First time... Really confused about dual booting, my motherboard and GPU

[yotamdo]

I hope this in the relevant discussion.

About a month ago, I purchased my PC for video editing and some gaming. On it, I installed Windows 8.1. For the past few days, I began to crave OS X (I find it better at everything but gaming), which gave me the idea of dual booting. What I want to do is have Windows on my SSD, and for my HDD to be divided into two partitions (one HFS+ for installing OS X and the other a data drive for Windows). All the tutorials I looked at really confused me, and I have no clue on what to do.



1. A guide on InsanelyMac

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/to...osh-builds-uefi-dualboot-os-x-el-capitan-wip/

First of all, this guide apply's to my mobo, however, it does not state anything about dual booting or already having Windows. Secondly, the fact that it states to disable my video card is strange, because what'll it be used for, and how will it be reenabled with installing the drivers? Finally, is the same process done (if I decide to not dual boot) with Yosemite? I want the latest stable version of OS X on my computer.

2. A guide here

http://www.tonymacx86.com/yosemite-desktop-guides/144426-how-install-os-x-yosemite-using-clover.html

Reading this contradicted the steps taken on the mobo in the previous guide by just not stating any, along with the fact that there is nothing on dual booting, especially with Windows already installed.

3. A YouTube video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSYkUkngdb4

Unlike the other guides I posted, this one contains information about dual booting to a degree, but not anything about having Windows already install, meddling with the mobo, and there is no Clover, which could mean it won't support the next version of OS X.



I also have some questions for the users here.

1. I formatted my HDD to HFS+ according to this tutorial. It doesn't show up anymore on the file browser and isn't shown as HFS+ on Disk Management, just as active. Does this help, or did I delete my heavy games for nothing?

2. Does the fact that my video card has more VRAM than the original GTX 960 or not being EVGA branded affect any Hackintosh process?

3. Obviously, is what I want to do even possible, or do I have to format my main drive with Windows? If this is even possible, does I guide exist?


Any help or tips would be splendid!

 

[Going Bald]

I hope this in the relevant discussion.

About a month ago, I purchased my PC for video editing and some gaming. On it, I installed Windows 8.1. For the past few days, I began to crave OS X (I find it better at everything but gaming), which gave me the idea of dual booting. What I want to do is have Windows on my SSD, and for my HDD to be divided into two partitions (one HFS+ for installing OS X and the other a data drive for Windows). All the tutorials I looked at really confused me, and I have no clue on what to do.

Much depends on whether you installed Win8.1 in UEFI or Legacy mode. Whether or not you can add OS X to the Win8.1 SSD depends on this. See http://www.tonymacx86.com/multi-booting/133940-mavericks-windows-8-same-drive-without-erasing.html for problems you might need to overcome.

1. A guide on InsanelyMac

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/to...osh-builds-uefi-dualboot-os-x-el-capitan-wip/

First of all, this guide apply's to my mobo, however, it does not state anything about dual booting or already having Windows. Secondly, the fact that it states to disable my video card is strange, because what'll it be used for, and how will it be reenabled with installing the drivers? Finally, is the same process done (if I decide to not dual boot) with Yosemite? I want the latest stable version of OS X on my computer.

This guide is a fair start to a dual boot scenario. You can go ahead and use the guide to get OS X working well with the Clover boot loader, then use the Installing Windows UEFI section of http://www.tonymacx86.com/hp-proboo...-install-yosemite-hp-laptops-clover-uefi.html to install Win8,1

2. A guide here

http://www.tonymacx86.com/yosemite-desktop-guides/144426-how-install-os-x-yosemite-using-clover.html

Reading this contradicted the steps taken on the mobo in the previous guide by just not stating any, along with the fact that there is nothing on dual booting, especially with Windows already installed.

See 1

3. A YouTube video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSYkUkngdb4

Unlike the other guides I posted, this one contains information about dual booting to a degree, but not anything about having Windows already install, meddling with the mobo, and there is no Clover, which could mean it won't support the next version of OS X.



I also have some questions for the users here.

1. I formatted my HDD to HFS+ according to this tutorial. It doesn't show up anymore on the file browser and isn't shown as HFS+ on Disk Management, just as active. Does this help, or did I delete my heavy games for nothing?

2. Does the fact that my video card has more VRAM than the original GTX 960 or not being EVGA branded affect any Hackintosh process?

3. Obviously, is what I want to do even possible, or do I have to format my main drive with Windows? If this is even possible, does I guide exist?


Any help or tips would be splendid!

With Win8.1 installed first, your best bet is to install OS X on a separate drive.

You will need to install OS X with the GTX960 removed, using the CPU gfx because the GTX960 is not natively supported in OS X - it needs the nVidia web drivers to work. You might be able to install with nv_disable=1 boot-arg, but there is no guarantee it will work. Once OS X is installed, install the card, boot up with the onboard gfx still, install the drivers, set the nVidia drivers with the preference pane and reboot.
See http://www.tonymacx86.com/graphics/...ate-graphics-drivers-10-10-5-346-02-03-a.html
Move the cable to the GPU, reboot to BIOS and set the PCIe as First Init Display, Save&Exit, continue boot.

 

[yotamdo]

Thanks for answering!

How could I modify the InsanelyMac tutorial for installing Yosemite? Also, if I were to have 1 drive on my computer have OS X and the other with Windows, would the Clover bootloader let me switch between them if Windows was installed first?