[Oscar]

This guide will show you how to add Mac OS X to a DELL MINI already running WINDOWS.

I've updated the guide with information on an alternate way which is easier in some ways, but you'll need access to a Mac (or Linux). Find that information at the end of the guide.

I have made the assumption that you already have the OS X installation media (USB) prepared. If you need help with that, follow one of these guides to create it, and come back:
If you have access to a Mac: http://www.mydellmini.com/forum/gene...revisited.html
If you don't have access to a Mac: http://www.mydellmini.com/forum/mac-...mac-guide.html

*You can use this method with Time Machine (or other working) backups of OS X. If you do, you may need to repair disk permissions in Disk Utilities.*

Disclosure:
My system is a Dell Mini 10v, with Windows XP as the starting OS. I am adding OS X 10.6.3, via USB (16gig OS, 1gig NBI 0.8.4 RC1). The installation media was prepared without a Mac, using this guide: http://www.mydellmini.com/forum/mac-...mac-guide.html. I have previously performed this install in the very same way with Windows Vista, and Windows 7. At that time, I was working with OS X 10.6.0 with USB prepared on a MAC. So I'm confident any combination of these will work as a dual boot using this process.

~~~

You will need:
Mini running Windows
Partitioning software : Easeus Partition Master Home Edition From Download.com
OS X Installation Media
External Drive-preferably a blank one since you will need to format it.

~~~

Begin by backing up all your important data.

Run Partition Master.



Shrink the Windows Partition on your Mini to whatever size you think you'll want it to be (I like around 30 gigs, since I'm hardly ever in Windows anyway, but don't make it so small that you'll be constraining Windows when you actually do use it).

Create a partition for OS X on the rest of the drive. Name it (MACOS) so you will be able to easily identify it later. Make sure it is a primary partition NTFS, or FAT doesn't matter, you will need to reformat later anyway.

When you've got the partitions the way you want them, apply the changes. Your computer will need to restart, unless you didn't make any changes to the Windows partition. Allow Partition Master to reboot to apply all the changes. I believe Windows itself will ask you to reboot after Partition Master has rebooted. So allow for that, if needed, and shut down.


Boot into the OS X Installer. (on 10v, Hit F12 if you need to get into the bios boot options, select USB)



The Installer takes a few minutes to load up, and goes through a language selection screen and a few other screens to click through. When you get to the drive selection screen:



Connect your external drive to the mini, and wait for it to appear in the selection box.
From the Utilities Menu, open Disk Utility:



Select your external drive. Select the partition tab from the right. From 'Volume Scheme' dropdown menu, select 2 partitions. Click the top one. Name= Macintosh HD; Size= 12 gigs. Select Options and make sure GUID partitioning table is checked. Click apply, and wait for the changes to take place. When the process completes, quit Disk Utility.

* FYI * The reason you've made a small partition for OS X is that you will be copying it over to your Mini using Disk Utility. If you didn't partition your drive, or made a large partition, Disk Utility will not allow you to copy over to a smaller partition on the Mini, even thought the installation itself takes up only about 8 Gigs.

Once back in the Installer, select the Macintosh HD partition you've just created.



Click install. Note that you can do a custom installation, which will be faster if you remove things like XCode, and additional language support. The standard installation should take about 40 minutes to an hour. When the installation completes, the system will reboot.
At this point, you need to boot back into Windows, briefly. If your BIOS is set to boot from your Hard Drive, allow the reboot into Windows and skip to "This Step is Very Important" below. If your BIOS is set to boot from USB, shut down at the boot selection screen:



Disconnect the installation media (and boot drive), and disconnect the external drive. Boot into Windows.

