nForce OS X Snow Leopard (10.6) RETAIL INSTALL GUIDE on a Series 6 or 7 nForce chipset / Intel CPU MOBO

[speckay]

Hi all,

 

I hope this is the right place to post this, but I've installed retail SL on my XFX 780i motherboard, with a Core 2 Duo. I still haven't managed to get chameleon running (I still boot with verdant's boot132 disc), but that's a small price that I can afford to have Mac OSX.

 

It seems that after following the guide to the best I could, since I'm still new at this, I still have some issues that I'm hoping are related for a quick fix, but may not be.

 

First off, it seems that about 50% of the time when I boot, I get the "still waiting for root device" error. I'm using slashack's ATA kext, and it seems to always boot fine in safe mode, but that's no way to keep living. SL is installed to an Apple software RAID (striped) between two drives. Maybe that's a reason? I've tried other ATA kexts (AnV for one), and I seem to have the same problem.

 

Second, when I can boot, it doesn't always find all the drives in my system. I have the two RAID drives Mac OSX is on, and three others that are NTFS, but contain only data (no OS on it). Sometimes one gets loaded, sometimes it's the other two. There doesn't seem to be a pattern, it seems pretty random when I boot up.

 

Third, and finally, once I'm logged in and my desktop is loaded, Finder seems to freeze up randomly. All of a sudden, one window will be non-responsive, then others join in, and soon I can't click anything and have to do a hard reset. Not even the force quit window will come up. It can happen anywhere from 5 minutes since I booted up to 3 hours, to even I leave it on overnight and when I get up in the morning it will freeze on me. I'm not too certain why this is; some other people with other chipsets out there have said it's the ethernet kext, some think it's a SATA kext issue which may make sense given my first and second problems.

 

I have a spare IDE drive I used to first test to see if my hardware could run SL, and when it could I proceeded to use my main SATA drives. I may have to load up the old IDE drive again to see if that one crashed like this does.

 

I'm hoping that you guys out there can give me some feedback, hopefully other people ran into the same problem and found a way to fix it.

 

 

Other than that, thanks for the great resource, verdant. It helps quite a bit to see all, if not most, of the kexts and tools I need in one place.

[verdant]

Hi all,

 

I hope this is the right place to post this, but I've installed retail SL on my XFX 780i motherboard, with a Core 2 Duo. I still haven't managed to get chameleon running (I still boot with verdant's boot132 disc), but that's a small price that I can afford to have Mac OSX.

 

It seems that after following the guide to the best I could, since I'm still new at this, I still have some issues that I'm hoping are related for a quick fix, but may not be.

 

First off, it seems that about 50% of the time when I boot, I get the "still waiting for root device" error. I'm using slashack's ATA kext, and it seems to always boot fine in safe mode, but that's no way to keep living. SL is installed to an Apple software RAID (striped) between two drives. Maybe that's a reason? I've tried other ATA kexts (AnV for one), and I seem to have the same problem.

 

Second, when I can boot, it doesn't always find all the drives in my system. I have the two RAID drives Mac OSX is on, and three others that are NTFS, but contain only data (no OS on it). Sometimes one gets loaded, sometimes it's the other two. There doesn't seem to be a pattern, it seems pretty random when I boot up.

 

Third, and finally, once I'm logged in and my desktop is loaded, Finder seems to freeze up randomly. All of a sudden, one window will be non-responsive, then others join in, and soon I can't click anything and have to do a hard reset. Not even the force quit window will come up. It can happen anywhere from 5 minutes since I booted up to 3 hours, to even I leave it on overnight and when I get up in the morning it will freeze on me. I'm not too certain why this is; some other people with other chipsets out there have said it's the ethernet kext, some think it's a SATA kext issue which may make sense given my first and second problems.

 

I have a spare IDE drive I used to first test to see if my hardware could run SL, and when it could I proceeded to use my main SATA drives. I may have to load up the old IDE drive again to see if that one crashed like this does.

 

I'm hoping that you guys out there can give me some feedback, hopefully other people ran into the same problem and found a way to fix it.

 

Other than that, thanks for the great resource, verdant. It helps quite a bit to see all, if not most, of the kexts and tools I need in one place.

 

I would not be surprised if it is AppleNForceATA versus Apple Software RAID......are you able to run both CPU cores.......?

 

You could try the modified nForceIOATAFamily.kext in post #1 Part K Item 3......it could be an access timing issue......

