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Installing Windows 8 after Mountain Lion

wormyrocks
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wormyrocks
wormyrocks
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Hey folks,

 

So I installed Mountain Lion on my new Hackintosh assuming I would be able to put on Windows later. Foolish, foolish me...

 

In my computer I have a 120GB SSD and a 1TB HDD. I have split both of them into equally sized partitions, intending to use half of each for system files and storage, respectively. Both have GUID partition tables.

 

I can boot into my Windows 8 install USB, but it won't allow me to actually install to any of the partitions on any disks, throwing this error:

 

lneda.png

 

Yes, I googled after that, finding a number of potential solutions to my problem. Most of them looked like this. However, the Windows command line gave me an "element not found" error after running "bootrec.exe /fixboot", and no amount of setting the partition in question as active would solve that.

 

So, would anyone care to enlighten me as to what I need to do to get Windows 8 up and running? Since I already have Mountain Lion running on the SSD I'd prefer not to wipe that, but I can do whatever with the empty Windows partition, of course. I'll wipe it if I have to, though.

 

OK, thanks in advance guys.

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dmazar
dmazar
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It looks like you are trying to do UEFI install of Win 8, and that fails because OSX made your disk as hybrid GPT/MBR ( which is fine).

If that is the case, boot your USB install by simply not choosing UEFI option - boot your Win install USB in legacy BIOS mode.

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rockinron_1
rockinron_1
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When you boot in legacy mode do you get the exact same error? Or just the second half of it.

 

If you've booted in legacy mode you shouldn't see the top half.

 

If you get only the second half after a legacy boot then you need to format the hard drive, install windows 8 then install OS X. Windows often doesn't like being installed to systems where there's an OS X install present (even if it's on different hard drives)

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dmazar
dmazar
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I do not know how you are choosing USB drive when booting. On my Asus mobo I can press F8 when the system starts (during POST) and then I get list of drives that I can select to boot from. If the USB stick is FAT32 formated and contains /efi/boot/bootx64.efi file then my bios would offer me two boot options fot that stick: UEFI one (contains UEFI in boot option name) and legacy BIOS one (just the name of the USB stick, without UEFI text).

 

Now, it's possible that your prepared Win inst USB stick is not prepared for legacy BIOS boot, only for UEFI. I do not know how you prepared that stick. Make sure that the guide you were using mentioned using bootrect.exe to install BIOS boot records to USB stick.

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wormyrocks
wormyrocks
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I created the USB stick by using Carbon Copy Cloner with the stick and the official Windows 8 Preview ISO.

 

I think what I'll do is backup with Time Machine, wipe my boot disk, install Windows and then restore.

 

But, before I resort to that I will try to boot from the flash drive bios again.

 

Edit: okay, I wiped my boot SSD and I'm getting the same issue. It's not letting me /fixboot. Also, when I try to boot from the Windows drive (not the EFI partition, the BIOS one) it throws an error. Booting to the EFI part of the flash drive works ok though. Booting to my Mac install disk doesn't work now though, I'm getting the Still waiting for root disk error.

 

Edit: although Windows didn't seem to think it was able to install, it's installing now... Time to see what I've broken once it finishes, haha...

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wormyrocks
wormyrocks
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So, things are interesting. I successfully installed Windows 8 - but only after reducing my main SSD to one partition, and deleting everything on it. Bye bye Mac files. That's okay because I was planning on restoring from backup, but still... Once I booted into Windows, I installed EasyBCD and created a Mac OS option in the boot menu. That worked okay. I then booted into the OSX install flash drive (I figured out why I was getting the still waiting for root error, and fixed it), but it wouldn't let me install to the SSD because it was 100% Windows, and it wouldn't let me partition either. So I partitioned the drive from within Windows (as 2 FAT partitions, of course) assuming I could use Disk Utility to reformat the second partition as HFS. However once I booted to the OS X install drive again, Disk Utility wouldn't let me touch either partition without wiping the entire drive. I'm at my wit's end - does anyone know what to do at this point? (P.S. Sorry for readability issues. For some reason IE10 won't let me put any line breaks in the posting dialog box on InsanelyMac. Downloading Chrome as we speak.)

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rockinron_1
rockinron_1
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created a Mac OS option in the boot menu

 

You shouldn't do that - OS X can only be loaded by an OS X bootloader (which will also be able to boot windows).

 

Fool-proof instructions:

Boot into your OS X installer. Partition the drive with 2 partitions as an MBR boot record - one FAT, one HFS.

Reboot the system - boot the windows USB in legacy mode and install windows. ONLY format the FAT partition - don't delete it or do / change anything else.

Now boot into OS X and install OS X - again DON'T change anything relating to the disk - just install it.

Now use your OS X usb to boot into OS X and install chameleon to your OS X partition.

You should now have a dual-boot setup.

