Drew5150 Posted April 17, 2013 Share Posted April 17, 2013 Hi, I need to upgrade my Windows OS from Vista(x64) to Windows 7(x64) on a dual-boot computer. I didn't build the computer myself, and don't want to screw up the Macintosh side when I do the upgrade. This is not Apple hardware. When I boot up I am pressented with a non-windows boot menu, which lists OS X Leopard and Windows Vista. I'm trying to understand if this boot menu is launching from the OS X hard drive. If I disconnect the power and SATA cables from the OS X hard drive, I don't see any boot menu, and the computer boots directly into Windows. Would a Windows upgrade install be as easy as unplugging the OS X drive and running the installer, or am I missing something? Thanks in advance, Drew Here is an image of my disc management in Vista: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3.14r2 Posted April 17, 2013 Share Posted April 17, 2013 Option 1: Change the boot drive in BIOS (set the Vista HDD to be the boot drive) and install W 7 Option 2: Disconnect the OS X HDD and install W 7 (Like you did) The strange boot menu you see when OS X drive is connected, is Chameleon boot loader. It is used to run OS X on non Apple computers. In your case it is installed to the same disk as the OS X itself. Bottom line disconnect the OS X drive and install W 7. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drew5150 Posted April 18, 2013 Author Share Posted April 18, 2013 Thanks for the info... I've included some screen shots of the boot menu, and the BIOS. I'd like to do the Windows upgrade by disconnecting the OS X drive. Will the Psystar boot menu then work by clicking on the Vista choice to boot 7? (Is this label just a link to BIOS Hard Disk Boot Priority # 2. SCSI-1?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3.14r2 Posted April 18, 2013 Share Posted April 18, 2013 Will the Psystar boot menu then work by clicking on the Vista choice to boot 7?(Is this label just a link to BIOS Hard Disk Boot Priority # 2. SCSI-1?) AFAIK Psystar is a commercial ripoff of Chameleon bootloader. Try disconnecting the Windows drive (with OS X disk still connected) and boot up. If Vista would still be present, then it may be preconfigured somehow (I doubt though that it could be preconfigure by setting the particular disk in boot order, most likely it could be configured by UUID of the Windows OS). If not, then it's dynamic option. You may also try inserting a Linux/Windows install disk and see if the disk appears in the Psystar boot menu and if it does, then it for sure could be the dynamic menu. I'm not too familiar with Psystar products. As for Chameleon, it has a dynamic menu which change depending on the disks present in the system and it uses disk/partition label to display disks in the boot menu. Sure it has an option to rename disks... Anyway, the safest way is to install Windows with OS X disk DISCONNECTED. It's quite unlikely that you could brake anything this way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drew5150 Posted April 18, 2013 Author Share Posted April 18, 2013 Thanks again for the information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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