Mountain Lion and Windows 7 with an HDD and an SSD

[twolock]

Hi, I'm building my first Hackintosh, and I want to dual boot Mountain Lion and Windows 7. Right now, I have a 120 GB SanDisk SSD and a 1 TB Seagate HDD. I was planning on installing OSX on the SSD and using the HDD for storage. I found this guide, but I'm not sure if it applies. I was hoping someone could advise me on the best way to dual boot using this setup. Thanks!

 

[RehabMan]

Hi, I'm building my first Hackintosh, and I want to dual boot Mountain Lion and Windows 7. Right now, I have a 120 GB SanDisk SSD and a 1 TB Seagate HDD. I was planning on installing OSX on the SSD and using the HDD for storage. I found this guide, but I'm not sure if it applies. I was hoping someone could advise me on the best way to dual boot using this setup. Thanks!

Read: http://www.tonymacx86.com/multi-booting/99683-dual-boot-macosx-windows-7-newbie.html

 

[twolock]

Thanks! Also, sorry for the redundant post. I just have a few questions, and I would be so grateful if you could answer them.

In that thread, you say to:

- connect only the Windows drive, then install Windows on it (be sure to install in legacy, non-UEFI mode)
- disconnect the Windows drive
- connect only the OS X drive, then install OS X to it using the techniques here
- connect the Windows drive
- make BIOS boot priority such that you boot to the OS X drive (because it has Chimera boot loader on it, which can be used to select which OS you want at boot time)

I want OS X to be able to write to the HDD. Should I use Disk Utility to partition it first? I don't know of a way to partition a drive without using Disk Utility, and I'm afraid that if I install Windows on the HDD, I will lose the ability to have OS X write to it.

EDIT:
I just saw the post in which you suggested to create at FAT32 partition. So in that case, I would install according to your instructions above and use Windows to create this other kind of partition. Would OS X then be able to write to that partition?

 

[RehabMan]

EDIT:
I just saw the post in which you suggested to create at FAT32 partition. So in that case, I would install according to your instructions above and use Windows to create this other kind of partition. Would OS X then be able to write to that partition?

Yes. I would probably use OS X Disk Utility to create the partition, since I think by your description you'll have OS X installed on that disk, but it would probably work either way.

 

[twolock]

Okay. Just to clarify:

-connect only the SSD
-install OS X on the SSD
-connect the HDD
-use Disk utility to create FAT32 partition on the HDD
-disconnect the SSD
-install Windows on the partition on the HDD (legacy, non-UEFI mode)
-reconnect the SSD
-make OS X the boot priority

Is this right? Thanks again!

 

[RehabMan]

Okay. Just to clarify:

-connect only the SSD
-install OS X on the SSD
-connect the HDD
-use Disk utility to create FAT32 partition on the HDD
-disconnect the SSD
-install Windows on the partition on the HDD (legacy, non-UEFI mode)
-reconnect the SSD
-make OS X the boot priority

Is this right? Thanks again!

Yes, in a nutshell.

 

[twolock]

This worked perfectly! Thanks so much!

 

[lukecr]

I am so glad that I found this post. I will be making a hackintosh later in the year but I want to make sure i know how to do everything before I try. I was wanting to do the same thing and have the windows just for some games that aren't on mac (so pretty much every game)