Dual Boot Windows 7 and MacOS X 10.6

[Sotirios Papakonstantinou]

After looking around this forum, I downloaded Hazzard's version and decided to give it a try. I have an Acer Aspire One netbook which initially had Linux installed. I didn't like Linux, so I wiped the disk and installed Windows XP. Months later, Windows XP were full of bugs (spyware?), so I backed up my files and installed Windows 7 to see if a netbook really benefits from their advanced resource management.

 

First I tried to shrink the Windows 7 partition in order to install MacOS, but it would not boot (MBR) and I didn't had access to Windows 7 either. (How is this possible, to keep Windows and install MacOS?) I tried repairing Windows with installation DVD without success. So I decided to do it "properly". I loaded the Hazard's DVD and within Disk Utility I divided the disk in two partitions (GUID), one FAT for Windows and the other MacOS Extended Journaled. I then proceeded to install Snow Leopard in the second partition. After "successful installation" it wouldn't boot, but I thought I would fix that within Windows 7 later. So I reboot with Windows 7 DVD and install Windows 7 (after reformatting to NTFS) to the first partition. I use EasyBCD to define the MacOS entry, and I get the "Chain booting fail" error when I select the MacOS.

 

Current status: Disk is divided in two partitions, NTFS and MacOS Extended Journaled (and some more that MacOS created). If I select Windows 7 from Windows bootloader, I can boot into Windows 7 successfully. If I select the MacOS I get the "Chain booting fail" error message.

 

So please any solution has to be as detailed as possible and preferably within Windows, as I cannot do anything in MacOS, unless I use the Hazard's DVD, but again I know nothing! Details please!. I have also downloaded Chameleon, how do I use that? Where I should extract the files (within Windows). Another strange thing is that MacDrive won't see the MacOS partition, but it can access the Hazard DVD!

 

Any help appreciated. Since I don't check the forum too often, please reply in my e-mail: spapakons@yahoo.gr

 

Thank you.

[oldnapalm]

Here is a very detailed guide to installing Chameleon

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=209712

 

If you can't boot into your installed Mac OS using Hazard's DVD, use Empire EFI.

[Sotirios Papakonstantinou]

Here is a very detailed guide to installing Chameleon

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=209712

 

If you can't boot into your installed Mac OS using Hazard's DVD, use Empire EFI.

 

 

Well, thank you about the quick reply, but the author says that the guide is intended for single OS installtion, not dual boot and the method will replace the boot loader. This means I won't be able to boot into Windows, and if it fails I won't be able to boot into MacOS either, so I would rather try something else... Thank you anyway. Also don't forget I don't have a working MacOS, everything must be done from Hazzard's DVD. How do I change the path to see into hard disk instead the DVD when in terminal? I know nothing about MacOS or Unix in general.

 

I used EasyBCD and removed all useless entries (did many trials yesterday), I created a single MacOS entry. This doesn't work, so I tried the following commands (in Windows terminal) :

 

bcdedit /enum active (this shows the entries and their ID)

 

bcdedit /set {GUID} path \CHAIN0

 

where {GUID} is the ID of the MacOS partition, copied and pasted from above, and CHAIN0 is the file copied from Hazzard's DVD into C: This method used to work with Leopard 10.5.x, but in 10.6 it gives the annoying "Chain booting error" message.

 

I also tried to extract PC EFI as boot.efi (I couldn't extract as boot since there is a system folder with the same name) and use that command

 

bcdedit /set {GUID} path \boot.efi

 

This assumes is a Windows boot file and gives an error that I should repair Windows using the DVD.

 

Any more help? Thanks.

[oldnapalm]

Well, thank you about the quick reply, but the author says that the guide is intended for single OS installtion, not dual boot and the method will replace the boot loader. This means I won't be able to boot into Windows, and if it fails I won't be able to boot into MacOS either, so I would rather try something else... Thank you anyway.

