- Joined
- Aug 23, 2013
- Messages
- 6
- Motherboard
- Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H
- CPU
- i7 3770K 4.6GHz
- Graphics
- 650 Ti Boost 2GB
- Mac
- Classic Mac
- Mobile Phone
[THIS IS NOT A GUIDE]
It's a detailed account of my successful installation process and related troubleshooting I encountered. I don’t consider it a guide because it’s specific to my hardware and I don’t include alternative options. However, I hope this detailed account proves valuable to the hackintosh community. It's intended (especially if you are using similar hardware) to serve as reference material or to point you in the right direction. I wanted to consolidate what I learned during this installation process for the benefit of myself and others. All of this information and more can be found else where if you look hard enough. This account is intentionally descriptive and basic to help newer members of the community. Parts of the installation maybe unnecessary, inefficient, etc. I am not an expert. Again, my goal is to help someone, somehow, someway.
[Background]
- Been dual booting with Bootcamp + Windows XP on my Macbook Pro since 2007
- Built this Hackintosh (Hack Pro style build) in mid-2013
- Now I need Windows for work but I hate dual booting for non-gaming purposes
[Before You Start]
- Back up your files!
- Do your own research before you attempt a Dual boot and/or Parallels installation. Hardware, BIOS, OS, Software, etc is all different.
[Relevant Specs]
- Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H 7-Series Socket LGA-1155 UEFI Motherboard
- Intel Core i7 3770K Quad-Core Processor 3.5 GHz 8 MB Cache LGA 1155 - BX80637I73770K (overclocked to 4.6 GHz)
- 120GB SSD - Mac OSX 10.10 Yosemite
- 120GB SSD - Windows 7 Professional 64 bit
[Other Specs For Reference]
- GIGABYTE GV-N65TBOC-2GD GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST 2GB 192-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 HDCP Ready Video Card
- Optiarc SATA DVD RW Burner Drive with DVD+R DL Overburn up to 8.7GB, Black (5280S-CB-PLUS)
- CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10
- 2TB HDD
- 4TB HDD
[OSX 10.10 Yosemite Installation]
OSX installed as per the guide with UniBeast and Chimera. I recommend you have a stable OSX install with the correct .kext files from MultiBeast and BIOS settings prior to installing Windows/Parallels. (I did a clean install/update prior to starting the Windows installation process)
Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H BIOS settings I am using (access the BIOS with f12 for this motherboard):
xHCI - Auto
XHCI Hand-off - Enabled
EHCI Hand-off - Enabled
Wake on LAN - Disabled
Intel Virtualization Technology (VT-x) - Enabled (more on this later)
See the quick guide to Gigabyte 7-series Motherboards as a good starting point: http://www.tonymacx86.com/99-quick-guide-configuring-uefi-gigabyte-s-7-series-lga-1155-boards.html
Note: the above BIOS settings should not affect Dual Booting with Windows. However, VT-x must be enabled for Parallels to work.
[Windows 7 Professional 64 bit Installation]
There are numerous guides and alternative installation options out there but this is what I did:
1) Install the SSD or HDD that will be used for Windows into port 0 (P0)
2) Partitioned SSD with OSX disk utility to GUID partition table (not MBR or master boot record) and formatted as MS-DOS (Fat32)
3) Inserted Windows installation disk
4) Shutdown
5) Removed all drives and plug the soon to be windows SSD into the first port, P0 (if you didn’t already). Windows wants to be in P0 and OSX does not care which port it’s in.
6) Booted into Bios splash screen with f12 and selected the legacy (non-EFI) version of the DVD drive/ install disk
7) Reformatted the SSD with the utility built into the Windows installation disk
8) Installed Windows
Note: There may be 2 visible partitions for Windows. A ”System Reserved" (a few hundred MB in size) partition and a main “NTSF” partition. When you select which OS to boot with in the Chimera boot screen, you will see both Windows Partitions. It may not be obvious which you need to select to boot into Windows, use trial and error (the first time I installed Windows both partitions were just named “NTSF”).
9) Boot into Windows
10) Install updates for Windows and shutdown (you may have to do this many times to get all the Windows updates). Don’t forget to force Windows Update to check for updates because it might lie to you and say everything is up to date. This is a good time to make sure you have ALL Windows Service Packs installed (more on this later).
11) Shutdown and reinstall your OSX drive and any other hard drives.
12) Turn on the computer and enter the BIOS. Set the legacy (non-UEFI/non-EFI) OSX drive as first boot priority (assuming thats what you want).
13) Boot into OSX and reinstall Chimera. I have read that the Windows installation can overwrite or alter the Chimera boot loader. I didn’t notice any issues but I reinstalled it anyway.
14) Shutdown a few times and make sure everything is working properly. Boot directly into OSX, boot into Windows by selecting it in the Chimera boot loader, boot back into OSX, etc.
