Can't boot OS X (10.4.8, VMWare, Acronis OS Selector)

[thgupznk2]

Hi,

I've got a big problem: I finally made it to install Mac OS X 10.4.8 with VMWare on my physical drive, but after restarting Acronis OS Selector starts and doesn't show me any new OS. Theres just my old Win Xp. It also doesn't find a new OS searching for it on the Mac partition. I don't know what to do. I tried acivating the partition with diskpart, reinstalled Acronis OS Selector, reinstalled Mac OS X. But after 2 days of work, I've still not seen the OS X booting.

What do I do wrong? How can I make my OS X visible to this **** Bootloader? I would be very happy about a helpful Answer.

thgupznk2

[cbmkgd]

Simple: don't use it.

Disable AOSS, which will let you boot XP next.

Then use the chain0 method (do a search for it on forum and/or wiki). See the wiki's Messing with the boot options; you might need to press F8 to access OSX after selecting the menu.

After this, you can remove AOSS.

 

After this, you can do better: make OSX partition active, so you won't need the chain0 trick nor the redundancy in boot menus:

[How to] Setting Your Partition "Active" Using Fdisk in MacOSX.

Then see above wiki link to modify the boot.plist.

Thus you'll just have a single boot menu (darwin's) (remove line from boot.ini).

 

Why doesn't your AOSS recognize OSX? Don't know, you didn't give enough details.

Always worked for me though. But I prefer simple boot managers (grub, darwin's, etc)

[~pcwiz]

I think when you are partitioning the drive in Disk Utility you have to click the Options button and choose the Master Boot Record option....not perfectly sure though

 

pcwiz

[cbmkgd]

I think when you are partitioning the drive in Disk Utility you have to click the Options button and choose the Master Boot Record option....not perfectly sure though

Some osx install dvds did have this "problem".

But if he only erased a partition (with hfs+ format) with diskutility, this option isn't shown; it only appears (iirc) when doing a whole disk partitioning (ie selecting the drive, rather than just a partition/volume).

[~pcwiz]

Thanks cbmkgd, I wasn't aware of that issue.

 

thgupznk2,

 

Why are you bothering with Acronis OS Selector? Why not use the chain0 method with your existing XP bootloader to boot OS X?

[thgupznk2]

OK, I've deleted Acronis OSSelector and tried the chain0 method. But now it gives me a "Chain booting error" after choosing OSX in the Boot menue. I've been searching for that error for some hours now, but didn't find a solution, which worked for me.

I treid to set the Mac partition aktive with diskpart, but then I get "Error booting the operating system". So I made my XP partition active again. Now the "Chain booting error". I don't know how to solve this problem.

 

Maybe you need more details:

I've got a Amilo PA 1510 Notebook from FSC.

I've followed this guide till my boot problem: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?sho...p;hl=Amilo+1510

I've got primary partition 1 XP, 2 Data, and 3 Mac OSX.

[Lactobacillus P]

OK, I've deleted Acronis OSSelector and tried the chain0 method. But now it gives me a "Chain booting error" after choosing OSX in the Boot menue. I've been searching for that error for some hours now, but didn't find a solution, which worked for me.

I treid to set the Mac partition aktive with diskpart, but then I get "Error booting the operating system". So I made my XP partition active again. Now the "Chain booting error". I don't know how to solve this problem.

 

Maybe you need more details:

I've got a Amilo PA 1510 Notebook from FSC.

I've followed this guide till my boot problem: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?sho...p;hl=Amilo+1510

I've got primary partition 1 XP, 2 Data, and 3 Mac OSX.

 

Did you create a logical or a primary partition to install OSX on? It needs a primary partition to be able to boot from it. A PC can have more primary partitions and boots from the one set to active. This can all be done in Acronis Disk director.

Making a backup of your working OSX installation can easily be performed by Acronis True Image Home by the way.

[thgupznk2]

It's on a primary partition.

[cbmkgd]

Did you try to make the osx primary partition active with the link I gave above?

 

I assume your data partition is also primary; if partition 2 is logical (within an extended partition), then know that the osx primary partition should be before any extended partition (if there are any).

 

Make sure your osx partition is flagged 0xaf.

 

For further info, check the wiki article Chain booting error?.

[thgupznk2]

It's 0xaf, but I think I know what's the problem:

If you look at this picture (yes it's German, but I hope you can understand it.), you'll see that I've got 3 primary partitions and one logical with 2 extended partitions. The Mac Partition is at the end. I'm afraid that it shouldn't be there, right?

I had Vista on this partition before and thought that Mac would also work that way...

Any possibility to make Mac work on that partition or to move the partition behind the XP partition?

[cbmkgd]

Ah, well, then you've got the source of the error.

Unfortunately a lot of the installation guides out there don't talk about this detail of not placing the primary osx partition before the extended, probably out of ignorance (even though this problem was identified as far as summer 2005, and is mentioned since long in the wiki).

 

To prepare a space for osx in there would require moving a lot of data.

The idea would be to backup/image the OSX partition, then move the whole extended partition towards the end of the drive. Then restore the osx image onto the space left after the second primary partition.

 

For imaging, you could use Acronis TrueImage; zero out the empty space using osx's diskutility first, that will allow TI to better compress the image. You can save the image on another hd.

Note also that it could be easier to backup the logical partitions to another drive and then wipe the extended. You then would just have to move the osx partition near the other two primaries. And then lastly to recreate the extended and restore the logicals.

 

The labor you'll have to put in this restructuring will depend of course on how much data you have in you logical partitions.

 

But if you have a secondary hd after all, you could also put your osx primary partition there, and multi-boot with the help of the bios boot menu.

 

[Note: I did have a way to make work a primary osx situated after an extended, but it didn't work long: forcing the primary partition to be placed before the extended in the partition table only, even though it is physically after. It works on a first boot, but the entry was deleted afterwards. Of course this requires a tool that allows you to edit the partition table, an action which is risky (and of course requires a backup of the p.t., and a knowledge on how to restore it).

I'll let others inquire further.

Note also that on some occasion even an osx installed on a primary partition before the extended might not work properly if in the partition table its partition is located after the extended; one then has to resort the partition table so they be in a proper order (this can be done with gparted i think).]

[thgupznk2]

Yeah!

Thx! I got it!!