Question about dual-boot (Yosemite and Windows 8.1 Pro)

[DeltaUnit38]

Hello 

 

First of all, I would like to note that this will be my first hackintosh 'project'. I never have attempted to install it, but I was planning multiple of times but I kept delaying it. Now to my question.

 

Before I want to install Mac OS X Yosemite, I want to know if I am able to use my existing Windows 8 installation after I installed Mac OS  X. If I am correct atleast, would it work if I unplug my main harddrive and keep only my SSD in for the Mac OS X installation? The method I want to use is Clover as I have a ASUS UEFI motherboard and I want to use iMessage and other applications that may not work on Chimera and I read somewhere that dualbooting works better with Clover. But, the thing is, my current Windows installation isn't installed on UEFI mode so will it interfere with something? Also, last one: Do I need to worry for something when Windows 10 comes out and when I want to upgrade my Windows 8.1 to it? 

 

 

Thanks already for answering

Delta Unit 38

 

Specs: ASUS B85M-G | GPU: ASUS GeForce GT640 2GB VRAM | Intel Core i5 4430 3.20 GHz | RAM: 8 GB | HDD: 1 TB | SSD: 128GB

OS: Windows 8.1 Pro x64

 

[buttcrap]

You can use another hard drive to install OS X to, possibly the SSD you're speaking of as long as you're aware that you will of course most likely have to format the drive. You can also keep both operating systems on one disk with both Windows 8.1 and OS X on it, but the way you stated is probably easier.

Your current Windows installation is installed in legacy BIOS mode, so to keep the fastest boot times here is what I would do in your situation:

 

I would keep the Windows install the way it is, I wouldn't even try to boot Windows with Clover, as it's just putting another layer in between your startup that in your particular case isn't necessary. You already have two hard drives, so this works out perfectly. You could just install Clover (after you install Yosemite) to your SSD, set the 'timeout'(google this) to 0, and then you could pick through your motherboards UEFI settings which hard drive to boot to. If you selected hard drive 1 it's going to Legacy boot nice and quick without Clover's involvement, and if you hit hard drive 2 (OS X) it will boot into Clover for '0' seconds and go straight to OS X. It would look like you weren't even using DUET(clover) at all.

 

Of course, if you only have on SSD like me, you could put both operating systems on that nice fast drive and use the older spinning hard disk for data storage, but this takes a lot more configuration and you would almost definitely have to reinstall Windows because at that point you would NEED the Windows installed in UEFI mode to avoid having a hybrid MBR disk. Save yourself the trouble and don't ever mess with hybrid MBR.

 

As far as upgrading your Windows install to 10, you'll be fine. I have noticed that the larger Windows 10 TP updates tends to overwrite something in the EFI(basically overwrites Clover) and this is why it's very important to keep a spare Clover USB hanging around. If you follow the above^ advice though, you won't be booting off of EFI at all for Windows so this would not become an issue for you. And as we all know OS X plays great with Clover/EFI

 

Good luck, and avoid hybrid MBR like the plague !

butt {censored}

[DeltaUnit38]

You can use another hard drive to install OS X to, possibly the SSD you're speaking of as long as you're aware that you will of course most likely have to format the drive. You can also keep both operating systems on one disk with both Windows 8.1 and OS X on it, but the way you stated is probably easier.

 

Your current Windows installation is installed in legacy BIOS mode, so to keep the fastest boot times here is what I would do in your situation:

 

I would keep the Windows install the way it is, I wouldn't even try to boot Windows with Clover, as it's just putting another layer in between your startup that in your particular case isn't necessary. You already have two hard drives, so this works out perfectly. You could just install Clover (after you install Yosemite) to your SSD, set the 'timeout'(google this) to 0, and then you could pick through your motherboards UEFI settings which hard drive to boot to. If you selected hard drive 1 it's going to Legacy boot nice and quick without Clover's involvement, and if you hit hard drive 2 (OS X) it will boot into Clover for '0' seconds and go straight to OS X. It would look like you weren't even using DUET(clover) at all.

 

Of course, if you only have on SSD like me, you could put both operating systems on that nice fast drive and use the older spinning hard disk for data storage, but this takes a lot more configuration and you would almost definitely have to reinstall Windows because at that point you would NEED the Windows installed in UEFI mode to avoid having a hybrid MBR disk. Save yourself the trouble and don't ever mess with hybrid MBR.

 

As far as upgrading your Windows install to 10, you'll be fine. I have noticed that the larger Windows 10 TP updates tends to overwrite something in the EFI(basically overwrites Clover) and this is why it's very important to keep a spare Clover USB hanging around. If you follow the above^ advice though, you won't be booting off of EFI at all for Windows so this would not become an issue for you. And as we all know OS X plays great with Clover/EFI

 

Good luck, and avoid hybrid MBR like the plague !

butt {censored}

 

Thanks for the reply (second time I mention it xD)

 

Anyway, I think your answer might just be the best idea. I will first attempt to run Mac OS X on the SSD as a test. If things works as I think it will, then I probably am going to keep it. And maybe later on I might install it on one single drive, but as you mentioned about that problem, I might just keep only Mac OS X onto the SSD instead of two OSes running on one.

[buttcrap]

How did it go? Fingers crossed you're posting on a dual boot BIOS/DUET machine :~)