[Alastor11]

Newbie here.

I have been doing some reading and have a question about creating a dual boot disk. I currently have a Dell 10v with OS 10.6.7 installed. If I want to install Windows 7 to create a dual boot disk, the literature seems to say start with Windows 7 as it likes to have the first partition.

So, If I create a system restore disk for my current OS 10.6.7 (on dvd using an external usb dvd-rw drive) what are the best next steps for creating a dual boot disk?

1. Do a disk wipe and install Windows 7
2. Partition the disk creating a ~30 GB section for OS X
3. Restore the OS 10.6.7 image to the new partition

I am sure I am missing something here. At what point and how do I install NBI (version?)?

[Oscar]

Originally Posted by Alastor11

Newbie here.

I have been doing some reading and have a question about creating a dual boot disk. I currently have a Dell 10v with OS 10.6.7 installed. If I want to install Windows 7 to create a dual boot disk, the literature seems to say start with Windows 7 as it likes to have the first partition.

So, If I create a system restore disk for my current OS 10.6.7 (on dvd using an external usb dvd-rw drive) what are the best next steps for creating a dual boot disk?

1. Do a disk wipe and install Windows 7
2. Partition the disk creating a ~30 GB section for OS X
3. Restore the OS 10.6.7 image to the new partition

I am sure I am missing something here. At what point and how do I install NBI (version?)?

Actually, windows 7 you can install to a second partition. The only tricky part is partitioning the disk correctly. I'll update with a link... I know there's a straight forward guide somewhere.

edit: now i can't seem to find the thread.

first: some assumptions i am making from the info you've given. 1. you have a working OS X install on your 10v, successfully updated to 10.6.7 2. you accomplished that by use of NBI..351 3. you have a way to install Windows 7 (either on a usb installer, or an external DVD drive) 3. you have your OS X install USB still.

now..
to add Win 7:

BACK UP ANYTHING IMPORTANT YOU DON'T WANT TO LOSE FROM YOUR MINI

1. Add a partition for Win 7 using Disk Utility ( Applications/ Utilities / Disk Utility). When it opens, select the icon for your drive (the top icon on the left), click on the partition tab on the right, click on the plus sign on the bottom, this will 'split' your drive into 2 partitions. click on the second one and pick the size you want it to be and give it a name (windows) so you can identify it. Choose fat32 as the file format, click the partition button, and confirm on the warning dialog.

2. run the windows installation which will be very straight forward, just make sure you pick the second partition you created above.

when the install completes your mini will only be able to boot into Windows 7, this is because the installer changes the active boot partition.

3. use your OS X install USB as a bootloader to boot into your mini's OS X partition.

4. change the active partition in the terminal using these instructions:
[How to] Setting Your Partition "Active" Using Fdisk in MacOSX - InsanelyMac Forum

5. run NBI..351 (you can uncheck everything except "install chameleon bootloader").

now when you reboot chameleon will load OS X first. to get a choice of operating systems, interrupt the boot process when you see the hard drive icon with decreasing progress bar (chameleon) by pressing the spacebar, or return key.

and that's all.

cheers

[Alastor11]

Originally Posted by Oscar

Actually, windows 7 you can install to a second partition. The only tricky part is partitioning the disk correctly. I'll update with a link... I know there's a straight forward guide somewhere.

edit: now i can't seem to find the thread.

first: some assumptions i am making from the info you've given. 1. you have a working OS X install on your 10v, successfully updated to 10.6.7 2. you accomplished that by use of NBI..351 3. you have a way to install Windows 7 (either on a usb installer, or an external DVD drive) 3. you have your OS X install USB still.

1. Correct. Everything is working very well.

2. Currently I have NBI 0.8.4 RC1 installed

3. I have a copy of Windows 7 on DVD & an external DVD-RW drive (USB/Firewire)

4. I do not have an OS X install USB (but will make one).

Thank you very much for the steps on loading Windows 7. I will give it a try and report back.

[Alastor11]

Well I finally completed setting up my Dell Mini 10v to dual boot OS 10.6.7 and Windows 7.

Being a PeeCee weenie, it took me a bit to figure out how to format the Windows partition NTFS during the setup. After the install I followed directions for using fdisk in OS X to set the OS X partition to be the primary boot section. Was a little nervous upon reboot when all I got was a flashing cursor. Figured out that I needed to boot using the OS X flash drive and then selecting the installed 10.6.7 on the hard drive to start up. Ran NBI 0.8.4 checking only chameleon, rebooted and viola!

Everything is working great. Many thanks, Oscar.

[escoloader]

If one is to make a FAT32 data partition on a OS X/Win 7 system, whats the recommended partition size for the win 7 os? specifically if you're booting from chameleon.

[Alastor11]

Originally Posted by escoloader

If one is to make a FAT32 data partition on a OS X/Win 7 system, whats the recommended partition size for the win 7 os? specifically if you're booting from chameleon.

I made the Windows partition 63 GB, but that was just my preference. Microsoft says a minimum of 16 GB of hard disk space is needed to install Windows 7 (32 bit).

[dmosx]

Thanks very much Oscar, for this and all your guides and info!

Would like to confirm this works for both Windows 7, and Windows XP.

[njmacman]

I already have windows XP in my dual booted 10V with it automatically opening to MAc OS 10.67. How do I update XP to Windows 7?

[Rafeaustin]

That worked! Thanks Oscar you are the man.

[asting]

I can't get this method to work. I always get an error message saying that this particular partition cannot be used because the drive is formatted with gpt.
What's the fix for this (unless I'm just not understand the directions on the first page).