***THIS STEP IS VERY IMPORTANT***

What you need to do in Windows is to make the MACOS partition Active. While you can do that in diskpart, so you can easily see the change, I suggest you do it in Control Panel/ Administrative Tools/ Computer Management/ Disk Management tab:



Right click on the MACOS partition, and select mark as active. You will receive a warning message. Click yes. Once you've made the MACOS partition active, close Computer Management. Shut down, disconnect external drive if it's still connected. Note that if you are unable to make the partition active, it's usually because it is a logical, not a primary partition. You'll need to correct that before you proceed.

* FYI * The reason you need to make the MACOS partition Active, is that in the next step, when you copy OS X to that partition, and you reboot, the Boot Sector of the Active Partition will be modified. If you don't make this change, that modification (read 'damage') will be made to your C: drive, and you will end up with a machine that will not boot into Windows at all although you'll still be able to boot into OS X. Therefore it is of extreme importance that you take this step.
Protect yourself from bricking your system: This issue arises due to a corruption of certain boot files on the windows partition during OS X installation. In Windows XP, it's the boot.ini file. In Windows 7, and Vista, the file is bootmgr. You can back up these files prior to installing OS X. If they break, replacing them should fix booting issues. They are hidden protected files located on the root drive ('C:'). To view and copy them, follow the instructions here: Win 7/ Vista: Show hidden files, Vista/7 , XP : Show hidden files, XP ***

Let's continue.

Now you'll need to boot back into the OS X Installer (USB), so connect that media to your Mini, and start it up. When you get to the drive selection screen, connect your external drive, same as you did before. Open Disk Utilities from the Utilities menu (déjÃ* vu)…



Select the MACOS partition on your Mini. Select the Erase tab. Make sure that "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" is chosen as the format. Click erase, and wait for the process to complete.

When that's done, click the "Restore" tab.



Drag the Macintosh HD partition to the "Source" field. Drag the MACOS partition to the "Destination" field. Click "Restore". This will take around 10 minutes.
When the restore completes, it will look like this:



Notice that the MACOS partition has been renamed to Macintosh HD, so that you have 2 drives listed with the same name.
OK. Quit Disk Utility. Quit Installer. You're done. Restart the computer. Provided your BIOS is set to boot from Hard Drive, and provided you're using the most up to date NBI, your computer will reboot into its active partition. That is to say it will boot straight to the OS X Installation you just copied to your Mini's HD.

~~~

Post:

OS X is a bit slow to load that's my opinion, and that's in general. The initial boot-up is very slow, around 5 minutes--maybe a bit more. If it seems to be taking too long, try booting into recovery mode: halt the boot process as described below, and with Macintosh HD highlighted, type "recovery=y" (no quotes) you'll see it along the bottom of the screen as you type. Hit enter. IF this boots you in, go to your applications folder and run the NBI Installer App that is in there. Hopefully that will resolve the issue.

Is this your first dual boot installation? If so, it may not be immediately obvious how to boot into Windows. What you need to do is interrupt the boot process. Right after the BIOS screen, you will see a hard drive icon with a decreasing progress bar along the bottom. Hit enter at this point, and the bootloader will then give the option to startup in either OS X or Windows.



If you have an earlier installation USB (with an older NBI) you may need to boot using the install USB, and run NBI on the Macintosh HD partition on your mini. Also, be prepared for the worse. I know that sounds a bit bleak, but it's just the reality of Hackintoshing. Primarily, I would have a secondary means of booting into the mini. I myself use an UBUNTU live USB for when the worse happens, which incidentally is the best way to run Gparted, IMO. In any case, Gparted will allow you to change the "active" (it flags it as boot) partition. If you ever run into the black screen, blinking cursor on startup, often times that's all you need to do. You can also use Gparted or some other partitioning software for this install, instead of Partition Master. I just happened to have that program handy, and it is free; so there you go.

As with any OS X installation, you may need to run NBI again to fix issues with sound, wifi, bluetooth.... etc.. (There will be a copy of NBI in your OS X Applications folder after install).

Updating:

Read the update threads carefully and proceed with caution before attempting the updates yourself. The current NBI to use for updates is here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/863180/Netbo...212351.app.zip --good for 10.6.4, 10.6.5, and 10.6.6 AND 10.6.7
The typical update path is: run NBI, run Software Update, restart. Upon re-boot, NBI will run prior to proceeding to OS X. This may take a while, so be patient... do not shut down your Mini at this point. OS X will proceed when NBI is finished with the pre-boot.

Stay away from NBI 0.8.5 pre, unless you are an advanced user who can troubleshoot bricked systems.

Ok. I hope this guide will be helpful.

Cheers.

