[virusdoc]

UPDATED Jan 3 2010 to support adding Windows 7 on the second partition of an already functional Snow Leopard install For posterity, the original version of this guide is attached as a text file below.

With this guide I’ve tried to list every single...

Click here to read the entire tutorial

[pokenguyen]

Originally Posted by virusdoc

Rich: I tried to put W7 on the second partition, and it refused to install--the installer always said that the partition was unusable. It seems that you can only get W7 to install on a GUID partition table if you put it on the first partition. If you know of a workaround for this, I'll be glad to try it out. Several others have asked this as well.

I installed SL on the first partition and Win 7 on the last partition, Everything works great. You have to reformat the selected partition by NTFS to install. Just use the Windows Installer to do this, it's More option > Format

[virusdoc]

Originally Posted by pokenguyen

I installed SL on the first partition and Win 7 on the last partition, Everything works great. You have to reformat the selected partition by NTFS to install. Just use the Windows Installer to do this, it's More option > Format

Good to hear it is possible. I don't know why it didn't work for me. I think I will resize my current OSX partition (#2), create a third partition, and see if I can get the W7 installer to install to that. I'll update here (and my guide) if it works.

[pokenguyen]

Originally Posted by virusdoc

Good to hear it is possible. I don't know why it didn't work for me. I think I will resize my current OSX partition (#2), create a third partition, and see if I can get the W7 installer to install to that. I'll update here (and my guide) if it works.

Sadly, Windows can't recognize more than 4 partition on a hard disk, and when you install SL, it automatically create 2 more small partitions. Maybe you have a problem with the fourth partition, have you formatted the fourt partition by Windows Intaller ?

[virusdoc]

W7 can recognize more than 4 partitions as long as the partition map is GPT (GUID partition table). The 4 partition limit is due to restriction of the master boot record (MBR) partition table. My system is GUID, so that doesn't explain the problem.

I am now starting from scratch to see if I can install W7 as the second partition of an existing SL install. If so, I'll update the guide.

[inverted_2000]

Oh man...I almost had it going...but I couldn't get Chameleon to show both OS's at boot...so I redid the whole thing.

Now I'm at Phase 6 again...but now when I boot to the USB stick to start Phase 6 and boot SL and redo NetbookInstaller...I can't load SL from the USB stick.

When I boot the USB stick...Darwin's | symbol makes like a quarter turn and then freezes with the cursor blinking under it. I took the USB stick by to my neighbors house and redid the Retail OS X copy and re-ran netbookinstaller...but on the 10v...it just freezes with like a quarter turn.

WHAT happened and how can I get past this one?

Thanks a lot!!!

[virusdoc]

Originally Posted by inverted_2000

Oh man...I almost had it going...but I couldn't get Chameleon to show both OS's at boot...so I redid the whole thing.

Now I'm at Phase 6 again...but now when I boot to the USB stick to start Phase 6 and boot SL and redo NetbookInstaller...I can't load SL from the USB stick.

When I boot the USB stick...Darwin's | symbol makes like a quarter turn and then freezes with the cursor blinking under it. I took the USB stick by to my neighbors house and redid the Retail OS X copy and re-ran netbookinstaller...but on the 10v...it just freezes with like a quarter turn.

WHAT happened and how can I get past this one?

Thanks a lot!!!

I unfortunately have no clue...if it booted the first time to install, it should boot every time. It's a bootable disk, and as long as you don't write to it it should remain so.

---------- Post added at 10:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:30 PM ----------

Originally Posted by inverted_2000

Oh man...I almost had it going...but I couldn't get Chameleon to show both OS's at boot...so I redid the whole thing.

Now I'm at Phase 6 again...but now when I boot to the USB stick to start Phase 6 and boot SL and redo NetbookInstaller...I can't load SL from the USB stick.

When I boot the USB stick...Darwin's | symbol makes like a quarter turn and then freezes with the cursor blinking under it. I took the USB stick by to my neighbors house and redid the Retail OS X copy and re-ran netbookinstaller...but on the 10v...it just freezes with like a quarter turn.