Yes, I read that the guide is intended for single OS installtion, but check my reply in that topic, doing that way it shouldn't mess with Windows boot. Anyway, if something goes wrong, you can easily fix the Windows boot using its installation DVD.

 

Also don't forget I don't have a working MacOS, everything must be done from Hazzard's DVD. How do I change the path to see into hard disk instead the DVD when in terminal? I know nothing about MacOS or Unix in general.

That should be done from your installed Mac OS, not from installation DVD. You can use Empire EFI (boot CD) to boot into your installed Mac OS.

 

Sorry, I know nothing about EasyBCD, maybe someone else can help you.

[tamorgen]

Yes, I read that the guide is intended for single OS installtion, but check my reply in that topic, doing that way it shouldn't mess with Windows boot. Anyway, if something goes wrong, you can easily fix the Windows boot using its installation DVD.

 

 

That should be done from your installed Mac OS, not from installation DVD. You can use Empire EFI (boot CD) to boot into your installed Mac OS.

 

Sorry, I know nothing about EasyBCD, maybe someone else can help you.

 

Try using this walkthrough. It's the only one I found that works correctly and allows me to use Chameleon as my sole bootloader. You can use any Boot-132 method to do the actual Mac OS X install, but that walkthrough will give you a general walkthrough of the order you need to complete the installation.

 

Good luck!

[Sotirios Papakonstantinou]

Well I have tried installing and formatting many times, once more won't hurt. I will try the guide tomorrow. The problem is (don't know if I'm doing something wrong), that installation does complete successfully, but MacOS wont boot after restart. If I boot using the DVD and press F8 for advanced options, I can only select the DVD, the MacOS installation is not available in the list! Isn't the MacOS partition set active automatically during installation? If not, how can I do it? I didn't see such an option in Disk Utility. Another weird thing is that MacDrive won't see the Mac partition, but it will see the installation DVD, how is this possible? (MacDrive is a Windows utility to fully access Mac media). MacDrive worked OK a couple of years back when I was trying Leopard (10.5) and I had full access to the Mac partition. But then the scheme was MBR, not GUID. Maybe that's the problem. Why can't Snow Leopard work in MBR? That would be perfect for backwards compatibility (eg Windows XP)

 

In case Hazzard's version is not fully compatible with my netbook (in my desktop it stucks in the gray screen with the Apple logo, so I cannot test it in another computer), I will also try Universal version, as soon as it will finish download.

 

Thank you anyway.

 

PS: Too much trouble just to see Snow Leopard and learn some stuff about Mac computers. And then they wonder why most people are stuck with Windows and hate other OSes (call me Linux)... People like plug 'n' play, not hacking half the time just to do a simple thing (which in Windows is just a few clicks away).

[Sotirios Papakonstantinou]

Update:

 

First of all, sorry if I was a bit agressive in my previous post, but like many others hate it when I get stuck in simple things just because I am not familiar with them.

 

I finally managed to install Snow Leopard in my Acer Aspire One A150. I booted with Kalyway's Leopard 10.5.2, then only one that seemed to work in my netbook. I had also downloaded the JaS 10.5.8 version (I planned to install Leopard if I couldn't install Snow Leopard), but it failed to boot. I let the DVD complete loading and go to the Installation utility. Since all the guides were requiring using a Mac, I decided to install Leopard 10.5.2 first and then attempt to install Snow Leopard following the guide here: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=185194

 

Unfortunatelly, due to different BIOS version, just following the guide didn't work, so I had to create my own DSDT.aml file and use carefully selected kexts from http://www.kexts.com (for Snow Leopard compatibility), allong with those provided with the guide.

 

So I loaded Kalyway 10.5.2 DVD and then I went to Disk Utility. I created three partitions in the GUID scheme, one for Leopard, one for Snow Leopard and the third for Windows 7. I then proceeded to install Leopard 10.5.2 in the first partition. Kalyway has done a perfect job, I just installed and I was able to boot directly in Leopard 10.5.2 without any hacking!

