How to: Dual Boot Snow Leopard and Windows 7

[WhiskeyTang0Foxtr0t]

So I wanted to have Snow Leopard vanilla and Win 7 Ultimate on my Vostro 1710. Here is how I did it:

 

I have to thank TonyMacx86 for getting me started with this.

 

New install of both:

 

1. Boot from Empire EFi cd, then following onscreen instructions swap out for Snow Leopard install DVD, wait a bit, then hit F5 to refresh. Select OS X install DVD then enter.

 

2. Select disk utility, then create 2 partitions, one for your OS X install; Mac OS Extended (journaled) and on for your future Win 7 install; FAT. Under options make sure GUID is selected.

 

3. Go ahead, install Snow Leopard. It will tell you install has failed - restart. Ignore this, reboot, swapping your OS X DVD for the Empire EFI cd again. Boot from the Empire CD, this time select your Mac hard drive. You should boot, assisted, into Snow Leopard. Install Chameleon RC5 and whatever else you need for your system DSDT, kexts etc. Reboot, this time with no CD.

 

4. You should be able to boot now into Snow Leopard, unassisted. Reboot

 

5. Install Windows 7. The faster way to do it, is to grab the ISO of the DVD, and then using UltraISO, write the bootable disk image to a 4GB USB key. Boot from the Win7 key/DVD the select the FAT partition to install it to. It will not install to FAT until it can format it, so format it and let it continue.

 

6. You've now broken your Mac side and the Chameleon bootloader. Boot from the Empire EFI cd and select your Mac hard drive. when you're in Snow Leopard, follow this from TonyMacx86's guide

 

Open Applications/Utilities/Terminal

 

Type diskutil list

Write down the IDENTIFIER of your Apple_HFS Snow Leopard drive. For this example: disk0s2.

Type sudo -s

Enter your password.

Type fdisk -u /dev/rdisk0

Type y

Type fdisk -e /dev/rdisk0

Type p

Type f 2 (2 is the partition # of your mac os)

Type w

Type y

Close Terminal and reboot.

 

7. You now will have a boot selection for the Mac Os and Windows 7. The Windows 7 will be messed up from the previous commands. Boot from your Windows 7 media, and at the first screen press shift F10.

 

8. You now need to set the Windows partition active temporarily so that it may repair the windows boot area. In the console screen that opens:

 

Type diskpart

Type list disk (note which disk your dual boot system is on. Mine was on disk 0)

Type select disk 0 (or whatever your disk number is)

Type list partition (note where your windows partition is. Mine was on partition 3)

Type select partition 3 (or whatever your partition number is)

Type active (you will receive a confirmation that partition x is now active)

Type exit

Type exit

 

9. This will dump you back to the main screen where you can run startup repair, it will now find the Windows installation and repair the boot area.

 

10. Set Mac partition back to active again so that the Chameleon bootloader can do it's thing:

 

Shift F10 or select recovery console:

 

Type diskpart

Type list disk (note which disk your dual boot system is on. Mine was on disk 0)

Type select disk 0 (or whatever your disk number is)

Type list partition (note where your Mac partition is. Mine was on partition 2)

Type select partition 2 (or whatever your partition number is)

Type active (you will receive a confirmation that partition x is now active)

Type exit

Type exit

 

11. Test both boot options.

 

This is what worked for me. Some people install Windows first, I chose to do the Mac install first, as I was restoring an image of my Windows installation to the drive after Snow Leopard was confirmed working.

 

 

 

WTF