Jeva Hose Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 I have a Thinkpad T60p with Leopard 10.5.8 installed originally waaay back with the Brazil Mac method, then switching to pc_efi 8.1, vanilla kernel and all real kernel extensions except for 6 to get the laptop working properly - everything (display CI/QE, audio, wi-fi, network, etc) works properly. This laptop is set up to triple boot XP and Windows 7 also and it uses Master Boot Record. Since I hadn't seen anyone successfully install Snow Leopard on a Thinkpad (well, maybe ) I haven't tried but I did insert the disc just to see if the installation would start and it told me I need to use a GUID partition. Is there a way to convert from MBR to GUID? Can Windows XP boot if I re-partitioned my drive (I'm thinking not)? Thanks for any pointers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BladeRunner Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 I have a Thinkpad T60p with Leopard 10.5.8 installed originally waaay back with the Brazil Mac method, then switching to pc_efi 8.1, vanilla kernel and all real kernel extensions except for 6 to get the laptop working properly - everything (display CI/QE, audio, wi-fi, network, etc) works properly. This laptop is set up to triple boot XP and Windows 7 also and it uses Master Boot Record. Since I hadn't seen anyone successfully install Snow Leopard on a Thinkpad (well, maybe ) I haven't tried but I did insert the disc just to see if the installation would start and it told me I need to use a GUID partition. Is there a way to convert from MBR to GUID? Can Windows XP boot if I re-partitioned my drive (I'm thinking not)? Thanks for any pointers. You can NOT convert from MBR to GUID without re-partitioning the drive which will destroy all data on it. You would need to create external backup copies of your existing partitions and then restore them after the new partitions are created. I believe you are correct about the WinXP system. Win7 can happily exist in a GUID environment. I know this from experience. My system has Win7 in partition 2 and Leopard 10.5.8 in partition 3. I run WinXP under VMWare-fusion, not a real system partition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skn Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 Is there a way to convert from MBR to GUID? There is no need to use GUID partition with SL. MBR works fine... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
srs5694 Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 Is there a way to convert from MBR to GUID? Yes. I know of three utilities that will do this, although I'm most familiar with the first, since I wrote it: GPT fdisk -- This is a text-mode utility for Linux, FreeBSD, and Mac OS X that's modeled after Linux fdisk, but it manipulates GPT partitions. One of its features is that it automatically converts MBR to GPT when you launch it on an MBR disk. (The changes don't take place until you write them back to disk with the write ['w'] command.) FreeBSD's (and others') gpt utility -- This standard utility is the GPT partitioning tool for FreeBSD and some other OSes. It can convert MBR to GPT. I believe there's a version that comes with OS X, but I'm not sure if that version includes the MBR-to-GPT feature. (My OS X systems are both turned off at the moment, so I can't easily check.) I've used it briefly under FreeBSD, and it did convert my MBR test disks OK, but my level of familiarity with this tool is only low to moderate. gptgen -- This is another text-mode utility, but it's very specialized; it only converts from MBR to GPT. It claims to compile under Windows or Linux, but I was unable to get it to work under Linux, and I didn't try a Windows compile. Thus, I can't say how well it works. No matter which utility you use, there's a chance that the conversion will be complicated by partitions overlapping GPT data structures. In a worst-case scenario, resizing one or more partitions may be required to get the conversion to work. If possible, I recommend setting up a very small (20-100KiB, yes K) BIOS Boot Partition and smallish (100-200MiB) EFI System Partition on the converted disk. One or both of these partitions are used by certain boot loaders and utilities. Also, Apple recommends placing ~128MiB of free space between most EFI partitions. There are some preliminary reports that OS X 10.6 won't install unless that free space is present, so it's best when you resize your partitions to ensure that it's there. Can Windows XP boot if I re-partitioned my drive (I'm thinking not)? Immediately after a conversion to a "pure" GPT configuration, Windows will be unable to boot. To boot Windows on a GPT disk on a computer that uses a legacy BIOS (rather than EFI, which is the BIOS replacement that's still quite rare on commodity PCs), you need to set up a hybrid MBR configuration. This will make the disk look like an MBR disk to Windows and like a GPT disk to Mac OS X (and most other OSes). Note, however, that Windows doesn't like to see changes to its boot partition, so there's a good chance that Windows will refuse to boot even after you enable the hybrid MBR, since the hybrid MBR partition might not look exactly like the original partition. The Windows install disc might or might not be able to correct this problem. The bottom line: Back up your data first and be prepared to re-install Windows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeva Hose Posted August 31, 2009 Author Share Posted August 31, 2009 There is no need to use GUID partition with SL. MBR works fine... This is what I get when point to my OS X drive: [My Mac Volume] can't be used because it doesn't use the GUID Partition Table scheme. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BladeRunner Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 Yes. I know of three utilities that will do this, although I'm most familiar with the first, since I wrote it: GPT fdisk -- This is a text-mode utility for Linux, FreeBSD, and Mac OS X that's modeled after Linux fdisk, but it manipulates GPT partitions. One of its features is that it automatically converts MBR to GPT when you launch it on an MBR disk. (The changes don't take place until you write them back to disk with the write ['w'] command.) Well, just shows what I know. I learned something new today. Looks like a really good utility. I just got a copy. Thanks for the information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Gleeson Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 There is no need to use GUID partition with SL. MBR works fine... How do I install SL on MBR> I have 10.5.8 running at the moment Thanks Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ianxxx Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 How do I install SL on MBR>I have 10.5.8 running at the moment Thanks Paul try google snow leopard mbr OSInstall.mpkg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigpoppa206 Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 try google snow leopard mbr OSInstall.mpkg You do NOT want to use that method. It is not a complete install and there seem to be a