WHAT happened and how can I get past this one?

Thanks a lot!!!

Are you hitting F12 during the Dell splash screen and selecting USB storage?

---------- Post added at 10:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:35 PM ----------

Originally Posted by pokenguyen

I installed SL on the first partition and Win 7 on the last partition, Everything works great. You have to reformat the selected partition by NTFS to install. Just use the Windows Installer to do this, it's More option > Format

OK, I've confirmed that you can easily install W7 onto a second partition of a currently running SL install on a 10v. It's much simpler than what I've outlined above. I'll update my guide above tomorrow.

Thanks!

[hayden0103]

I figured out your original problem, virusdoc (the fact that neither of us, following this guide, could get a Windows 7 partition to boot on an already-configured OS X Snow Leopard install)!

The thing was that, at least for me, everytime I allowed Windows 7 to repair my installation (Phase 6 step 14) I would reboot, remove the 7 USB, and then boot to hard drive. Nevertheless, I would still get a boot error when selecting Windows to load from Chameleon. However, booting from the 7 USB would load my Windows partition correctly.

Gleaning some info from Anguish's Triple Boot Guide, I came up with my simple solution: Before clicking Repair and reboot, remove the 7 USB drive.

Apparently Windows would repair my USB drive instead of the partition. Proof of that comes in the form of a boot error (0xc000000e or whatever) when I had erased my failed 7 partition. Unfortunately, that also means that if this has happened to you, you must recreate the 7 USB from scratch.

Hope this helps!

[inverted_2000]

Originally Posted by virusdoc

I unfortunately have no clue...if it booted the first time to install, it should boot every time. It's a bootable disk, and as long as you don't write to it it should remain so.

Yes...this is strange...the USB stick allows boots now on other laptops but not my mini. The windows 7 usb boots fine...so I guess I'll have to get another USB stick?

[JoshMcMadMac]

Originally Posted by hayden0103

Apparently Windows would repair my USB drive instead of the partition. Proof of that comes in the form of a boot error (0xc000000e or whatever) when I had erased my failed 7 partition. Unfortunately, that also means that if this has happened to you, you must recreate the 7 USB from scratch.

Yes! I have been trying to push this piece of information out into these guides, too. Spread the word!

[virusdoc]

Originally Posted by hayden0103

I figured out your original problem, virusdoc (the fact that neither of us, following this guide, could get a Windows 7 partition to boot on an already-configured OS X Snow Leopard install)!

The thing was that, at least for me, everytime I allowed Windows 7 to repair my installation (Phase 6 step 14) I would reboot, remove the 7 USB, and then boot to hard drive. Nevertheless, I would still get a boot error when selecting Windows to load from Chameleon. However, booting from the 7 USB would load my Windows partition correctly.

Gleaning some info from Anguish's Triple Boot Guide, I came up with my simple solution: Before clicking Repair and reboot, remove the 7 USB drive.

Apparently Windows would repair my USB drive instead of the partition. Proof of that comes in the form of a boot error (0xc000000e or whatever) when I had erased my failed 7 partition. Unfortunately, that also means that if this has happened to you, you must recreate the 7 USB from scratch.

Hope this helps!

That's interesting, and I'm glad it solved your problem. I was able to install W7 to a second partition on a functional SL install last night, and did not need to remove the W7 USB stick to get it to work. I did have to launch a cmd dialog and designate the W7 install as active before "Repair my computer" would work, though. Then I also had to boot into the now functional W7 partition and designate the SL partition as active. Following that, Chameleon and both OS's boot and run fine.

---------- Post added at 10:47 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:17 AM ----------

Originally Posted by inverted_2000

Yes...this is strange...the USB stick allows boots now on other laptops but not my mini. The windows 7 usb boots fine...so I guess I'll have to get another USB stick?

I would just re-run NetBookMaker on your friend's Mac (download the most recent, 0.8.3 alpha) and point it to your SL USB stick. I think there is something mucked up with the boot files on your drive. See if that fixes it.