 

After the initial setup, I copied all the necessary files to the desktop for easy access, including the latests Chameleon and DSDTSE. So I started the Terminal and followed the Guide carefully. At the commands where I would install an old version of PC EFI, I modified the paths to install latest Chameleon instead. When I got to the line copying the prepatched DSDT.aml, I run DSDTSE and created my own fresh DSDT.aml and installed that instead. I then copied all the kexts, including some new ones I had downloaded from http://www.kexts.com and also the modified mach_kernel for Atom processors. I then followed the guide as it was to cache the kexts etc. After rebooting I waited some time, but I could see the initial setup of Snow Leopard without any errors or panics! Done!

 

I then installed Windows 7 to the other partition and I have access to Windows 7 but not Snow Leopard. Thanks God I had prepared a Flash drive so I can boot in Snow Leopard. I will try to make it dual boot with Chameleon following some guides in your forum, hopefully without having to reinstall anything....

 

Thank you all for your support.

 

PS: The installation I used for Snow Leopard was a dmg of the official release, since Hazard's version didn't seem to work. Now I have the usual issues, no wireless, no audio (even that I can adjust the volume!), but hopefully I will solve them some time later...

[Sotirios Papakonstantinou]

I finally did it! I managed to install Snow Leopard successfully in my Acer Aspire One A150, install Windows 7 Ultimate on another partition and dual boot them.

 

How I did it: I first used Kalyway 10.5.2 in order to have a working Hachintosh where I could follow the guide (see previous posts or search the forum for "Aspice One 10.6"). I booted using an external USB drive and the Kayway CD-ROM. The hard disk was already a mess after many trials and errors, so I decided to wipe it and start from scratch. I have previously prepared a USB Flash drive with the official Snow Leopard 10.6 retail DVD and made it bootable with Chameleon. But when trying to install Snow Leopard from there it get stuck in the process since USB connectivity is lost (probably at some stage of device detection) and it cannot go through the whole installation. So I needed a temporary partition to restore the Snow Leopard installation DVD. I also needed a temporary partition to install Leopard 10.5.2. (or whichever that works) in order to use the Terminal later.

 

So, before installing Leopard 10.5.2, we launch the Disk Utility and repartition the disk in GUID mode (works with Vista and 7) in four partitions. The first will be formated to MacOS Extended Journaled where later we will install Snow Leopard 10.6 The second will be formated to FAT32 where later will install Windows 7. The other two will be formated to MacOS Extended Journaled for Leopard and Snow Leopard Installation respectively. You will see later why I chose that order. You adjust the size of the Snow Leopard (first partition) to the final size, as it is very difficult to change it later! You also make the Snow Leopard installation (last partition) just over 8GB, you make the Leopard partition about 20GB and leave the rest for Windows. Later, when everything is OK we will remove the last two partitions (from Snow Leopard to make sure there are no issues) and expand the Windows partition (from Windows 7) to take all the free space. If you would rather expand Snow Leopard later, change the order to Windows, Snow Leopard, Leopard ans SL installation, so when you remove the last two you (hopefully) can expand Snow Leopard to take all the free space.

 

After having made our partitioning, we proceed to install Leopard 10.5.2 to the third partition. For me only the Kalyway 10.5.1 or 10.5.2 seemed to work, other versions didn't even boot, so I chose 10.5.2 to begin with. After installation, you boot right away to Leopard 10.5.2 without any hacking (bravo Kalyway!) and you see the initial account setup etc. Do that and wait to see the desktop. Then use the Snow Leopard Installation dmg to restore to the SL Installation partition. It may take some long time, be patient. Note: every USB Flash or whatever device must be already plugged before you switch on the computer as it may not be discovered on the fly. If you need to plug your thumb drive, switch it off completely, plug it and then switch it back on. It is the only way Leopard can use it, but we don't care as we will later remove it and keep only Snow Leopard. Also if it happens that the touchpad or the keyboard is not working, plug USB ones (again with shutdown) and after booting to Leopard try the FN+F7 (touchpad activation/deactivation) Chances are that it will work and you may then remove the USB ones. If you are asked to press a specific key to recognise the USB keyboard do it, and set it to ANSI 101 keys. The netbook's keyboard and touchpad will come back to life!

