[Guide] MultiBooting for the novice. Updated 3/12 see log

[Going Bald]

"Selected disk is MBR. On EFI systems, windows only on GPT disks."

This happens because the install media has 2 installers. One normal, one for EFI. The installer is booting the EFI one because it sees your EFI BIOS. And, of course, it can't install on your FAT32 partition because it is hybrid MBR on GUID partition tables.
You could solve this problem by going back to OS X and formatting the Win partition free space but that leads to other problems. It will format the free space for EFI install and it will add a System Reserved partition. And the Chimera/Chameleon boot loader won't be able to see it to boot it.

So, here's your fix. Boot with the Win7 install DVD in the tray, but hit the function key that allows you to choose a boot device during the BIOS post - first BIOS screen should tell you what it is - usually F8, F11 or F12.

When you look at the DVD icons for the Win7 installer you will see 2 of them - one plain and the other has EFI on it. Choose the plain one.
You should have no problems selecting your partition, formatting it NTFS and installing.

BTW, the same thing happens with Win8, except that if you do not pre-format your drive it puts in 2 partitions instead of one. If you want to have online recovery of the Win7 install for the HDD from MS, you need to allow both of the partitions to be created.

 

[TheTVMan]

Hopefully someone can help me here as I am at a loss.

128GB SSD with ML installed - all working. Removed this SSD and then installed Windows 7 on another SSD - all working. Reconnected ML SSD but Chimera/Chameleon doesn't even see the Windows Drive. Just loads up ML.

Installed in ACHI mode. Fully up to date Windows.
ML SSD is Primary Boot.
In ML I can see the Windows Drive in Finder, in Windows I cannot see the ML Drive in My Computer.....

I've tried reinstalling Windows to no avail. Any thoughts?


Kind Regards,

Dan.

 

[Going Bald]

Hopefully someone can help me here as I am at a loss.

128GB SSD with ML installed - all working. Removed this SSD and then installed Windows 7 on another SSD - all working. Reconnected ML SSD but Chimera/Chameleon doesn't even see the Windows Drive. Just loads up ML.

Installed in ACHI mode. Fully up to date Windows.
ML SSD is Primary Boot.
In ML I can see the Windows Drive in Finder, in Windows I cannot see the ML Drive in My Computer.....

I've tried reinstalling Windows to no avail. Any thoughts?


Kind Regards,

Dan.

This is Windows 7 or 8, yes? And, although you do not give a main board model, your CPU is Ivy Bridge so I can assume you have an Ivy Bridge mainboard, yes?

Try this to determine if the problem is what I think it is. Remove all HDD/SSD except the Windows drive and make sure it boots. Reboot to the BIOS and look at your selection for boot drive. If it says EFI or UEFI:System Reserved or NTFS, then the Windows installer saw you had a UEFI BIOS and installed UEFI. Chameleon/Chimera cannot see the UEFI System Reserved partition to show the boot icon.

To overcome this problem, if you boot with the Win7/8 DVD in the tray and hit the function key that allows you to select a boot device, you will notice your DVD-RW is listed twice - once with a plain model and once with EFI or UEFI in front of the model. Make sure you select the plain one to install Windows with.

Good luck with it.

BTW, did you read the post immediately preceeding your post? It says the same thing, just about.

 

[TheTVMan]

This is Windows 7 or 8, yes? And, although you do not give a main board model, your CPU is Ivy Bridge so I can assume you have an Ivy Bridge mainboard, yes?

Try this to determine if the problem is what I think it is. Remove all HDD/SSD except the Windows drive and make sure it boots. Reboot to the BIOS and look at your selection for boot drive. If it says EFI or UEFI:System Reserved or NTFS, then the Windows installer saw you had a UEFI BIOS and installed UEFI. Chameleon/Chimera cannot see the UEFI System Reserved partition to show the boot icon.

To overcome this problem, if you boot with the Win7/8 DVD in the tray and hit the function key that allows you to select a boot device, you will notice your DVD-RW is listed twice - once with a plain model and once with EFI or UEFI in front of the model. Make sure you select the plain one to install Windows with.

Good luck with it.