lot of permissions screwed up along the way. Look for the method to get SL on a bootable USB memory stick and install that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SticMAC™ Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 I installed SL on a USBHDD with GUID. Once I was happy that everything was perfect, I cloned it to my MBR partition, together with WindowsXP, redid the Chameleon, boot, UUID's and rebooted! everything is now perfect on MBR! SticMAC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeva Hose Posted September 2, 2009 Author Share Posted September 2, 2009 I'm not gonna lie here - the thought of configuring a hybrid MBP/GUID partition table makes my nerd heart go pitter-patter, but it looks like installing to a USB hard drive and cloning might be the best way to go What should I use to clone the drive? In the past I used Clonezilla but maybe there is a better solution I don't know aboot. Recommendations? Thanks for the badass info folks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricola Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 How do I install SL on MBR>I have 10.5.8 running at the moment Thanks Paul Use this OSInstall.mpkg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormegil Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 Use this OSInstall.mpkg by far the easiest way if you need Windows no matter what. just use EasyBCD to set up the multiboot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mojo-ike Posted June 23, 2010 Share Posted June 23, 2010 i did lots of looking and found lots of discussions with no solutions. i had a problem with the bootcamp (and macos) not showing up in the startup disk control panel. sure, i could hold down the option key at startup and choose mac or windows, or use BootChamp (http://kainjow.com/) to boot into windows. the problem was with the Partition Map Scheme for the entire disk. it needs to be "GUID Partition Table" rather than MBR (or Apple). i didnt want to reformat the entire drive to fix the problem and then restore the mac and windows data, so i used iPartition (http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iPartition.php). it converted the partition scheme and everything now works as it should. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Dsouza Posted July 11, 2010 Share Posted July 11, 2010 I installed SL on a USBHDD with GUID. Once I was happy that everything was perfect, I cloned it to my MBR partition, together with WindowsXP, redid the Chameleon, boot, UUID's and rebooted! everything is now perfect on MBR! SticMAC You have to provide some instuctions please!! I wanna do that too... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terramir Posted July 12, 2010 Share Posted July 12, 2010 Actually I gotta say what you want to do here is very complicated to say the least, but doable I've had gpt/mbr nightmares in the past. what I would do is the following (and warning you'll have to reregister your win7 installation (or repatch it) Clone windows 7 and windows xp, and btw windows xp is very happy with booting from a hybrid gpt/mbr disk as long as chameleon directs the boot there that's how bootcamp works as well. clone the partitions and not the complete disk to usb drive as images. Verify those images!!!! the extra time is well worth not losing 100gb worth of data been there, done that, got the T-Shirt Then scrap the whole boot drive into a newly formatted GPT install SL (your partitions after the SL partition should = the space needed for your backed up XP and 7 installs. anyway do what your guide tells you too it dun matter that patched pkg is bad news I've seen it a million times before well 20 times lol. After you installed SL and all the updates kexts etc. and stay away from the EFI partition those installs can get scrapped by win7 so NVM!!!. after your done installing everything the way you want it use CCC and put that install on the second partition of a usb hard drive and make sure you format that drive MBR in disk utility and use a flash drive with rebel efi or NBM installed to verify that boots cause then your set for disaster when you your install somehow. use some decent usb linux ensure it has persistance and install gptfdisk on it!(make sure the libs for ntfs support are in the flavor you choose!!!! Verify that this boots from your machine no matter what GPT fdisk is probably the most reliable program out there when it comes to fixing things just make sure you back-up your GPT GUID table before you make changes. Now that you have SL installed and a decent back-up of SL and your windows partitions you can get to work, you see SL is completely happy to boot from an MBR disk installing is a different matter altogether!!!!. Boot to the SL install that is the sole install you have left! Use Disk Utility inside terminal! (this only works on GPT disks! it's a function built in to create bootcamp) to resize your SL partition unless you had the wisdom to make two other primary partitions after SL during the install If you did that during install just format those spare partitions MS-DOS in the GUI disk utility, if not guess what that will have to wait till you convert the gpt to mbr! (now imagine you have win7 on the third partition of a hybrid gpt/MBR and you can only boot snow from a usb key and you know the nightmare I went through! Well boot to your linux (10.04 lucid for me) flavor open terminal and type sudo gdisk then type ? you'll get a bunch of options choose (ergo type) b after your done with that type ? and use recovery and tranformation options ® ? again and low and behold there is the option g which will transform your gpt to mbr and exit now you use whatever disk and partition manipulation program you got to set the HFS+ partiton active and reboot if you dun boot up in SL for whatever reason dun panic try selecting it from chameleon or rebel efi boot key you made and if that works fine reinstall chameleon or whatever to the root of your SL install partition since it's active you got no problems well not quite when you restore windows 7 which is what's next you'll have to repair the boot which will scrap the heck out of your mbr (you might have to boot in linux and set the win 7 partition active to do the repair but that's ok! after you repair windows 7 and it boots make sure you can see the winxp (empty #4 partition) reboot restore your win xp partition and hope the program you used doesn't mess with the mbr. if that is the case you might have to repair 7 again, but when you reboot you should be booting into windows 7 which is good. take the linux key boot use the graphical program to check your disk your win 7 partition should be flagged as the boot partition. change that to the hfs+ (part #2) and reboot if charmeleon loads you should be able to boot all three if not use the usb boot loader (Rebel efi or charmeleon) and reinstall your bootloader from SL reboot and it should give you options to boot 7 xp or sl (might have to hit the esc key there all done GL terramir Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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