Dual Boot Windows 8 and Mountain Lion on 4530s

[RehabMan]

Did it.
I was able to install W8 on a single partition (3rd one after EFI hidden partition + ML partition).
I reinstalled Chimaera, but there is no way Chimaera detects W8.

I run live ubuntu from dvd and was able to run gptsync. All done.
Then I reboot but again same issue: got Chimaera and ML working. W8 disappeared from bootloader.

Any help with using gptsync in my case or any other workaround in your mind?

Thanks again.

Any "Hide Partition" in your /Extra/org.chameleon.Boot.plist?

 

[iciolozzo]

Any "Hide Partition" in your /Extra/org.chameleon.Boot.plist?

Nope.
Already checked previously.

After I install Chimaera I can't boot from W8 no more, even if I make the W8 partition active again.
I always get the Chimaera boot screen.

I noticed another thing.
When I installed W8 on the a single partition avoiding the 2-partition issue of WIndows (one System Reserved with W8 boot files and the other for the rest) the W8 install screen showed the first two partitions (EFI and ML) as "primary" and the third where I installed W8 marked as "system".

Maybe something wrong there?

 

[RehabMan]

Nope.
Already checked previously.

After I install Chimaera I can't boot from W8 no more, even if I make the W8 partition active again.
I always get the Chimaera boot screen.

To be expected -- your boot record is now Chimera. The only way to get Windows boot record back would be to run bootsect /nt60 /mbr from Win8 recovery USB/DVD.

The active partition bit doesn't do much except make the BIOS feel all warm & fuzzy (well, it is an exaggeration, but...)

I noticed another thing.
When I installed W8 on the a single partition avoiding the 2-partition issue of WIndows (one System Reserved with W8 boot files and the other for the rest) the W8 install screen showed the first two partitions (EFI and ML) as "primary" and the third where I installed W8 marked as "system".

Maybe something wrong there?

That all sounds normal.

Just to clarify, you have three partitions EFI, ML, and an NTFS Win8 partition and Chimera only shows ML? Are you pressing a key at boot time to see the other options? (ie. notice that it says press any key...). What happens if you press Tab once at the Chimera selection screen (text mode Chimera). Any clues there?

 

[iciolozzo]

To be expected -- your boot record is now Chimera. The only way to get Windows boot record back would be to run bootsect /nt60 /mbr from Win8 recovery USB/DVD.

The active partition bit doesn't do much except make the BIOS feel all warm & fuzzy (well, it is an exaggeration, but...)



That all sounds normal.

Just to clarify, you have three partitions EFI, ML, and an NTFS Win8 partition and Chimera only shows ML? Are you pressing a key at boot time to see the other options? (ie. notice that it says press any key...). What happens if you press Tab once at the Chimera selection screen (text mode Chimera). Any clues there?

I also have a 4th partition with all 0s on it if i do a scan with fidsk on ML, marked as unused.

Then the 3 partitions EFI ML and NTFS W8 and Chimaera only shows ML, even If I press of course (I have other dual-boots on my other machines but no one with W8 on).
Same thing happen with text only bootloader: it shows only the ML hd(0,2) partition.

If I open disk utility it shows ML and partition3, but partition3 is grey not black and I can't make it Active on Disk Utility with right click command.

 

[RehabMan]

I also have a 4th partition with all 0s on it if i do a scan with fidsk on ML, marked as unused.

Then the 3 partitions EFI ML and NTFS W8 and Chimaera only shows ML, even If I press of course (I have other dual-boots on my other machines but no one with W8 on).
Same thing happen with text only bootloader: it shows only the ML hd(0,2) partition.

If I open disk utility it shows ML and partition3, but partition3 is grey not black and I can't make it Active on Disk Utility with right click command.

I'm really not sure what you have going on there. 4th partition? I thought you only had the three!?

You might want to do some investigative work in Linux gdisk, which can list both MBR and GPT partition tables (and do lots of other cool stuff).

What you want is three partitions in GPT, and the same three, pointing to the same locations in MBR. If things are damaged or out of sync w/ each other, there is trouble.

