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

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Going Bald

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A Step-by-step Guide to Multi-Booting
For Mountain Lion and Win8 see http://www.tonymacx86.com/multi-booting/96000-guide-mountain-lion-windows-8-a.html
Update log:
Added UTC clock fix.
Added use Win 64-bit install disc.
Added OS X and WinXP
Added OS X and Win7 on separate drives
Added Lion and Win7 on same drive
Added method to get OS X on MBR drive with Win7


The following has been put together from several sources, mainly the Tonymacx86 blog and Lifehacker's site, insanelymac and others and suggestions from the other Mods here on the forum. Googling for methods and how-to's always seemed to me to lead to outdated info or the tools had improved since the original article was written, and the steps just didn't work. So I decided to take all my links, print out the procedures, winnow through them for the true gems of wisdom and write a new procedure (which will probably be as outdated as all the rest in a couple of months when Lion and the new 6 core cpus become common). IMHO the best way to multi-boot is to have a separate hard drive for each OS and use Chameleon/Chimera as a boot loader to select which one to boot. I am aware, however, that it is not always possible to have more than one hard drive in the box, which requires the OS's to be on one drive. That being said, let's get to it.

This is a step by step guide to installing OS X, Windows 7 and Ubuntu 11.04 on a single hard drive. For this guide I will assume you are able to install any of the OS's without problems on your hardware and get to the desktop for each OS.


Things you need:
  • A PC with compatible hardware
  • An iBoot disc with the latest iBoot
  • A OS X Snow Leopard retail installation disc
  • A Windows 7 64-bit retail installation disc - your choice of flavor (home, pro, ultimate)
  • Ubuntu 11.04 installation disc - download the .iso file from Ubuntu.org and burn it to disc
  • A USB drive of some sort with OS X 10.6.7 combo update, the latest MultiBeast and, if available, a DSDT for your motherboard.
  • Patience - lots of patience.

Remember:
Minimal hardware attached/connected -
1 usb keyboard
1 usb mouse
1 monitor
1 graphics card
1 SATA HDD (For the purpose of this guide, we will assume the HDD is 160 Gb, mainly because that's what I'm using, wiped clean or brand new - if it is not, backup your data)
1 SATA CD/DVD-RW​

Since iBoot limits you to 4 Gb of ram, I see no need to remove any unless you had trouble previously installing SL with it all installed.

Step 1 - Install SL using iBoot + MultiBeast Method
1a. Boot with iBoot

1b. At the chameleon screen, swap iBoot disc for SL install disc - wait for drive light to go out - hit F5

1c. Hi-lite SL install disc and hit enter. (you may need -x or PCIRootUID=1 here)

1d. When the SL install disc boots live, select language and hit enter

1f. At the install screen, select Utilities -> Disc Utilities
Select your HD and format it GUID and partition it (if it already has partitions, chose 1 partition and free space first and then partition it again how you want it) I hope you remembered to back up before you did that.-
I chose:

20 Gb titled OS X, formatted MAC OS Extended (Journaled)
50 Gb titled Win7, formatted MS DOS (FAT32)
90 Gb free space

1g. When formatting is complete, exit disc utilities and, at the SL install screen again, select your OS X partition from the available icons and click on the Install button.

1h. Go do something else for about 30-45 minutes.

When the installation is complete it will reboot automatically - don't worry if you come back and the cursor is blinking at Verifying DMI Data Pool..... - it's OK.

1i. Eject the OS X installation disc and insert the iBoot disc again and hit Control-ALT-Delete to reboot.

1j. At the Chimera screen again you should see an icon for iBoot and one for OS X - select the OS X and hit enter.

1k. When you get to the desktop, connect your uSB drive with your DSDT, the 10.6.7 combo update and MultiBeast. Copy these 3 files to your desktop, eject your USB drive or CD and remove it.

We are now ready to do post install chores:
1l. First, launch MultiBeast and make only the selections you need for your motherboard (audio, graphics, etc.). Then, go back and select UserDSDT (or EasyBeast if you do not have a DSDT) and System Utilities.