 

Have you tried Chameleon 2.0 RC3 or RC4 overwritten with each of the the PC_EFI v10.1 to 10.6 boot files in turn, working backwards from v10.6......

 

For Ethernet, you can always try a Gigabit PCI card with the Realtek RTL8169 chipset.......e.g. Netgear GA311.....

[MasterTiiro]

quot;.......<br /><br />I mentioned the PCI path because your card does not seem to be recognised/picked up......it has the form <br />DevicePath = PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1,0x0)Pci(0x0,0x0)<br />in the .plist version of your hex EFI graphiccs string........<br /><br />Get the EVGA 2F16 driver <a href="http://www.evga.com/Support/Drivers/default.asp?switch=2" target="_blank">here</a>.....

<br /><br /><br /> Maybe I'm so new to this, but I don't understand what you're saying with the PCI/Device path at all. Can you show me how to access and change it? When you're talking about .plist are you talking about com.apple.boot.plist? Is it the same as this guide?

http://www.infinitemac.com/f19/guide-geforce-gtx-260-in-snow-leopard-t4057/

 

Oh, and the link you provided does not work anymore, maybe EVGA took it off.

[verdant]

<br /><br /><br /> Maybe I'm so new to this, but I don't understand what you're saying with the PCI/Device path at all. Can you show me how to access and change it? When you're talking about .plist are you talking about com.apple.boot.plist? Is it the same as this guide?

http://www.infinitemac.com/f19/guide-geforce-gtx-260-in-snow-leopard-t4057/

 

Oh, and the link you provided does not work anymore, maybe EVGA took it off.

 

Try this link instead and navigate to the file download link.......

About the PCI Device path.....I will get back to you in a short while......I need to switch to another computer to get some information for you.....I have sent you a PM........

 

EDIT: Please explain exactly how you have used OSx86Tools (i.e. the sequence of button presses/clicks and menu choices) to generate a custom graphics string for your graphics card........since EFI graphics strings are a hexadecimal string generated by mapping the firmware and PCI/PCI-E slot of YOUR graphics card it should work.......you can also use gfxutil to generate it manually........search via Google for netkas.org and GFXUtil News & Announcements (v0.71b + src).......for example, to find the device path of devices:

./gfxutil -f display
output: DevicePath = PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1,0x0)Pci(0x0,0x0)</font>

[MasterTiiro]

I got it to work! using nvenabler and gt200 2f16 evga package.

 

But I'll tell you what I did to obtain the gfx string yesterday.

 

-Add EFI strings/Boot flag button

-GFX strings button

-choose custom Geforce....

-fill in the name, choose custom for memory(in hex), dvi/dvi

 

 

Then I just copy the long string into com.apple.boot.plist under <key>device-properties</key>

 

but, unfortunately, it didn't work. In fact, after adding that, my computer get a back screen at osx loading screen. But I have a feeling that I'm going to need to use that method once I upgrade to SL.

 

Speaking of SL, I tried to partiton my 8gb cruzer USB flash drive, but Disk Utility couldn't regconize it. Can I create a partition on the Windows' drive instead of using the flash drive?

 

 

 

BTW: Links to gt200 2f16 evga and nvenabler. WARNING: only tested with 10.5.8. DOES NOT work with 10.5.6!

 

http://rapidshare.com/files/365666385/GT20...EVGA_Folder.zip

 

http://rapidshare.com/files/365666477/NVEnabler.kext.zip

[speckay]

I would not be surprised if it is AppleNForceATA versus Apple Software RAID......are you able to run both CPU cores.......?

 

You could try the modified nForceIOATAFamily.kext in post #1 Part K Item 3......it could be an access timing issue......

 

Have you tried Chameleon 2.0 RC3 or RC4 overwritten with each of the the PC_EFI v10.1 to 10.6 boot files in turn, working backwards from v10.6......

 

For Ethernet, you can always try a Gigabit PCI card with the Realtek RTL8169 chipset.......e.g. Netgear GA311.....

 

 

Thanks a bunch. I just reinstalled without a RAID and all/most of my problems cleared up. I still seem to be unable to have all my hard drives detected (the ones that are NTFS), but I may try the nForceIOATAFamily.kext in case. Unless someone else may know of a solution or if that just won't work?

 

And yes, I'm able to run both CPU cores. Everything else seems fine. Sometimes get the "still waiting for root device" error when I boot up randomly though...

[MasterTiiro]

After the upgrade to 10.5.8, I notice reboots are taking longer, where as before it was instantaneous. Is there some kind of fix for this?

