RobbieTobbie Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 Hello, after trying a lot of different Dual Boot methods mentioned on different websites , I wanted to have one which followed the upcoming rule: OSX should be the standard boot OS, Windows only when selected. Finally I found a solution and it´s so simple that I think many other users before me found it but I just wasn´t able to search for it. So if this is cold coffee to youo, just ignore the thread. But before we start: There is a minor flaw: After installation, Windows is not installed on Drive C: but (in my case) on H:, that seems to depend on what drives (card readers e.g.) you have installed. I personally don´t mind it since it doesn´t effect Windows at all but if someone can come up with a remedy I´m glad to read about it ;-) Ok, let´s go: What you should have: 1) a clean Harddisk 2) Windows XP Install CD 3) OSX Install CD (I used Kalyway 10.5.2) 4) a Geparted disk (just burn the iso you can download on the Geparted-Website) Start: Boot from the XP-CD an create a Partition of your desired size for XP, leave the rest unpartitioned. Then install Windows in this partition. How that works I guess you know. After finishing Windows Installation, boot from the Geparted-Disk and in Geparted create a primary partition of the size you want to dedicate to OSX. You can take any filesystem you like since OSX doesn´t accept this partition to install OSX in anyway, even if you take HFS+... Then in Geparted mark this partition as "boot" - reboot! Now boot from the OSX-DVD and after selecting the desired language go into Disk-Utility. The second primary partition (the one created with geparted) is shown in light grey. Select and erase it so that it´s reformatted with Mac OS Journaled file-system. Now leave the Disk-Utility and install OSX (after selecting the necessary options for your hardware). It´s done! After successful installation of OSX you can reboot and if you do nothing, it starts into OSX, or when prompted at bootloader, you can press a key and start windows. I´m not quite sure if prepping the second primary partition as boot is necessary but in my case it prevented OSX from meddling with the first partition so no "ntldr is missing" or anything pops up. If some steps can be left out, please correct me ;-) Bye RobbieTobbie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eddie Turfboer Posted April 26, 2009 Share Posted April 26, 2009 During the windows installation the drive letters are assigned according to the boot order of the bios. If the windows drive is not the primary boot drive then it ain't going to be the C drive. Changing the drive letter after the fact prooves to be very difficult. Changing bios boot order during the different steps should take care of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobbieTobbie Posted April 26, 2009 Author Share Posted April 26, 2009 Hello, thanks for that tip, I´m going to try that ;-) Bye RobbieTobbie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ninetto Posted April 28, 2009 Share Posted April 28, 2009 Hello, your instructions seem too simple to be true, after I spent all day yesterday with far more complex solutions that led to nowhere. e.g. Macgirl's method (2 hard drives) http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=115636 or another, which seemed very promising from a Chinese site: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...15338&st=20 But I also got the dreaded ndlr/HAL errors when installing XP with that one. My gut feeling is that two things are crucial: the ORDER in which the partitions are made (first XP with or without Disk utility, or is Acronis/Gparted better) and the order in which the OS are installed (first XP or first OSX)... plus WHEN are the partitions marked as active: e.g. after partionioning with Diskutility marking the XP partition as active BEFORE installing XP? or not... ANYWAYS those questions/comments are still not clear for me... although I've tried 3x unsuccessfully to get a retail OSX install to dual boot with XP on ONE hard-drive. I will try your amazingly simple method, but one question: do you boot into XP often, is it really stable? --- well, as stable as Windows can be, anyway... Would be grateful for any further comments/info... ninetto Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LatinMcG Posted April 29, 2009 Share Posted April 29, 2009 Hello, your instructions seem too simple to be true, after I spent all day yesterday with far more complex solutions that led to nowhere. e.g. Macgirl's method (2 hard drives) http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=115636 .. . Would be grateful for any further comments/info... ninetto try with 2 hard disks . i had luck as i posted here http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...t&p=1124273 p.s. to be able to format xp and able to boot it from osx chameleon drive .. after xp installs set the efi (bootmenu partition in MBR XP drive) Active! i set bios to boot from GUID chameleon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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