[Alcapowned]

**Update** Many thanks to all who made suggestions to improve this guide. I have made some small changes to the instructions in an attempt to incorporate them. Please note that I have NOT tested this with NBM 0.8.3 RC4 (or with RC3 for that matter) so my changes are based solely on other peoples...

Click here to read the entire tutorial

[Alcapowned]

Originally Posted by Heckler

I hit a snag at Step 5... Windows 7 (Professional) will not install onto the FAT partition (even after I format it as NTFS, "This computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in the computer's BIOS menu"). I previously had Windows 7 (Professional) installed, so I'm guessing it's a partition map issue. What's odd if is that the FAT partition is not Partition 4 as suggested:

Name Total Space Free Space Type
Disk 0 Partition 1 0.0MB 0.0MB Primary
Disk 0 Partition 2:EFI 200.0MB 196.0MB Primary
Disk 0 Partition 3 55.9GB 0.0MB System
Disk 0 Unallocated Space 128.0MB 128.0MB
Disk 0 Partition 4 55.6GB 55.5GB Primary

Before I got started, I booted into the Windows 7 Install USB went into diskpart and did a clean of all existing partitions, so I have no idea why there the 0.0MB Partition 1 exists, or why there is Unallocated Space between Partition 3 and 4 (unless it's a sector thing). Also, I don't know if Windows 7 won't install on Partition 4 because it's the third "Primary" partition on this Disk or...???

Are you using disk utility in OSX to create the partitions?If you did it using the Mac Disk utility you should end up with 3 partitions visible when you boot into the windows installer.

you need to create a new partition table when you get into mac disk utility in step 2. using a pre-existing one may be the problem - start afresh by clicking on the drive itself>partition tab>set it to 2 partitions, and GUID partition table in the options. It will wipe everything on the drive and create the correct partition table.

Do you have NBM 0.8.3 RC2 or higher? if not, you need to get it - earlier versions don't include GPTsync which creates the hybrid GPT/MBR partition required for installing windows 7.

[waldi]

Question:
I have a working 10.5.8 Installation (done with NBI 8.1 i guess). Is there a way to keep that installation and resize the partition to go for a Win7 Dual Boot solution?

[Chessboxin]

I'm having similar problems as above. The numbers of the partitions do not match up with the guide. I installed Win 7 on the correct partition - I'm replying from it now.

My main problem is getting passed the next step. The guide says to make sure OSX and chameleon are active and boot into OSX.

I tried making it active, and it's not booting at all. The only partition out of the 4 that works is Win7.

I do not have the USB(OSX) in, I am about to try that now. I don't know if that's the problem.

My main question is about chameleon. I hear about it a lot, but I don't know how to access/load it. I'm assuming it's automatically installed into OSX from NBM 0.8.3rc2. I would appreciate if someone could please clarify.

Thanks!

[Heckler]

Originally Posted by Alcapowned

Are you using disk utility in OSX to create the partitions?If you did it using the Mac Disk utility you should end up with 3 partitions visible when you boot into the windows installer.

you need to create a new partition table when you get into mac disk utility in step 2. using a pre-existing one may be the problem - start afresh by clicking on the drive itself>partition tab>set it to 2 partitions, and GUID partition table in the options. It will wipe everything on the drive and create the correct partition table.

Do you have NBM 0.8.3 RC2 or higher? if not, you need to get it - earlier versions don't include GPTsync which creates the hybrid GPT/MBR partition required for installing windows 7.

Yes, I was using the Disk Utility in OSX to create the partitions (I even went so far as to boot to the Win7 Install USB, go into diskpart, and do a clean beforehand so that there weren't any existing partitions when I got to Disk Utility in OSX). Yes, I did have NBM 0.8.3 RC3, and I think that was what was causing the problem as I created a NBM 0.8..3 RC2 boot USB and when I get to Win7 there are only three partitions. In short (too late), I think there is something wrong with NBM 0.8.3 RC3 because I get all the partition wonkiness with RC3, but not RC2... And trust me, I tired it SEVERAL times (with three different creations of RC3) to no avail...

At first, Win7 said it couldn't install to the FAT partition created by OSX Disk Utility, for NTFS and BIOS reasons, so having read another guide that mentioned that, I canceled the installation and restarted the Win7 Install USB. When it came back up, it only compained that it needed to be NTFS, I formatted it and the installation of Win7 proceeded.

Even though I now have the partitions all correct, I still don't get the nice Chameleon boot loader screen. The Win7 partition boots just fine, but if I boot the Win7 Install DVD and set Partition 1 (the OSX Disk Utility-created EFI partition) as active, when it boots I get "Missing operating system"... If then try to boot from the OSX Boot USB, the Chameleon boot loader will load neither the Install DVD on the USB nor the OSX Partition (3 in my case since I installed Win7 to 2)...