Also, you might want to do some reading here: http://rodsbooks.com/gdisk/, http://rodsbooks.com/gdisk/hybrid.html
(I have found it important to actually understand what is going on with hybrid MBR/GPT to solve these kind of issues).

 

[iciolozzo]

I'm really not sure what you have going on there. 4th partition? I thought you only had the three!?

You might want to do some investigative work in Linux gdisk, which can list both MBR and GPT partition tables (and do lots of other cool stuff).

What you want is three partitions in GPT, and the same three, pointing to the same locations in MBR. If things are damaged or out of sync w/ each other, there is trouble.

Also, you might want to do some reading here: http://rodsbooks.com/gdisk/, http://rodsbooks.com/gdisk/hybrid.html
(I have found it important to actually understand what is going on with hybrid MBR/GPT to solve these kind of issues).

Ok thanks for support.
Would you recommend then dual boot on MBR formatted drive?

Or is there any actual reason why GUID should be preferred to MBR on a dual bott on single HD?

 

[RehabMan]

Ok thanks for support.
Would you recommend then dual boot on MBR formatted drive?

Or is there any actual reason why GUID should be preferred to MBR on a dual bott on single HD?

Both will work, but to get OS X installer to install to MBR partition, you have to patch the installer. Or you can install to a secondary GPT partitioned disk, then clone the partition over to the MBR formatted disk (that is what I did for my desktop because I wanted to preserve the Win7 install that was already there).

GPT is pretty handy to move past the 4-primary partition limitation inherent in MBR. For example, my GPT setup on this laptop has 6 partititons: EFI protective, OS X, Linux Swap, Linux, Transfer, and Win7. I used gdisk to make the ones that I want in the MBR to be "mirrored" there.

 

[iciolozzo]

Both will work, but to get OS X installer to install to MBR partition, you have to patch the installer. Or you can install to a secondary GPT partitioned disk, then clone the partition over to the MBR formatted disk (that is what I did for my desktop because I wanted to preserve the Win7 install that was already there).

GPT is pretty handy to move past the 4-primary partition limitation inherent in MBR. For example, my GPT setup on this laptop has 6 partititons: EFI protective, OS X, Linux Swap, Linux, Transfer, and Win7. I used gdisk to make the ones that I want in the MBR to be "mirrored" there.

I am writing from Linux environment.
Here what i see with gdisk:

---
Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name
1 40 409639 200.0 MiB EF00 EFI System Partition
2 409640 250469239 119.2 GiB AF00 MAC
3 250732544 500117503 118.9 GiB 0700 WIN

Partition table scan:
MBR: hybrid
BSD: not present
APM: not present
GPT: present

Found valid GPT with hybrid MBR; using GPT.
---

So 3 partitions.
I think I am going to start from scratch again, doing a secure erase of my SSD hard disk.

 

[RehabMan]

I am writing from Linux environment.
Here what i see with gdisk:

---
Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name
1 40 409639 200.0 MiB EF00 EFI System Partition
2 409640 250469239 119.2 GiB AF00 MAC
3 250732544 500117503 118.9 GiB 0700 WIN

Partition table scan:
MBR: hybrid
BSD: not present
APM: not present
GPT: present

Found valid GPT with hybrid MBR; using GPT.
---

So 3 partitions.
I think I am going to start from scratch again, doing a secure erase of my SSD hard disk.

There is another section of gdisk too, that gives you the MBR data. I think it is under 'R' (recovery?). Going from memory there though. The thing to do would be to look at the MBR data to verify same number of partitions and same offsets.

 

[iciolozzo]

There is another section of gdisk too, that gives you the MBR data. I think it is under 'R' (recovery?). Going from memory there though. The thing to do would be to look at the MBR data to verify same number of partitions and same offsets.

Seems all right with MBR partitions scan too:

Disk size is 500118192 sectors (238.5 GiB)
MBR disk identifier: 0xDE2B1B9D
MBR partitions:

Number Boot Start Sector End Sector Status Code
1 1 409639 primary 0xEE
2 409640 250469239 primary 0xAF
3 * 250732544 500117503 primary 0x0B


Partition 3 is Win8 of course.