My pre-install HD config of osX86 via XP

[more or less]

When I first partitioned my drive, it assigned a value disks0r5, which causes all sorts of problems because MBR works best with 4 partitions, depending on the type. The point being, I am fairly certain a primary partition MUST be s4 or lower.

 

So painfully I realized that I had to wipe my XP [MCE] install out all together, and start anew. After backing up my files, and then realizing I had created dual-use problems this is my current set-up:

 

I created 3 partitions from my XP install disc, one for XP, one for osX86, and one large partition for all my audio/video files. This way, I still can use one OS to manage the files, but both OSes can access the FAT32 drive and so I am not limited in how I use my content. Be warned that FAT32 has the 4gb single file size maximum, which for me is not an issue - but can be when dealing with disc images. You may wish to give osX86 a touch more room than you give XP.

 

TIP: you may format your XP drive as either NTFS or FAT32 from the XP disc, depending on whether you want to mess with it from osX. I used NTFS and left the other partitions raw. After I installed XP, under Computer Administration control panel I made the osX86 partition a primary one.

 

I then loaded my ToH osX86 rc2 disc and started Disc Utility and erased/formatted it for HFS+ Journaled, and made my largest 60gb partition FAT32. XP will not format a partition larger than 32gb for FAT32, but there are workarounds for that. But it's just dead simple from Disc Utility in OS X, go figure!

 

Now my drive partitions were assigned value disc0s1, s2, and s3 making install and boot patching fairly simple. My first install on disk0s5 worked, but was problematic as it was a logical partition iirc.

 

I used this guide and the associated files.rar for the patching and instructions. I did not use Tiger or any other disc, but have acquired various .kexts as needed [most of which are in the BrazilMac PPF].

 

I am really happy with this set-up, as it really takes advantage of each OS with shared content.