fyi Posted June 21, 2006 Share Posted June 21, 2006 SPFdisk is a free, open-sourced, dos-based partition manager which is meant to compare with Fdisk. This Mac-Boot version is based on v2000-03r and is meant to be compatible with Mac OS X86 10.4.6 and after. SPFDisk Manager is the best solution for multi-booting Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and others. The main routine can be and is recommended to be installed on the first track of the first cylinder of the first harddrive if the drive supports LBA (the main routine occupies at least 26 sectors). It can also be installed over removable devices like USB-HDD and USB dongle. This version is created for the Mac OSX86 users and is still in beta stage. I think only the PRE_LOAD.ASM was modified in order to be compatible with the MBR created by Win2K/XP. If you encounter HFS+ partition error while dual-booting Windows and Mac OSX86 10.4.6, you should get this version to make it work. Though I'm not the author, if you have any question or bug report, please feel free to write it here. I'll do my best to answer them. The software is self-explained. Because most guides are in Chinese, please excuse me that I can't find a proper guide in English. Please give it a try. SourceForge.net: SPFDisk Chinese Homepage MSFN Forums > A Multiple Partition USB Stick with Multi Boot OS Edit: If you need bootable floppy disk or CD-ROM images, you can find one at Bootdisk.com. For people who don't have a floppy drive, please boot from CD-ROM drive or try "dd" to create a bootable USB dongle. This Mac-Boot version can install itself to the MBR of the first drive. The drive orders are decided by BIOS. If booting from floppy or CD-ROM drives, the internal IDE harddrive shall be the first drive. If booting from USB dongle, the dongle shall be the first. Edit: SPFDisk-MacBoot-5.zip 2006/6/30, MacBoot5 beta version SPFDisk_MacBoot_5.zip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeSuKuN Posted June 21, 2006 Share Posted June 21, 2006 Can it boot mac RAIDs ? I mean 2 disks in raid-0 with osx inside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fyi Posted June 21, 2006 Author Share Posted June 21, 2006 You got me. I think it depends on how BIOS sees it. If BIOS sees the RAIDs as one drive, you are free to go. The SPFdisk manager runs at the BIOS INT13 level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAF2 Posted June 21, 2006 Share Posted June 21, 2006 Excellent! I'll give it a go, will install it on a floppy disk. Will it auto-detect all the partitions, right? I currently have Linux Ubuntu (with 3 different kernels) and Windows 2000. And OS X, of course. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fyi Posted June 21, 2006 Author Share Posted June 21, 2006 Absolutely right Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeSuKuN Posted June 21, 2006 Share Posted June 21, 2006 I meant Mac OS X's software raid if this app can handle that, I would even pay for it! (arrrr my eyepatch hurts! ), seriously, if this version can't do that, do you think that it will do in a future version? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fyi Posted June 21, 2006 Author Share Posted June 21, 2006 From the BIOS point of view, software RAIDs are merely seperated disks. First of all, before two disks can be joined as one RAID-0, they must be properly formatted. That means, they all have the same structures as regular harddrives. MBR, boot sector, etc. I think that the first track of the first cylinder of both drives should be invisible to the OS because normally no applications will access that area. Secondly, before you can boot into OSX, you still have to follow the rules defined by IBM-PC. That is, the BIOS loads the MBR of the first drive; the MBR loads the boot sector; the boot sector loads the boot loader and the boot loader loads the kernel. Before the kernel being loaded, the software RAIDs are merely seperated disks. I think hardware RAIDs can be treated as a large disk from the BIOS point of view because they were joined before the OS could be installed over them. This is the difference between software RAIDs and hardware RAIDs. So my answer is, go ahead and you should be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeSuKuN Posted June 21, 2006 Share Posted June 21, 2006 the problem is that apparently, mac OS RAIDs can't be installed in MBR schemed disks, only under GUID or mac partition schemes, at least that's what i've read in these forums, I haven't tried myself Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrunner Posted June 22, 2006 Share Posted June 22, 2006 Good job Mr. SPFdisk / fyi, SPFdisk is fairly easy to use, just boot off floppy and run SPFDISK-mac-boot-test.EXE. Select the HD and partitions and set optional timer/password if desired. Finally, choose install and I guess you have to pick choice (2) to write to MBR instead of choice (1) to HD. (1) to HD seems to cause a password error. Works fine so far. Hopefully this will solve some of the problems many have had with Acronis boot selector (very slow boot at times and sometimes losing the boot menu). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
