danielkza Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 Currently, I have Snow Leopard installed in a separate, GPT-partitioned hard drive. I want to move my installation to another drive, which must use MBR so I can boot Windows from it as well. Has anyone successfully restored an OS X installation to another drive using e.g Disk Utility? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldnapalm Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 Yes, you can restore using DU, no problem if source is GPT and destination is MBR. You will just have to install Chameleon to the new partition. If you have Windows Vista or 7, use fdisk included in Chameleon's binary package when writing boot0 to MBR. Default fdisk writes 512 bytes to MBR and breaks Windows boot. You can use this installer http://www.mediafire.com/?in0nzna4xej Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielkza Posted July 11, 2010 Author Share Posted July 11, 2010 Yes, you can restore using DU, no problem if source is GPT and destination is MBR. You will just have to install Chameleon to the new partition. If you have Windows Vista or 7, use fdisk included in Chameleon's binary package when writing boot0 to MBR. Default fdisk writes 512 bytes to MBR and breaks Windows boot. You can use this installer http://www.mediafire.com/?in0nzna4xej Great to know, thanks for the quick response. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crashnburn_in Posted July 24, 2010 Share Posted July 24, 2010 Yes, you can restore using DU, no problem if source is GPT and destination is MBR. You will just have to install Chameleon to the new partition. If you have Windows Vista or 7, use fdisk included in Chameleon's binary package when writing boot0 to MBR. Default fdisk writes 512 bytes to MBR and breaks Windows boot. You can use this installer http://www.mediafire.com/?in0nzna4xej Old Napalm.. Thanks for your insights. I have a situation. Notebook HDD - 100 GB [Win XP][service Partition] (I am guessing this is MBR) New HDD - 320 GB I plan to move / clone this Win XP Partition to the new HDD and extend it for more space. Pretty soon... I want to put Win 7 & Mac OSX on this 320 GB HDD... while keeping the Win XP Partition Alive. As and when I feel Win 7 is more ME ... I might make that the PRIMARY OS. I've been reading in general that GPT/GUID is more advanced than MBR.. in terms of future capabilities but older OSes such as Win XP 32 bit have issues running / becoming aware of it. QUESTION IS.. Can I partition the new HDD as GPT/GUID and still CLONE Win XP on it.. and make it WORK.. UNTIL I dont need Win XP anymore.. Is there some kind of backward compatability / awareness of this.. such that it would IGNORE the GPT/GUID stuff... I heard/ read there is some LEGACY support for that? OR Do I just go with MBR for now... ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldnapalm Posted July 24, 2010 Share Posted July 24, 2010 You can partition the HD as GPT using DU, and make FAT partitions to install Windows 7 and XP (format as NTFS in Windows install). This will make an "hybrid MBR" scheme, it's not the most recommended setup, but you shouldn't have problems if you always use DU to make changes in the partitions. AFAIK Windows XP doesn't work in GPT. Windows 7 does, but it's not a trivial procedure to install, I never did it (actually I still use MBR). More info here http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/hybrid.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielkza Posted July 25, 2010 Author Share Posted July 25, 2010 You can partition the HD as GPT using DU, and make FAT partitions to install Windows 7 and XP (format as NTFS in Windows install). This will make an "hybrid MBR" scheme, it's not the most recommended setup, but you shouldn't have problems if you always use DU to make changes in the partitions. AFAIK Windows XP doesn't work in GPT. Windows 7 does, but it's not a trivial procedure to install, I never did it (actually I still use MBR). More info here http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/hybrid.html From what I understood from this article and other Microsoft documentation, Windows Vista and 7 can boot from GPT partitions only on EFI systems. This leaves us with two alternatives, hybrid GPT/MBR or MBR-only. I don't see many benefits in the former: you get a slew of new problems for no gain, considering there are no disks large enough to dual-boot two 2TB partitions as of now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldnapalm Posted July 25, 2010 Share Posted July 25, 2010 It may be easier using hybrid in some cases, if you are using a boot CD and a retail 10.6 DVD (it doesn't install to MBR partition, you have to modify the DVD). But if you can use MBR (have a running Mac OS), go with MBR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielkza Posted July 25, 2010 Author Share Posted July 25, 2010 It may be easier using hybrid in some cases, if you are using a boot CD and a retail 10.6 DVD (it doesn't install to MBR partition, you have to modify the DVD). But if you can use MBR (have a running Mac OS), go with MBR. What I did the last time I needed to install without OS X running already was boot into the installation DVD, make it restore itself to a flash drive, and use MacDrive on Windows to replace OSInstall.mpkg for the modded one. Worked better than I expected. Even that would not unnecessary if union-mounting DMGs in the installation environment didn't cause a panic... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldnapalm Posted July 25, 2010 Share Posted July 25, 2010 That was a good method, but you have to agree that hybrid MBR is easier. I'm unsure about the problems, but mentioned Rod Smith's article because most people use hybrid MBR believing it's pure GPT. Are you interested in writing a simple guide about that in the portuguese forum? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielkza Posted July 25, 2010 Author Share Posted July 25, 2010 That was a good method, but you have to agree that hybrid MBR is easier. I'm unsure about the problems, but mentioned Rod Smith's article because most people use hybrid MBR believing it's pure GPT. Are you interested in writing a simple guide about that in the portuguese forum? Yes, I could do so for I have some spare time 'till next week. PM me so we can talk in Portuguese Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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