~Beginning builder: the unusual dual boot/partition question

[snowy0230]

and that's why I went for separate hard drives. Not only that, but when it comes to updating either OS, or performing a clean install, a wrong click could format the complete HD.... Opps, Bye Bye everything.

This is my personal preference to have my operating systems and files split up to different HD's because when you need to perform such tasks, you can simply pull the plug on windows or OSX and those family pictures and work files and rest assured they are tucked up and safe.

Good luck with build!

Good guide too Going Bald!

 

[Going Bald]

Okay, this I think I understand fully.



So I'll use OS X Disk Utility to pre-format my 64GB SSD using a GUID partition table, with only one partition, titled "Windows 7 boot drive."

Now, this next part might be stupid and demonstrate that I don't understand. I then have to choose a file format for the SSD. The FAT32 format and the exFAT format are the only formats appropriate for an SSD running Windows. (True so far?) Why would someone choose FAT32 over exFAT, or vice versa?

So after I've made that choice and formatted the drive, I will then stop, reboot from the Windows 7 install DVD and select the partition…then click on the "Advanced" button > the "Format" button and format the drive again? That last part you said…

Select the drive partition you want to use, click on the advanced button, then the format button. When it finishes formatting, continue the installation as normal.
​

…really confuses me. If this is really what you meant, should I use the Windows 7 install DVD to format the SSD exactly as I did with the Mac OS X Disk Utility (for example, with GUID partition table and then exFAT)? And then, the end result will be what I desire: only one partition on the SSD with Windows 7 installed on it, that I can choose at the Chimera bootloader to boot Windows 7 in the future?

It doesn't matter whether you select FAT32 or ExFAT when formatting the Windows partition in OS X disk utility. The point here is to format the partition with something the Windows installer will recognize because disk utility can't format the drive NTFS and to create a Hybrid MBR partition if you formatted the drive with GUID partition tables so you can install Windows on it. The Windows installer will not install on anything but NTFS, so you have to format it again NTFS using the Windows installer before you can continue and finish installing.

Now we're talking about the large HDD. Let's say I've installed Mac OS X to the first SSD and Windows 7 to the small SDD, and both are hooked up and working properly. Then, I plug in the HDD and do as you said:

1. Format the entire HDD with the GUID partition table using Mac OS X Disk Utility.
2. Create two partitions, and format one as HFS+ (Mac OS X extended journaled). Leave the other untouched, and do nothing more in Mac OS X.
3. Reboot in Windows 7, and use Windows Disk Manager to format the free space as NTFS.

The reason that we are doing this instead of just formatting the whole thing as exFAT is because both those file systems (HFS+ and NTFS) are less susceptible to corruption than exFAT.

All correct?

Correct. You could also format the entire drive MBR FAT32 and both OS X and Windows could see the whole drive. This works well as long as you do not have a file greater than 4Gb minus 1 byte in size. Any single file over 4Gb in size can't be stored on a FAT32 formatted HDD.

 

[Ofidian]

It doesn't matter whether you select FAT32 or ExFAT when formatting the Windows partition in OS X disk utility. The point here is to format the partition with something the Windows installer will recognize because disk utility can't format the drive NTFS and to create a Hybrid MBR partition if you formatted the drive with GUID partition tables so you can install Windows on it. The Windows installer will not install on anything but NTFS, so you have to format it again NTFS using the Windows installer before you can continue and finish installing.

So to get what I want, which is a Windows 7-bootable SSD with only one partition that is selectable in Chimera, I must follow these steps:

1. Finish the Mac OS X installation process on the 120GB SSD, and shut down.
2. Plug in the 64GB SSD (Windows 7 target).
3. Boot from the 120GB Mac OS X SSD, and use Disk Utility to format the 64GB SSD as GUID partition table, exFAT, one big partition. (This prevents Windows 7 from partitioning the drive into three parts in the next step, which I do not want and could cause problems.)
4. Insert the Windows 7 installation DVD and direct the program to install Windows 7 to the 64GB SSD. During the options selection process, go to the "Advanced" button > "Format" button. This will cause Windows 7 to format the SSD as NTFS in one big partition like I want instead of partitioning the drive into three parts.
5. Finish the installation process and restart.
6. Select the Windows 7 SSD from the Chimera bootloader navigation menu to run Windows. All is well.

Correct. You could also format the entire drive MBR FAT32 and both OS X and Windows could see the whole drive. This works well as long as you do not have a file greater than 4Gb minus 1 byte in size. Any single file over 4Gb in size can't be stored on a FAT32 formatted HDD.

I think I might do what you suggested earlier, which is partition the HDD into two halves with each using a format that can support files greater than 4GB in size. I might need that capability for my HDD at some point, given how much I draw digitally, and I can solve read-write incompatibilities later on if I need to with those programs you mentioned. (I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.)

One last, big question: do the 6GB/s SATA ports work on the motherboards? I've bought a Z77-series motherboard and I thought I would be hooking all those drives up to those 6GB/s SATA ports, but this article (in section three)…

http://www.macquacker.com/2012/07/install-mountain-lion-unibeast.html

…says they don't work.