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

[Going Bald]

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.

It is definitely possible to get a minimally working OS X before going on to Win7 and come back and finish it later. In fact, you could do your partitioning, eject the OS X install disk, reboot and install Win7 first. Then come back and install OS X. Ubuntu, on the other hand, must absolutely be installed last.

If I were going to use 2 separate drives I would put OS X on the smaller one and Windows 7 and Ubuntu on the other. See Lifehacker's excellent guide for a Win7/Ubuntu install. While he used an older version of Ubuntu for his guide, you can substitute any version of Ubuntu and it will still work. http://lifehacker.com/5403100/dual+boot ... ct-harmony . He also uses a different method for the swap file which might be a better way of doing it than the traditional method I used here, especially if you have a large amount of ram.

 

[Going Bald]

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.

Windows must be installed on a primary partition. Previous versions of windows insisted to be on the first primary partition, but win7 can be on any of the first 4 primary partitions. You can only have 1 extended partition, but you can break it up in as many logical partitions as you want. Search Wikepedia for full explanation of disc partitioning for more info.

 

[SoundFu]

Re: [Guide] MultiBooting for the novice.

Hey thanks for the effort you have gone to in this guide.
I guess theres always going to be an exception...that may just be me

I followed your guide to the letter (didn't install Ubuntu and my partitions are a bit larger).
Combo update 10.6.7 installed then Bridge helper 2.1.0, then Multibeast. 3.6.0.
Only other things installed are Envy24_SL.0.22 driver for my PCI soundcard (MAudio Delta 1010).

For some reason I can't get past step 2B, any suggestions?

Heres what my diskutil list looks like:

Sound-Fus-Mac-Pro:~ soundfu$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS OSXhDD                  130.7 GB   disk0s2
   3:       Microsoft Basic Data WIN7                    160.3 GB   disk0s3
   4:       Microsoft Basic Data WORK                    208.8 GB   disk0s4

I've set it up as you have guided, installed OSX without problems.
All drives are SATA.

OSXhDD partition is Journaled and WIN7 partition is MS-DOS FAT.

When it comes to step 2B of your guide, I can't get the Windows boot DVD to be detected (it is a SATA Optical drive).
Using F8 boot list doesn't work either.
It just skips straight to the OSX bootloader (Chimera 1.4.0) and interrupting that doesn't show any Windows DVD (in fact F5/refresh skips straight to booting OSX).

I think the problem is related to the drive being GUID formatted, doesn't windows want an MBR? But this contradicts all the other guides including yours I have seen saying this works.

I have installed at least a dozen Windows installations off this DVD so I now its not faulty (Ultimate 64bit).

I installed using Multibeast 3.6.0.

Any suggestions?

PS: I can always go back to running off seperate drives and using F8 to boot but I want to understand why this is not working for me or what I am doing wrong..thanks in advance for any help.

Heres my Hardware Profile:

ASUS P8Z68 V PRO Board (EasyBeast used).

Hardware Overview:

  Model Name:	Mac Pro
  Model Identifier:	MacPro3,1
  Processor Name:	Intel Core i5
  Processor Speed:	3.31 GHz
  Number Of Processors:	1
  Total Number Of Cores:	4
  L2 Cache (per core):	256 KB
  L3 Cache:	6 MB
  Memory:	4 GB
  Processor Interconnect Speed:	4.8 GT/s
  Boot ROM Version:	MultiBeast.tonymacx86.com
  SMC Version (system):	1.25f4

 

[Going Bald]

Re: [Guide] MultiBooting for the novice.

Hey thanks for the effort you have gone to in this guide.
I guess theres always going to be an exception...that may just be me

I followed your guide to the letter (didn't install Ubuntu and my partitions are a bit larger).
Combo update 10.6.7 installed then Bridge helper 2.1.0, then Multibeast. 3.6.0.
Only other things installed are Envy24_SL.0.22 driver for my PCI soundcard (MAudio Delta 1010).

For some reason I can't get past step 2B, any suggestions?

Heres what my diskutil list looks like:

Sound-Fus-Mac-Pro:~ soundfu$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS OSXhDD                  130.7 GB   disk0s2
   3:       Microsoft Basic Data WIN7                    160.3 GB   disk0s3
   4:       Microsoft Basic Data WORK                    208.8 GB   disk0s4

I've set it up as you have guided, installed OSX without problems.
All drives are SATA.

OSXhDD partition is Journaled and WIN7 partition is MS-DOS FAT.

When it comes to step 2B of your guide, I can't get the Windows boot DVD to be detected (it is a SATA Optical drive).
Using F8 boot list doesn't work either.
It just skips straight to the OSX bootloader (Chimera 1.4.0) and interrupting that doesn't show any Windows DVD (in fact F5/refresh skips straight to booting OSX).

