Using EFI partition for bootloader, dual boot Win7 + SL

Hi all,

I've just finished my second install of osx on my own hardware. I previously had an ASUS P5W DH Deluxe, and build a new system with a GA-P55-UD3R board and i5 cpu.

Anyway, I've always had problems with various installs and have tried many different guides but haven't really fully understood what's going on with various steps, so bare with me.

My goal is to get my system set up this way: OS X and Windows 7 dual boot on single x25-m 160GB SSD.

I followed the SL + W7 dual boot guide (partition disk as GPT with W7 diskpart to ensure proper partition alignment for SSD, reboot and install SL retail, now install W7 and it doesnt complain about GPT disk...boot to SL with iBoot and install Multibeast).

This left me with a system that wouldn't boot unless using iBoot. Not sure why. Anyway, the workaround was to install easyBCD and set W7 partition as active.

This seems to work, but what I really wanted was a system works as expected with chameleon as the default bootloader. But even with the OSX partition set active after installing multibeast, my motherboard was not able to boot to that partition.

What I *really* would like to know how to do, is to install chameleon (and whatever else Multibeast installs) to my EFI partition, so that I don't have to modify the SL install at all. I had this set up with my Asus + leopard 10.5 and it was really nice.

Any info, tips, guides etc would be appreciated. I have searched and read a lot but maybe there's something I'm not understanding.

Thanks

Hey samssf,

I also have the same board but can't get iBoot to start installer (reboots). I placed mobo DSTD in Extra folder and this got me further but ended up in blank screen. Could you give me heads-up on how you went about installing on your box?

f0rcegr0wn said:

Hey samssf,

I also have the same board but can't get iBoot to start installer (reboots). I placed mobo DSTD in Extra folder and this got me further but ended up in blank screen. Could you give me heads-up on how you went about installing on your box?

Click to expand...

Sure, this is how it went:

1. Previous box had two WD Black 640GB drives. Installed x25-m into old machine and spent a day trying to move data around and back up etc, not really relevant.
2. Put together new machine. Board, i5 750, 4GB corsair xms3. [Booted W7 disk and using diskpart to create several partitions using GPT partition map]
3. Tried various methods of install, nothing worked. Researched how to create a bootable usb stick from any CD/DVD iso (rather than waste a cd which I only had a couple of).. tried solutions but nothing worked.
4. Gave up and burned iBoot.
5. Booting iBoot results in "memory allocation error... 0xDEADBEEF".
6. Read some random forum post about how a hard drive was causing this error.
7. Unplug my two old 640GB drives. Unplug everything not absolutely needed to install.
8. Boot successfully using iBoot. Put in Snow Leopard disk, hit f5, load SL install.
9. Formatted a partition I created in W7 install as Mac OSX Journaled, installed SL.
10. Use iBoot to boot into new SL install. Had to hit [tab] in iBoot to use -X flag to boot into safe mode since I have unsupported graphics card (ATI 3870)
11. Restart, use iBoot to boot W7.
12. Mess around
13. Must use iBoot to boot into SL again. Also have to hit [tab] after iBoot is done loading in order to hit -X to load SL in safe mode
14. Install apple update and install Multibeast
15. Wonder how to go about booting an OS without iBoot. Board refuses to do so and says "Loading operating system..."
16. Boot to W7 using iBoot, mark partition as active, install easyBCD.
17. Mostly working system. Lots more to do.

TLDR; Once I unplugged my other hard disks, iBoot seemed to work. Also, it was required for me to set my hard disks as AHCI mode in motherboard BIOS. This is the guide I used. I downloaded the ATI version of iBoot and installed onto a regular CD-R.
http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/2010/04/ ... -x-on.html

Edit* Make sure your BIOS settings are like the images on that guide, because I did that before I started. Don't worry if a couple of the options in the pics are not available, because they are only available after the most recent firmware update. I did not update my board's firmware until I was done. I should note that after flashing the firmware I had to go back into BIOS and set SATA mode as AHCI in order for SL to boot.