[verdant]

After the upgrade to 10.5.8, I notice reboots are taking longer, where as before it was instantaneous. Is there some kind of fix for this?

 

See post #1 Part K Item 3........it may help.......

 

I got it to work! using nvenabler and gt200 2f16 evga package.

 

But I'll tell you what I did to obtain the gfx string yesterday.

 

-Add EFI strings/Boot flag button

-GFX strings button

-choose custom Geforce....

-fill in the name, choose custom for memory(in hex), dvi/dvi

 

 

Then I just copy the long string into com.apple.boot.plist under <key>device-properties</key>

 

but, unfortunately, it didn't work. In fact, after adding that, my computer get a back screen at osx loading screen. But I have a feeling that I'm going to need to use that method once I upgrade to SL.

 

Speaking of SL, I tried to partiton my 8gb cruzer USB flash drive, but Disk Utility couldn't regconize it. Can I create a partition on the Windows' drive instead of using the flash drive?

 

 

 

BTW: Links to gt200 2f16 evga and nvenabler. WARNING: only tested with 10.5.8. DOES NOT work with 10.5.6!

http://rapidshare.com/files/365666385/GT20...EVGA_Folder.zip

 

http://rapidshare.com/files/365666477/NVEnabler.kext.zip

 

Your procedure seems fine but it could be that your graphics card is not outputting the video signal to the port your monitor cable is connected to..............in your EFI string, you could try different NVCAP values......but first try swapping your display connector to the other port on your graphics card......with SL, I agree that it is probable that you will have to use a graphics string......

 

Did you check that your flash drive is FAT32 bootable.......as OS X naturally only read/writes FAT32 (MS-DOS FAT) and reads NTFS (you need 3rd party app to enable NTFS write, e.g. MacFuse NTFS-3G, Paragon, Tuxera NTFS for Mac etc.)......

[speckay]

Thanks a bunch. I just reinstalled without a RAID and all/most of my problems cleared up. I still seem to be unable to have all my hard drives detected (the ones that are NTFS), but I may try the nForceIOATAFamily.kext in case. Unless someone else may know of a solution or if that just won't work?

 

And yes, I'm able to run both CPU cores. Everything else seems fine. Sometimes get the "still waiting for root device" error when I boot up randomly though...

 

 

I lied. Finder crashes when I hook my NTFS data discs up again. Don't know why, but I guess those have to stay separate.

[verdant]

I lied. Finder crashes when I hook my NTFS data discs up again. Don't know why, but I guess those have to stay separate.

 

Tell more about your HDDs......

 

OS X on IDE or SATA HDD......just on its own HDD......1st physical volume on HDD or what....?

 

Windows on its own HDD(s).......set up as RAID or on a single HDD.......just on its own......?

 

On MOBO wich SATA ports are connected to which HDDs.....?

[speckay]

Tell more about your HDDs......

 

OS X on IDE or SATA HDD......just on its own HDD......1st physical volume on HDD or what....?

 

Windows on its own HDD(s).......set up as RAID or on a single HDD.......just on its own......?

 

On MOBO wich SATA ports are connected to which HDDs.....?

 

 

Ok so, OSX is on SATA HDD, on its own, taking the whole HD (nothing else on it).

Second SATA HDD is just an NFS+ format to hold some files.

 

I then have 3 SATA HDDs hooked up to SATA B0, B1, and C1 that don't even have any OS on them, no RAID, just on their own, formatted NTFS. Half the time these aren't even detected by Mac OSX.

 

Thanks for trying to help by the way, much appreciated.

[MasterTiiro]

<br />See post #1 Part K Item 3........it may help.......<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Did you check that your flash drive is FAT32 bootable.......as OS X naturally only read/writes FAT32 (MS-DOS FAT) and reads NTFS (you need 3rd party app to enable NTFS write, e.g. MacFuse NTFS-3G, Paragon, Tuxera NTFS for Mac etc.)......<br />

<br /><br /><br />

 

Yes, the flash drive is fat32. I know because I formatted it 3 times with FAT32. I can see it in BIOS and Windows, but just not OSX. I know you're busy and probably forgot about my question, so I'll go ahead and ask it again. Can we use a partition on a HDD to restore SL image instead of using a flash thumb drive?

[verdant]

Ok so, OSX is on SATA HDD, on its own, taking the whole HD (nothing else on it).

