Advice for moving from a 2-partition to a 2-disk W7/ML dual-boot scheme?

[jsahlen]

Hi all,

I'm currently dual-booting Windows 7 and Mountain Lion on my Hackintosh. I'm going to start using this computer as my primary Mac at home, and to facilitate that I'm going to get a new, separate SSD for Mac OS. I'm just looking to get some practical input before I start changing things around.

My current SSD ("Original") is partitioned with GPT – first is a 60 GB HFS+ partition, and then a 180 GB NTFS one. Mountain Lion is installed on the HFS+ one and working well, and ditto with Windows 7 on the NTFS one.
I want to have my new SSD contain only a HFS+ partition, where I want to move my current Mountain Lion installation. On the Original SSD, I want to remove the existing HFS+ partition and have the NTFS partition take up the whole drive.
I want to boot using Chimera by default (on the new SSD), but it should also be possible to boot straight to the Original SSD in case I need it.

The way I'm planning to do it is to clone the ML install to the new drive using Carbon Copy Cloner, and I believe I will then have to install Chimera manually to this new drive…? That's fine, but for the original SSD, what tools do I need to use to move the NTFS partition to the beginning of the drive, plus grow it to fill the entire drive? Can it be done using Windows' built-in tools? Also, is it possible to overwrite the currently installed Chimera bootloader with Windows' bootloader easily, without reinstalling Windows?

I'd greatly appreciate any help or pointers so I don't muck anything up. Is there anything I haven't thought of in the process? Thanks!

 

[RehabMan]

Hi all,

I'm currently dual-booting Windows 7 and Mountain Lion on my Hackintosh. I'm going to start using this computer as my primary Mac at home, and to facilitate that I'm going to get a new, separate SSD for Mac OS. I'm just looking to get some practical input before I start changing things around.

My current SSD ("Original") is partitioned with GPT – first is a 60 GB HFS+ partition, and then a 180 GB NTFS one. Mountain Lion is installed on the HFS+ one and working well, and ditto with Windows 7 on the NTFS one.
I want to have my new SSD contain only a HFS+ partition, where I want to move my current Mountain Lion installation. On the Original SSD, I want to remove the existing HFS+ partition and have the NTFS partition take up the whole drive.
I want to boot using Chimera by default (on the new SSD), but it should also be possible to boot straight to the Original SSD in case I need it.

The way I'm planning to do it is to clone the ML install to the new drive using Carbon Copy Cloner, and I believe I will then have to install Chimera manually to this new drive…? That's fine, but for the original SSD, what tools do I need to use to move the NTFS partition to the beginning of the drive, plus grow it to fill the entire drive? Can it be done using Windows' built-in tools? Also, is it possible to overwrite the currently installed Chimera bootloader with Windows' bootloader easily, without reinstalling Windows?

I'd greatly appreciate any help or pointers so I don't muck anything up. Is there anything I haven't thought of in the process? Thanks!

Just clone the NTFS partition somewhere else. Then repartition the drive, then clone it back into the now larger space. After that you will have to repair the Windows boot files, using either the Windows Install disc/USB or a Windows Repair disc you previously created. Hopefully, that works (eg. Windows is able to repair itself), because if not, you'll have to spend some time using BCDEDIT at the WinRE command line to fix the boot files.

You could also use the Windows tools for "image" backup/recovery.

 

[jsahlen]

Just clone the NTFS partition somewhere else. Then repartition the drive, then clone it back into the now larger space. After that you will have to repair the Windows boot files, using either the Windows Install disc/USB or a Windows Repair disc you previously created. Hopefully, that works (eg. Windows is able to repair itself), because if not, you'll have to spend some time using BCDEDIT at the WinRE command line to fix the boot files.

You could also use the Windows tools for "image" backup/recovery.

Thanks! I'll give Winclone a try once I have the new drive, and keep my fingers crossed that the standard repair will work for the bootloader.