BTW, did you read the post immediately preceeding your post? It says the same thing, just about.

Indeed it is Windows 7 and a MSI Z77MA-G45 Motherboard with UEFI. I will try as you have suggested.

I read the post yes, an from it and others I thought I had the problem nailed. I had read that if you booted from the Windows CD on a BNIB drive then windows automatically installed a UEFI installation but if you did a Format of the drive then booted, it would install in a regular fashion that Chimera/Chameleon could see. I will update as I test.

Thank you for your time thus far

Dan.

 

[TheTVMan]

I have checked as requested and Windows boots fine as the only drive installed. In the BIOS it is listed as the only drive and with no annotation to being tied with the UEFI as far as I can see. I have attached images below;

Looking into Windows Drive Management it lists the entire 120GB (119.24) as a single System/Boot/Primary/Active partition. Nothing else is listed.

Any thoughts?

Many thanks.

 

[Going Bald]

Looking into Windows Drive Management it lists the entire 120GB (119.24) as a single System/Boot/Primary/Active partition. Nothing else is listed.

Any thoughts?

Many thanks.

Hmmmm...
Single volume, non UEFI/EFI and you say Chimera does not see the drive? From the ID I would assume a Crucial M4, yes?
That is very strange.

Try this - from http://www.tonymacx86.com/downloads.php?do=cat&id=8 download Chimera 8, 7 and 6. Install 8 and try it, then 7 and try, then 6 and try. If none work then we will have to drop back 10 yards and punt, getting Macman involved because there is no reason I can think of that Chimera can't see that drive.

 

[TheTVMan]

Thank you for the reply. In response to your query;

8. No change, issue persists.
7. System fails to boot, Grey screen with apple logo appears for a second then system restarts, this loops.
6. Didn't try due to above issue.

I am back with with the version from the latest MultiBeast, issue persists. I have provided some images below from Disk Utility and the output from Terminal using 'diskutil list' hopefully this will be of assistance to yourselves. If you require more images and or test please let me know and I will provide them asap.

Kind regards,

Dan.

 

[Going Bald]

OK, try this.
Install Instant Menu option from MultiBeast on OS X.

Boot to windows and click on the libraries folder in the menu bar.
find your c drive and right click on it, select properties
at the top left of the window is a drive icon next to a blank box,
click in the box and give the drive a name - Win7 for example, save changes and close the window.

Reboot and see if an icon with that name appears at the Chimera screen.

 

[TheTVMan]

Instant Menu does give me access to boot to either OS, both work successfully.

Naming the drive and reverting the Instant Menu to Timeout does not fix the issue. It immediately boots into ML. -This happens so quickly I cannot even see icons appearing, is this because the loader thinks there isn't an option so simply boots immediately? Could I increase the Timeout?

If i boot with my UniBeast stick in the machine it correctly displays the bootloader with both options, ML & Win7. Maybe something to with the install of the bootloader on the ML Drive?

Dan.

 

[TheTVMan]

Solved.

After your help and information regarding the use of "Instant Menu" and this showing me the options, some experimentation led me to a rather simple conclusion. My system boots quickly and it takes my monitor a few seconds to kick in, by the time it does it must coincide with the Timeout period expiring that as soon as the monitor kicks in it jumps away from the Chimera screen and loads the default. Increasing the "Timeout" allows the screen to kick in and see the options. I cannot believe it was something so simple.

Having never seen the Chimera screen before I was unaware that you had to press any key during the timeout period to access the boot choices, this was where it had all gone wrong. By the time the monitor had kicked it it was off loading the default. So my solution was to either increase the "Timeout" or maybe I will use "Instant Menu" as I have since downloaded some Themes and I actually like being presented with the options screen each time.

Thank you for taking time to go through the paces with me. It is greatly appreciated and hopefully this may help others as I have seen many many posts on many forums during my travels for a solution to this issue where the same problem has gone un resolved. Many people were adamant about Windows being installed correctly and so on but with no solution.

Again, many thanks.

Dan.


1 more query, I know I need to fix the time sync issue with the Registry Edit. Is there any other fixes that need to be done? I feel like I read a guide somewhere that listed a few fixes that needed to be done......