A different kind of Dual Boot

[yonyz]

Hi,

I have two HDDs: one is an SSD that only has Mavericks installed in it. The other is a 2TB HDD that is called "Data", and is where I put my movies, music, photos, etc... No OS is installed on that drive. It is the drive where I'd like to install Windows 7 or 8.1 (doesn't really matter). That Data drive is formatted as GPT, and Windows can't be installed on a GPT drive, so I wonder how to go about doing that. Can I format it (and move the important stuff to the SSD meanwhile...) and choose MBR this time? Will Mavericks be able to write and read from that drive even if it's GPT? If yes, then I think I'll be able to split it to one partition that's that Journaled type and one that's NTFS - for Windows.

Please let me know if this could work.

Thanks.

 

[RehabMan]

Hi,

I have two HDDs: one is an SSD that only has Mavericks installed in it. The other is a 2TB HDD that is called "Data", and is where I put my movies, music, photos, etc... No OS is installed on that drive. It is the drive where I'd like to install Windows 7 or 8.1 (doesn't really matter). That Data drive is formatted as GPT, and Windows can't be installed on a GPT drive, so I wonder how to go about doing that. Can I format it (and move the important stuff to the SSD meanwhile...) and choose MBR this time? Will Mavericks be able to write and read from that drive even if it's GPT? If yes, then I think I'll be able to split it to one partition that's that Journaled type and one that's NTFS - for Windows.

Please let me know if this could work.

Thanks.

Your scenario can work. Partitioned as MBR, you'll be able to install Windows (legacy mode) to it. And you'll be able to access an HFS+J partition if you were to create one.

But to correct some slight mis-information... Windows can be installed to GPT when you're installing Windows in UEFI mode. Of course, for multiboot using Chimera you really have to stick with legacy Windows since Chimera/Chameleon cannot boot Windows UEFI.

 

[yonyz]

Thanks, I'll get to it now.
BTW, my motherboard doesn't support UEFI, so I'll stick to the MBR method.

 

[Going Bald]

Hi,

I have two HDDs: one is an SSD that only has Mavericks installed in it. The other is a 2TB HDD that is called "Data", and is where I put my movies, music, photos, etc... No OS is installed on that drive. It is the drive where I'd like to install Windows 7 or 8.1 (doesn't really matter). That Data drive is formatted as GPT, and Windows can't be installed on a GPT drive, so I wonder how to go about doing that. Can I format it (and move the important stuff to the SSD meanwhile...) and choose MBR this time? Will Mavericks be able to write and read from that drive even if it's GPT? If yes, then I think I'll be able to split it to one partition that's that Journaled type and one that's NTFS - for Windows.

Please let me know if this could work.

Thanks.

Launch disk utility, select the HDD in the left pane - look at current partition, use pointer at lower right corner of partition and hold left mouse button as you move the pointer up to shrink the partition.
This leaves free space at the end of the drive. click on the free space, click on the + to add a partition in the free space. Name it Windows and format it MSDOS FAT. Use Windows installer to reformat it NTFS - do not delete the partition - only select advanced button and format button.

 

[yonyz]

Launch disk utility, select the HDD in the left pane - look at current partition, use pointer at lower right corner of partition and hold left mouse button as you move the pointer up to shrink the partition.
This leaves free space at the end of the drive. click on the free space, click on the + to add a partition in the free space. Name it Windows and format it MSDOS FAT. Use Windows installer to reformat it NTFS - do not delete the partition - only select advanced button and format button.

I had to repartition it and change it to MBR, otherwise I would have not been able to install Windows.

 

[Going Bald]

I had to repartition it and change it to MBR, otherwise I would have not been able to install Windows.

What version of Windows? Win7 and Win8 will both install on a GUID partition map formatted drive if you use the disk utility to format the Windows partition.
See the Installing on Same Drive part of the Guide in the sticky at the top of this forum.

Basically, take a HDD, use disk utility to partition it. Say you have a 2Tb drive and you want Win7/8 on the last 500Gb of the drive, leaving you 1.5Gb storage space for OS X files.
Open disk utility,
select drive in the left pane,
select partition button top center
above current partition, change to 2 partitions
Click in top partition box, call it Files or whatever, size it 1.5Tb
select Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
click in bottom box
name the partition Win7/8 or whatever,
select MSDOS FAT

hit the continue button and format the drive.

In Windows installer where it asks you where you want to install, click on the MSDOS FAT partition, click on advanced, click on format, click on continue and install.

 

[yonyz]

Thanks, but I already got it installed with the 2tb hdd being mbr. It's no issue at all. Now I just need to reinstall chimera.