Chain0 boothing error due to partition order?

[kassette]

I currently have OSX 10.4.5 fully up and runnung great on my PC, although getting it to boot is a real issue.

 

Firstly my system is;

HP t680a

CPU:Intel Pentium 4 @ 3.0ghz with HT(SSE, SSE2)

CHIPSET: Intel 848P

OS: Mac OS X 10.4.5 [Myzar Install] | Windows XP sp/2 |

HDD:160 GB - hda1/HP Recovery Partition, hda2/Windows XP, hda3/Mac OSX

GPU:128mb nVidia GeForce FX5200XT running @ 1280x1024x32 @ 60Hz

RAM: 512MB 400DDR SDRAM

 

I can only get into OSX by using a boot cd to make the OSX partition active. When I boot up though I get "Missing Operating System, Press a key", when a key is pressed I get something like "select correct bootable drive or insert bootable media"

 

If I then put my OSX install dvd in the drive, (or if i reboot with the dvd in the drive) it will then take me to the Darwin bootloader which only shows the option to run the installation. Although I found out of pure luck by letting the count down timer finish on its own the system boots into OSX! If i press f8 to be able to enter startup options it takes me to the boot prompt as normal, then allowing me to put in boot options (although I must then also specify the partition by entering for example "-v mach_kernal rd=disk0s3" to get me into OSX.

 

I guess first of all my problem is that I would have thought that by having the OSX partition set to active that when I boot up the pc would take me to the Darwin bootloader without the need for me using the DVD. Anybody able to shed some light on this one?

 

Second of all, I have also installed the Chain0 method for Dual booting (obviously ridding me of the need to manually change the OSX partition to active) although when I select Mac OSX from the NT bootloader I get the "Chain Booting Error". After checking out the Wiki it would seem to me that my problem is because I have my partitions around in the wrong order. Due to HP automatically setting up a recovery partition my table is;

 

HDD:160 GB - hda1/HP Recovery Partition, hda2/Windows XP, hda3/Mac OSX

 

From what the Wiki says I need to have Windows XP on hda1 | Mac OSx86 on hda2 (i'm guessing that chain0 automatically points to hda2)

 

Does anyone know if there is anyway around this?

 

Thanks very much in advance, and apologies if any of this info is already around, i've been searchig for days and haven't found anything which can help!

[eric.c.mi]

I have XP installed on my Primary Master drive with the Boot0. OSX is installed on the Secondary Slave drive. Both are primary partitions. It works like a champ with the NT boot loader.

[kassette]

**bump**

 

ANyone else have a clue on how I can boot without the DVD and manually swapping my active partitions??

 

[Namp]

Hi!

I have the same problem.

Do you have a solution now? Or does anyone else have a solution?

[kassette]

I still don't have a solution for this, is there anyone out there that can help?? Please!!!

[Rammjet]

Try this. Boot your install DVD to the installer. Go to Utilities menu and select Terminal. Type:

(the following will display all of your disks and partitions)
diskutil list

(in the list, find your hard drive with OSX to get its number, it should be disk0, disk1, disk2, etc)

(the following might rebuild your MBR to help you boot)
fdisk -u /dev/rdisk0   <--- use the "rdisk" and replace "0" with the number of your OSX disk

(the following will be sure your OSX partition is active)
fdisk -e /dev/rdisk0   <--- replace "rdisk0" with correct value, same as above
p					  <--- lists all of your partitions

(look for number of your OSX partition - 1, 2, 3, 4, etc)

f 3					<--- replace "3" with your partition number from above, sets this partition active
write				  <--- saves change
y					  <--- you are sure
exit

(the following edits boot.plist to make sure the boot menu can be displayed)
nano "/Volumes/(name-of-your-OSX-partition)/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist"

(add the following 2 lines right below the similar lines in the file)
<key>Timeout,/key>
<string>8</string>

(Press Ctrl-O to save the file)
(Press Enter to accept file name)
(Press Ctrl-X to quit nano)

Quit Terminal

Remove DVD and reboot.

[gotoh]

you may also want to have a valid MBR on your disk, booting with win98 boot disk and having only your OSX HD connected, just type fdisk /mbr

you can then run fdisk to activate your OS X partition.

then you shutdown and reconnect all your other HDs, if your OS X disk is the first master HD, your PC should boot on OS X by default...

[Rammjet]

you may also want to have a valid MBR on your disk, booting with win98 boot disk and having only your OSX HD connected, just type fdisk /mbr

In OSX, "fdisk -u" is fixing the MBR:

 

From manpage for Fdisk:

 

-u	  Update MBR code, preserving existing partition table

[kassette]

Thanks for replying, will try it now and let you know how it goes!

[kassette]

I've followed all your instructions to a tea, and when I reboot without the DVD in the drive, the system just hangs with a blank screen and a little blinking underscore in the corner (HELP!!??)

 

I can Ge into ISX by putting the dvd back in and restarting, otherwise I have to manually set my windows partition back to active using Boot Tools.

 

Where can I go from here?

 

Cheers!

[intrax]

I have same problem after install 10.4.8 on a HFS partition where before was 10.4.6. The chain0 bootmethod should work though, because it is just looking at any HFS partition it can find. The problem is that the partition should hold the Darwin bootloader code, which it doesn't because of a glitch in osx disk util.... I think you can solve this by backing up your partition first ! than go into windows and format FAT32.... than change partition type back to AF and go into osx again and use disk util to erase partition using HFS+ journalled extended filesystem... than restore your backup data....