[PWR2WH8]

I installed OSX SL and created a partition for Win7 as I had plans to do a dual boot down the road. However, I can't find a definitive guide to install Win7 with OSX SL already installed. Any help or direction is appreciated!

[Kimmy2000]

Hi,

Just did this myself yesterday, very simple:

1: In Snow Leopard, go to Disk Utility, create a 2nd partition and format it to FAT and rename it to something like Win7

2: Install Win7 via USB Pen to the Win7 partition
After Win7 is installed, at your reboot, Win7 will be the only OS, to fix this do the following:

In Win7
- Open "Run" and type "cmd"
- type "diskpart"
- type "select disk 0"
- type "list partition"
- type "select partition X", where X is the number of HFS+ partition (large size + offset 200MB)
- type "active"
- type "exit"
- Unplug ALL the removable drives
- Plug in the USB pen which you used to install Snow Leopard and boot from this USB pen
- in the boot selection screen select OSX
- Once in OSX run the latest version of NetBookInstaller, and select to install the bootloader. (You can select the other options too if you require them, but make sure you DO NOT select Enable Quite Boot)
After this is installed, when you reboot you will get a selection screen, use the left/right arrow keys to select OSX or Win7

The above instructions has been slight adapted from this thread, and I do not take any credid for it:

Simple way to create Dual Boot : Snow Leopard and Windows 7


Kimmy

[PWR2WH8]

thanks for the guide! it appears easy enough. i have a couple questions.

after installing win7 and launching diskpart, i'm assuming i need to select the partition containing macos and make it active?

as for the netbookinstaller, the program is launched after running in osx?

lastly, do you know of a good method to create an image of my osx partition/drive? it's running perfect right now and i'd like to restore it if i have problems down the road.

[Kimmy2000]

Yes, in diskpart you will need to make the MAC OSX partition active which is this part:

- type "select partition X", where X is the number of HFS+ partition (large size + offset 200MB)
- type "active"

The above will make sense when you list the partitions.


And Yes, once you have booted back into Snow Leopard you run the NetBookInstaller program.

The only important thing is to ensure you have the Snow Leopard Install USB to make sure you can book back into Snow Leopard after you have installed Win7.

Kimmy

[PWR2WH8]

i was able to install win7 and the bootloader, however upon restart, it automatically booted into osx. i did not see an option to select win7. should i attempt to reinstall the bootloader?

[pokenguyen]

When you see the progressbar, press any key to select your OS.

[PWR2WH8]

thanks for the tip. i was able to select win7, however when attempting to load win7, i get this error.

"windows failed to start. a recent hardware or software change might be the cause."

status: 0xc000000e
info: the boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible.

---------- Post added at 08:57 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:24 AM ----------

i just booted off the flash drive that contains the win7 install using chameleon. after selecting to boot of the flash drive, it boots into the win7 partition and win7 works perfect.

[PWR2WH8]

update...i was able to repair the win7 install. i then made the osx partition active using the diskpart in win7. after a reboot, it launched the bootloader and i'm able to select between osx and win7.

however, i noticed only (1) partition is recognized in win7. how do i make it recognize my other partitions?

[Kimmy2000]

Originally Posted by PWR2WH8

update...i was able to repair the win7 install. i then made the osx partition active using the diskpart in win7. after a reboot, it launched the bootloader and i'm able to select between osx and win7.

however, i noticed only (1) partition is recognized in win7. how do i make it recognize my other partitions?

Hmm, I'm not sure you can get Win7 to see the OSX partition as its not a file system that Windows use. I might be wrong though...

Kimmy

[Onemorerun]

Hi. Followed your instructions and I have a working Dual Boot, which I am happy about.

However, I have a question if it it working the way it should.

Currently, everytime I start the bootloader appears (with the load bar going in reverse) and I have to quickly hit a key to bring up the option to load OSX or 7. If I let it continue it will just Load 7 by default.

I was hoping that it would just stop at the option screen at start-up. Is this possible? Or can I decide which one loads by default if I just let it run.

Thanks.

---------- Post added at 08:04 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:28 AM ----------

Per my last message I found the below. However, I am still wondering if it is possible to change what loads as the default whether is is Windows 7 or OSX.

Adjusting Chameleon Bootloader for Multi-Boot - By mechdrew

if you multi-boot and want the Chameleon menu to instantly come up (no timer, no keypress) you can add the following lines to the com.apple.Boot.plist file:

<key>Instant Menu</key>
<string>yes</string>