Second SATA HDD is just an NFS+ format to hold some files.

 

I then have 3 SATA HDDs hooked up to SATA B0, B1, and C1 that don't even have any OS on them, no RAID, just on their own, formatted NTFS. Half the time these aren't even detected by Mac OSX.

 

Thanks for trying to help by the way, much appreciated.

 

Does Chameleon see the NTFS HDD volumes?

 

You could try with as many NTFS HDDs on the same SATA port block as the OS X HDDs.......with OS X as drive 0 on the SATA port block......

 

<br /><br /><br />

 

Yes, the flash drive is fat32. I know because I formatted it 3 times with FAT32. I can see it in BIOS and Windows, but just not OSX. I know you're busy and probably forgot about my question, so I'll go ahead and ask it again. Can we use a partition on a HDD to restore SL image instead of using a flash thumb drive?

 

I had not forgotten but not being able to hot mount/unmount a USB flash drive on the Leopard OS X Desktop is not a issue to be dismissed.......now that you have said that you can see it in BIOS and Windows, we know that OS X has a problem...... you must ensure that your kernel version and System.kext versions match.......otherwise you cannot hot mount/unmount USB devices on the OS X Desktop.....however, with mismatched kernel and System.kext version, if you boot with the USB flash drive already plugged in, it should hopefully mount......

 

Now to answer your question......

 

Yes, you can......if you need to install on MBR, see Post #1 Part E. Procedure 1 and put the name of the folder/volume where you have put the Retail Mac OS X 10.6 Install DVD .dmg/.iso image file......

 

Now mount the Snow Leopard .dmg/.iso file......an installer pop-up window will appear......now click on any free-space region within the window/Desktop and then go to top menu bar and click on Go > Go to Folder......a pop-up window will appear….in the window entry box, type

Mac OS X Install DVD/System/Installation/Packages/

And click on Go......

 

In the next window that appears, find the OSInstall.mpkg file/icon and double-click this package file to start your Snow leopard Installation......

 

Note that the default OSInstall.mpkg works for a GPT partitioned HDD only......if you need to install on MBR then follow procedure outlined in Part E, Procedure 1 but using your HDD folder/volume rather than the OSX_10.6_USB_Installer folder/volume......

[speckay]

Does Chameleon see the NTFS HDD volumes?

 

You could try with as many NTFS HDDs on the same SATA port block as the OS X HDDs.......with OS X as drive 0 on the SATA port block......

 

 

Chameleon (from the nForceSLBoot132DVD) sees all the drives no problem. That just doesn't get propagated to OSX itself.

 

I'll try your suggestion though and post again with what happens.

[verdant]

Chameleon (from the nForceSLBoot132DVD) sees all the drives no problem. That just doesn't get propagated to OSX itself.

 

I'll try your suggestion though and post again with what happens.

 

If my suggestion does not help......you may need to consider a fresh SL install.......also if you have an Extensions.mkext in /Extra, I suggest removing it.......

[MasterTiiro]

I had not forgotten but not being able to hot mount/unmount a USB flash drive on the Leopard OS X Desktop is not a issue to be dismissed.......now that you have said that you can see it in BIOS and Windows, we know that OS X has a problem...... you must ensure that your kernel version and System.kext versions match.......otherwise you cannot hot mount/unmount USB devices on the OS X Desktop.....however, with mismatched kernel and System.kext version, if you boot with the USB flash drive already plugged in, it should hopefully mount......

 

 

I don't why but both the kernel and system.kext match. There is one odd thing and that is "info.plist and version.plist" from "System.kext.orig" show version 9.6.0?..... I don't remember installing anything version 9.6.0.

 

Here's the screenshot:

 

[speckay]

If my suggestion does not help......you may need to consider a fresh SL install.......also if you have an Extensions.mkext in /Extra, I suggest removing it.......

 

Well you were right... having SATA drives in A0 and A1 work, but any extras crash Finder. Do you know why that might be? or what I can do to fix it?

 

I removed Extensions.mkext anyways.

 

And I've done like 6 fresh SL installs at this point. haha

 

Well you were right... having SATA drives in A0 and A1 work, but any extras crash Finder. Do you know why that might be? or what I can do to fix it?

 

I removed Extensions.mkext anyways.

 

And I've done like 6 fresh SL installs at this point. haha

 

Dammit. I spoke too soon. Finder froze up when I tried copying lots of files from SATA @ A1 to SATA @ A0.