1m. Click on continue, but do not click on "Install" yet

1n. Second, open the combo update and launch the .pkg install file.

1o. When the update is complete it will want you to reboot - do not click on reboot. Instead, go back to MultiBeast and click on install.
If you selected Lnx2mac's Realtek LAN driver, when MultiBeast has completed its installation, it will launch the LAN installer. Click on the buttons to install it.

1p. When the installer is finished, reboot. You should now have a working Snow Leopard installation.

1q. Go ahead and run Apple Updater and get any other updates not included in the combo update package.

1r. Drag MultiBeast to the Apps folder or leave it on the desktop - we will need it again.

1s. If you selected Chimera as your boot loader and have an ATI gpu, drag the ATI driver folder to the trash (password required) and the leftover DSDT file to the trash (if you used one).

Step 2 - Now let's install Windows 7
2a. Open your DVD-RW and insert the Windows 7 installation disc. Reboot.

2b. Let it boot up and load Windows files. When you get to the screen where it asks what kind of installation you want, select "Custom"

2c. It will show you a table of your HD partitions.

You will notice that the OS X disk utility placed a 128 Mb partition (disc 0 Unallocated space) between your OS X partition (Disc 0 Partition 2) and your Windows 7 partition (Disc 0 Partition 3). Don't worry about it. It is normal (BTW, trying to re-size partitions to eliminate it won't work either - you will always have this buffer space, so leave it alone)

2d. Select Disc 0 Partition 3 by hi-liting it. Windows will say it can't be installed on this partition - click on format and that will take care of that.

2e. Click on "Next" to install.

This will be just like installing Windows on a drive by itself (it just broke the Chameleon boot file, but we'll fix it later.)
When Windows has completed its install it will automatically reboot.

2f. Windows will want you to do setups of users - go ahead and do that.

2g. When you have finished set-up, install any drivers you need for your hardware (motherboard drivers, video card drivers, etc.) and any security suite software you want. Then open your browser and go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/d ... 9b77cdfdda

2h. Click on the brown "Continue" button

2i. Windows download center will want to install the validation software before you can download the service pak1 file - let it install the validation software and there will appear "Download" buttons by each download.

If you have 32 bit windows, you need the Windows6.1-KB976932-X86.exe file.
If you have 64 bit windows, you need the Windows6.1-KB976932-X64.exe file.

2j. Select your file and click on the brown "Download" button. Save it in downloads or on desktop or where you want.

2k. When it has downloaded, run the .exe file to install service pak1. When it is finished installing it will reboot.

2l. At the desktop again, click on Start, click on All Programs, then click on Windows update and get any other updates available you want/need and reboot.

With a new Windows 7 installation that boots just fine as if it is the only OS on the HD, we need to re-install Chimera.

2m. Insert the iBoot disc back in the DVD-RW and reboot.

2n. At the Chimera screen you will now see your OS X icon has been joined by one for Windows NTFS.

2o. Select the OS X icon and hit enter to boot to the OS X desktop.

2p. At the desktop, eject the iBoot disc and remove it from the tray. Close the tray.

2q. Launch MultiBeast, select the Chimera (or chameleon) boot file only and click "Continue", then "Install". When finished, reboot. Note: You may download and use the Chimera stand alone installer instead of MultiBeast if you wish.

You now have a working installation dual booting with OS X and Windows 7 on the same hard drive. Which has a problem with the clock - Windows 7 wants to use local time and OS X wants to use UTC. To fix this problem:

1. Boot Windows

2. Click Start -->type regedit in the 'Search Programs and Files' box. Click on regedit.exe in the box above that appears. Type in passward if popup appears and asks for one. When the "Do you want to allow this program to change your machine" box pops up click yes.

3. The Windows Registry Editor should pop up.
Navigate within the explorer to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation

4. Click on the TimeZoneInformation "folder" from the navigation pane if you haven't already done so.

5. This assumes the correct key doesn't exist. If it does, you will just change the existing key's value: Right click on the white space within the folder (If you don't have a right mouse button, you may need to download a program called applemouse to emulate the "control-click" of the apple 1-button mouse).
Select new --> DWORD Value. Title the key "RealTimeIsUniversal" (No quotes). Set the value to "1" (No quotes again).

