Surely someone has done this already, but I would like to install Snow Leopard on my internal drive of the 10v, then install windows 7 on an external drive for a separate boot. Is this kind of the same concept as making a bootable usb. It seems so to me, but so far I haven't wrapped (warped my brain around it>

Any thoughts?

If anyone has some thoughts on this, I sure appreciate it. It seems like a really good idea - would love to just have one drive of OSX and another of 7, and seems like others would too, but so far I'm just not seeing the solution. I don't have tons of experience either, but have some aptitude, ingenuity, and lots of determination.

P.S. anything is possible!

[chrispi79]

Hi maccaroni,

not the easiest way, but you can install win7 / OSX on your mini 10v, then you remove the intern sata hdd/ssd and install the other operating sytem. the removed ssd/hdd you plug in an sata usb case et voila, you can boot from it by pressing F12 on startup.

Remember you have to enable USB Legacy to boot from an usb HDD / SDD

Good Luck

Originally Posted by chrispi79

Hi maccaroni,

not the easiest way, but you can install win7 / OSX on your mini 10v, then you remove the intern sata hdd/ssd and install the other operating sytem. the removed ssd/hdd you plug in an sata usb case et voila, you can boot from it by pressing F12 on startup.

Remember you have to enable USB Legacy to boot from an usb HDD / SDD

Good Luck

Thanks for the reply - that was kind of my thought too, and it's more or less what I tried. Basically I had an existing 10.6.2 install on my mini 9, then I pulled a 160gb hdd that had win 7 starter pre-installed from a 10v; I made sure to enable usb legacy, then boot options, boot from usb storage and it went to the "repair or start windows normally" screen. So I chose normal. Started, then kind of flashed, and reboots, then error0, something like that.
Tried fixing the boot with various programs on ultimate boot disk (awesome tool btw) But no success, probably an easy fix for someone with experience.

Next I reinstalled OSX but decided not to run netbook installer afterward (just boot from the cd each time) Powered down, plugged in my win 7 external and chose repair 7 this time, which it brought me to the setup screen and I started the repair option but then it said something like this option is not available....use the cd.....anyway I decided to go back and try the "normal" startup of 7 option, which just did the same thing as before, but this time I don't get the error 0 thing. I'm sure I've missed something simple and I'm still experimenting - will post if I figure it out. Trying this all on the mini 9 before I try the 10v (don't want to mess it up - install takes up precious time

If you have further tips - I'm all ears. Thanks for the help.

[chrispi79]

perhaps its better to, have the win7 hdd in the mini and the osx as an external.

that works 100%

when you run the startup help tool from the external win7hdd it will destroy your osx bootloader on the internal hard drive.

another tough is, if you want to start win7 on the external drive, plug the usb in, and start the chameleon bootloader on your internal hdd, and by pressing the choice key youre able to select your external harddrive to boot - but didnt know if this works because i didnt try that out.

Good Luck

Originally Posted by chrispi79

perhaps its better to, have the win7 hdd in the mini and the osx as an external.

that works 100%

when you run the startup help tool from the external win7hdd it will destroy your osx bootloader on the internal hard drive.

another tough is, if you want to start win7 on the external drive, plug the usb in, and start the chameleon bootloader on your internal hdd, and by pressing the choice key youre able to select your external harddrive to boot - but didnt know if this works because i didnt try that out.

Good Luck

That's interesting....well I tried the chameleon bootloader, but it just says no boot manager. So I ended up using the dual booting for dummies guide from the forum here on my internal drive, and it occured to me that I could use a similar method for the external (basically marking it as active like the guide shows with win 7 install disk or usb ....diskpart...then nbi/chameleon will just view it as another active partition - if I'm thinking right) Does that sound correct...hmmmm...think I'll give it a go!)

[chrispi79]

I think it should. Give it a try, please post back.

Good Luck