Dual Boot using two HDD

[hdsalinas]

Hi,

 

This is the story of two hard drives,

 

HDD1 has two partitions: one with WinXP, the other partition is empty and is FAT32 formated so I can share files between both platforms.

 

HHD2 has the Mac OS installed.

 

Right now to use one OS or the other I have to phisicaly swap hard drives. I want to set the dual boot option. How do I set the hard drives to be able to dual boot? To I set HDD1 as Master and HDD2 as slave (or viseversa)?

 

My wife will be using my PC and she will only want to use windows so I dont want her to have to do anything to load windows when booting. Is there a simple software to do this?

 

I know enough about computers to build one from scracth and instal the mac os it, but I am not a programer and all that code is too intimidating. (specially when you dont know the OS that well)

 

Please let me know of a good and simple solution.

[Guest bikedude880]

Acronis Disk Director 10 is a good choice for this. It automatically detects operating systems on any hard drive physically attached to the computer and will present you with an option to boot said OS. You can even tell it to boot a default OS so that no user input is required during boot. The only downside is that it will slow down the speed of the boot.

[hdsalinas]

Thanks BikeDude,

 

About the hardrive setup, do I set the jumpers for the harddrives (master / slaves)

 

I am planning on leavion the hard drive with XP as master and the other with the OSX as slave. Does it matter at all?

[Guest bikedude880]

If the hard drives are hooked up to the PATA bus (which it sounds like they are), then you will need to have one set as the master and the other as the slave, with the master drive receiving the tail end of the cable and the slave getting the middle connector.

 

However, if the drives are hooked up to the SATA bus, there will be no jumpers (that I am aware of) in order for it to work.

[xiberia]

you don't have to do anything... hold down F8 (I think) when you switch on, and it will ask which drive you want to boot from. Select your slave drive and OSX will boot. If you DON'T press F8 at boot, Windows will automatically load. Simple

 

Although I don't know if OSX will run from slave... I had problems doing that. Try it though.

[hdsalinas]

you don't have to do anything... hold down F8 (I think) when you switch on, and it will ask which drive you want to boot from. Select your slave drive and OSX will boot. If you DON'T press F8 at boot, Windows will automatically load. Simple

 

Although I don't know if OSX will run from slave... I had problems doing that. Try it though.

 

 

Ok I will give that a try tonight. That is a bios function right? because if I am not mistaken if you press F8 before the windows logo appears it brings you the option of launching windows in safe mode.

 

So it must be during the bios startup, and in the case of my motherboard, it is F11.

[aNILEator]

i've been meaning to post this on here for a while now.

 

Check your hardware against the osx86 wiki http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/HCL_10.4.6

 

THIS WILL NOT WORK ON ALL PC'S, Your Processor must support SSE2, AMD dual cores say that they support SSE3 but they currently do not work with OSX86 (i just found this out for my AMD X64 X2 4200+) and so do not apply the SSE3 patch only SSE2.

 

You can find out what your processor supports by using a program called cpu-z it can be downloaded here http://www.cpuid.com/download/cpu-z-135.zip

 

10.4.7 cannot be installed on an AMD system (this may change in the future but not able at present)

 

You will need a pre-patched iso of the Mac OSX install dvd, i used the JaS release, others include HOTiSO and Goatsec afaik...

 

I installed to a spare hard drive this is how i successfully did it. (I'm writing this from memory so may have some errors but i'll try my best i did install it 4 times so should remember mostly :pirate2:)

 

Requirements:

• USB mouse and Keyboard - i borrowed a usb mouse i plan on buying one tomorrow
  
• Hard Drive : Windows XP installed
  
• Hard Drive : To install Mac OS X too (Will erase all data prior to install so if needed BACKUP)
  
• Partition Magic
  
• Pre Patched Mac OS X Install DVD (I used JaS)
  

Using Partition Magic in Windows XP, locate the Hard Drive that you wish to install Mac OS X too, delete all partitions on that drive so that it shows the whole drive as being "unallocated space" click apply, it may say something about not active just ignore this, it will most likely ask you to reboot, agree to reboot.

 

Reboot your system as you normally would to XP, partition magic will show a few screens prior to XP booting (they look like chkdsk/scan disk screens) your system may reboot after the first partition magic jobs complete, continue to let it reboot and go into XP again. After XP loading bootscreen Partition magic did some more stuff and then booted into the XP Welcome/logon screen.

 

Now you should have an unallocated Hard Disk Drive, Turn off your PC (as a failsafe i now removed the plugs leading into my windows hard drive) Reboot your computer with the Patched Mac OS X DVD in your DVD drive, make sure that you boot to the DVD, you may need to do this in your BIOS settings (which is normally accessed by pressing delete when powering on your computer) and changing the Boot order/priority.