6. Either reboot and set the clock in MacOS or set the clock in Windows. You should now be able to reboot into either OS and have a correct clock.

Want Ubuntu, too?

Well, I hope you have a little experience with Linux setups, but I'll try to make it simple for the noobs who have never done it before and want to experiment.
I will say up front - installing Ubuntu will break your MBR and you will get an error screen if you try to boot Windows 7 or OS X before we have completed the work, so make sure you have an hour or so free and won't need your computer for a while.

Step 3 - Installing Ubuntu 11.04

3a. Put the Ubuntu 11.04 install cd you have made in the DVD-RW and reboot. When it boots up there will be a screen that asks if you want to "Try Ubuntu" or Install Ubuntu". Select "Install Ubuntu".

3b. At the next screen "Preparing to install Ubuntu", you might as well select "Download updates while installing" and "Install 3rd party software". Hit the Forward button.

3c. Next screen is "Allocate drive space". Here it asks if you want to install alongside of your other OS's, wipe out your OS's and install clean or do "Something Else". Select "Something Else" and hit the Forward button.

3d. We need to create some partitions for installing Ubuntu and here we are at the screen to do just that.

On the prepare partitions screen, you will see a list of partitions something like this:

/dev/sda
free space size 0 MB
/dev/sda1 format FAT32 size 200MB
/dev/sda2 format hfs+ size 20000 MB
free space size 128 MB
/dev/sda3 format NTFS size 50000 MB
free space size (the rest of the HD - approximately 90000 Mb)

3e. Hilite free space at the bottom and click on "Add"

3f. On the "Create a new partition" screen, use the down arrow by the size box to reduce the size to 10 GB (arbitrary - set your own size), click the dot by Beginning, make the brown box read Ext4 journaling file system and make mount point read "/" then click OK. This is your root directory.

3g. Hilite free space at the bottom and click on "Add" again

3h. On the "Create a new partition" screen, use the down arrow by the size box to reduce the size to whatever is the amount of ram you have installed - I made mine 12 GB since I have that much ram, click the dot by Beginning, make the brown box "Swap area" then click OK. Linux requires this swap area in case it needs to move something out of ram.


3i. Hilite free space at the bottom and click on "Add" again

3j. On the "Create a new partition" screen, use the down arrow by the size box to reduce the size to 10 GB (arbitrary - set your own size), click the dot by Beginning, make the brown box read Ext4 journaling file system and make mount point read "/home" then click OK.

3k. Hilite free space at the bottom and click on "Add" again

3l. On the "Create a new partition" screen, use the down arrow by the size box to reduce the size to 20 GB (arbitrary - set your own size), click the dot by Beginning, make the brown box read Ext4 journaling file system and make mount point read "/usr" then click OK. Note: If you have any space left, you can format it FAT32 and use it as a shared partition between your OS's.


3m. When you have created all your partitions click Forward.

3n. At the next set of screens you will set your time zone, select your keyboard and create your user name and password. Follow screen directions and click Forward.

3o. At the next screen, don't bother migrating any settings from Windows since you just installed it, so just click on Forward again.

3p. At this screen, MAKE SURE that you select to install the bootloader (grub) to the root directory /dev/sda4 ( / ) before you hit that final install button.

Ubuntu Final.jpg

3q. When the install is done, it will eject the HD tray and ask you to remove the disc and hit enter. Do so and it will reboot to the Ubuntu desktop. Log in.

Now we need to fix the Windows bootloader.

3r. At your Ubuntu desktop, make sure you are connected to the internet. (Open Firefox and go to a favorite forum to make sure you are connected.)

3s. We need to get the gptsync file to fix the disc MBR, so open a terminal by clicking on Applications -> then the more applications arrow to see all of them -> then you will see the familiar terminal icon - click on it to launch it.

3t. In terminal, then, type the following:

sudo vi /ect/apt/sources.list

and hit enter.

3u. Scroll down to the bottom of the file and when you reach the end, press the letter o. This will open the edit mode on a new line.