 

Follow the guide to install the boot loader and cache the kexts to a thumb drive, just in case something goes wrong later in Snow Leopard (it will if you do all the updates!), so you can boot back and fix it. Before you begin installing Snow Leopard, make sure you have all the files you will need extracted to the desktop for convenience. For an Aspire One A150 you will need the aa1.zip (see the Guide), the essential Snow Leopard kexts from http://ww.kexts.com, the modified mach_kernel file for Intel Atom processors, DSDTSE in order to make your own DSDT.aml file, and aboutthismac.pkg to fix the About This Mac "uknown CPU" error.

 

Now go to terminal and type

 

sudo -s (enter your password)

 

cd /Volumes/SLInstallation/ .....

 

open OSInstall.mpkg

 

(SLInstallation is what you called the Snow Leopard Installation partition, use quotes, " ", if there are any spaces, the rest is the path to the installation files (se the Guide, I don't recall it right now).

 

This will start the Snow Leopard installation. If using the official (vanilla) one it will "fail" since it cannot transfer the boot data to the hard disk. Just ignore it. Don't reboot yet!

 

Follow the guide to install the PC EFI bootloader to the EFI partition. At the point where you copy the DSDT.aml file, skip it and run DSDTSE instead to create, compile and install you own DSDT.aml file since a different BIOS version leads to booting problems. Also make sure you have downloaded the patched mach_kernel file for Intel Atom CPUs, or Snow Leopard will never boot! Copy that file to the root of the Snow Leopard partition. Remember that command, you will repeat it later if you do all the updates! Assume you have mach_kernel extracted to the desktop and SL is your Snow Leopard partition. The command is:

 

cp ~/Desktop/mach_kernel /Volumes/SL

 

Also run the command copying the kexts again and modify the path to add any extra kexts you might have downloaded and extracted to a different folder.

 

The PC EFI boot loader provided with the Guide is old and incompatible with Snow Leopard (at least in my case), extract latest Chameleon and run it to replace the boot loader.

 

After that follow the Guide to complete the kext caching etc. and issue the reboot command at the end. It will shutdown much faster that selecting Restart.

 

Cross your fingers and allow Chameleon to boot in Snow Leopard (as it is the first partition is the default). It will take some time, be patient. Complete the initial account setup and see the Snow Leopard desktop! After you had your fun, it is time for the upgrades. With the default drivers the LAN card worked once and didn't twice, so you download the respective driver directly from Realtek's site (www.realtek.com) and install it. Then it will always work and you won't have to shutdown your netbook in order to plug the ethernet cable! Go to the Apple Update (from the menu) and select them all except the firmware which could damage your wireless card! Yes, select them all, including 10.6.2 upgrade! After installation Snow Leopard will just reboot, but that's why we have Leopard to fix such issues. Boot to Leopard (press any key in Chameleon to see all options). Go to the terminal and type:

 

sudo -s (enter your password)

 

cp ~/Desktop/mach_kernel /Volumes/SL (or whatever is the correct paths for you)

 

reboot

 

Bingo! Snow Leopard boots normally and in About this Mac you can see version 10.6.2! Run the Apple update again. There are more updates. Again don't forget to uncheck the firmware. Make sure you can boot in Snow Leopard normally after installation of the updates, otherwise fix it as before with Leopard. To fix the unknown CPU in About Mac, run the aboutthismac utility (search this forum). Pity Microsoft's Silverlight doesn't detect the CPU properly and it won't install, even if the correct CPU is shown in About this Mac. To make the audio work, use the new VoodooHDA.kext Extract it to your desktop and issue this command in Terminal:

 

sudo cp ~/Desktop/VoodooHDA.kext /Volumes/SL/System/Library/Extensions

 

(replace SL with the name of your Snow Leopard partition)

 

Reboot to make it work. For the Atheros AR5001 wireless card, I used the AR5001X.kext (search forum). Now the card is detected, but I cannot switch it on to discover any networks. I'll find the solution some time...

