[AlienWarrior75]

My first post here!

Thanks so much to the invaluable information posted here. I managed to get my Dell Mini 10v going with Mac OS X 10.5.7 by following the tut's, and I also got the sleep and the audio working too.

The mini now works like a dream.

I've even went insofar to attempt dual booting with a GPT (GUID) partition type and try installing Windows XP SP3 on the other partition formatted as FAT.

I screwed up my boot process by doing this, but by booting into my USB flash drive again, where my made my OSXDVD booter, i was able to load my OS X partition without issue and then I fixed the boot problem by setting the active boot partition using fdisk.

After searching and reading pretty much all day yesterday and today straight, my dual booting question boils down to this:

Must you use an MBR formatted drive, or can dual booting be done with a GUID formatted drive?

If so, how do you install Windows XP? I have another USB key (bootable) with the Windows XP installer prepped, is it as simple as running the text installer and installing the system to the FAT partition?

I've read the "Backup your Dell Mini OS X installation and then restore it later" method posted here, but that method uses an MBR formatted drive.

Thanks very much and keep up the good work here!

[AlienWarrior75]

It seems to me that the partition can be GUID, as long as there is a way access NTFS/FAT volumes for booting. Is this what they call chaining?

If I could figure out how to edit the boot loader, I think this approach might work.

Is there anyone out there that can shed some light on this idea?

Thanks!

aw75

[mfruit]

XP doesn't support GUID so you have to use MBR for the partiton setup.

Win7 supports GUID so you can have a GUID dual boot with OSX & Win7.

As for how to install XP, I used a USB DVD drive but there are instructions floating around on setting up a USB flash drive for installation.

[AlienWarrior75]

Originally Posted by mfruit

XP doesn't support GUID so you have to use MBR for the partiton setup.

Win7 supports GUID so you can have a GUID dual boot with OSX & Win7.

As for how to install XP, I used a USB DVD drive but there are instructions floating around on setting up a USB flash drive for installation.

How do you get around installing OS X on a MBR drive when the error appears in the OS X installer? --> Is this why you must image a working installation of an OSX drive first (restoring it later)?

Sorry for all the questions, but I am worried that if I went with Windows 7... I mean... Isn't it going to overwrite the boot record causing my OSX install to be unavailable? --> Do i just re-run DellEFI to fix this?

I still have my OSX bootable 8GB USB as well, and I guess now I will see about making a bootable Windows 7 USB drive.

thanks!

[mechdrew]

I have a guide on modifying the Mac OS X Installer to allow for installation to a MBR volume. Check it out. You can skip step five unless you really don't want to install certain apps.

Also, you can simply backup your current Mac OS installation using Disk Utility when booted into the flash drive, and then restore it once the partition scheme has been switched to MBR.

[AlienWarrior75]

Thanks for the link to your guide, I read it, and it sounds awesome, and I will try it with a Windows XP dual boot in the future.

In the meantime, I've made a bootable Windows 7 USB stick, so I am going to try the Windows 7 approach first (I figure what do I have to lose since it is already a GPT partition).

Been reading "the duffer's guide" to dual booting, and it looks like Windows 7 pretty is straight forward. After Windows 7 is installed, all it seems I have to do is set the other (OSX) partition back to active using DISKPART, right?

OSX should load back up and its Chameleon bootloader should allow me to boot Windows 7?

thanks again

EDIT: I got Windows 7 installed, and re-installed DellEFI (the new one for 1011's) and my system is working good. OSX boots without issue, and I can select the Windows 7, but it does not boot. Where do I edit the boot loader so that I can access the NTFS partition?

[mfruit]

Originally Posted by AlienWarrior75

EDIT: I got Windows 7 installed, and re-installed DellEFI (the new one for 1011's) and my system is working good. OSX boots without issue, and I can select the Windows 7, but it does not boot. Where do I edit the boot loader so that I can access the NTFS partition?

What error are you getting?

I don't use Chameleon as the primary bootloader because it doesn't support hibernation under Win7, I use EasyBCD instead (which then chains to Chameleon).

[AlienWarrior75]

Originally Posted by mfruit

What error are you getting?

I don't use Chameleon as the primary bootloader because it doesn't support hibernation under Win7, I use EasyBCD instead (which then chains to Chameleon).

Exactly what I ended up doing. I downloaded EasyBCD (wow- what an app!) and it did all the magic for me.