 

If done correctly you will launch to a screen asking you to press any key to launch mac osx install dvd, press a key.

 

The Mac OS X DVD takes AAAAGGGGGGEEEEEEESSSSSSS to load up, it will show a grey screen with the apple logo in the middle and a small grey loading circle thing underneath. this will take about 10 minutes maybe more to launch to a blue screen (nothing like a BSOD) asking you which language option you want the installer in

 

Use your keyboard to select a language and press enter, it will now load the installer itself

 

The installer will have the taskbar along the top and the installer window in the middle.

 

Using the mouse, in the taskbar, click on Utilities -> Disc Utility, it will load a window listing the Hard Drives and their partitions on the left hand side, click on the hard drive you wish to install Mac OS X onto and then in the main panel click on the 'erase' tab/button near the top of the box, this will change the content of the panel displaying formatting options.

 

Choose Mac OS Journalled, and in the name box type in 'Apple MacOS X' and click erase, this will format the hard drive (there will be a small progress bar in the bottom right of the panel) once done close the disk utilities window (top left red button for those of you who've never used a mac before)

 

Now the installer, BE CAREFUL HERE DO NOT GO CLICK HAPPY, click continue and select your hard drive (it should be the only option) i think a box popped down and asks you to agree to install there, click agree, MAKE SURE TO CLICK CUSTOMIZE WHEN THE OPTION APPEARS IN THE BOTTOM LEFT OF THE INSTALLER, so keep your eye out for it

 

Click customize, it will list the install variables, you can probably disable printer drivers (i just enabled epson because i have an epson printer) and language options (i only speak english and so didn't need to install french/german/japanese etc translations) YOU WILL NEED TO INSTALL THE PATCH FOR YOUR PROCESSOR, so expand the patches section and select the right things to install for your system for me it was AMD Base and AMD SSE2 patch, and some of the other things but nothing Intel, your configs may differ and probably will.

 

(This is what got me stumped a few times because my processor was not listed on the online supported hardware list, but the AMD64 single core supported the SSE3 patch and worked great, but the 4400 dual core didn't work with the SSE3 patch so i had to gamble, check the hardware list on the wiki first)

 

once your happy that you've got the right config chose to install, the setup will verify the dvd (takes ages again ~20 minutes) it then installs the files (again taking ages at about ~35-45 minutes obviously depending on your install variables) Finally it will be done and try to reboot (for me it didn't and i had to reboot manually)

 

(I plugged back my XP Hard disk now) Reboot to windows and copy this file - http://www.nedprod.com/Niall_stuff/MacOS%20X/chain0 - into C:/ , Making sure hidden files are shown, open C:\boot.ini in Notepad. Add the following option to the bottom:

 

C:\chain0="MacOS X"

 

Reboot. (i also unplugged HDD again)

 

Reboot to the dvd again (yeah i know *yawn* make yourself a drink) You need to make the Partition 'ACTIVE' So, this time go to Utilities -> Terminal (this will open a box similar to DOS command prompt)

 

1. Determine which disk your MacOSX partition is on

 

Type diskutil list (then press enter)

 

Verify which disk holds your partition (disk0, disk1, etc.)

 

-Mine was on disk0, yours may say rdisk0 or something else

 

2. Start using Fdisk

 

Assuming the MacOSX disk is the first disk ("disk0"), then

type fdisk -e /dev/disk0 <== use your disk number here !! (then press enter)

 

THOSE ARE SPACES IN BETWEEN DO NOT MISS THEM OUT

 

5. Determine which partition for MacOSX needs to be set "Active"

 

Type p (then press enter)

 

Verify which partition is for MacOSX (1, 2, 3, etc.)

 

6. Set the partition "Active"

 

Assuming it is partition 1, then

type f 1 <== use your partition number here !! (then press enter)

 

REMEMBER TO PUT THE SPACE BETWEEN F AND YOUR PARTITION NUMBER

 

7. Save and exit

 

Type write (then press enter)

 

-it will ask you if your sure

 

Type y (yes you are sure) (then press enter)

 

Type exit (to quit)

 

8. Reboot removing the DVD

 

(I replugged the Windows XP HDD in again)

 

MY PC then attempted to boot into windows and gave me an OS selection, you may have to press F8 during startup to access this option.

 

Select MacOS X

 

It will ask you something like press enter to boot into Mac OS X, do so. A load of text will go whizzing past matrix styleeee, just leave it to do all this, it should then boot into Mac OS X setup, allowing you to setup keyboard layout etc.

 

If it has worked Congratulations, if not then i can't help you sorry

 

what a post *dies after writing for over an hour*

 

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