3v. Type in the following:

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian sid main

and press escape to exit edit mode. (you can replace the "ftp.us.debian.org/debian sid main" part of the above with your local download site if you are not in the US)

3w. Type in

:wq

and hit enter to save and exit the text editor.

3x. Now we instal gptsync. Type in the following:

sudo apt-get install gptsync

and hit enter. Hopefully, you will get a screen full of install commands ending with sync success.

3y. Now type in

sudo gptsync /dev/sda

and hit enter to actually sync the partitions. You should get a screen similar to the diskutil list in a terminal in OS X that shows all of your partitions.
At the bottom it will ask if it can update the MBR as shown above.

3z. Type in

Y

and hit enter.

Exit the terminal and reboot with no discs in the DVD-RW and, if we did everything right, the chameleon screen will appear, we hit a key (or we get instant menu) and we see icons for OS X, Windows NTFS and Linux.
MultiBoot.JPG
Hi-lite an icon and hit enter and the OS should boot up.

---------------------------------------------
This is a step by step guide to installing WinXP on AHCI with Lion on separate hard drive. For this guide I will assume you are able to install any of the OS's without problems on your hardware and get to the desktop for each OS.

There are 2 main problems to overcome to enable dual/multi-booting with Windows XP on a separate hard drive:

a. AHCI drivers are not installed with the OS.

b. Windows XP must be the first hard drive in the BIOS hard drive boot order or it just will not boot.

Solution to a: Most boards, in addition to the SATA ports that are driven from the x58/P55/Z68, etc. "northbridge", have SATA ports driven by a different chipset, e.g. Marvell, jMicron, etc., so installing AHCI drivers is easy compared to trying to slipstream the driver with F6 during the installation process, especially if you do not have a 3.5" floppy drive to use. If you do not have one of these boards, you must "slipstream" the drivers when it says "if you need to add drivers hit F6"

Solution to b: install the bootloader and /Extra to a partition on the XP hard drive.

Things you will need:
An OS X compatible retail PC or a built-from-parts PC.
OS X already installed on a separate hard drive.
A hard drive for Windows XP
A Windows XP installation DVD.
Storage hard drive (doesn't have to have anything on it, but should have already been "initialized" and be readable from WinXP - i.e. FAT32 or NTFS format)

Procedure:
1. Connect your WinXP-to-be hard drive and Boot to OS X.

2. Run disk utility and format the drive MBR with at least 2 partitions:
a. first partition: a 100Mb partition at the start (label it Boot or whatever you want) - formatted MacOS Extended (journaled) and
b. second partition: size at least 50Gb (label it WinXP or whatever you want) - formatted MSDOS FAT
c. rest of the disk however you want or leave it free space

3. Shut down and disconnect all hard drives other than the one you wish WinXP installed on connected to a NON-X58/P68 SATA port, i.e. Marvell, jMicron chipset driven.

4. Boot to BIOS with the WinXP install DVD in the DVD tray, set the SATA ports for IDE, save&exit and install WinXP.

5. Download Windows XP SP3 (https://www.microsoft.com/download/en/d ... g=en&id=24) and install it.

6. Run Windows update for the rest of the updates until it tells you there are no more updates available.

7. Go to your main board manufacturer's website and download all the AHCI drivers for your board.(Can probably be found in the driver disc that came with the board, but I prefer to download the latest drivers available from the website.)

8. Shut down & connect a storage drive to one of the X58/P68 driven SATA ports.

9. Boot to BIOS and change the X58/P68 driven SATA ports to AHCI mode. Save&Exit and continue boot to Winxp. XP will detect the drive and ask if you want to install drivers for it. Say yes and install the drivers you downloaded from the board website. Reboot if necessary to completely install the drivers.

10. Shut down, disconnect the WinXP boot drive at the NON-X58/P68 port and connect it to one of the X58/P68 ports. Since we installed AHCI drivers for this port, it should boot OK.

11. Boot to BIOS and set all the SATA ports to AHCI, save&exit, continue boot to XP.

12. Install the jMicron, Marvell, etc. chipset AHCI SATA drivers. Reboot if necessary to completely install the drivers. Shutdown. Disconnect all drives.