~~~

Notes On An Alternate Method:

I came across a thread some time ago that used a patch to the installer that allowed OS X to be installed directly to an MBR partition, bypassing the need for an external Hard Drive. In fact this is what Side.Step.Society refers to in his response to this guide.

The instructions were just way too long-winded for my liking, and I didn't like the idea of patching the installer, not to mention it required the use of a second file that wasn't specifically intended for the Dell Mini Series of netbooks, it fact it was a kext patcher for a very particular motherboard. So I didn't care for it at the time I first came across it, which was some months ago.

I've recently revisited the thread, and realized that there is no need for the questionable file.

Here's the basics:

Prepare your USB installer normally, and then:

1. Patch your OS X install USB: (to allow installation to MBR)
Download this file and expand it: OSInstall + OSInstall.mpkg 10.6.3 patched for MBR - Downloads - Kexts.com
Follow the instructions on the included 'read me' file and replace the OSInstall and OSInstall.mpkg files as indicated. (you will need to do this on a mac; you'll need to show hidden files)

NOTE: If your Install USB was prepared via Windows (no-mac method), you can make these changes by using linux (such as an Ubuntu live USB) and using 'sudo nautilus' in terminal. I don't know of a true Windows alternative at the moment. Do not try the linux approach on a USB key prepped with a mac, as even linux will see it as read only.

2. Partition your Mini's hard drive as indicated at the top of this guide, and to be safe, make active the partition you will be installing OS X to.

3. Install straight to the MACOS partition. Remember that you will need to use Disk Utility to format that partition as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" before the installer will see it as viable for install.

And that's it, really.

I tried this method, and it worked ok (tested on OS X 10.6.3, the patch files are listed as compatible with 10.6.x, so presumably you can use them with earlier disks down to 10.6.0). But there's a few things I didn't care for: 1. it requires a Mac for prepping, 2. the install itself takes considerably longer (thought, I guess you might save on total time since you skip the intermediate part of installing to an external drive first), 3. lastly, the installation appears to hang with ten minutes remaining. After a while, I did a force shut down. But it's difficult to know when it's safe to do so. In any case, OS X booted up fine, and went through set up, everything appears ok.

[Side.Step.Society]

Whilst I haven't dual booted XP and OS X, I used 7, I think you took the long way of doing this.

In fact, with the latest version (or maybe even a few of the previous versions) of NBI, you should be able to simply add the second partition (like you did, or via other methods) and install OS X the "traditional" way on the second partition.

Again, I can't say for sure, but in theory, simply installing OS X to the second partition should work. Although you may have to fiddle around with XP and the MBR a bit.

But regardless, I commend you for the guide and this is a good alternative for those who can't get the "traditional" method to work. Nice write up!

[Oscar]

Thanks for the input.

The reason I decided to post this is that i continue to see posts from people wondering how it's done.

I know in Windows 7 there is a way to add it starting with OS X first.

Vista, people don't seem to use very much at all... So I haven't really seen much info on dual booting that OS. With XP, I have just verified, the MBR still prevents a direct OS X install--the installer still insists on GUID partitioning table. While I have read hints here and there that there is a way to patch it, I haven't seen a complete guide for it, and I haven't attempted that myself. I'd been without my 10v for a couple of months and wondered whether this tutorial would be out of date.
But at least for XP, I think it still applies.

cheers.

[viperfx]

Hi this was a very easy install and quite quick and easy to do, however why are the other much more complicated in terms of steps? What is the disadvantages of doing this way?