 

Note: I'm not sure what install method your using so to install OS X to an MBR partitioned drive you may have to replace a couple of files on your OS X usb, see step 5 here:

http://www.osx86.net/view/2815-osinstallmbr+osinstall.mpkg_10.8.gm.html

While were at it what method are you using?

 

Further note: If your windows 7 installer is not service pack 1 or later you'll have to update it to SP1 before you install OS X otherwise you'll have to set it as the active partition to install SP1 then flip it back once you've installed it.

 

Also don't attempt to do a windows EFI and OS X install on the same drive - that isn't going to happen without a lot more playing about.

 

Alternatively just get another drive and do it the right way:

2 SSD's - one windows, one OS X (no install problems).

The 1TB with a single NTFS partition shared between the 2 with Paragon NTFS for Mac installed to OS X so you've access to all your files from anywhere.

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wormyrocks
wormyrocks
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I'm using Chimera/###### (am I allowed to say that here? sorry... heh) edit: apparently not.

And I am using the Windows 8 Developer preview.

Thanks a lot for the suggestions, but when I initially tried to install Windows on a drive that had been partitioned, it would refuse to install until both partitions were gone and the disk was a clean slate. Although one of the partitions was FAT32, and I let the Windows installer format it.

Does Disk Utility, which I originally used to partition the SSD, install a GPT boot record by default? How do I convince it to install MBR instead?

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rockinron_1
rockinron_1
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My instructions are rock solid for win7, there shouldn't be much difference for win 8 though.

 

Using *beast stuff you'll have to follow the guide I linked to to replace those files (very easy). But strictly speaking that software isn't supported here.

As for the installer when your on the partition screen there's a button which will let you change the partition scheme; you can't miss it.

 

Also if you want to install os x the real way search for my vanilla guide instead of using the *beast method

 

Excuse the lack of links / formatting errors, I'm on my phone.

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wormyrocks
wormyrocks
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Thanks for all the help. I'll try those things.

 

Edit: Formatted as MBR just as you said, but now I'm getting the same error message as attached in the OP.

 

Edit edit: and now it won't even let me boot to the Mac boot drive. It's giving me the Still waiting for root disk error.

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rockinron_1
rockinron_1
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Are you definitely booting in legacy mode?

When you boot the USB your bios should give you the option between uefi or USB. It will say something like press *some key* for boot selection. If your just letting it boot and not doing this it will boot to uefi instead.

If your booting legacy you shouldn't see that first line in the error message.

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wormyrocks
wormyrocks
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The Windows 8 install disk only starts if I hit its uEFI option. Using the BIOS option doesn't work at all.

 

Should I remake the disk? What utility did you use to do so? For some reason Disk Utility didn't want to write the iso to a flash drive, so I had to use CarbonCopyCloner. What would you recommend?

 

And again, thanks for all the help.

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rockinron_1
rockinron_1
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Dazmar at post #5 has the best explanation.

 

My experience with the DP is that it would work fine; maybe something has changed on the CP but I see no reason why it shouldn't allow you to boot in legacy mode. The windows 8 RTM will support non-UEFI systems so I see no reason the CP wouldn't.

 

Unfortunately I can't offer any more suggestions to make it boot in legacy mode other than do some googleing but I can assure you you don't want a UEFI windows install and a *beast OS X install on the same drive - they won't boot from the same boot-loader and that will cause you all kind of issues.

 

Also I realise SSD's aren't cheap but if you want a reliable system with OS X and windows dual booted you need them on different drives - if something does go wrong with one of the OS's you're most likely going to have to start both from scratch to make everything work again - inparticular if windows goes {censored}-up good luck re-installing it without screwing OS X over unless you're very confident of what you are doing. (If you go this method a 64GB SSD is more than sufficient for an OS X install + softwear unless you want a very big piece of softwear e.g. logic + sample packs).

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dmazar
dmazar
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Restoring win install iso to usb is not enough to get legacy bios boot. Stick you created boots only in UEFI mode. Please search google for some guide how to prepare Win 8 or 7 install usb stick. You need to install BIOS win boot records to that stick with bootrect.exe. You can do that only from some existing Win system.

 

If you do not have access to Win, then clean the drive and install win 8 in UEFI mode. Then install windows bios bootloader to install USB from there with bootrect.exe or whatever is needed (check some guide).

 

Then reinstall OSX (clean the drive and create GPT installation).

Boot to OSX and add new FAT32 partition for Win - OSX will create hybrid disk automatically, and that is what you need.

Then install Win to that partition - legacy, bios install (convert partition to NTFS during install, of course)

Then reinstall Chameleon to that drive (use boot0hfs) and make Win partition active with fdisk from OSX.

I think you would then have what you wanted in the beginning.

 

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wormyrocks
wormyrocks
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Thanks. I reinstalled Windows in order to put the BIOS files required on the flash drive.

 

One question - could you tell me how to do that properly? My Google endeavors are less than productive and I want to be absolutely certain I'm doing the right thing because I'll have to erase Windows before I know if it works.

 

Thanks...

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