Guide: OS X + Windows 7 + Chimera + Pure GPT (Winclone method)

[D]

Note: Following this method will allow your hackintosh to run Windows 7 alongside OS X on a pure GPT-formatted disk. One major drawback is that this method requires an existing Mac (not a hackintosh) to create a Winclone image of a Windows installation.

 

Step 1: Install Windows 7 in bootcamp

On the Mac, use Bootcamp to create the smallest possible Bootcamp partition (Windows 7 minimum is 16GB). Install Windows 7 in this partition.

 

Step 2: Create a Winclone image of the Windows installation

Boot back into OS X and use Winclone to create an image file of your bootcamp partition.

 

Step 3: Boot Snow Leopard Install DVD and install OS X

Get a Chimera bootdisk appropriate for your system and boot the retail install DVD. Once you get to OS X installer, run Disk Utility, select your primary hard drive, and go to the Partition section.

 

If you'll only be using OS X and Windows, select 2 Partitions in Volume Scheme. Then very important: go to Options... button and select GUID Partition Table. Drag the sizing handle in volume scheme to decide how much space to give to each OS.

 

First volume should be named "Mac OS X" and formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). The second volume should be named "Windows" and formatted as FAT.

 

After all this is done, quit Disk Utility and return to the installer. Install OS X on the "Mac OS X" partition. After the OS is installed, set up your Chimera, configure the necessary kexts, etc.

 

Step 4: Transfer the Windows image from the Mac to the Hac OS X installation

Transfer the image file you made in step 2 from the mac to the hackintosh. The best way to do this is to have both computers connected to the same network and then enabling AFP dropbox in your hackintosh OS X install (System Preferences -> Sharing -> File Sharing).

 

Step 5: Restore the Windows image into the "Windows" partition

Once the Windows 7 image is on the hackintosh, use Winclone to restore it into the "Windows" FAT partition you made with Disk Utility. The FAT partition will automagically turn into NTFS. The resulting partition will be the size of the original FAT partition, not the size of your actual image.

 

Step 6: Boot the Windows partition

Restart the hackintosh, and Chimera should now detect your "Windows" partition as Windows. Boot it, and Windows 7 will tell you that the filesystem is dirty and needs to be cleaned up. Wait for it to do the cleanup. After the cleanup, your PC will restart.

 

Step 7: Activate Windows

Boot into the same Windows partition, and if everything went well, Windows will boot and tell you that you may have been a victim of Software Counterfeiting. Simply activate Windows 7 (if you have to call by phone, make sure you say that it's installed on One computer, and it should give you a valid product ID).

 

If everything went well, you now have a pure GPT dual-boot system.

I executed the above steps on a Dell Inspiron 1545 because I really wanted to have a GPT system, and it worked out splendidly. I hope this helps for others who are looking for a pure GPT install.

[macmacmacc]

great guide!

 

do you think we can install more os?

e.g. i wanna add more in ubuntu, freebsd, and centos, since these 3 already GPT supported

[srs5694]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but that's almost certainly not a "pure GPT" installation, at least not in the sense of having a fully valid GPT configuration with a protective MBR rather than a hybrid MBR. When you tell Apple's Disk Utility to create a FAT partition, it converts the disk from a GPT format into a hybrid MBR. None of your subsequent steps changed this configuration.

 

If you want to check this, I recommend you run my GPT fdisk (gdisk) program on the disk. You can use either the Windows or the OS X version. When you launch it, you'll see output like this:

 

$ [b]sudo gdisk /dev/disk0[/b]
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.7.2

Partition table scan:
 MBR: hybrid
 BSD: not present
 APM: not present
 GPT: present

Found valid GPT with hybrid MBR; using GPT.

 

In this example, the "partition table scan" output clearly identifies the disk as having a hybrid MBR. On a pure GPT disk, the output is different:

 

$ [b]sudo gdisk /dev/disk1[/b]
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.7.2

Partition table scan:
 MBR: protective
 BSD: not present
 APM: not present
 GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.

 

Note that in this case the MBR is identified as being protective rather than hybrid. This indicates what I'd call a "pure GPT" disk.

 

AFAIK, the only way to boot Windows on a pure GPT disk is to use a UEFI implementation. Many motherboards introduced this year, and a few sold in previous years, provide a UEFI boot option. It's also possible to add UEFI support to many non-UEFI motherboards by using UEFI DUET, as described here, although the software and procedures for doing that should be considered highly experimental.

 

FWIW, you're not the first person to be deceived in this way. I've seen plenty of posts on this forum from people who think they've found the magic incantation required to get Windows booting from a GPT disk on a BIOS-based computer. These procedures usually involve using Disk Utility to create a FAT partition, and upon further investigation they've all proven to be using hybrid MBRs (except for the UEFI DUET method).

[D]

When you tell Apple's Disk Utility to create a FAT partition, it converts the disk from a GPT format into a hybrid MBR.

Wow, thanks for the info. I had no idea that Disk Utility transformed a GPT disk into Hybrid MBR just because I selected to create a FAT partition on it.

 

If you want to check this, I recommend you run my GPT fdisk (gdisk) program on the disk.

I would love to check, but I already gave the hackintosh away and can't.

 

I might work on another OSx86 installation in the near future, and I will modify the procedure to create an HFS+ volume for Windows instead of FAT. AFAIK, Winclone can restore a Windows image into an existing HFS+ volume (automatically converting it to NTFS), so it should then overcome the issue of Disk Utility formatting the disk as Hybrid MBR. I'll use your utility to check whether it was successful.

 

AFAIK, the only way to boot Windows on a pure GPT disk is to use a UEFI implementation. Many motherboards introduced this year, and a few sold in previous years, provide a UEFI boot option. It's also possible to add UEFI support to many non-UEFI motherboards by using UEFI DUET, as described here, although the software and procedures for doing that should be considered highly experimental.

It's awesome that more motherboards are being sold with UEFI. UEFI DUET looks really interesting but complicated. If further Winclone testing doesn't yield a pure GPT scheme, I might give it a try on another OSx86 installation.

 

Thanks for such an informative post!