in the right order, and then the EasyBCD install. The EasyBCD install is so easy, you will think it can't work, but it does.

Hope that helps.

[erwebsurfer]

Thanks for posting this...very easy to follow, alas one minor issue. This is the road block I keep running into for this procedure. When I am sitting at the Windows 7 installer it refuses to install on a GPT partition.

Advice?

[ckenny]

Thanks so much, I plan on trying this as soon as I am done teaching this year.
I use my mini 9 as my main computer while teaching. I've been wanting to do a dual boot solution with win 7 and osx to cover all basis with software and program compatibility.

My only question is this, is it possible to have both OS's with the minimum partition sizes, but then make a partition that both OS's will see to dump my files? I use a lot of power points, pdf's, videos' etc... that I use for teaching. I have a 64 gb disk, but I do EVERYTHING digitally and would prefer not to have to have it two places.

[VolvoCop]

Originally Posted by ckenny

My only question is this, is it possible to have both OS's with the minimum partition sizes, but then make a partition that both OS's will see to dump my files? I use a lot of power points, pdf's, videos' etc... that I use for teaching. I have a 64 gb disk, but I do EVERYTHING digitally and would prefer not to have to have it two places.

My "partial" solution to this is to plug in a SDHC Card of say 16GB into the SD Card slot, format it as FAT32 so both OS can recognize (i.e. read/write) it, and store everything there.

[pollok]

Originally Posted by ckenny

My only question is this, is it possible to have both OS's with the minimum partition sizes, but then make a partition that both OS's will see to dump my files? I use a lot of power points, pdf's, videos' etc... that I use for teaching. I have a 64 gb disk, but I do EVERYTHING digitally and would prefer not to have to have it two places.

I originally configured my 64 gig SSD with 16 for OSX, 16 for Win 7 and 32 for a common storage partition (round numbers; it was actually closer to 14, 14 and 30). You need to format the storage area as Fat32 so that both OSX and Win 7 can write to it (OSX cannot write to NTFS unless you use add-on software).

I ran that way for a month or so, but I quickly ran into space limitations on the OSX drive. I was having to install apps and then move them to the storage drive. It was workable, but once you move the program to anywhere other than the root OSX partition, the software update wouldn't work. You can probably get around that by making the space and moving the program back that you want to update, but for me it was getting to be a hassle. I completely redid my set up with equal space for Win 7 and OSX and that seems to be working fine. I do have several 8 gig SDHC cards that I use for common storage (music, videos and the like). I am waiting for the 32 gig SDHC's to get cheaper and then I will go for one of those as a shared storage device.

Hope that helps, and good luck with your Mini.

[pollok]

Originally Posted by erwebsurfer

Thanks for posting this...very easy to follow, alas one minor issue. This is the road block I keep running into for this procedure. When I am sitting at the Windows 7 installer it refuses to install on a GPT partition.

Advice?

That was the exact problem I resolved by doing the install this way. Make sure you are following the steps listed, especially the diskpart stuff in the beginning. You have to make sure to assign the 'c' drive to your windows install partition during diskpart. I have done this install about 6 times on my own and two other mini's so I am pretty sure it works...just go slow and make sure you are doing it in the same order as the guide.

[ckenny]

Originally Posted by pollok

I originally configured my 64 gig SSD with 16 for OSX, 16 for Win 7 and 32 for a common storage partition (round numbers; it was actually closer to 14, 14 and 30). You need to format the storage area as Fat32 so that both OSX and Win 7 can write to it (OSX cannot write to NTFS unless you use add-on software).

Awesome, I can't wait for school to end to try this. I'll have to check my win 7 box and my osx mini to see how much space I need for programs to decide how large to make my storage partition. So, from your opinion which OS runs better on the mini?

[pollok]

Originally Posted by ckenny

...which OS runs better on the mini?

I think they both run really well. I can't remember having any specific problems with either os, although I do find it easier to get things working in Win 7...probably due to the fact that I have been working in Windows for a lot of years.

I think you will enjoy using both of them, they both really run very well on this little computer.

Enjoy.

[blub]

Great guide! Saved me a lot of time!
For those who want to save even more time:

I started with the osx install, created 2 partitions with guid partition table (efi partition, the first on the disc, will be created automatically that way), first partition hfs+ journaled, second fat32, finished the osx installation and then installed Win 7.
You simply have to do the Shift-F10 thing in custom install (as already posted in the guide) with

diskpart
select disk 1(depends,check first!)
select part 3
format fs=ntfs quick
active
assign letter c

before selecting the partition windows will be installed to.

