Best Windows Installation Method

[utradar]

I was using a slipstreamed SP3, I see yours is only SP2.

You might try slipstreaming SP3 in. Otherwise, I'm stumped

I'll give it one more shot...

 

[snorkelman]

Hook the drive up to one of the blue intel SATA ports

set all SATA ports to IDE

install XP and all the usual chipset and graphics card drivers etc

Once its installed hook the drive up to one of the white gigabyte SATA ports

go into the BIOS and set the blue intel ports back to AHCI

boot back into windows

when it finds the new AHCI controller install the driver for it from the gigabyte CD

reboot

confirm its working properly

shut down, power off reattach the drive to one of the blue intel SAT ports

you can now either set the gigabyte ports back to AHCI and install the driver for those if you plan on using them, or just disable the gigabyte ports

Doing it this way the XP boot drive is never attached to an AHCI mode controller before the driver for that controller is installed.


Only issue you have then is getting a boot loader to play ball with the two OS's.. I personally have never bothered and just use the 'press F12 at bootup' option to pick my bootable device when I want to overide the default and boot XP

(would be nice if the BIOS could provide an option to always show that boot menu for X seconds at start up, and save me reaching for F12)

 

[utradar]

Well I finally got XP running by trying nLite again with SP3 slipstreamed in, but now I have to unplug the Mac drive and switch to IDE before being able to boot into windows. I tried setting it to AHCI and plugging in both drives, and Chameleon sees the Windows drive, but when I try to boot from it I get a little command prompt flashing forever.

I'm still not sure what's up since I installed the driver MacMan linked but for some reason XP still doesn't want to boot under AHCI. Maybe there's a driver on the Gigabyte CD I missed but I'm fairly certain I got the SATA/RAID driver, not to mention the one MacMan linked that I slipstreamed.

Any other thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I'd hate to have to open up the case and dick with the BIOS every time I wanted to play a game.

 

[snorkelman]

two issues

Issue 1 you cant boot XP if its not the first HD in the system, which is why you're currently pulling the OSX drive each time you want to boot XP (otherwise the OSX drive is getting priority, chameleon is loading and XP refuses to play ball when you try and launch it via the chameleon menu)

simple work round that is just to press F12 when booting the PC and choosing the drive that XP is installed on to boot from in the list of boot devices- in effect you're temporarily overiding the HDD boot order thats set in the BIOS.

As the XP drive is now (temporarily) first HDD in the boot sequence NTloader kicks in rather than Chameleon and XP boots (though wether it does so successfully depends on issue two)

Issue 2 if you cant boot XP without the drive controllers being set to IDE then you havent installed the AHCI driver for the controller that the drive is attached to

a - something went wrong with the slip streaming or
b- you slip streamed them in but left the drive controller set to IDE while carrying out the XP installation and set up felt no need to install them


if the drives attached to one of the blue SATA ports then you need the intel driver installed

if the drives attached to one the white gigabyte ports you need the Jmicron driver installed (Gigabyte SATA)

as per previous post the simplest way of doing that on a live IDE XP installation already on your hard disk, is to attach the drive to a port on the second controller (gigabyte white ports) while installing the driver for the first controller (intel blue ports), and then repeating the process to get the second controllers AHCI drivers installed

hook XP drive to a white SATA port (same goes for the DVD drive) and make sure you've got no other drives hooked to the blue intel ports

in BIOS set the intel controller to AHCI
leave the gigabyte controller on IDE

boot into windows (it wont care that the blue ports are now AHCI its not trying to access any devices on them)

let it spot the new intel AHCI controller and when brings up the found new hardware dialog tell it to install files from a specified location. Browse your way thru the CD till you find the intel drivers and have it install them from there.

