Need help with bootloader modifications for ML/Win7/Win Triple boot system

[Dlblackfl2]

I have built a triple boot system with each OS (ML 10.8.4, Win 8 Pro 8.1 Preview, Win 7 SP1) booting from a separate SSD. My system is an i3770k on an Asus P8Z77 V-Pro Thunderbolt, with a single EVGA GTX 660 Superclocked GPU, and 16 GB (4 x 4) DDR3 2400Ghz SDRAM. I installed ML using the Multibeast with no DSDT (PMPatched BIOS, version 1908). Everything works! WI-Fi, Bluetooth, Audio, Sleep. My only issues are that:

• When I restart or reboot after running Windows 8.1, the system boots directly back into Windows 8.1, without an opportunity to select other boot options, and without giving me an option to enter the UEFI BIOS to change the boot order. To get to the BIOS, I have to shut down completely, power off the PSU switch, then power on and hit F8 (or Delete or F2 and then F8) to select the Win7 or ML SSD as the boot drive.

• If I restart after using Win7, it reboots into Win8, because the Win8 SSD is the primary boot device the BIOS, again without showing me a list of options.

• When I select the ML boot drive from the BIOS, or make that drive the primary boot drive, I get the Chimera ML boot screen, which, of course, shows all my drives if I hit any key while it's loading. I can boot into Win 7 from there, but if I select the Win 8 drive, I get an error screen indicating that the boot sector was not found. I can only boot Windows 8.1 by selecting the Win 8 drive in the BIOS boot selection screen.

The two problems I want to solve are: 1) to eliminate the need to power off the PSU in order to reboot or access the BIOS, and 2) to get a consistent, simple, three-item boot menu on start-up, regardless of which drive I booted from last.

Any ideas?

Note: I have just upgraded to Chimera 2.1.1, but that had no impact on the above issues.

 

[RehabMan]

I have built a triple boot system with each OS (ML 10.8.4, Win 8 Pro 8.1 Preview, Win 7 SP1) booting from a separate SSD. My system is an i3770k on an Asus P8Z77 V-Pro Thunderbolt, with a single EVGA GTX 660 Superclocked GPU, and 16 GB (4 x 4) DDR3 2400Ghz SDRAM. I installed ML using the Multibeast with no DSDT (PMPatched BIOS, version 1908). Everything works! WI-Fi, Bluetooth, Audio, Sleep. My only issues are that:

• When I restart or reboot after running Windows 8.1, the system boots directly back into Windows 8.1, without an opportunity to select other boot options, and without giving me an option to enter the UEFI BIOS to change the boot order. To get to the BIOS, I have to shut down completely, power off the PSU switch, then power on and hit F8 (or Delete or F2 and then F8) to select the Win7 or ML SSD as the boot drive.

You need to disable "fast boot." It interferes with multi-boot boot loaders other than the Windows boot loader. See my multi-boot article on my blog (link in signature).

• If I restart after using Win7, it reboots into Win8, because the Win8 SSD is the primary boot device the BIOS, again without showing me a list of options.

Set your primary boot device to the device where Chimera is installed. That way you can boot everything via Chimera...

• When I select the ML boot drive from the BIOS, or make that drive the primary boot drive, I get the Chimera ML boot screen, which, of course, shows all my drives if I hit any key while it's loading. I can boot into Win 7 from there, but if I select the Win 8 drive, I get an error screen indicating that the boot sector was not found. I can only boot Windows 8.1 by selecting the Win 8 drive in the BIOS boot selection screen.

You need to separate BCD information for Win7 and Win8. See my multi-boot article on my blog. It explains how.

 

[Dlblackfl2]

Thanks for the helpful advice. Your blog is terrific! I need to spend some time tomorrow on this and will post my results.

 

[fr0stspire]

See my multi-boot article on my blog. It explains how.

That is an awesome article. I went it on my own trying to 3x boot OSX/WIN/DEBIAN and wound up giving up on it and going with 3 separate drives. I may try to partition an SSD and give your method a try. IDK what went wrong when I used GPTSYNC but it never worked right and I wound up losing my windows boot sector.

 

[RehabMan]

That is an awesome article. I went it on my own trying to 3x boot OSX/WIN/DEBIAN and wound up giving up on it and going with 3 separate drives. I may try to partition an SSD and give your method a try. IDK what went wrong when I used GPTSYNC but it never worked right and I wound up losing my windows boot sector.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'losing my windows boot sector'. You can't 'lose a sector' as the sector is just a storage location on a disk. Certainly, the contents of that sector can be replaced by something you don't want, but you can't lose it. Perhaps you mean losing your 'windows bootloader'...(in other words, Windows bootloader is no longer on the MBR sector). But... The whole point of the article is to use Chimera/Chameleon bootloader.

 

[ilanbiala]

I have built a triple boot system with each OS (ML 10.8.4, Win 8 Pro 8.1 Preview, Win 7 SP1) booting from a separate SSD. My system is an i3770k on an Asus P8Z77 V-Pro Thunderbolt, with a single EVGA GTX 660 Superclocked GPU, and 16 GB (4 x 4) DDR3 2400Ghz SDRAM. I installed ML using the Multibeast with no DSDT (PMPatched BIOS, version 1908). Everything works! WI-Fi, Bluetooth, Audio, Sleep.

How did you manage to get WiFi working?

 

[Dlblackfl2]

I have an Amped Wireless High Power Wireless-N 600mW Gigabit Dual Band Router that comes with an OSX driver and wireless utility. I use the Amped Wireless UE600EX Hi-Power Wireless-N 600mw Pro USB wireless adapter, and configured the wi-fi through the excellent utility program. I don't think anyone has figured out yet how to make use of the Wi-Fi Go! add-on module that comes with the Asus motherboards. My wi-fi setup works flawlessly in ML 10.8.4.