Mac n00b information overload

[th3d00d]

Hello everyone, I don't want to come across as a pain in the bum, but I'm getting so much information it's actually making things a little bit more confusing. I've trawled the forums and as far as I can tell, all my hardware should work with a minimum of kext fiddling. But I'm still a little confused, I would much appreciate it if someone could confirm my knowledge before I start building my hackintosh.

 

I have an ISO of Kalyway leo. It has the leo ISO but also has an ISO I believe I am meant to dump onto a usb flash drive, formatted as fat32, with the drive name "Patcher". Unfortunetly I don't have a USB drive, is it possible to install these files to other media ie iPod video or mini?

 

Secondly, my drive's are pretty much full so I will need to lose a fairly substancial amount of data to achieve this. Mostly my fav TV progs (Sliders, x-files, Star trek, Sarah conner chronicles (Yes I'm a very sad nerd lol)) Hence why I want to get more info and opinions before I go ahead.

 

My system is as follows :-

 

Motherboard: MSI P35 Neo with intel ICH9 controller: As far as I can tell, this chipset will work with kalyway and the vanilla kernel.

CPU: Intel Q6600 G0 @3.06 ghz

Memory: 2GB Geil black dragon DDR2 @ 801mhz

Video: PNY 8800 GTS 512 (G92): I know there are mixed results from this card, far as I can see I need to use NVinject and possibly modded plist file.

Sound: Creative X-fi Fatal1ty FPS + ALC888 onboard: As I discovered, the creative card won't work, but I'll happily connect the ALC888 for leo.

Now the confusing bit.... My HDD setup:

 

2x160GB Seagate SATA drives connected to the ICH9 controller (I plan to install leo to one of these drives)

2x320GB Samsung spinpoints in RAID 0 through a silicon image 3112 controller (This array has my Vista x64 Install)

 

I'm not sure of the best multiboot approach here, I believe it would be best to leave it down to the motherboard to decide boot device. I was going to deactivate all other drives except for the one in which leo will be installed on, then, once (hopefully) installed, reactivate the other drives in the BIOS and enable BIOS boot selection menu. Also, if my understanding is correct, It would be ideal to boot as GUID_EFI, is this correct and would it work with said setup?

 

In a nutshell, I really love Leopard, but I don't want to lose masses of data for a fruitless mission.

 

Thank you all for your help and tolerance of a hackintosh newby

[Synaesthesia]

I think an iPod will work, as long as it acts as a usb drive...

I'm not sure of the best multiboot approach here, I believe it would be best to leave it down to the motherboard to decide boot device. I was going to deactivate all other drives except for the one in which leo will be installed on, then, once (hopefully) installed, reactivate the other drives in the BIOS and enable BIOS boot selection menu. Also, if my understanding is correct, It would be ideal to boot as GUID_EFI, is this correct and would it work with said setup?

I think that will work.

In a nutshell, I really love Leopard, but I don't want to lose masses of data for a fruitless mission.

If you have a seperate drive or partition for Leopard, then you shouldn't lose masses of data.

[th3d00d]

Hey, thank you very much for your input, and for being so prompt.

I think I'm just going to give it a try, If it doesn't work I can just use my lappy to get further assistance and advice.

I would like to repartition one of my seagate drives but I don't have much experience or faith in repartitioning an already active partition. So I'm just going to back up what I can and start with a fresh drive.

I'll be starting either tomo or wed. I'll let you guys know if it works and add any hardware I have thats untested to the hardware support list.

 

Thanks again