[verdant]

Well you were right... having SATA drives in A0 and A1 work, but any extras crash Finder. Do you know why that might be? or what I can do to fix it?

 

I removed Extensions.mkext anyways.

 

And I've done like 6 fresh SL installs at this point. haha

 

I suspect it is a BIOS/DSDT issue......does your manual MOBO spec say what chipsets your MOBO uses for SATA controllers?..........as some MOBOs have both nVidia nForce chipset SATA and JMicron chipset SATA controllers..............

 

I don't why but both the kernel and system.kext match. There is one odd thing and that is "info.plist and version.plist" from "System.kext.orig" show version 9.6.0?..... I don't remember installing anything version 9.6.0.

 

Here's the screenshot:

 

 

I suggest installing Voodoo 9.5.0 with 9.5.0 System.kext and 9.5.0 seatbelt.kext.........

[verdant]

Well you were right... having SATA drives in A0 and A1 work, but any extras crash Finder. Do you know why that might be? or what I can do to fix it?

 

I removed Extensions.mkext anyways.

 

And I've done like 6 fresh SL installs at this point. haha

 

 

 

Dammit. I spoke too soon. Finder froze up when I tried copying lots of files from SATA @ A1 to SATA @ A0.

 

Double check that you have slashack's AppleNForceATA.kext v0.1 in /Extra/Extensions and repair its permissions, then create in /System/Library/Extensions/ a symbolic link to it:

cd /Extra/Extensions/
sudo chown -R root:wheel AppleNForceATA.kext
sudo chmod -R 755 AppleNForceATA.kext
sudo touch AppleNForceATA.kextsudo 
ln -s AppleNForceATA.kext /System/Library/Extensions/
ls -l /System/Library/Extensions/
exit

[speckay]

I suspect it is a BIOS/DSDT issue......does your manual MOBO spec say what chipsets your MOBO uses for SATA controllers?..........as some MOBOs have both nVidia nForce chipset SATA and JMicron chipset SATA controllers..............

 

 

I looked through the manual, and it does not say. I suspect that it's NVIDIA nForce, since it has an nForce RAID controller, but I don't know for sure.

 

I also made sure I'm using slashack's ATA kext the way you said, and Finder still crashes (and I still can't detect all my hard drives).

[MasterTiiro]

USB flash drive is a no go. I've even fresh-installed osx leopard on a different partition to see if it works-it didn't. So there must be something else beside the kernel and system.kext not matching.

 

But life goes on.........

 

Back to SL installation. When you say part E procedure 1, do you mean I can skip all those other steps and start from Part E?

 

Note: I've already patched the DSDT.aml.

 

I had not forgotten but not being able to hot mount/unmount a USB flash drive on the Leopard OS X Desktop is not a issue to be dismissed.......now that you have said that you can see it in BIOS and Windows, we know that OS X has a problem...... you must ensure that your kernel version and System.kext versions match.......otherwise you cannot hot mount/unmount USB devices on the OS X Desktop.....however, with mismatched kernel and System.kext version, if you boot with the USB flash drive already plugged in, it should hopefully mount......

 

Now to answer your question......

 

Yes, you can......see Post #1 Part E. Procedure 1 and put the name of the folder/volume where you have put the Retail Mac OS X 10.6 Install DVD .dmg/.iso image file......

 

Now mount the Snow Leopard .dmg/.iso file......an installer pop-up window will appear......now click on any free-space region within the window/Desktop and then go to top menu bar and click on Go > Go to Folder......a pop-up window will appear….in the window entry box, type

Mac OS X Install DVD/System/Installation/Packages/

And click on Go......

 

In the next window that appears, find the OSInstall.mpkg file/icon and double-click this package file to start your Snow leopard Installation......

 

Note that the default OSInstall.mpkg works for a GPT partitioned HDD only......if you need to install on MBR then follow procedure outlined in Part E, Procedure 2 but using your HDD folder/volume rather than the OSX_10.6_USB_Installer folder/volume......

[verdant]

USB flash drive is a no go. I've even fresh-installed osx leopard on a different partition to see if it works-it didn't. So there must be something else beside the kernel and system.kext not matching.

 

But life goes on.........

 

Back to SL installation. When you say part E procedure 1, do you mean I can skip all those other steps and start from Part E?

 

Note: I've already patched the DSDT.aml.

 

Re USB......even if you cannot boot into OS X from a USB flash drive, can you at least hot mount/unmount it from the OS X Desktop......?