13. Connect your Windows XP drive to the SATA port you want it to stay on.

14. Connect the OS X hard drive to the SATA port you want it to stay on.

15. Connect your storage drive(s) to the SATA port(s) you want it/them to stay on

16. Boot to the OS X desktop.

17. Copy the /Extra folder to the Boot partition on the WinXp hard drive. Delete the /Extra folder from root. Repair permissions.

18. Run any bootloader installer and select the Boot partition on the XP hard drive to install to.

19. Reboot to BIOS and make the WinXP drive first in BIOS hard drive boot order, save&exit, continue boot to the bootloader screen. (some boards, you have to set the boot order from which port the drives are connected to - see your mobo manual)

20. At the bootloader screen, hit any key to stop the timer if necessary, select the WinXP icon and hit enter to boot WinXP or select OS X to boot.

--------------------------------------------------------

Win7 + OS X on separate hard drives

Installing on separate hard drives is easy. It does not matter which you install first.
Boot to BIOS and set SATA ports to AHCI, power saving mode to S3, enable HPET and set it to 64 bit mode. Save and exit.

Install Win7, update it get it working 100%. Shutdown, disconnect the Win7 drive.

Connect the OS X drive, install OS X, update it, get it working. Shut down.

Reconnect the Win7 drive. Boot to BIOS and make the OS X drive first in hard drive boot order in BIOS. Save&Exit and continue to boot to Chimera time out screen.

Hit a key to boot Win7, select System Reserved icon (only if you installed Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows 7 Business and Windows 7 Enterprise) or the Windows NTFS icon and hit enter. If you would rather the boot process stop and let you select which OS to boot, select Instant Menu in MultiBeast to install.

---------------------------------------
Installing Win7 and Lion on the same HDD
You can install Lion and Win7 on the same HDD in different sequence and order:
Install Win7 first on first partition and then Lion on later partition
Install Lion first on first partition and then Win7 on later partition as long as it is one of the first 4 partitions (including the OS X EFI partition).

To install Win7 first to the first partition:
1. Boot to BIOS and make settings for OS X install, AHCI, SS3, HPET 64 bit-save&exit & continue boot UniBeast to the OS X installer and format the HDD with this scheme:
GUID partition tables
first partition - for Win7 size as desired, ExFAT
second partition - shared between Win7 and OS X - ExFAT (can be left out if using SSD and space is a consideration, but I like to have one)
third partition - for Lion size as desired MacOS Extended (Journaled)

2. Once partitioning is complete, exit installer and boot the Win7 install disk
3. At the install screen, select the first partition after the 100Mb EFI partition and click on advanced button, then format, then continue and install Win7 to the first partition.
4. Download and install service pack 1 - http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/de ... px?id=5842, then use MS update to finish all updates.
5. Install security suite and other apps. Basically get it working well.

Something you might also want to consider if installing on a SSD is installing your user / app data files to a separate HDD while in the process of installing Win7 - see http://lifehacker.com/5271338/separate- ... -partition.

Once you have Win7 to your liking, boot with UniBeast and install OS X Lion to the second partition. Update to 10.7.3 and run MultiBeast either EasyBeast or UserDSDT. Something you might also want to consider is installing your user / app data files to a separate HDD - see http://lnx2mac.blogspot.com/2010/09/mov ... ition.html

If you want, reverse the procedure above and change the HDD/SSD format to OS X first and Win7 second. Then install either one first and the other second. One thing to keep in mind is if you install Lion first, then install Win7, then Win7 installer overwrites the boot files. You will need to boot with UniBeast or rBoot and re-install Chimera.

----------------------------------
External drive method to get OS X on MBR drive with Win7.
1. Use Win7 disk management tools to create a partition for OS X.
2. Use OS X disk utility to format the Win7 drive partition Mac OS Extended (journaled).
3. Use OS X disk utility to format external drive in 2 partitions, GUID Mac OS Extended (journaled).
4. Install OS X to first partition. Download your favorite cloning software (CCC or SuperDuper will work).
5. Create a backup on the second partition.
6. Restore the backup to the Win7 drive partition.

