from dual boot to single

[clearly]

hi all

 

After the usual trials and tribulations I have managed to get my PC to dual boot Vista and OSX using the iAtkos.

 

Everything works really well under OSX (dual monitors, ethernet, MS wirless keyboard and mouse etc)

 

Problem is I no longer have any need (or want) to have vista installed. So I want to go from dual to single boot

 

Here is what I figure I need to do

- back up media from windows partition

- somehow blow away the vista partition (partition 0 on the HDD, OSX is partition 1)

- refrormat for use by OSX

- somehow ensure that I can still boot into OSX (my bootloader is done through Vista right now so it will will go bye byes)

 

Is there a guide or some kind sould who could help me out?

 

I figure I could just blow away both partition on the HDD and reinstall X again however after all the work to get it all running in the first place id rather not

[marcx987]

hi all

 

After the usual trials and tribulations I have managed to get my PC to dual boot Vista and OSX using the iAtkos.

 

Everything works really well under OSX (dual monitors, ethernet, MS wirless keyboard and mouse etc)

 

Problem is I no longer have any need (or want) to have vista installed. So I want to go from dual to single boot

 

Here is what I figure I need to do

- back up media from windows partition

- somehow blow away the vista partition (partition 0 on the HDD, OSX is partition 1)

- refrormat for use by OSX

- somehow ensure that I can still boot into OSX (my bootloader is done through Vista right now so it will will go bye byes)

 

Is there a guide or some kind sould who could help me out?

 

I figure I could just blow away both partition on the HDD and reinstall X again however after all the work to get it all running in the first place id rather not

 

For you the fastest way is to get a external HD split it into two partitions(one for ntfs, only needs to be as big as the stuff your backing up, and one for use with time machine)

 

Once you have both partitions set up use timemachine to back up all OSX and in Vista backup all that you need.

 

Once the backups are complete load your OSX install cd.

 

Use the disk utility to reformat the disk into one partiton

 

Then using the option install from time machine backup get OSX back.

 

Everything should be as it was.

 

If anyting should go wrong come back here.

[clearly]

thanks for the quick reply

 

this sounds like a good plan, im off to get an external hard drive

[clearly]

For you the fastest way is to get a external HD split it into two partitions(one for ntfs, only needs to be as big as the stuff your backing up, and one for use with time machine)

 

Once you have both partitions set up use timemachine to back up all OSX and in Vista backup all that you need.

 

Once the backups are complete load your OSX install cd.

 

Use the disk utility to reformat the disk into one partiton

 

Then using the option install from time machine backup get OSX back.

 

Everything should be as it was.

 

If anyting should go wrong come back here.

 

Ok I did this and the was a small glitch and one great big bad one

 

The small (which i fixed)

- above after reformatting the partition you need to reboot before the install will allow you to install the timemachine back up to the newly created partition

 

The big (which i cant fix and probably made worse)

- when you restart you get the usual dual boot screen howver when you choose the mac option (or the vista option) Id get a chain0 error

Knowing this was because the MBR was still looking for 2 partitions which no longer existed I kind of figured out i needed to reset the MBR.

 

Using fdisk I managed to do so. I have also set the single partition (Leopard) on the correct HDD as the act

ve partition (I think) 

 

However

When ever I boot now the pc attempts to boot from DVD (this is usual) but then doesnt boot from hdd.

 

I know this is because the MBR is wrong in some way but can figure out why. I have tried numerous things in fdisk all to no avail

 

Here's the details of the machine. 2 x HDD the one containing the OSX installation is disk 1 (/dev/rdisk1)

 

Can anyone help with a correct set of commands or solution (im thinking i may download gparted while im waiting for a response)?

 

thanks in advance

[clearly]

Ok I did this and the was a small glitch and one great big bad one

 

The small (which i fixed)

- above after reformatting the partition you need to reboot before the install will allow you to install the timemachine back up to the newly created partition

 

The big (which i cant fix and probably made worse)

- when you restart you get the usual dual boot screen howver when you choose the mac option (or the vista option) Id get a chain0 error

Knowing this was because the MBR was still looking for 2 partitions which no longer existed I kind of figured out i needed to reset the MBR.

 

Using fdisk I managed to do so. I have also set the single partition (Leopard) on the correct HDD as the act

ve partition (I think) 

 

However

When ever I boot now the pc attempts to boot from DVD (this is usual) but then doesnt boot from hdd.

 

I know this is because the MBR is wrong in some way but can figure out why. I have tried numerous things in fdisk all to no avail

 

Here's the details of the machine. 2 x HDD the one containing the OSX installation is disk 1 (/dev/rdisk1)

 

Can anyone help with a correct set of commands or solution (im thinking i may download gparted while im waiting for a response)?

 

thanks in advance

 

oh frak

 

just played with fdisk and found this out

 

/dev/rdisk0 - which is where my 200 gig music collection is stored (dont ask me why its disk0)

/dev/rdisk1 - leopard install

 

fdisk shows a Darwin boot on disk0 but shows no Darwin boot sector on disk1

 

2 things

1. how do i delete the darwin boot sector on disk 0 (cos it shouldnt be there)

2. how do i create a darwin boot sector on disk 1 where its supposed to be