 

If your OS X HDD is MBR partitioned, you will need to follow Part E which covers using a modified OSInstall.mpkg and OSInstall Unix executable file......BUT not if your OS X HDD is GPT partitioned.......in the case, the default OSInstall.mpkg in Snow Leopard .dmg/.iso file can be used......

 

You will be using Leopard in place of a USB flash drive installer when following Part D in the guide up to sub-section (13) ......then mount the Snow Leopard .dmg/.iso file......an installer pop-up window will appear......now click on any free-space region within the window/Desktop and then go to top menu bar and click on Go > Go to Folder......a pop-up window will appear….in the window entry box, type

 

Mac OS X Install DVD/System/Installation/Packages/

And click on Go......and at this point, follow on from the last instruction in sub-section (16) to (18)......

 

in the next window that appears, find the OSInstall.mpkg file/icon and double-click this package file to start your Snow leopard Installation......

 

@ MasterTiiro

 

On the Leopard USB front, perhaps the kernel is not reliably finding/loading the IOUSBMassStorageClass.kext from /System/Library/Extensions.....this could be because since 10.5.5, the IOUSBMassStorageClass.kext is no longer included as a Plugin in the IOUSBFamily.kext.......it is now in /System/Library/Extensions........so put a copy of IOUSBMassStorageClass.kext in the Plugins folder of the IOUSBFamily.kext, and then fix the ownership and permissions of the IOUSBFamily.kext......and see what happens......

[MasterTiiro]

Regarding the USB flash drive, I don't even see it under system preferences. It's like it's not even there. It seems osx can't detect any usb drive that I plug in. Oh, and I have tried put the kext into the plugin folder as you've suggested-no go.

 

 

But back to SL installation - I don't really understand the part about the modified OSInstall.mpkg. I tried doing it because I don't have a gpt partitioned drive. I don't know if you remember, but I'm using an extra HDD with data already on it. I've only shrunk it down to install osx. But going back to the modified OSInstall.mpkg method. I did it and it reset my BIOS settings, weird.....

 

This is what I did. I created a partition from Windows 7's HDD to replace the USB installer, because mine isn't detected.

 

-I restored the SL retail image to the newly created partition(SL_Install)

-replaced OSInstall.mpkg and OSInstall to their proper folders

-installed chameleon onto SL_Install and placed in efi boot file

-rebooted and chose SL_Install from chameleon

-it ran a few lines of codes and then just stopped.

-so I manually restart the system

-then found out my BIOS settings got reset(lost all my overclock settings)

 

oh well.....

[verdant]

Regarding the USB flash drive, I don't even see it under system preferences. It's like it's not even there. It seems osx can't detect any usb drive that I plug in. Oh, and I have tried put the kext into the plugin folder as you've suggested-no go.

 

 

But back to SL installation - I don't really understand the part about the modified OSInstall.mpkg. I tried doing it because I don't have a gpt partitioned drive. I don't know if you remember, but I'm using an extra HDD with data already on it. I've only shrunk it down to install osx. But going back to the modified OSInstall.mpkg method. I did it and it reset my BIOS settings, weird.....

 

This is what I did. I created a partition from Windows 7's HDD to replace the USB installer, because mine isn't detected.

 

-I restored the SL retail image to the newly created partition(SL_Install)

-replaced OSInstall.mpkg and OSInstall to their proper folders

-installed chameleon onto SL_Install and placed in efi boot file

-rebooted and chose SL_Install from chameleon

-it ran a few lines of codes and then just stopped.

-so I manually restart the system

-then found out my BIOS settings got reset(lost all my overclock settings)

 

oh well.....

 

BIOS settings being reset indicates that the RTC patched DSDT.aml file is not loading from /Extra and/or is not correctly patched and/or compiled.....

 

What are the boot screen error messages when you booted the HDD SL install with -v?

[MasterTiiro]

I don't quite remember, something about osx not set up. I thought I had messed up my computer so I restarted my computer.

 

But I'm a little bit confused here. What is the process I'm trying to do here, because I obviously can't boot with a usb flash drive. Am I supposed to copy the sl image to a partition and make it bootable? or do I just copy it straight to the partition I'd created from the very beginning with my OSX_BACKUP and install from there. There's just so much information in your guide, and it's not tailored to my situation so I'm kind of stuck. Maybe if I understand the objective of what I'm supposed to do, then it'll easier.

 

In any case, thanks for being patient with me and still trying to help. I really appreciate it.