domino Posted June 22, 2006 Share Posted June 22, 2006 Ok, I'm still wondering about the flexablility to this application. I am having problems with any boot loader booting OS X on the primary partition, on the second IDE controller. I was wonder if anyone has any insites about this problem. In the mean time, i'm going to do a trial vmware install with xp, osx, and linux server on 3 seperate virtual disks. Going to see if it solves my problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fyi Posted June 22, 2006 Author Share Posted June 22, 2006 The honor should go to Mr. Hsu-Ping Feng, the author of SPFDisk. Because the modern harddrives all supports LBA, that is, there're 62 unused sectors (excluding MBR) in the first track of the first cylinder. The main routine is installed there and doesn't occupies valuable spaces. If you plan to install SPFDisk to a partition (HD Boot Sector), you must reserve at least one track for the routine. The routine takes 26 sectors for English version or 32 sectors for Chinese version. If you're unsure about SPFDisk, please try it with USB dongle (recommend) or floppy disk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billmaster Posted June 22, 2006 Share Posted June 22, 2006 I just want you to just installing Partion Magic will F up your system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbmkgd Posted June 22, 2006 Share Posted June 22, 2006 Though I'm the author, if you have any question or bug report, please feel free to write it here. I'll do my best to answer them. The honor should go to Mr. Hsu-Ping Feng, the author of SPFDisk. So I guess there was a typo in the first quote. Anyways, thanks for the info, especially the one in the dual boot section. Was used to VCom's System Commander, which I think also installs in 'unused' sectors of first track; but it doesn't seem to support booting OSX unfortunately (I'm now with the Acronis boot manager...) But don't some software also install protection schemes in this region, eg Adobe CS/CS2, Macromedia, etc (safecast?) ? Was wondering how all this interacted well if each squatted in such 'unused' sectors! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fyi Posted June 23, 2006 Author Share Posted June 23, 2006 Huge mistake. I'm NOT the author. Thank you, cbmkgd. BTW, if dual-boot Windows and OSX86 is what you need, you may try Modifying Win2K/XP MBR presented by me. There're details about how it works. The Cons are you must have some knowledge about how MBR works. The Pros are you can boot virtual floppy drive from NTLDR. EDIT: Thought I had discussed with the author that SPFDisk works strickly at the BIOS level, I'd like to withdraw my words about installing SPFDisk Boot Manager over RAIDs. Don't do it if you don't understand the risk. Check it up at GNU GRUB - Support for LVM and/or RAID Updated: MacBoot5 beta version. Please check post #1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fyi Posted July 3, 2006 Author Share Posted July 3, 2006 The CD Forum > Booting From Floppy Image Bootdisk.Com A 64 bit compiling of FileDisk Here's how to run SPFDisk without a real floppy drive: 1) Run "FileDisk" to modify bootable floppy image and make room for SPFDisk_MacBoot_5.exe. 2) Run "vFloppy" to create boot loader for the floppy image and place it at c:\boot.ini. Check the attached photos. 3) Always run vFloppy after modify the source image. Do not modify or move the output image located in the c:\boot. vFloppy has to calculate the absolute sector offsets in order to load the image without the help from OS. vFloppy supports 1.44M/2.88M floppy images. You can place the output images in FAT/FAT32/NTFS partitions. vFloppy v1.5.rar vFloppy v1.5.rar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fyi Posted September 7, 2006 Author Share Posted September 7, 2006 The most amazing feature of SPFDisk is that you can boot from not only the first HDD. Try loading the attached SPF_MENU from SPFDisk to find out. SPFDisk 2000-3t Text version Sep 04 2006 SPF_MENU.zip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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