Then continue the guide again.

[Magister21]

Originally Posted by blub

Great guide! Saved me a lot of time!
For those who want to save even more time:

I started with the osx install, created 2 partitions with guid partition table (efi partition, the first on the disc, will be created automatically that way), first partition hfs+ journaled, second fat32, finished the osx installation and then installed Win 7.
You simply have to do the Shift-F10 thing in custom install (as already posted in the guide) with

diskpart
select disk 1(depends,check first!)
select part 3
format fs=ntfs quick
active
assign letter c

before selecting the partition windows will be installed to.

Then continue the guide again.

This site is so great and helpful.

Last week I received my Dell mini 9 from Vodafone NL (prepaid internet) and the Runcore 64gb SSD (mydigitaldiscount)
Installing OSX with the Runcore Method couldn't be easier.
The big challenge was the dual boot OSX/Win7.
After 2 days of reading and experimenting, i combined the
parts and bits of various guides. This is what worked for me.
4 main steps:

[1. OSX-install using the Runcore method.]

How To: Load OS X DIRECTLY onto RunCore FROM a Mac. - MyDellMini

I created 2 partitions:
Partition 1 = 40gb - extended journaled (OSX)
Partition 2 = 24gb - fat 32 (Win 7)

[2. Format partition 2 into NTFS]

Select custom install option, then push Shift-F10

Type in Terminal:
diskpart
select disk 1(depends,check first!)
select part 2 (check if this the fat 32 partition)
format fs=ntfs quick
active
assign letter c

[3. Windows 7 install]

http://www.mydellmini.com/forum/faqs...osx-guide.html

Then i continued with the guide from this page

---
Let the WIN 7 installer run;
When the Win 7 installer is done, get your wireless working and do the windows updates to get everything up to speed and working right. There are (at this time) 2 necessary and 3 optional updates....I did them all.
When that is done (a reboot is involved), run Windows (your machine should be booting directly into Windows, without any indication that you have a Mac install) download EasyBCD 1.7.2 (freeware by NeoSmart Software - Google is your friend).
Run the EasyBCD installer within Windows 7. Once installed launch EasyBCD and go through the 'add' boot option to add a Mac OSX boot option. Make sure you select the Generic i86/pc version (something like that...you only have two options, it's not the mac one).
----

My problem was whatever i tried i was not able to create a boot123 thumb drive. Instead I booted into OSX with the Dellefi App bootmaker thumb drive

In OSX, I continued with the DellEFI v 1 beta 7 or newer.

[4. Creating dual boot loader]

Then the following quote: "Restart the computer and you should see the EasyBCD boot menu with Windows 7 and OSX as choices. "

When I chose the OSX option, I received an error message "missing software something..." After booting OSX with the App bootmaker thumbdrive, I re-installed the Chameleon bootloader with the DellEFI installer. Actually this didn't work either.

At last I discovered from another post the following:

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

Quote:
On a side note, when you follow the directions in the “DellEFI Method� and mentioned once in another forum thread, the Mac partition must and always will be the second partition. Believe me, I tried to fight this and lost. When you format the drive with GUID, the first partition is actually a hidden 200MB EFI partition, set to active, so you’re really installing OS X to the second partition. It’s a partition that you’ll never see in Disk Utility, but rather when you use the FDISK or DISKUTIL commands in Terminal. Not knowing this initially, it threw me off when I tried to reformat the drive with MBR and bring OS X down to the first partition as I thought I saw it when my drive was initially GUID. With MBR, there is no hidden first partition, so since Mac has to be second, it’s no brainer to…

---
Launch the Terminal, and use the following commands:
Code:
sudo –s (to allow the proper access)
(enter admin password)
fdisk –e /dev/rdisk0
p (should show both partitions)
f 2 (sets the second partition to active for booting)
w (write the changes)
q (quit the fdisk application)
----

Finally, close the Terminal and reboot. Your SSD should boot to the Mac side and give a 3-second prompt to which you can boot to either XP or Mac.

Remark: in OSX desktop I see the WIN7 partition labeled as "Untitled" HD. Unfortunately there is no way to hide it. But i can live with that. This is the best set-up so far until Apple releases their own netbook/tablet.

My DellMini9: 2GB| 64gb SSD| 2GB SD| Wifi G| BT| HSDPA|0.3MP webcam
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