[Oscar]

Awesome. Great to hear atk.

You scared me there for a second, though. I thought you had tried this method 15 times!


Cheers.

[fogcutter]

Thanks for the succinct guide. There are SO many out there to choose from. I'm having to start from scratch on my mini 9 and I'd almost completely forgot how I did it the first time.

I'm going to use the process in this guide but I wanted to do a sanity check. The basic processes are:

Load Win 7
Use diskpart to partition and format disk for OSX installation
Reboot into OSX boot USB drive
Install OSX
Make correct partition active

If I have an external DVD drive I should be able to use that instead of the USB img right?
Also, I'm a little confused on which thing to use and how it's used...the Netbookinstaller and Netbookbootmaker.

Originally Posted by 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!

Can you elaborate a little on how you use the NBI to do this?

Thanks

[Oscar]

hey fogcutter, a few notes for you:

* If you want to try to install straight from dvd, you'll need to use netbookcd, search the forums, as I have not been successful in doing it that way. So I know from experience that method will not work with 10.6.3--which is the disk I have-- and I was told that it doesn't necessarily work with other versions either. So take that for what it's worth.

*If you have a Mac you can use this method to prep your USB:
http://www.mydellmini.com/forum/gene...revisited.html

*If you don't have a Mac, follow this method to create your USBs:
http://www.mydellmini.com/forum/mac-...mac-guide.html

Come back to this Dual Booting guide when you've got your installer ready.

*I cannot speak directly to what Side.Step was talking about. I have only ever dual booted using this method. But all the guides I've seen are just plain confusing. While I'm sure there's some good ones out there, I haven't found any that I was comfortable following. That's why I wrote my own.

*read the guide carefully.
you listed an overview, but you're missing somethings from it. :

Back Up important files and programs.
Install Windows
Partition the drive (using partition master).
Install OS X to your external drive
change the active partition to the mac partition
'restore' OS X installation from external drive to the mini.



cheers.

[fogcutter]

Oscar,

Thanks for the reply. You're right about so many guides...bewildering sometimes. I'm going to be wiping out my disk and starting fresh. I had a working duel boot system with a nice Chameleon screen. I think I used the NBI USB method to load Snow Leopard the last time but I just can't remember how I did it. I didn't have the external DVD last time but I thought somehow it would be easier to load everything with it. Maybe I'll just load Win 7 that way.


I think I'm going to stick with your method however and try the restore from the external USB. Then I assume you run some version of NBI to load the relevant Kexts etc.

[Oscar]

I've never had to do any manual kext entries. NBI takes care of boot loader and kexts for you.

[iceman157]

For anybody that got the dreaded "Operating System Not Found" message don't panic. Just use the USB/media with the OSX to go to the OSX and then restart your computer. After that your dual-boot will work magically.
Thank you Oscar for this great guide. I was able to install the dual-boot on my EEE 1000HA.

[atkpilot1]

Originally Posted by Oscar

Awesome. Great to hear atk.

You scared me there for a second, though. I thought you had tried this method 15 times!


Cheers.

No, yours only once. Yes, thank you again for clear, concise directions!

JOHN

[Theribaldmonkey]

Excellent thread. Concise and clear. However, being the muppet I am I forgot to actives the macOS partition so my boot is now destroyed. Just a black screen and cursor. I can boot into the mac os install using the USB, although the windows boot fails to get past a black screen. You mentioned there were possible patches to this problem - I don't suppose you have the links? Otherwise it's a clean install of everything.

Once again thanks for the guide!

[Oscar]

Oi...

try this: How to rebuild the Windows boot.ini edit: (this is XP specific) in vista and win7 its bootmgr

no guarantees though. as I said before, I had to start from scratch when this happened to me. if that doesn't work, you may try googling fixboot, and fixmbr as well.

keep your OS X install usb handy.. I suspect that fixing this issue may break chameleon, and you'll need to use the install stick to book into OS X and run NBI again (after you've made the OS X partition active) to fix chameleon.

also notice that making the Mac partition active wont be as simple now because Windows cannot do it now that it is formatted for OS X... and I don't know to to it in OS X. The only other way I know how to do it is in GParted (found in Linux distributions, I run Ubuntu Live USB)

If you're able to recover the Win partition and don't wanna bother with fixing chameleon, you could try EasyBCD as bootloader instead. not as pretty (just a text chooser), but it does the job.


GL

post back, if you don't mind, I'd like to know how to better advise others should they run into this issue.

add:
in vista, (and in win7 also) the file that gets corrupted is the bootmgr file. (hidden). simply replacing it will will fix it--though probably not the officially recommended way to fix it. (if you have a recovery or back partition you can grab the file from there)... problem of course is getting to it. linux will see them.

[iceman157]

I had the opposite problem where I could load XP normally but had to use the OSX install USB to be able to load OS X into my 1000HA eeepc. This was because my OS X partition was NOT active and there was no way of changing it in windows. Then, I found this good guide (link below) of how to set the OS X partition active using the fdisk command in the terminal window. In short, all you do is insert your OS X installation USB and launch the terminal. After setting the OS X partition active, my dual-boot of Win XP and Snow Leopard is working flawlessly

[How to] Setting Your Partition "Active" Using Fdisk in MacOSX - InsanelyMac Forum