Dual-boot with existing Windows 8.1

[Jayphen]

Hi guys, please bear with me here — this is the first time I've looked in to the Hackintosh world, so I'm very new to this.

I currently have a PC that I've been using for gaming. It has Windows 8.1 installed already. Intel Core i5 4570, Asus Z87-Expert, GTX770 OC 2GB. It has a single SSD, which currently has Windows on it.

What I want to do is install Yosemite on a partition on the SSD so I can boot in to either OSX or Windows.

Firstly, is this possible, or do I need a separate SSD for OSX?

If it is possible, is there a guide I can follow for this particular setup?

Thanks!

 

[bmoag]

You want a separate drive in your circumstance.
OSX and Windows can coexist on the same drive but OSX has to be installed in the first partition. It is essentially-but not totally-- impossible and not worth the effort in your situation to change the structure of your Windows drive. It has to do with how OSX creates partitions.
If you add a new drive and use the Chimera boot-loader it must be the drive your mobo sees as the first bootable hard drive.
With only one SSD you must not require very much storage for files.

 

[Jayphen]

Thanks for your reply.

I have a 2TB mechanical drive for storage, and just use the SSD for the OS.

If I do buy another SSD for OSX, is there any advantage to using Clover instead of Chimera? I am a little confused about that part.

 

[Jayphen]

I ended up cloning an image of my Windows install, wiping the SSD and installing OSX on it. I'll get another SSD in a few days to restore the Windows image to.

Very pleased with how smooth everything went. The only things not working at wifi, Thunderbolt and iMessage. I don't need the first 2, but the latter would be nice (I understand there are issues with this though).