I can boot into mac osx fine, however I cannot boot into windows by selecting my windows partition, luckily Mini 10v comes with a recovery partition which when I select that through the boot loader loads up windows... what is going on?

[Oscar]

hey Viper,

If you didn't make the switch to make the mac partition active before first boot, the windows boot sector has most likely been damaged. in my experience it's difficult to recover the system if that's what's happened. you can try running fixmbr from the recovery partition (?), or from your windows disk (by running the repair option), if you have access to an external DVD drive. But remember that it will modify the active partition's MBR. so check that firs. make sure that if you run fixmbr, your windows partition is selected as active. that's really the only thing i can think of that may have happened. i did run into this issue myself when i first tried this dual boot, and while i'm certain there must be a way out of it, there was a point where i had to start from scratch, because i remembered about making the mac partition active before first boot.

i seem to remember under windows 7, loading up with the windows installer and choosing repair fixed this issue; it's been a few months since I had windows 7, though.

I hope you're able to recover the windows partition.

as to the disadvantages between this and other methods? .. when it all works the way it should, i don't know of any.. however, i have to say i haven't tried other methods because they just seemed to convoluted to me-- download this and that file, modify this and that entry.. i don't even remember where i first came across this method, but it's worked just fine for me.

cheers.





addendum:

I just read your other post where you mentioned you backed up your C: drive. If worse comes to worse, I would restore from that back up. If the back up is good, it'll have an intact boot sector that will be restored as well.

[Felixz]

have a gold star Oscar, nice guide and well presented.

[Oscar]

Thanks, Felix.

[viperfx]

My windows partition is not damaged at all though, I can use windows perfectly fine for some reason all i have to do is instead of choosing windows NTFS I choose recovery. Are you saying that there could be damage in the future?

Also my dell mini 10v sometimes does not turn on again after the I close the lid, the screen is just black. It worked fine after the first few boots but Im not sure if i did something or changed something however it does not prompt for password anymore, its just black.

Thanks.

[Oscar]

Huh.... That's strange. If it works, I guess, go with it. Although, I do wonder if it's not a second instance of windows you're booting into, since you say it's not prompting for password anymore. it actually sounds like the 'recovery' partition has a running copy of windows, rather than an installer. Check the active partition, I'm still thinking it's set to the C drive, and that's where the boot loader got written to. (BTW, I wouldn't change the active partition at this point, without having Gparted handy, since you may not be able to change it back within windows.)

As far as the sleep issue, search the forum, it's kind of common in OS X, unfortunately.

edit.
I've been trying to break my windows partition. But now I can't seem to. Somehow my current Install USB changes the active partition even if I don't. Can't figure out why, since I know it broke it before.

Anyway, I think I know how to fix your particular issue, Viper:
what you need to do is copy the boot.ini file from your recovery partition to your main Windows partition (C: drive). If that doesn't work, I would also copy the ntldr file and the ntdetect.com file. and if that doesn't work, i would copy the other system protected files over.

but i have a feeling copying just the boot.ini file over would do it. problem is, I don't know how that would effect chameleon. have your OS X install USB handy, in case you have to re run netbook installer.

all those files are hidden. so you have to change your settings to make them visible.

hope that helps, if you still want to make it so you can just click your windows partition to boot it, rather than the recovery partition. i did figure out that you are in fact starting up into your main windows partition, not the recovery partition as I had previously suspected.

[atkpilot1]

Oscar, I have fooled around with this and done the install about 15 times. I initially tried Mechdrews guides, opt 1 and 2 and haven't put windows back on doing option 2. The time machine restore seems to work great with the reinstallation of MAC OS.

Great guide, yes people like myself were still having lots of problems, and it is so frustrating. Hopefully this guide will help others alleviate that frustration. I love my MAC mini and the only reason why I need windows is for one program that I have to use for my job.

Thank you, thank you!