Dual booting Vista and OSX (Success! No chain0 req...)

[THo04]

Hi.

I want to dual boot Mac OSX and Vista RC2 on my PC without using Acronis Disk manager

I found this page to be relevant: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?sho...c=18677&hl=

however, I cannot get Vista and OSX installed on the same drive at the same time.

 

Currently, I have OSX installed. When I try to Install Vista, it gets to the point where it asks where Vista should be installed. When I select Partition 2, it gives an error saying that the partition does not meet the requirements of Vista Installer, even after I delete and recreate the second partition: "Windows is unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for installation"

 

The only way I got Vista to install was when I deleted both partitions (eliminating the Mac OSX partition), and created a new partition to install to. Now, only Vista is installed. So, I ran the OSX installer again. This time, when running OSX installer, Disk Utility could only recognize one Partition (the Non-Vista one) After it installed, the computer would only boot into OSX, and give no option for Vista under Darwin. Anyone have any tips?

 

Attached is an image of Disk Utility. I want to install Vista onto disk1s2. Would it be that Vista need to be installed on Partition 1? How do I go about doing this?

 

Thanks!

[stargatefan]

if i remember correctly, i think you just have to hit F8 or one of the F's where it says options or just keep pressing when you start up your pc. It takes you to a os/pation selector

[leodm]

Currently, I'm running a quad-boot system: windows xp/vista/gentoo linux/osx86, by using NT Osloader(and vista's bootmgr).

 

Vista's bootmgr will recognize boot.ini and load the item in it without problem, but I dont how to let vista boot other OS directly without osloader/boot.ini, the bcdedit is still a mystery for me

[vEmpire]

Try EasyBCD

[SurferSD]

Currently, I'm running a quad-boot system: windows xp/vista/gentoo linux/osx86, by using NT Osloader(and vista's bootmgr).

 

 

I too quad-boot. I have XP as my 1st partition, Vista as my 2nd, OSX as my 3rd, and Ubuntu as my 4th. I would recommend install in that order and then use GRUB from Ubuntu. Edit the menu.lst file to meet your needs. It was a very simple setup with no 3rd party software to run.

[sam_the_killer]

Easy BCD..it the only answer to this question as it supports the x86 version of mac OS X...

i m working with it...it just goes fine with my config..

[talpaz]

Hi,

 

EasyBCD works as a charm!

Terrific.

 

Great Advice (and software)

 

Ste

[fery]

You'd better not to install Vista, I tried and then, I can't in to MAC OS(Or you can install Mac before Vista)

[joe75]

I cannot get Vista and OSX installed on the same drive at the same time.

 

"Windows is unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for installation"

 

The whole problem is RC2 is a beta. Vista betas do not have the ability to turn off active disks and also have a problem with the mbr being tampered with. You will have no problem with installing Vista if you simply make your osx86 partition inactive, but after installing, Vista's loader will become corrupted by making osx active again. I have only had this problem with my notebook, and my PC has had no problem with any Vista beta being installed on SATA drive with a osx86 partition right behind it But my PC has many drives with many OS's and I don't know if it has something to do with it or not, I would suggest using RTM6000 because it appears to have been corrected

[THo04]

Thanks for the replies!

I will try EasyBCD and also the Vista RTM6000 release.

 

Hope that works.. here goes another wipe of my drive =(

What I will try is:

First install OSX86 on one partition.

Then install Vista rtm6000 on the other partition (which hopefully won't give the error before when selecting a drive)

-Boot into Vista, install EasyBCD

-Configure bootloader to see Vista and OSX86.

 

Does this sound right?

[joe75]

That sounds good, you may not even need any other loader

I installed Vista over a fresh XP install with chain0 in C:\, RTM is able to boot osx w/out marking the mac partition as active

 

http://www.vistabootpro.org/

[marliwahoo]

This worked really well for me. http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?sho...=28506&st=0

 

It works !

[THo04]

This worked really well for me. http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?sho...=28506&st=0

 

It works !

 

Haha I followed that guide exactly... and as you can see the last post on that thread is from me and unanswered =(

 

Maybe you're using a newer Vista release than RC2?