[Parallels Desktop 10 for Mac Installation]
1) Make sure OSX and Windows is installed successfully and working properly
2) Make sure Intel Virtualization Technology (VT-x) is Enabled in your BIOS settings
3) Boot to OSX
4) Purchase and Install Parallels 10
5) Create the Virtual Machine using the “Bootcamp” option (even though bootcamp was not used). This may take a while and you will have to enter your Windows password at some point. If VT-x is not Enabled you will get an error message right when it starts and Parallels will never finish creating the VM.
6) Once the VM is initially created you must go to the Parallels settings for the VM and find “Edit Partitions”. By default it will select just 1 of the 2 Windows partitions (System Reserved and the main partition), make sure you put a check next to BOTH partitions.
7) You should now be able to use Parallels 10 with out any issues. Parallels 10 has worked flawlessly for me since I installed it about 2 weeks ago and this includes “Coherence” mode!
[OTHER RELATED INFORMATION AND TROUBLESHOOTING SECTION]
[Example of my Drive Installation]
P0 - Win7
P1 - OSX Yosemite - set as my 1st boot option
P2 - 2TB HDD
P3 - 4TB HDD
P4 - DVD Drive
[Installing Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1)]
When you have a dual boot Hackintosh you may run into issues trying to install Service Pack 1 for Windows 7. It may fail to install. You may also have this issue while trying to install service packs for other versions of Windows. I didn’t do much testing so I’m not positive exactly what I needed to do to install Windows 7 SP1. Below is everything I came across and tried, in the order I tried it. All of the below steps are in Windows and have nothing to do with OSX.
1) Set your Windows “System Reserved” Partition as the “active” disk/hard drive. To do this: Click Start > search for “Disk Management”. In the Disk Management utility locate the correct disk and partition. Right click the partition and select “Make Active Disk”. The System Reserved disk was set as “active” for me by default. I tried the “NTSF” partition too and then changed it back to the System Reserved partition. This step alone did not work for me. Also note that some people had issues booting into OSX as result of changing the Windows disk to active. Simply change the OSX disk back to active once you install SP1. I had no problems leaving Windows as the active disk (and it was by default)
2) Assign a drive letter to “System Reserved”. By default the “NTSF” drive is assigned “C:” however, the System reserved drive had no letter assigned. Some people said to assign “A:” or “B:” to the System Reserved partition. I chose “E:” because this was the first/recommended option that showed up and I didn’t think it would matter. You can assign these drive letters in the Disk Management utility.
3) Remove all hard drives/HDDs, SSDs, etc. except the Windows drive (which should alway be in P0). After doing this step the installation worked and I simply plugged all the other drives back in.
[VT-x vs VT-d]
I’m new to VT-x and VT-d. I didn’t know what they were prior to researching the Parallels installation process. I’m not going to try to explain them but note THEY ARE NOT ONE IN THE SAME. I thought they were initially. I thought people were using them interchangeably. They are not the same. The reason why this is relevant is because I have an i7 3770K processor. “K” processors support VT-x but DO NOT support VT-d. You must have VT-x to run Parallels. VT-d is not a must for virtualization software / virtual machines like Parallels but it is nice to have.
[Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H Motherboard BIOS Notes]
- At one point while playing with BIOS settings, I couldn’t boot nor could I get into the BIOS to correct the changes I made. Fortunately, this is easy correct on this motherboard. You can simply press the CMOS button on the motherboard to reset/clear the BIOS to default settings.
- There seems to be a bug in the BIOS/Motherboard Firmware version I’m using. I had my BIOS set to show Legacy and UEFI drives. Since I have 2x SSDs, 2x HDDs, and a DVD drive I should see 10 possible options (one Legacy and one UEFI for each). I do see all these options in the initial BIOS splash screen prior to entering set up. I also see all the options in the boot over ride section of the BIOS set up. But, only some of the options show up where you select your boot priority options under “BIOS Features”. So at several points I could not set my Legacy OSX SSD drive as boot priority #1. To correct this I disconnected all my drives except the OSX SSD drive. I was then able to make it the 1st boot priority option, save and exit the BIOS. Then I reconnected all the other drives. Whether you can set a drive as a boot priority option or not, you can always boot to any option by pressing f12 and selecting it in the splash screen (or boot override section of the set up).
[MultiBeast OSX System Profile Notes]
- tip: don’t select or change your system profiles with out some research first!
- For the Mac Pro 5, 1 system profile specifically, you have to delete 1-2 .kext files OR YOU CANNOT BOOT. I forgot this when I reinstalled OSX and I was causally trying different system profiles.
- If you cannot boot due to a system profile, there are at least 2 options of how to fix it with out reinstalling. One option is to boot in safe mode. To do this, press an arrow key on the Chimera boot screen (same way you select which operating system you want to boot to) and type “-v” and press enter.
