- Joined
- Sep 15, 2011
- Messages
- 4
- Motherboard
- Dell XPS 15 9550
- CPU
- Core i7-6700HQ
- Graphics
- Intel HD530/NVIDIA GTX960M 2GB DDR5
- Mac
- Mobile Phone
Hi everyone.
I have been an owner of the Dell XPS 15Z for a year now, running Mountain Lion and Windows 7 in dual boot, from the beginning.
As most of you running ML on this computer already know, it’s not possible to boot this computer with GPT partitioned hard disk, but I have found a workaround.
I have replaced the DVD drive with a SSD disk, and as a replacement for the missing DVD drive, I bought myself a USB DVD drive.
Under normal circumstances you would install the SSD disk in the hard disk bay, and put the old hard disk in the DVD bay with an adaptor, running ML and Win7 in dual boot from the SSD disk. I did this for almost a year without the possibility to boot from a GPT disk.
Then the SSD disk broke down, and while waiting for a replacement disk, I install an old hard drive in the hard disk bay. Then I got the idea of formatting the second drive (the one in the old DVD bay as a GPT partition disk, and install both Win7 and ML to two separate partitions on that drive. It is not possible to boot from this second drive as Dell for some reason force boot from the primary hard disk. I then formatted the primary hard disk as MBR and created a HFS partition in the beginning of that disk to be able to install Chameleon and then boot Win7 or ML from the SSD disk.
This works, and now I run ML with Find my Mac working, as this requires the recovery partition and this is only possible to have on a GPT drive as far as I know.
Another step closer to a perfectly working MAC. Still remains to solve correct wake up from sleep and a trackpad supporting multi touch.
During this voyage I have run into a new problem, related to the USB ports. I am not able to boot from any of the ports anymore. I receive the cursed ”Operation system not found”. My only boot option except the working hard disk is the DVD drive over USB as long as I enable UEFI boot in bios and boot Win7 installation media. I also have to disable ”legacy boot from USB”
If I wipe both disks using WINDOWS 7, DISKPART and CLEAN, I am again able to boot from the USB ports making the whole thing rather illogical, if you ask me. Now I need to disable UEFI Boot and enable ”legacy boot from usb”
It`s part of the story that I am running a modded bios by jkbuba over at BIOS MODS. He is mainly responsible for having this laptop running ML today with so few remaining issues, as there are quite a few obstacles along the way to having ML running well.
Hopefully someone can help with the USB problems as this makes the setup rather vulnerable.
BR
Kurt
I have been an owner of the Dell XPS 15Z for a year now, running Mountain Lion and Windows 7 in dual boot, from the beginning.
As most of you running ML on this computer already know, it’s not possible to boot this computer with GPT partitioned hard disk, but I have found a workaround.
I have replaced the DVD drive with a SSD disk, and as a replacement for the missing DVD drive, I bought myself a USB DVD drive.
Under normal circumstances you would install the SSD disk in the hard disk bay, and put the old hard disk in the DVD bay with an adaptor, running ML and Win7 in dual boot from the SSD disk. I did this for almost a year without the possibility to boot from a GPT disk.
Then the SSD disk broke down, and while waiting for a replacement disk, I install an old hard drive in the hard disk bay. Then I got the idea of formatting the second drive (the one in the old DVD bay as a GPT partition disk, and install both Win7 and ML to two separate partitions on that drive. It is not possible to boot from this second drive as Dell for some reason force boot from the primary hard disk. I then formatted the primary hard disk as MBR and created a HFS partition in the beginning of that disk to be able to install Chameleon and then boot Win7 or ML from the SSD disk.
This works, and now I run ML with Find my Mac working, as this requires the recovery partition and this is only possible to have on a GPT drive as far as I know.
Another step closer to a perfectly working MAC. Still remains to solve correct wake up from sleep and a trackpad supporting multi touch.
During this voyage I have run into a new problem, related to the USB ports. I am not able to boot from any of the ports anymore. I receive the cursed ”Operation system not found”. My only boot option except the working hard disk is the DVD drive over USB as long as I enable UEFI boot in bios and boot Win7 installation media. I also have to disable ”legacy boot from USB”
If I wipe both disks using WINDOWS 7, DISKPART and CLEAN, I am again able to boot from the USB ports making the whole thing rather illogical, if you ask me. Now I need to disable UEFI Boot and enable ”legacy boot from usb”
It`s part of the story that I am running a modded bios by jkbuba over at BIOS MODS. He is mainly responsible for having this laptop running ML today with so few remaining issues, as there are quite a few obstacles along the way to having ML running well.
Hopefully someone can help with the USB problems as this makes the setup rather vulnerable.
BR
Kurt