[marliwahoo]

You have OSX and vista installed with the darwin bootloader starting up. That is the hardest part of the install. Can you start Vista in safe mode and repair it ? I would try uninstalling acronis - as it is not fully compatible with Vista.

 

You are closer than you think.

[THo04]

So I'm back again after many hours of failed attempts =(

 

I tried to first install OSX 10.4.8 AMD on a clean drive, partition it to two parts, first partition "Free Space" and Second partition "OSX Journaled".

 

However, when I try to install Vista after OSX completes, it says that "Windows is unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for installation" again =( Thus, I cannot find a time where I can use EasyBCD.

 

So, I tried again to first install Vista RTM, partition half for Vista. This completes and boots successfully. Then install OSX on the other partition. Now however, Darwin loads up, gives the option to boot to Windows NTFS, and then the error

\windows\system32\winload.exe cannot be found or corrupt

 

Marliwahoo: I cannot even start Vista in safe mode and repair it when I get this error message.. I have done this all without installing Acronis OS Selector.

 

joe75:

"Vista betas do not have the ability to turn off active disks and also have a problem with the mbr being tampered with. You will have no problem with installing Vista if you simply make your osx86 partition inactive, but after installing, Vista's loader will become corrupted by making osx active again."

It seems like this has been the case.. however, it's still happening even with Vista RTM!! What other things can I try??

Thanks again

[joe75]

THo04, I seen you read my thread on the winload.exe problem, I had that problem with every beta until RTM, thats why I say it most of been fixed.

Try one more time, install osx86 all the way and boot, make sure everything's good, then you need to find a way to make the osx partition inactive, you can load up Vista and select repair before the install.

At the prompt type diskpart, then type list partition, see how your partitions are labeled, they will be 1, 2 or 0, 1. Pick the osx one and type select partition ?, then type inactive. you should then be able to install RTM, after it's installed, boot and see that it's all good. You should be able to leave osx inactive and be able to boot to it.

[THo04]

Alright I will give this a try! Thanks a lot!

How will I be able to boot into OSX if it is inactive then? EasyBCD?

[joe75]

http://www.mediafire.com/?6nlnnnzwtmn

 

Put those files in C:\ and you should be able to select osx from Vista loader, you can edit them later if you want, just ignore the selection for older Windows install on the loader.

[THo04]

Yes! Using Diskpart solved the problem of "Windows is unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for installation"

After you select Repair, and Cmd from the boot, You can see which disks are on your computer with "List Disk"

I then did "Select Disk 1" , "List Partition", and then "Select Partition 1 (OSX installed partition) inactive" This allowed me to install Vista on Partition 2!

 

However, now I am having trouble with the vista bootloader. I copied the Chain0 from the linked file into the C drive root. However, I do not see any signs of OSX from either VistaBootPro or EasyBCD. Do I need to add these manually? How do I do this without botching up my MBR again? Do I need to activate Partition 1 again?

 

EDIT: SUCCESS!

I added a Mac OS X Entry with EasyBCD (Generic x86). No chain0 file required! (I removed and tested. worked!) Attached is screenshot of the "Overview" of Vista Bootloader. When I added the entry with "Add/Remove Entries", it automatically populated the Bootloader Path \NST\nst_mac.mbr:

 

So... all in all.. it really wasn't that tough!! Just the diskpart trick did the job!

 

Thanks so much!!!

[eclau]

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=33889

[jarodsix]

Too complicated. Just remember to always set the partition you are installing to as active before you start installation (so it places its own boot files onto its own partition). After install set OSX active or add chain0 and that's it. No repairs. I have Vista, XP, and OSX86 booting thru chain0.

 

And yes - the "nst_mac.mbr" is a dump of the OSX parition bootsector, which is exactly what chain0 is. So no talking that chain0 is not required. (correct me if I'm wrong).

 

PS: to set sth active you need a bootable CD (or disk management/partition magic if your computer boots) - linux, OSX, or even vista:

Boot vista dvd, select repair computer, open command line type "diskpart", then "select Disk x", "select patition y", type "active" and that's it. (x = # of your hdd - type list disk to see, y = # of your partition - type list partition to see).

 

Or download gparted.sf.net.