 

 

If everything is OK, we can proceed to install Windows 7 to the FAT32 partition!

 

Boot with the Windows 7 installation DVD-ROM and select the WINDOWS partition (or whatever you named it). It will complain that it cannot install Windows there because it is FAT32. No problem, just format it to become NTFS and try again. Windows 7 install normally now!

 

After Windows installation, we much dual boot it. We can either use EasyBCD to create a Mac entry and then correct it to work (the default setting doesn't work), or we can use your thumb drive to boot in Snow Leopard or Leopard and make the Snow Leopard partition active. This way we use Chameleon to boot into Windows or Mac with Snow Leopard default. If you rather use Windows boot loader, create a new entry with EasyBCD and change the names to your preference, eg Windows 7 and Snow Leopard. The entry cannot be used to boot in Snow Leopard directly, so we go to command prompt to fix it. With the guide you downloaded an aa1.zip file. Locate the chain0 file in the pc_efi folder and copy it to C:\ (the root of Windows partition). Press Window+R to see the Run prompt, type cmd and press enter to start the command prompt. Type these commands:

 

bcdedit /enum active

 

bcdedit /set {paste-code-here} path \chain0

 

exit

 

The first command lists the entries. Locate the Snow Leopard entry and copy (right click and select mark) the partition ID inculded in brackets {}. Mark it with mouse and press Enter to copy it.

 

type the second command and right click, select paste at the place of {paste-code-here} then continue to type path \chain0 and press Enter to execute it. This tells the boot loader that the correct path is C:\chain0 for Snow Leopard. Reboot and try to load Snow Leopard. If successful you should see Chameleon and after a few seconds you should boot to Snow Leopard! Congratulations!

 

Now to get rid of Leopard and the SL Installation partition. Within Snow Leopard, load Disk Utility and select each of the two partitions and press Del to delete it. Leave the emtpy space as it is and reboot to Windows 7. Press the Window key and right click on My Computer, then select Manage. From Computer Manager select Disk Management. Click on the Windows partition and right click, select extend (expand?) Leave the number as it is so it will take up all the free space. That's it! Now you have only two partitions, Snow Leopard and Windows 7 and no useless free space. Snow Leopard's Disk Utility will show that the Windows partition has the new size and also there is a free space the size it was, but we shouldn't care. (Probably can be fixed with Repair, but I wouldn't dare messing everything and loosing Windows access!)

 

Thank you for your patience to read all this, I hope it can help you to dual boot Snow Leopard and Windows 7 to your computer.

 

Snow Leopard compatibility:

 

If you are curious, and haven't installed Snow Leopard yet, in my Acer Aspire One A150, graphics work with the default kexts (installed from aa1.zip) but don't expect 1024x600 or any acceleration. You are stuck in 800x600. Ethernet works with default kexts, but you have to shutdown the netbook before connecting the ethernet cable as it is not detected automatically. After installing the official driver from Realtek, it works perfectly, like in Windows! Audio worked (finally!) after installing the new VoodooHDA.kext including Mic etc, although the sound is rather low even after turning the volume all the way up. You can also control it from the keyboard shortcuts, using the FN key! The camera works with the default kexts, as I could set my image at account registration. Touchpad and keyboard might seem stuck the first time, but if you do the trick above they work OK. I haven't tested the card reader yet, as I don't have an SD card. Wireless card is detected after installing the AR5001X.kext but cannot turn on (why?). And most important, any USB device is detected on the fly, no need to reboot as in Leopard 10.5.2.

[kali69]

Hello everyone. Thank you in advance for your attention and time.

Excuse my English is not the best.