Cons to doing it this way:
Apple update won't work. You will have to download individual and combo updates and install manually.
It is not as stable as installing on GUID.
Troublesooting boot problems for either OS is much harder.
If one OS needs to be re-installed, chances are you will have to re-install both.


Update log:
Added UTC clock fix.
Added use Win 64-bit install disc.
Added OS X and WinXP
Added OS X and Win7 on separate drives
Added Lion and Win7 on same drive
Added method to get OS X on MBR drive with Win7
 

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Re: [Guide] MultiBooting for the novice.

Good guide. I wish I had this guide nine months ago. I think it's worth trying out, yes, I do.
:clap: :clap: :thumbup: :thumbup: :headbang: :headbang:
 
Re: [Guide] MultiBooting for the novice.

Stork said:
Good guide. I wish I had this guide nine months ago. I think it's worth trying out, yes, I do.
:clap: :clap: :thumbup: :thumbup: :headbang: :headbang:
But don't whining and complaining after, if nothing works like expected. Then you did something wrong dude :lol: :lol: :lol:

@Going Bald: I bow to you, great guide! :clap: :thumbup: :headbang:
 
Re: [Guide] MultiBooting for the novice.

You do a very good guide, it's help me a lot !
thank you, and good job
 
Re: [Guide] MultiBooting for the novice.

If I wanted to split my 1tb harddrive to have:

1. Windows
2. Ubuntu
3. Swap partition
4. Chromium OS
5. XMC live
6. OSX Backup - to CCC my OSX install which is stored on a separate drive.

I think a harddrive can only be partitioned 4 times, unless you use an extended partition.

Can windows be installed on an Extended Partition?

Will Chimera show OS's which have been installed to an extended partition?

I dont think you can get OSX mount ext4? - so if you want to ever access any data on your ubuntu partition would it be better to use ext2?

Will OSX show drives in an extended partition? - Assuming it will seeing as disc utility lets your partition a drive 16 times.

Probably over complicating this thread, but its something that Im going to try hopefully this weekend now I have a spare 1tb drive.
 
Re: [Guide] MultiBooting for the novice.

This is the best post on this forum! Because it brings together some latest versions of apple updates with new iboot and multibeast. I am really happy with my system

But now that I have it all up and running, I want to clone my whole harddrive, so that in the event of failure I can recover the whole system including dual boot in a single process.

I have scouted the web for pages for a solution, most don't clone/image across different types of partition (e.g. Norton Ghost). However, I found Clonezilla which does, but when I last cloned and then tried to restore it didn't work, citing "please insert boot media" rather than getting to the Boot menu and iboot would not get it in.

How can you image / backup a single dual boot hard drive?
Thanks
nikinp
 
Re: [Guide] MultiBooting for the novice.

Thanks very much for the guide!

Do you have any guess as to whether it's possible to follow through with the Win7 and Ubuntu parts of the install even if the Mac part is not fully working? I would guess that if partitioning and bootloader are ok, then you can install all OSs and then come back to fix/tune OSX?

I'm asking because I may not have time to do all of the tweaking I'll need to while getting the whole system up and running.

Also, I'm thinking of a 2 disk system (1 TB + 2 TB). Any recommendations as to which OS goes on which disk? I will probably create a shared data partition, which would be most of the 2TB.
 
Re: [Guide] MultiBooting for the novice.

Nikinp said:
This is the best post on this forum! Because it brings together some latest versions of apple updates with new iboot and multibeast. I am really happy with my system

But now that I have it all up and running, I want to clone my whole harddrive, so that in the event of failure I can recover the whole system including dual boot in a single process.

I have scouted the web for pages for a solution, most don't clone/image across different types of partition (e.g. Norton Ghost). However, I found Clonezilla which does, but when I last cloned and then tried to restore it didn't work, citing "please insert boot media" rather than getting to the Boot menu and iboot would not get it in.

How can you image / backup a single dual boot hard drive?
Thanks
nikinp
If Clonezilla won't work, I don't know what will. Since I use separate HDs for each OS, I never had your problem.
 
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