[Alcapowned]

So you can't boot from the osx install USB key once you have the windows 7 install working? I don't know why that would be - it's quite puzzling. since you cant do that, you are unable to reinstall the chameleon bootloader using NBI from the mac osx install cd - which would have been my suggestion to get things working properly (step 7 onwards).

Also, FYI - Step 5 - Select language and click install. You should get to a disk utility window. Select partition 3 (the windows FAT partition that you created), and click format (it will format the drive in the NTFS format). You should now be able to click next to install windows.

[coalpha]

6. Allow windows to install, it’ll ask you a few things and restart a number of times. Once it’s finished your computer will boot automatically to windows as if it's the only OS installed. To get the chameleon bootloader working with windows 7 do the following:


7. Boot into OSX and run Netbookinstaller. Make sure you have the chameleon bootloader checked, and that quiet boot is disabled. Click install. Once the install is finished, OSX will now be the active boot, But your windows boot sector will be corrupted.




Question about step 7?, if my netbook thinks that win7 in the only OS how do i boot into my installed version of SL to do step 7?

and one last question if someone can help?, when and how should i install the upgrade to 10.6.1?

thanks for the help!

[dv64villa]

Originally Posted by coalpha

6. Allow windows to install, it’ll ask you a few things and restart a number of times. Once it’s finished your computer will boot automatically to windows as if it's the only OS installed. To get the chameleon bootloader working with windows 7 do the following:


7. Boot into OSX and run Netbookinstaller. Make sure you have the chameleon bootloader checked, and that quiet boot is disabled. Click install. Once the install is finished, OSX will now be the active boot, But your windows boot sector will be corrupted.




Question about step 7?, if my netbook thinks that win7 in the only OS how do i boot into my installed version of SL to do step 7?

and one last question if someone can help?, when and how should i install the upgrade to 10.6.1?

thanks for the help!

you have to boot into the bootable SL USB that you created with NBM. That has NBI in the Tools menu. The 10.6.1 update can be run anytime even from software update with no problems.

---------- Post added at 08:06 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:57 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Heckler

Yes, I was using the Disk Utility in OSX to create the partitions (I even went so far as to boot to the Win7 Install USB, go into diskpart, and do a clean beforehand so that there weren't any existing partitions when I got to Disk Utility in OSX). Yes, I did have NBM 0.8.3 RC3, and I think that was what was causing the problem as I created a NBM 0.8..3 RC2 boot USB and when I get to Win7 there are only three partitions. In short (too late), I think there is something wrong with NBM 0.8.3 RC3 because I get all the partition wonkiness with RC3, but not RC2... And trust me, I tired it SEVERAL times (with three different creations of RC3) to no avail...

At first, Win7 said it couldn't install to the FAT partition created by OSX Disk Utility, for NTFS and BIOS reasons, so having read another guide that mentioned that, I canceled the installation and restarted the Win7 Install USB. When it came back up, it only compained that it needed to be NTFS, I formatted it and the installation of Win7 proceeded.

Even though I now have the partitions all correct, I still don't get the nice Chameleon boot loader screen. The Win7 partition boots just fine, but if I boot the Win7 Install DVD and set Partition 1 (the OSX Disk Utility-created EFI partition) as active, when it boots I get "Missing operating system"... If then try to boot from the OSX Boot USB, the Chameleon boot loader will load neither the Install DVD on the USB nor the OSX Partition (3 in my case since I installed Win7 to 2)...

I have been successful doing everything except for the part where i make Windows 7 bootable (Step 7) but after that i've had no luck. First time i tried the Diskpart i did it straight from X:Sources which ended up making Win 7 bootable only if the USB key was in the computer. if not i get an error, black screen of death looking window. so i tried again this time switching to the C: drive then running Diskpart again. that did not work either, win7 is still not booting. Also a question about Step 9 where you say "repair windows install"...how exactly do i do this? Thanks.

[colinjarnold]

Will this method work to dual boot xp and osx using the dell xp disc and using a retail osx disc?

[dv64villa]

I am just stuck at step 8. The whole diskpart sequence does not seem to be working. Windows Repair cannot find a windows installation to repair and i get a message after it attempts to repair that it is unable to do so. I can boot into SL, but cannot get the boot manager to work so i can choose an OS to boot to. Im installing Win7 AGAIN to give it another try. I continue to use NBI 8.3 RC3. Should i try RC2 as suggested by someone in an earlier post. I also have that pesky 128 mb partition between partition 3 and 4.

Can anyone tell me what i'm doing wrong? i'm literally going step by step and cant figure out what i'm doing wrong. thanks in advance.

[dv64villa]

Ok, something must have changed in the versions of the OSes being used or the NBI, but this method is just not working. I can't get past fixing the boot loader to get both operating systems to boot. When doing diskpart, i seem to mess up the installer on the usb becuase then i am unable to boot to it to run diskpart for the second time.

any suggestions, direction comments or even a don't waste your time would be appreciated at this point.