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Easiest dual boot setup when starting from scratch?

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Easiest dual boot setup when building from scratch?

What's the easiest way to manage dual booting when you are starting from scratch?

I'm building a dual boot system with mountain lion and windows 7. I have never installed either OS on the sytem (although I did get it up and running on the unibeast usb, got to the installation screen but couldn't see the HDD so no install, a topic for another thread). I have two 1TB conventional hard drives (but might upgrade to SSD's once they come down a bit more). I also have a proper mac laptop and a windows 7 desktop that I can use to set anything up.

Will I be better off putting both OS's on the same disk? Both OS's on different disks? Easiest way to utilize the easiest methot?

FTR, by easiest I mean least hassle to get it and keep it working, I don't mind if I have to shut down in between or hit keys when starting up if it makes it all run smoother overall.

Lastly, could you please point to to a good guide of how to set up whichever way you think is best?

Thanks!

Edit: clarity in title
 
I'm looking to do the same thing. I just got done troubleshooting the ML installation and have it working the way that I want it to (knock on wood). I have two 128GB SSD drives one with ML and I'd like to install Win7 Pro on the other 128GB SSD. Is there a process that I need to follow?

I tried to boot into my USB Unibeast with the Win7 disk in the drive but it didn't see the disk for me to boot off of.

Not sure where I go from here.
 
Two separate drives for each OS is the easiest and cleanest method.

Once you have ML with Chimera bootloader up and running the general process to add Windows is:

1) Disconnect all your drives except for the DVD and the HDD you are installing Windows on
2) Boot into Windows setup and install normally
3) Once Windows is done with installation, reconnect all of your other drives
4) Hit any key when Chimera screen comes up before it automatically boots into Mac OS
5) Depending on Windows versions you may end up with one or two Windows options in Chimera. If you see two, select "Reserved" and that will boot you into Windows.

Alternatively, pressing F12 during boot will bring up you boot options in system BIOS. You can manually select the HDD that has your Windows installation from there.
 
I'm looking to do the same thing. I just got done troubleshooting the ML installation and have it working the way that I want it to (knock on wood). I have two 128GB SSD drives one with ML and I'd like to install Win7 Pro on the other 128GB SSD. Is there a process that I need to follow?

I tried to boot into my USB Unibeast with the Win7 disk in the drive but it didn't see the disk for me to boot off of.

Not sure where I go from here.

Follow this thread and you might get some help recognizing your drive. I'm still working on it myself (didn't get much time to try last night).
http://www.tonymacx86.com/mountain-...-unibeast-boot-not-seeing-my-hdd-install.html
 
Two separate drives for each OS is the easiest and cleanest method.

Once you have ML with Chimera bootloader up and running the general process to add Windows is:

1) Disconnect all your drives except for the DVD and the HDD you are installing Windows on
2) Boot into Windows setup and install normally
3) Once Windows is done with installation, reconnect all of your other drives
4) Hit any key when Chimera screen comes up before it automatically boots into Mac OS
5) Depending on Windows versions you may end up with one or two Windows options in Chimera. If you see two, select "Reserved" and that will boot you into Windows.

Alternatively, pressing F12 during boot will bring up you boot options in system BIOS. You can manually select the HDD that has your Windows installation from there.

Awesome thanks for the advice! I'll try the Chimera first an fall back on f12 if Chimera gives me headaches. Just as soon as I get ML working... Getting help on that in another thread here if anybody wants to contribute http://www.tonymacx86.com/mountain-...-unibeast-boot-not-seeing-my-hdd-install.html =)

Thanks!
 
Thanks! Those steps sound easy enough. I have ML working pretty darn well but ran into a couple other issues which are minor. I'll need to search and post another thread for those though. Thanks again!
 
Thanks Lokicat ! I had both OS X and Windows 7 on different SSD's and didn't understand why I couldn't see the Windows 7 drive in Chimera. I did what you said in step 4 and there were all the hard drives I have in my system. Once I selected the reserve drive Windows 7 booted up.

Now that I have the dual boot working is there a way to name each drive in Chimera?
 
Glad it worked out for you!

I don't know if one can customize the names of the boot options in Chimera but there is a Chimera section of the Tools forum and you might get the answer there.
 
This the easiest method for me. This is for a single HD.

Windows then OS X Method
Boot using Unibeast Mountain Lion USB and create 1 HFS+ partition and 1 exFAT partition using GUID partition map.
Boot using Windows 7 DVD, format exFAT partition as NTFS and install.
Boot using Unibeast Mountain Lion USB and install OS X onto HFS+ partition. Just follow the Unibeast guide.
Don't forget to run Multibeast and ensure Chimera is installed.
Boot from HD and Chimera should automatically see both the Windows and OS X partitions.
 
Glad it worked out for you!

I don't know if one can customize the names of the boot options in Chimera but there is a Chimera section of the Tools forum and you might get the answer there.

LOL, I stand corrected. You can change the names of the System Reserved and NTFS drives that Chimera displays, but you do this in Windows.

Go to:

Control Panel > System & Security > Administration Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management

Once you see your drive and partitions, right click on the partition and select "Properties". You can change the name from there. I don't know how to hide the non bootable partition in Windows or Chimera, but I relabeled my partitions as "Windows 8 Boot" and "Windows 8 System".
 
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