Jump to content

which is the best dual-boot solution?


beg
 Share

6 posts in this topic

Recommended Posts

hello everybody

 

this is the problem... i have win xp and mac 10.4.6 installed on my pc. Both patitions must be active when i boot from them, so it is a bit uncomfortable to change it each time i want to change the os. I think acronis os selector

allows to change without modifiying but i would like to know other posibilities. Thank you!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have tried all three of those solutions.

 

In my experience the chain0 method has been the least reliable dual booting method. I just can't get it working consistantly.

 

Acronis OS selector has worked well for me and I never had any problems when I used it. It does seem to clutter the system with unneccary files though.

 

I now use the darwin bootloader to select which OS I boot up. Just set your Mac partition to active and edit your apple.boot.plist as stated here:

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?s=&...st&p=182718

 

Just choose the partition with the OS you want to startup. I like this method because it's simple and doesn't clutter the system with extra files.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If i've not got linux installed, and just OS X and Win XP, I usually just install wingrub and install it to the MBR. I put the stage files & menu.lst on a seperate fat16 partition (10mb or less) and then once everything is working ok just hide the grub partition using hide command.

 

You can also make your own custom splash screens with grub and password protect all or some of the entries.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I tried to set up two separate drives - each one with an OS.

 

Drive 1 = Seatege 320 IDE (primary IDE) loaded ith OSX and designated bootable

Drive 2 = WD 320 SATA loaded with Win XP and designated bootable

Drive 3 = Pioneer 111D Secondary/Slave IDE

 

In BIOS I have the following boot order selected

 

1: Pioneer

2: Seagate (with OSX)

3: WD (with WinXP)

 

The weird thing is that the computer always wants to boot to WinXP

- also shows error message that the system did not shut down properly the last time.

 

If I put in a OSX boot install disk into DVD drive then after the countdown (not pushing a button to install) the computer boots to OSX as it should.

 

Any thoughts on why it would not boot directly to OSX like I have set it up to do so in BIOS?

Why does it go to WinXP even though that is the second HD to check

Link to comment
Share on other sites

tried to set up two separate drives - each one with an OS.

 

Drive 1 = Seatege 320 IDE (primary IDE) loaded ith OSX and designated bootable

Drive 2 = WD 320 SATA loaded with Win XP and designated bootable

Drive 3 = Pioneer 111D Secondary/Slave IDE

 

In BIOS I have the following boot order selected

 

1: Pioneer

2: Seagate (with OSX)

3: WD (with WinXP)

 

Is there a reason that you set the Pioneer to boot first? Is there anything on this drive? It could be that when trying to boot the pioneer the bios defaults to your Primary IDE. I'd try this boot order:

1: Seagate (with OSX)

2: WD (with WinXP)

3: Pioneer

See if that has any effect.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...