Once thats done (it might prompt for a restart let it complete that too) power off the PC

Hook the XP hard disk and the DVD drive up to blue sata ports

In the BIOS leave the intel ports set to AHCI (we've just installed the driver for those) and now set the Gigabyte controller to AHCI also

Boot back into windows and when it finds the gigabyte AHCI controller install the driver for that.

voila you'll then have AHCI capable drivers installed for both controllers and you can attach the drive to whichever colour SATA port you please.

gimme an hour or so and I'll chuck XP onto a box here and work out location of the intel drivers on the gigabyte CD, if I remember correctly there isnt an installer for them, instead you need to tell Add new hardware wizard to install from a specified location and then browse thru the CD directory structure till you hit the right one.

 

[snorkelman]

ok dokey..

both controllers set to IDE in BIOS

Sata HDD and SATA DVD each on a blue intel sata port

installed XP Pro (my works VLK version which is totally vanilla no slipsteams etc and is at service pack 2)

Once I hit the desktop replaced the XP CD with the gigabyte CD, and from the gigabyte disc menu I skipped the Xpress Install, selected the Install Single Items tab instead and installed:

Inf update utility (intel chipset files updater)
Audio
networking
G-SATA (takes care of the white ports)

Shut down PC after that

swapped the HDD and DVD drive over to the white gigabyte ports

into BIOS set the Intel SATA controller to AHCI, left the Gigabyte one further down the list set to IDE

booted back into XP

Found new hardware wizard appears

told it no I dont want to check the internet for updated drivers

told it to install files from a specific location

browsed to BootDrv/iRST/32Bit directory on the gigabyte CD

let it do its stuff

shut down PC

swapped the hard disk and DVD back over to two of the blue SATA ports

powered back up into BIOS

Set entry for the white Gigabyte SATA ports to AHCI, so that all controllers are now set to AHCI

save and quit setup

booted back into windows

everything works fine, controller is now listed as Intel(r) 5 Series/3400 series SATA AHCI Controller

 

[utradar]

Wow...you are the ****ing man.

Thank you for the walkthrough. Did just as you suggested and everything is gravy now. Gonna stick with the F12 at start-up method since XP won't boot through Chameleon. I assume Windows 7 will though?

Thanks again!

 

[snorkelman]

good to hear you got it sorted

havent tried Win7 (I only need XP and OSX on that box) but I expect it should play ball via chameleon

 

[tinkerC]

Thanks for the link, but...

I kind of went ahead and bought an 80GB drive for XP, plugged it in, unplugged the Mac drive, booted up with the XP disc in the optical drive, it scanned my hardware, and then gave me a blue screen error saying "Windows found a problem and shut down to protect my computer".

So I'm thinking my hardware is too new for outright XP support, and I REALLY don't want to buy Windows 7 just so i can play non-Mac games.

I found Windows 7 for 100 dollars, if you want it cheaper.

Tom

 

[Compass]

good to hear you got it sorted

havent tried Win7 (I only need XP and OSX on that box) but I expect it should play ball via chameleon

First post,

Very interesting subject, well done Tony & Co. Never thought I would bite the Apple again after my iBook died 3 weeks out of warranty, and they would not replace/repair for a known issue!

Anyway, got a few questions,

Does anyone know if Chameleon can boot either OS(OSX & W7 32bit) if said OS's are on seperate Hdd's?

Also, for a brand new build, using 2 hdd's, which OS should be installed first, OSX or W7?

And after installing the first OS, does that hdd need to be disconnect from the mobo, before installing the 2nd OS on the 2nd Hdd?

Sorry but I can't find a difinitive answer for these. It's all mostly about dual booting from 1 hdd.

Thanks In Advance

 

[MacMan]

Does anyone know if Chameleon can boot either OS(OSX & W7 32bit) if said OS's are on seperate Hdd's?

Also, for a brand new build, using 2 hdd's, which OS should be installed first, OSX or W7?

And after installing the first OS, does that hdd need to be disconnect from the mobo, before installing the 2nd OS on the 2nd Hdd?

Yes.

Doesn't matter.

You should.