How to format my windows hard drive

[cubby208]

I am going to try creating a dual boot computer.

I have 2 SSD's, and one HDD.

In an ideal world SSD1 would contain the essence of windows, and SSD2 would contain the essence of mac. Then both of them would have their own partition on the HDD.

My build is a rather difficult one because it contains many parts that are a bit less compatible without patching things, so any help I can give my system the better.

(i7 5820k 6 core, MSI X99s LGA2011-3, GTX 980 (in yosemite it needed web drivers), Rosewill N900PCE PCI-Express)

In the past I did manage to get a multi-boot computer going, however the file system on the mac part stoped working after a short time.

My HDD is currently formatted as a NFTS drive, and I would rather not reformat it. However I am totally willing to reformat my two SSD's so that they work better for multiboot, and either clover or multibeast.

What I need to know is how exactly should I format the two SSD's, do any of them need multiple partitions to hold the boot-loader, NFTS, Mac OSX Extended journaled, APFS, MBR, GUID, UEFI, PCI etc. (I know i'm mixing terms there) I remember someone saying that the base way my drives were formatted was making it difficult for the boot loader.

Also if at all possible (I am on windows 8.1) I would like to use my free windows 10 upgrade. I was figuring that I could wipe the drive and then start it afresh on windows 10 but I am doubting I can do that for free.

 

[Going Bald]

I am going to try creating a dual boot computer.

I have 2 SSD's, and one HDD.

In an ideal world SSD1 would contain the essence of windows, and SSD2 would contain the essence of mac. Then both of them would have their own partition on the HDD.

My build is a rather difficult one because it contains many parts that are a bit less compatible without patching things, so any help I can give my system the better.

(i7 5820k 6 core, MSI X99s LGA2011-3, GTX 980 (in yosemite it needed web drivers), Rosewill N900PCE PCI-Express)

In the past I did manage to get a multi-boot computer going, however the file system on the mac part stoped working after a short time.

My HDD is currently formatted as a NFTS drive, and I would rather not reformat it. However I am totally willing to reformat my two SSD's so that they work better for multiboot, and either clover or multibeast.

What I need to know is how exactly should I format the two SSD's, do any of them need multiple partitions to hold the boot-loader, NFTS, Mac OSX Extended journaled, APFS, MBR, GUID, UEFI, PCI etc. (I know i'm mixing terms there) I remember someone saying that the base way my drives were formatted was making it difficult for the boot loader.

Also if at all possible (I am on windows 8.1) I would like to use my free windows 10 upgrade. I was figuring that I could wipe the drive and then start it afresh on windows 10 but I am doubting I can do that for free.

With 2 independent drives it is easy. First, since Windows is already installed, back up all of your files. Do you have and 3rd party apps installed like MS Office? Do you have the installation media for the 3rd party apps?

If no apps or you have the installation media, back your data files - no sense in backing up the OS as you are going to be changing it.
Go to http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 and download this tool. Use it to create an install USB for Windows 10. I know you are going to take the free upgrade from 8/8.1 to Win10, but it is better this way.
Do the upgrade and make sure - absolutely sure the new license key is validated. Click on Start, right click on Computer, select properties - in the bottom part it will tell you Windows is activated or not.

Now, boot and hit the Function hot key and select UEFI Windows 10 installation USB. At the the Win10 screen select Custom Install. At the installation screen select each partition and delete all of the partitions on the drive. Select the free space and let the Win10 installer take it from there. If it complains you have a MBR drive, open a command prompt and use diskpart to clean and convert to gpt the drive, then exit the command window and try again.
Your license key should be in the mainboard firmware and the Win10 installer should not even ask for it.
You now have a CLEAN install of Windows 10.

Disconnect Win10 drive, connect OS X drive and install OS X per http://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/u...pitan-on-any-supported-intel-based-pc.172672/