Windows 7 machine adding dual-boot for Mac OS X

[Turtle8]

Ok so this my very first attempt at any of this stuff, have been into PC building etc for a while but nothing with Macs. My wife just bought a macbook air and I thought it would sweet if I could dual-boot my pc and add the same Mac OS. I would eventually like to have both computers upgraded to Yosemite when it comes out in the fall so not sure the best approach to this. As I mentioned I already have Windows 7 installed on my PC and I have listed my specs below.


INTEL CORE I5-3570K
ASROCK Z77 PRO4 1155 ATX
CRUCIAL 8GB 4X2 RAM
EVGA GTX650TI BOOST 2GB
SAMSUNG E 120GB SSD
TOSHIBA 3.5" 1TB 7200 HDD


I have read where adding another hard-drive to dual-boot from is the best option when you already have windows installed. Would like honest opinions here and advice. If possible would like to not be spending too much money but also really want this to work as smoothly as possible. Many thanks in advance!!!

 

[Going Bald]

Ok so this my very first attempt at any of this stuff, have been into PC building etc for a while but nothing with Macs. My wife just bought a macbook air and I thought it would sweet if I could dual-boot my pc and add the same Mac OS. I would eventually like to have both computers upgraded to Yosemite when it comes out in the fall so not sure the best approach to this. As I mentioned I already have Windows 7 installed on my PC and I have listed my specs below.


INTEL CORE I5-3570K
ASROCK Z77 PRO4 1155 ATX
CRUCIAL 8GB 4X2 RAM
EVGA GTX650TI BOOST 2GB
SAMSUNG E 120GB SSD
TOSHIBA 3.5" 1TB 7200 HDD


I have read where adding another hard-drive to dual-boot from is the best option when you already have windows installed. Would like honest opinions here and advice. If possible would like to not be spending too much money but also really want this to work as smoothly as possible. Many thanks in advance!!!

It is possible to install OS X and Windows 7 on the same SSD, but it must be formated for OS X before Win7 is installed. Your choice - new drive for OS X (best recommendation) or reformat existing drive and reinstall Win7 and all apps like MS Office.
New drive is cheap at the price IMHO.

 

[Turtle8]

That is what I read from my preliminary research but wanted to double check, would you reccomend another SSD? I want it to be just as quick but also they are not as cheap obviosuly as the regular hard drives. If I should go with a SSD recommendations on the type? Also any good directions on this process for my specific build and situation? most posts I have seen are earlier in the game and they are installing OS X first with their build. (just would like to read more to become more comfortable with it.

Secondly I have read a lot about having to flash the bios, changing the DSDT, and other stuff with the mobo that I am very unfamiliar with and very hesitant to do with my lack of experience. Thoughts on this?

 

[Going Bald]

That is what I read from my preliminary research but wanted to double check, would you reccomend another SSD? I want it to be just as quick but also they are not as cheap obviosuly as the regular hard drives. If I should go with a SSD recommendations on the type? Also any good directions on this process for my specific build and situation? most posts I have seen are earlier in the game and they are installing OS X first with their build. (just would like to read more to become more comfortable with it.

the speed of a SSD is worth it IMHO - I would use Samsung Pro or EVO I have had good experience with them.

Secondly I have read a lot about having to flash the bios, changing the DSDT, and other stuff with the mobo that I am very unfamiliar with and very hesitant to do with my lack of experience. Thoughts on this?

The problem with the ASRock and other non-Gigabyte Z77 and earlier boards is that the CPU MSR was locked in the BIOS, preventing Apple power management from writing to it - which naturally caused a KP. A better method than flashing the BIOS is patching the kernel. This is done "on the fly" with Clover, but Legacy installs using Chameleon/Chimera you have to do it manually. You can do this with pmpatch (forum search is your friend) and then use the ASRock directions to take the resulting file and flash your BIOS or you can use a script by rehabman to patch the kernel - see http://racerrehabman.wordpress.com/

Question? Is your Win7 installed Legacy or EFI? One way to tell is to look at your boot SSD/HDD in BIOS. If the one that boots the machine has EFI in the name, it is UEFI installed. If it just has P0/P1/P2 for SATA Port 0/1/2 then it is installed Legacy. Another way to tell is to set the boot mode for EFI only and see if it boots. If it does, then it is definitely installed UEFI.

 

[Turtle8]

So I went into the bios when I turned it back on and I'm still not sure the bios on the mobo was the UEFI mode. But I have a feeling that's not what you're talking about. I couldn't even either identifying factor next to the hard drive description. I did see something that was legacy rom vs efi rom but not positive if that is what you were talking about it was defaulted to legacy rom. Didn't have time to switch it and reset the comp.

 

[Going Bald]

So I went into the bios when I turned it back on and I'm still not sure the bios on the mobo was the UEFI mode. But I have a feeling that's not what you're talking about. I couldn't even either identifying factor next to the hard drive description. I did see something that was legacy rom vs efi rom but not positive if that is what you were talking about it was defaulted to legacy rom. Didn't have time to switch it and reset the comp.

Open a command terminal by clicking on start and type cmd.exe in the search box and hit enter.

- type: diskpart
- type: list disk

post the results. mainly you are looking for the presence of an EFI partition in addition to the System Reserved partition and the main NTFS partition.

If you have EFI partition, Win7 is installed UEFI. If not, you are installed legacy.

 

[Turtle8]

Disk###	Status	Size	Free
Disk 0	Online	111GB	0GB
Disk 1	Online	931GB	0GB

I'm guessing this is legacy which sounded like the much more difficult way to go...

 

[Going Bald]

Disk###	Status	Size	Free
Disk 0	Online	111GB	0GB
Disk 1	Online	931GB	0GB

I'm guessing this is legacy which sounded like the much more difficult way to go...

So you have a 1 Tb drive with a 111Gb OS partition and a 931Gb storage? No System Reserved partition?

 

[Turtle8]

Disk 0 is my SSD and disk 1 is my 1tb hard drive.
No system reserve partition, no.

 

[Going Bald]

Disk 0 is my SSD and disk 1 is my 1tb hard drive.
No system reserve partition, no.

You are definitely installed Legacy mode, then. Win7 is on the SSD and the HDD is for storage?