I installed on an MSI Wind U100, 3 operating systems (Windows 7, Ubuntu 9.10 and OSX Snow Leopard). I used a dvd for osx snowy wind. Everything went fine, the boot loader osx sees all operating systems and makes them start properly, except that on Windows 7 and Ubuntu 9.10, the touch pad does not work even if it's installed correctly. OSX, everything is recognized and functioning.

Has anyone any ideas?

Thanks again for your time.

[Sotirios Papakonstantinou]

There are two cases for non-working touchpad in a notebook:

 

Case a: Touchpad is disabled. Try enabling it using the FN+Fx (the function key with the hand on touchpad icon, in my case F7) or the special button above the touchpad, or (in some models) within BIOS.

 

Case b: Wrong drivers are installed. I am not familiar with Linux, but windows don't need any drivers. Uninstall any mouse or touchpad driver and restart. If it works, leave it as it is, unless there are some special features (eg zoom) that require installing manufacturer's drivers. Scrolling works with the default drivers. If you must install drivers, make sure they are compatible with your specific touchpad model. I have seen that when installing Windows XP in some notebooks that they come with Vista preinstalled and they do not officially support XP and I have to install another model's touchpad driver. If the driver is incompatible, the touchpad stops working after restart and I have to navigate using the keyboard to Control Panel and uninstall the driver to make it work again.

 

I hope that helped.

[david_ag]

The best advice I can give you, is to use this guide:

 

http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/2009/11/dua...-os-x-snow.html

 

You don't need a working OSX isntall, you can partition the drive from within the Retail OSX DVD right before it starts installing. You will notice that in STEP 1, #10 and #11 you would need a working install of OSX, but I didn't have one (so I skipped these steps) and everything works GREAT.

[Sotirios Papakonstantinou]

The best advice I can give you, is to use this guide:

 

http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/2009/11/dua...-os-x-snow.html

 

You don't need a working OSX isntall, you can partition the drive from within the Retail OSX DVD right before it starts installing. You will notice that in STEP 1, #10 and #11 you would need a working install of OSX, but I didn't have one (so I skipped these steps) and everything works GREAT.

 

 

Thank you a lot, but I have already succeeded to install Snow Leopard on one partition, Windows 7 on the other and dual boot them using the Windows boot loader (see previous post on this topic). In theory, I could boot to Snow Leopard installation using the USB Flash drive where I had restored the SL installation from the official (vanilla) dmg and made it bootable with Chameleon. Then install Snow Leopard and patch it using the Terminal. But the setup never starts as (I suspect) looks for devices and loses connectivity with the flash drive. It is like unpluging it and pluging it again, but then it's not detected! Maybe there is no such issue in another PC, but it is in my netbook, and the only solution is to extract the dmg to a local partition, not USB. What I did was make 4 partitions, install Leopard 10.5.2 temporarily in one of them, so I could use the terminal, extract the dmg in another, then install Snow Leopard in the third, and make it compatible using the terminal from Leopard. After I could successfully boot in Snow Leopard, I did all the upgrades and it was unable to boot (kept restarting). I booted once more in Leopard, replaced the updated mach_kernel with the patched one for Intel Atom CPUs, and Snow Leopard works fine! After that I installed Windows on the remaining partition (the actual order was SL, Windows, Leo and SL Installer). When I made sure Windows are OK, I booted in SL, deleted the Leo and SL Installer partitions to create an empty space. Then I booted in Windows and expanded them to take all the emtpy space, and now I have only SL and Windows 7 and I choose at startup using Windows boot loader. By trying various kexts and drivers, I managed to make everything work in SL, except the Card Reader (it sees the card only if you insert it before booting, not on the fly) and the Atheros 5001 Wi Fi card (at some point it could detect the card but not switch on the Airport, now it doesn't even detect it!). If anobody can make it work, I'll appreciate it since it is inconvenient to use the ethernet cable all the time. The author of the guide suggested to place the appropriate device ID in a specific plist file. Can anybody give an example? I tried it, but probably the syntax is incorrect and it didn't make any difference.

 

Thank you again.