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Dual Boot Win 7 + OSX + data partitions on GPT


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Okay... this is not very complicated, but i'll start at the beginning

 

I got a new 1TB harddrive. Before this, i had a fully working osx 10.5.7/windows 7 dualboot with chameleon. That harddrive said kaput, so i bought the 1TB drive. Since its 1TB and i like experimenting, i decided to try to use the GPT partition. The ideal setup i wanted to create was: 1 EFI 200MB partition for boot, 2x15 gb partitions for Windows and Osx, 2x450 GB partitions for data drives for osx and windows. I also wanted for windows to be able to recognise the mac disks (macdrive 8 beta), and osx to see the windows disks. Quickly i learned these things:

  • To be able to install windows on GPT, a GPT/MBR hybrid has to be created by OSX. Now this troubled me - it is said windows needs efi to be able to install on GPT. My first question is: IS THERE ANY WAY TO FORCE INSTALL WINDOWS 7 (X64) ON A GPT DISK, OR IS THERE ANY WAY TO INSTALL WINDOWS THROUGH CHAMELEON SO IT BELEIVES ITS ON EFI AND ALLOWS INSTALL ON A GPT?
  • With a GPT/MBR hybrid, you are limited to 4 partitions, including the EFI partition. This is because GPT doesnt support extended partitions, and mbr only supports 4 primary partitions. To solve this i tried to move the efi partition to the end of the disk (so OSX can see it, but windows cant-its the 5th partition). The problem is that then OSX doenst automatically create the hybrid, and if you create it with gptsync, it still creates a tiny EFI Protective partition in the beginning (which counts as primary on mbr). The second question is: IS THERE ANY WAY TO STOP THE TINY EFI PROTECTIVE ENTRY BEING CREATED BY GPTSYNC AT THE BEGINNING OF THE DISK (EVEN IF THE EFI PARTITION IS PARTITION 5)?

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