Thank you for reading! Again, I hope this helps someone! If you see something that is definitely wrong, please let me know!
It's a detailed account of my successful installation process and related troubleshooting I encountered. I don’t consider it a guide because it’s specific to my hardware and I don’t include alternative options. However, I hope this detailed account proves valuable to the hackintosh community. It's intended (especially if you are using similar hardware) to serve as reference material or to point you in the right direction. I wanted to consolidate what I learned during this installation process for the benefit of myself and others. All of this information and more can be found else where if you look hard enough. This account is intentionally descriptive and basic to help newer members of the community. Parts of the installation maybe unnecessary, inefficient, etc. I am not an expert. Again, my goal is to help someone, somehow, someway.
[Background]
- Been dual booting with Bootcamp + Windows XP on my Macbook Pro since 2007
- Built this Hackintosh (Hack Pro style build) in mid-2013
- Now I need Windows for work but I hate dual booting for non-gaming purposes
[Before You Start]
- Back up your files!
- Do your own research before you attempt a Dual boot and/or Parallels installation. Hardware, BIOS, OS, Software, etc is all different.
[Relevant Specs]
- Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H 7-Series Socket LGA-1155 UEFI Motherboard
- Intel Core i7 3770K Quad-Core Processor 3.5 GHz 8 MB Cache LGA 1155 - BX80637I73770K (overclocked to 4.6 GHz)
- 120GB SSD - Mac OSX 10.10 Yosemite
- 120GB SSD - Windows 7 Professional 64 bit
[Other Specs For Reference]
- GIGABYTE GV-N65TBOC-2GD GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST 2GB 192-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 HDCP Ready Video Card
- Optiarc SATA DVD RW Burner Drive with DVD+R DL Overburn up to 8.7GB, Black (5280S-CB-PLUS)
- CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10
- 2TB HDD
- 4TB HDD
[OSX 10.10 Yosemite Installation]
OSX installed as per the guide with UniBeast and Chimera. I recommend you have a stable OSX install with the correct .kext files from MultiBeast and BIOS settings prior to installing Windows/Parallels. (I did a clean install/update prior to starting the Windows installation process)
Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H BIOS settings I am using (access the BIOS with f12 for this motherboard):
xHCI - Auto
XHCI Hand-off - Enabled
EHCI Hand-off - Enabled
Wake on LAN - Disabled
Intel Virtualization Technology (VT-x) - Enabled (more on this later)
See the quick guide to Gigabyte 7-series Motherboards as a good starting point: http://www.tonymacx86.com/99-quick-guide-configuring-uefi-gigabyte-s-7-series-lga-1155-boards.html
Note: the above BIOS settings should not affect Dual Booting with Windows. However, VT-x must be enabled for Parallels to work.
[Windows 7 Professional 64 bit Installation]
There are numerous guides and alternative installation options out there but this is what I did:
1) Install the SSD or HDD that will be used for Windows into port 0 (P0)
2) Partitioned SSD with OSX disk utility to GUID partition table (not MBR or master boot record) and formatted as MS-DOS (Fat32)
3) Inserted Windows installation disk
4) Shutdown
5) Removed all drives and plug the soon to be windows SSD into the first port, P0 (if you didn’t already). Windows wants to be in P0 and OSX does not care which port it’s in.
6) Booted into Bios splash screen with f12 and selected the legacy (non-EFI) version of the DVD drive/ install disk
7) Reformatted the SSD with the utility built into the Windows installation disk
8) Installed Windows
Note: There may be 2 visible partitions for Windows. A ”System Reserved" (a few hundred MB in size) partition and a main “NTSF” partition. When you select which OS to boot with in the Chimera boot screen, you will see both Windows Partitions. It may not be obvious which you need to select to boot into Windows, use trial and error (the first time I installed Windows both partitions were just named “NTSF”).
9) Boot into Windows
10) Install updates for Windows and shutdown (you may have to do this many times to get all the Windows updates). Don’t forget to force Windows Update to check for updates because it might lie to you and say everything is up to date. This is a good time to make sure you have ALL Windows Service Packs installed (more on this later).
11) Shutdown and reinstall your OSX drive and any other hard drives.
12) Turn on the computer and enter the BIOS. Set the legacy (non-UEFI/non-EFI) OSX drive as first boot priority (assuming thats what you want).
13) Boot into OSX and reinstall Chimera. I have read that the Windows installation can overwrite or alter the Chimera boot loader. I didn’t notice any issues but I reinstalled it anyway.
14) Shutdown a few times and make sure everything is working properly. Boot directly into OSX, boot into Windows by selecting it in the Chimera boot loader, boot back into OSX, etc.
