[bsoplinger1]

Originally Posted by minuteman

I am confused about something please help...I want to dual boot on my system which already has Windows 7 installed on it.

I'm not the best at explaining things, but this is exactly the system as I have my setup on my mini including having had Windows 7 installed first. You want to backup your Windows 7 install, just in case. Then you need a GParted live USB stick. Boot off the stick, shrink your Windows 7 partition to half of your SSD (about 15G). Then make a new partition, label it OS_X (or anything else, just so you remember which partition is which) and format it FAT32. That would be 2 GParted operations, the shrink the Windows 7 partition, then the make a new partition in FAT32 with name OS_X. If the resize fails, instead delete the Windows 7 partition and make 2 partitions with GParted (one you can call Windows 7 and format in ntfs the other OS_X and format in FAT32). Use the Windows 7 install disc to reformat one of the partitions to ntfs (even though you formatted that way with Gparted) and then restore your Windows 7 install. Leave the other partition as FAT32 and go to the next step below. You may want to make sure your Windows 7 install is still good before moving on, fixing it if necessary.

Next you modify the DVD via the method described in the first post. Basically I used disk utility in another OS X machine to copy the retail install DVD to the USB stick and edit 1 file removing 1 line that makes it so you can only install on GUI not MBR partitions. If you don't have another Mac handy you'll need to follow the directions that are in the FAQ (I believe that's where they are) about how to do this with just Windows machines.

Now you boot from the small USB stick with the bootloader on it, run the OS X install from your slightyly modified OS X copy on the USB key. First choose disk utility from the menu when the first screen of the Mac OS installer shows. Format that OS_X FAT32 partition as HFS+ (journalled or not, your choice). Once you've reformatted that partion you can choose it in the OS X installer. From that point you'll be following the standard OS X install FAQ. Up until the reboot into OS X.

Instead you will boot into Windows 7. You may need to insert the burned DVD you did of your Windows 7 install disc to repair (its an option on the very first screen you see on the Windows installer) your Windows 7 install. Download and install either Easy BCS 1.7.x (don't remember current version, perhaps its 1.6.x) or the newer version 2.0 beta (you can find it via a google search on another forum). Set that up to also boot into Mac OS X. Reboot into OS X and get the Welcome and setup screen.

You're done. Now finish your OS X install and enjoy your dual boot machine.

[Hexoffender]

I am currently having an issue with this method. I get to the part where I boot OSX from my USB HDD. I takes me to the setup wizard for the os, but I cannot get past that part, I get to the part about transferring information from another mac, I select do not transfer now, then it just loops back to the beginning again.

[glw35]

I imagine that this is not possible, or it would be listed as an option, but can someone explain to me why I can't do it this way?

I currently have a perfectly funtional XP running on the SSD.
I currently have a perfectly funtional OSX that I boot from an external HD that's been configured using Type11 132

Why can't I simply make 3 partitions, format each appropriately, then put an image of my current XP on partition 3, image my OSX build to partition 2, then config EFI on partition 1 and it all just work.

Why all the steps with making a modified installer disk and this and that. What am I missing here?

[DanielN]

Originally Posted by glw35

Why all the steps with making a modified installer disk and this and that. What am I missing here?

Because Windows XP requires MBR instead of GUID partitions. The Mac OS X Setup only supports GUID partition, so you must modify it to accept MBR.

[MilanoRex]

I tried this all day yesterday and could not get it to work! When I install XP, i automatically puts the bootloader on my EFI partition. Is this correct?! Could someone give me a rundown on what exactly the partitions should look like?

EFI - unformatted
OSX - unformatted
XP - FAT32(or NTFS)

?

[MilanoRex]

I got it working with the above setup. Works very well, OSX is 'eh' so far but I'll give it a little more time.

[Raaagh]

I currently have XP installed and I want to dual boot

Can I simply
1 make a new partition
2 install OSX on that partition
3 use EasyBCD to boot OSX or XP

[tastewar]

The main difficulty you'll have is that for XP, your disk is partitioned in the MBR style, which MacOS doesn't support. So most of the well-written and detailed tutorials on installing MacOS here won't help you (at least not the early parts). I believe there's posts describing how to hack the installer to allow it to install on an MBR disk (GPT == GUID Partition Table is the Mac's native disk formatting; also supported by Vista to a degree, Win7, and recent Ubuntu).

I have MacOS, Win7, and Ubuntu 8.10 installed on mine, with EasyBCD, but there's no way I could repeat my process. There were a lot of re-installs along the way...

[phelper]

tony, i could use some help. My days of being overly technical died with the days of os/2 and dos.

I followed your guide and fared pretty well, until I got to the portion of DellEFI. My windows xp partition is good, then I did an install using a MAC OS X DVD image on USB. Seemed fine, OsX is woring well, or so i think.

I got to the instruction that said "OPEN INSTALLER.DMG FROM THE BOOT132 CD AND WAIT FOR IT TO MOUNT."

I was pretty much lost at "INSTALLER.DMG"

I opened up my type11 CD, and didn't see any file called "INSTALLER.DMG."

Plus, I'm wondering.. should i have already installed DellEFI prior to this point?

Sorry I'm such a lowtech, but I need more step-by-step instructions that point out the obvious. And I consider myself more tech savvy than the ordinary person.

Thanks for the guide and the great help.

[deviltaz]

Originally Posted by phelper

tony, i could use some help. My days of being overly technical died with the days of os/2 and dos.

I followed your guide and fared pretty well, until I got to the portion of DellEFI. My windows xp partition is good, then I did an install using a MAC OS X DVD image on USB. Seemed fine, OsX is woring well, or so i think.

I got to the instruction that said "OPEN INSTALLER.DMG FROM THE BOOT132 CD AND WAIT FOR IT TO MOUNT."

I was pretty much lost at "INSTALLER.DMG"

I opened up my type11 CD, and didn't see any file called "INSTALLER.DMG."

Plus, I'm wondering.. should i have already installed DellEFI prior to this point?

Sorry I'm such a lowtech, but I need more step-by-step instructions that point out the obvious. And I consider myself more tech savvy than the ordinary person.

Thanks for the guide and the great help.

The step with Installer.dmg is obsolete and was needed to install the old miniscript. DellEFI has replaced miniscript so that step is no longer needed.

Just use the boot132 cd to boot into OSX and then install Dell EFI and you should be done.