Can you have OSX and Vista on same HD?

[thencametokill]

I'm using iAtkos 10.5.7 and i've tried many different approaches but I can't seem to get both osx and vista on the same hard drive. I've tried having vista installed, and then installing osx to a totally different partition. The osx will load and run perfectly but whenever i get to the bootloader screen and try to boot up vista it won't let me in, but simply restarts the comp. Its weird because I can access my vista C: drive partition from osx and i can backup certain important data, but i just cant boot into vista itself.

 

I also tried reformatting the disk, installing osx first (and it would still work perfectly), and then reinstalling vista second on a separate partition. Once vista installs though, i don't get the bootloader any more, and i can only get into vista.

 

Can anyone help with this? I thought as long as they were both on separate primary partitions that they shouldn't affect each other but that doesn't seem the case. Help anyone?

 

Thanks beforehand

[vilpostus]

Windows must be on the first primary partition of a disk. Windows use MBR to boot itself. OS X doesn't directly use MBR. It has a different booting process.

 

Long story short you need a boot loader program such as EasyBootCD, Grub, Chameleon or any other to chose what os to boot. Other approach is to modify Vista bootloader to boot OS X.

 

http://dailyapps.net/2008/03/hack-attack-d...-windows-vista/

http://www.taranfx.com/blog/install-mac-os...n-9-easy-steps/

[srs5694]

Windows must be on the first primary partition of a disk.

 

This is untrue. I've got a system with DOS on the first primary partition and Windows XP on the second primary partition. Both OSes boot fine. Through the years I've had other systems with other configurations in which Windows is not on the first primary partition. I've even heard of recent versions of Windows booting from logical partitions, although the Windows installer won't install directly to such configurations. (It's necessary to jump through some hoops to get this to work, and I've never tried it myself so I can't be more precise.)

 

That said, I've always used non-Microsoft boot loaders. I don't know offhand if the boot loader that Microsoft provides could boot Windows from anything but the first primary partition.

 

Windows use MBR to boot itself. OS X doesn't directly use MBR. It has a different booting process.

 

All BIOS-based computers use an MBR-based boot loader, a floppy-based boot loader, or a CD/DVD-based boot loader. Booting a BIOS-based computer simply is not possible otherwise, no matter what OS you're running -- DOS, Windows, Linux, Mac OS, BeOS, or whatever. This is because the BIOS takes control of the computer when you turn it on, and the BIOS only knows how to look in a few places for post-BIOS boot code.

 

That said, real Intel-based Macs use the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) rather than a BIOS. In order to get OS X booting on commodity hardware, your boot loader must emulate enough of EFI to make OS X happy. I don't claim to fully understand every detail of this, but the bottom line is that you need an MBR-based boot loader that sets up at least a partial EFI environment. This MBR-based boot loader, though, will actually be spread across multiple locations; the MBR portion just gets it started. Parts of the boot loader stored in the OS X partition's boot sector, in files on the OS X partition, or elsewhere will actually do much of the work. This process is conceptually similar to the process of using any other boot loader (even the standard Windows boot loader); it's just that the boot loader must fake an EFI environment to make OS X happy.

[thencametokill]

Right now I've installed OS X Leopard exclusively on this HD, but if I were to simply install a second HD and install Windows on that do you think I'd be able to boot up either one without problems? I'm using the Chameleon v.2 bootloader right now. Thanks

[DodongoXP]

i have managed to get dual booting of windows vista / leopard (iatkos v7) in the same hard drive just diferent partitions on my asus laptop

 

i have 2 ntfs and 2 hfs partition on my hard drive set as MBR

 

this is what i do,

 

first install windows vista, be sure to split the disk with the windows partition manager which comes with the dvd when you install windows, only format the partition you will use for windows, once you successfully installed windows, install leopard ( i use iatkos v7 with chameleon 2 )

 

then check that leopard runs successfully

 

windows will no longer boot, for that i use the parted magic live cd which is some kind of tiny linux with partition tools

 

i use the partition manager in there an select the windows partition and change its flag as boot or something like that

 

then i boot with the windows vista dvd, then choose repair, choose your partition and repair the startup.. once repaired,

 

boot from parted magic live cd once again, and reset the boot flag to the hfs partition where leopard and chameleon are installed, reboot your pc and voila.. chameleon starts as default and lets you choose vista or leopard.. both running without problems in the same hard drive

 

Cheers!