[Parallels Desktop 10 for Mac Installation]
1) Make sure OSX and Windows is installed successfully and working properly
2) Make sure Intel Virtualization Technology (VT-x) is Enabled in your BIOS settings
3) Boot to OSX
4) Purchase and Install Parallels 10
5) Create the Virtual Machine using the “Bootcamp” option (even though bootcamp was not used). This may take a while and you will have to enter your Windows password at some point. If VT-x is not Enabled you will get an error message right when it starts and Parallels will never finish creating the VM.
6) Once the VM is initially created you must go to the Parallels settings for the VM and find “Edit Partitions”. By default it will select just 1 of the 2 Windows partitions (System Reserved and the main partition), make sure you put a check next to BOTH partitions.
7) You should now be able to use Parallels 10 with out any issues. Parallels 10 has worked flawlessly for me since I installed it about 2 weeks ago and this includes “Coherence” mode!
[OTHER RELATED INFORMATION AND TROUBLESHOOTING SECTION]
[Example of my Drive Installation]
P0 - Win7
P1 - OSX Yosemite - set as my 1st boot option
P2 - 2TB HDD
P3 - 4TB HDD
P4 - DVD Drive
[Installing Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1)]
When you have a dual boot Hackintosh you may run into issues trying to install Service Pack 1 for Windows 7. It may fail to install. You may also have this issue while trying to install service packs for other versions of Windows. I didn’t do much testing so I’m not positive exactly what I needed to do to install Windows 7 SP1. Below is everything I came across and tried, in the order I tried it. All of the below steps are in Windows and have nothing to do with OSX.
1) Set your Windows “System Reserved” Partition as the “active” disk/hard drive. To do this: Click Start > search for “Disk Management”. In the Disk Management utility locate the correct disk and partition. Right click the partition and select “Make Active Disk”. The System Reserved disk was set as “active” for me by default. I tried the “NTSF” partition too and then changed it back to the System Reserved partition. This step alone did not work for me. Also note that some people had issues booting into OSX as result of changing the Windows disk to active. Simply change the OSX disk back to active once you install SP1. I had no problems leaving Windows as the active disk (and it was by default)
2) Assign a drive letter to “System Reserved”. By default the “NTSF” drive is assigned “C:” however, the System reserved drive had no letter assigned. Some people said to assign “A:” or “B:” to the System Reserved partition. I chose “E:” because this was the first/recommended option that showed up and I didn’t think it would matter. You can assign these drive letters in the Disk Management utility.
3) Remove all hard drives/HDDs, SSDs, etc. except the Windows drive (which should alway be in P0). After doing this step the installation worked and I simply plugged all the other drives back in.
[VT-x vs VT-d]
I’m new to VT-x and VT-d. I didn’t know what they were prior to researching the Parallels installation process. I’m not going to try to explain them but note THEY ARE NOT ONE IN THE SAME. I thought they were initially. I thought people were using them interchangeably. They are not the same. The reason why this is relevant is because I have an i7 3770K processor. “K” processors support VT-x but DO NOT support VT-d. You must have VT-x to run Parallels. VT-d is not a must for virtualization software / virtual machines like Parallels but it is nice to have.
[Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H Motherboard BIOS Notes]
- At one point while playing with BIOS settings, I couldn’t boot nor could I get into the BIOS to correct the changes I made. Fortunately, this is easy correct on this motherboard. You can simply press the CMOS button on the motherboard to reset/clear the BIOS to default settings.
- There seems to be a bug in the BIOS/Motherboard Firmware version I’m using. I had my BIOS set to show Legacy and UEFI drives. Since I have 2x SSDs, 2x HDDs, and a DVD drive I should see 10 possible options (one Legacy and one UEFI for each). I do see all these options in the initial BIOS splash screen prior to entering set up. I also see all the options in the boot over ride section of the BIOS set up. But, only some of the options show up where you select your boot priority options under “BIOS Features”. So at several points I could not set my Legacy OSX SSD drive as boot priority #1. To correct this I disconnected all my drives except the OSX SSD drive. I was then able to make it the 1st boot priority option, save and exit the BIOS. Then I reconnected all the other drives. Whether you can set a drive as a boot priority option or not, you can always boot to any option by pressing f12 and selecting it in the splash screen (or boot override section of the set up).
[MultiBeast OSX System Profile Notes]
- tip: don’t select or change your system profiles with out some research first!
- For the Mac Pro 5, 1 system profile specifically, you have to delete 1-2 .kext files OR YOU CANNOT BOOT. I forgot this when I reinstalled OSX and I was causally trying different system profiles.
- If you cannot boot due to a system profile, there are at least 2 options of how to fix it with out reinstalling. One option is to boot in safe mode. To do this, press an arrow key on the Chimera boot screen (same way you select which operating system you want to boot to) and type “-v” and press enter.
Thank you for reading! Again, I hope this helps someone! If you see something that is definitely wrong, please let me know!
