Question regarding Windows 7/Vanilla Snow Leopard dualboot

[mrinehart93]

Hello

 

First, I must say that I have gotten a successful dual boot working between Windows 7 (64-bit) and OS X Snow Leopard (retail vanilla, uses Chameleon to boot). I achieved this by installing OS X, installing Chameleon 2.0 RC4, installing Windows 7, and then adding an entry for OS X to the Windows bootloader using EasyBCD, all in that order. What would happen is that my computer would turn on, go to the Windows bootloader. From here, I could choose Windows 7 OR Mac OS X. If I chose Windows 7, my computer would boot Windows 7. If I chose Mac OS X, it would take me to the Chameleon bootloader, and from there I could choose to boot Mac OS X OR Windows 7. This type of booting was fine for me, and it all worked. The only problem was that I could not use a Windows 7 activation loader to activate my copy of Windows 7. Now, before everyone goes and accuses me of being a pirate, I am not. I BOUGHT a copy of Windows 7, but since I am constantly upgrading my computer, it is too much of a hassle to have to call Microsoft everytime I upgrade my computer parts (homebuilt PC) to transfer licenses. Using an activation loader is much easier.

 

So, I have been reading up on the whole dualboot thing, and I have discovered that there is a way to set up my hard drive in a GPT/MBR hybrid. Before, I think my hard drive was setup as PURE GPT. I am only suggesting that because I checked in Disk Utility (OS X) and when I highlighted my hard drive, it said Partition table: GUID. From my assumptions, I am taking a guess that if my hard drive were in a GPT/MBR hybrid, then a Windows 7 activation loader would work? Because basically it just puts a new loader in in place of the old Windows 7 bootloader. This also leads me to another thing: I had a 200MB EFI partition as the first partition in my hard drive, and ANY change I made to the Windows 7 bootloader through EasyBCD would not affect the bootloader. So my guess is the EFI partition was controlling my whole booting sequence.

 

So basically, what I would like to do is setup a dualboot with Windows 7 and Mac OS X (Snow Leopard), but still be able to use a Windows 7 activation loader. Keep in mind that I need to use Chameleon to boot Snow Leopard, because I have to put some kext's into the "Extra" folder that Chameleon creates. If anyone is wondering, this is the guide I used to install Snow Leopard: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=205045

 

Thank you SO much in advance for any help that can be offered to me.

 

-Mike

[mrinehart93]

To everyone who reads this: I figured out a way to get this to work (in other words, no help is needed here anymore).

 

What you need to do (if you originally had your dualboot setup like mine) is this:

 

0. Do NOT remove the old OS X partition... you NEED to keep it for this work.

1. Boot up the Windows 7 Install DVD

2. Delete the 200MB EFI partition.

3. Format your old Windows 7 partition, and then reinstall Windows 7 there.

4. Boot up into Windows 7 after the install is done.

5. Open up EasyBCD.

6. Click Add/Remove Entries, then click the Mac tab.

7. Click Type, and set it to Generic x86 PC, then click Add Entry.

8. EasyBCD will make the changes, and then you need to reboot.

 

When you reboot, OS X will be added to the Windows 7 bootloader. From here, boot OS X. You will be brought to the Chameleon bootloader. Now just boot OS X from there. Also, if you boot into Windows, you will see that your activation loader is still working. I really can't believe the fix was this easy