I think the problem is related to the drive being GUID formatted, doesn't windows want an MBR? But this contradicts all the other guides including yours I have seen saying this works.

I have installed at least a dozen Windows installations off this DVD so I now its not faulty (Ultimate 64bit).

I installed using Multibeast 3.6.0.

Any suggestions?

PS: I can always go back to running off seperate drives and using F8 to boot but I want to understand why this is not working for me or what I am doing wrong..thanks in advance for any help.

Heres my Hardware Profile:

ASUS P8Z68 V PRO Board (EasyBeast used).

Hardware Overview:

  Model Name:	Mac Pro
  Model Identifier:	MacPro3,1
  Processor Name:	Intel Core i5
  Processor Speed:	3.31 GHz
  Number Of Processors:	1
  Total Number Of Cores:	4
  L2 Cache (per core):	256 KB
  L3 Cache:	6 MB
  Memory:	4 GB
  Processor Interconnect Speed:	4.8 GT/s
  Boot ROM Version:	MultiBeast.tonymacx86.com
  SMC Version (system):	1.25f4

If it went straight to OS X with the Win7 install disc in the DVD, then you do not have your DVD-RW set as first device in device boot order in BIOS. You could also watch very carefully as BIOS posts, and right after Verifying DMI Pool Data... when the screen goes to the chimera timeout screen hit a key and select the DVD icon from the screen.
Or boot to OSX, launch MultiBeast and install instant menu from the customization section. This will definitely let you see an icon for the Win7 install DVD on boot up.

 

[SoundFu]

Re: [Guide] MultiBooting for the novice.

If it went straight to OS X with the Win7 install disc in the DVD, then you do not have your DVD-RW set as first device in device boot order in BIOS. You could also watch very carefully as BIOS posts, and right after Verifying DMI Pool Data... when the screen goes to the chimera timeout screen hit a key and select the DVD icon from the screen.
Or boot to OSX, launch MultiBeast and install instant menu from the customization section. This will definitely let you see an icon for the Win7 install DVD on boot up.

Sorry what it does is check the DVD optical then go straight to OSX Chimera bootloader when it decides it doesn't like the Windows dvd. Its definitely set as first boot device.

Thanks for the response, I'll try the other suggestion in a bit and report back.

 

[SoundFu]

Re: [Guide] MultiBooting for the novice.

Result
OK reinstalled Chimera and ticked the Instant Menu option from Multibeast and on reboot it detected the DVD straight away as it should have.

Now onto the rest of the installation, thanks!

EDIT: Its all good now, dual booting mission complete. You may want to add that bit to the guide (tick instant menu in Multibeast) as that did the trick for me.

Thanks again.

 

[Tommy-P]

Re: [Guide] MultiBooting for the novice.

I'm literally going to install OSX/Win7 on a newly built Hackintosh machine when I get home from work tonight, and this updated guide is a godsend, thank you for assembling all this information together!

 

[natdeamer]

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.

Windows must be installed on a primary partition. Previous versions of windows insisted to be on the first primary partition, but win7 can be on any of the first 4 primary partitions. You can only have 1 extended partition, but you can break it up in as many logical partitions as you want. Search Wikepedia for full explanation of disc partitioning for more info.

Will Chameleon/Chimera pick up an OS on a logical partition on the extended partition? Or will I have to use Grub2 instead?

 

[tonyloco]

Re: [Guide] MultiBooting for the novice.

If I install Windows on another drive, should it be faster, right?

 

[z3u4r5dok]

Re: [Guide] MultiBooting for the novice.

I di everything as suggested
After typed this
sudo gptsync /dev/sda and hit enter

this what I got

Current GPT partition table:
# Start LBA End LBA Type
1 40 409639 EFI System (FAT)
2 409640 156659639 Mac OS X HFS+
3 156921856 352233471 Basic Data
4 352233472 372233472 Basic Data
5 372233473 384233473 Linux Swap
6 384233474 404233474 Basic Data
7 404233475 444233475 Basic Data
8 444233476 625141679 Basic Data

Current MBR partition table:
# A Start LBA End LBA Type
1 1 409639 ee EFI Protective
2 409640 156659639 af Mac OS X HFS+
3 * 156921856 352233471 07 NTFS/HPFS
4 352233472 372233472 83 Linux

Status: Tables are synchronized, no need to sync.

I exit the terminal reboot with no discs

Unfortunately at the end I am not able to see the chameleon screen will not appear,
I hit a key don't get to see instant menu either.
What I did wrong??? Please help

Thanks a lot