[Guide] The Fool-Proof Vista & XP / Mac OS X Dual-Boot Guide

[JSR]

Great Guide!!

 

1Q: Darwin boots Vista by default Do you know how to configure Darwin in order to load Mac OS automatically? I sow under "Startup Disk" (System Preferences) but I have only "network boot"

[devilhood]

Devilhood...HELP!

 

I followed your instructions for creating a dual boot system with XP....after I finish the diskpart part I insert the Mac OS X install disc and reboot, but when my computer starts up it says ERROR LOADING OPERATING SYSTEM...what may I have done wrong? I am using Mac OS version 10.4.2 (that actual discs from Apple)....Please help!

 

Talk about jumping the gun a bit. Ok, for a start, you haven't told me what computer you have, also, you CANNOT use any kind of official Apple Mac OS X install discs on Generic PC's.

This guide is for people using JaS, Myzar, Tubgirl or Uphuck releases of Mac OS X 10.4.7 onwards.

You should really download the Uphuck 10.4.9 disc from green demon and search around and learn from the huge amount of information on this site.

No one uses anything below 10.4.7 anymore because the first couple of releases were unstable and had bad support for generic hardware.

 

Pawel.

[suprem3]

YESS! it worked with darwin boot loader, the vista bootloader is not working for me!

This is great place to discuss about problems.

btw. does anyone have known drivers for build in webcam on HP pavilion dv6000? tnx

[Dark_Reign]

Hi there.

 

am encounting a problem with the installation. BASE installs but when it gets to ESSENTIALS it freezes at a random percent. Whole thing is unresponsive. Have to reboot.

 

I am using JaS OS 10.4.8 AMD Intel SSe2 SSe3, and my PC is a AMD chip.

 

Anyone had a similar issue.

 

Have tried additional times and it now freezes at random times. I'm stuck.

 

My PC specs: Home-built

 

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ AM2 (codename: Orleans)

Gigabyte GA-M55SLI-S4

2GB PC2-5300 (333 MHz) RAM (4x 512MB)

ATI Raedon x800 GTO

2x 160GB HDD

[mxfx]

What if I've installed Mac OS X first? Can I now install XP and just set the Mac OS X partition as "active" after the XP install?

 

I might just go ahead and try instead of waiting for a reply. I don't have any data to save, I've just installed OS X about an hour ago.

[devilhood]

What if I've installed Mac OS X first? Can I now install XP and just set the Mac OS X partition as "active" after the XP install?

 

I might just go ahead and try instead of waiting for a reply. I don't have any data to save, I've just installed OS X about an hour ago.

 

Yep, that will work

[dutchMasta]

Thanks devilhood. Installation was quick and easy, the guide helped me. I tried using the chain0 method before, but now I know, darwin bootloader is clearly the way to go.

[mightydrake]

It doesnt work on my computer. Vista was installed, Then I installed OSX with the proper partition, Im able to boot in OSX but I cant boot back in Vista. I get the winload error and the Vista Startup Repair doesnt works.

 

**EDIT: I figured out a way to make it work. I had to set the windows partition Active then reboot onto Vista Installer DVD and it detected my windows partition and repaired it. Then I rebooted onto Vista DVD again to set OSX partition as active in diskpart. And now everything works fine, Im just waiting a fix for my X1400 {censored}. Thanks

[devilhood]

It doesnt work on my computer. Vista was installed, Then I installed OSX with the proper partition, Im able to boot in OSX but I cant boot back in Vista. I get the winload error and the Vista Startup Repair doesnt works.

 

**EDIT: I figured out a way to make it work. I had to set the windows partition Active then reboot onto Vista Installer DVD and it detected my windows partition and repaired it. Then I rebooted onto Vista DVD again to set OSX partition as active in diskpart. And now everything works fine, Im just waiting a fix for my X1400 {censored}. Thanks

 

Yes, that was listed all in the guide

[ericp]

Thanks for the guide. I now have my latest jas 10.4.8 disc and was itchingly ready to follow your guide and install OS X to dual-boot with Vista on my Foxconn G965 mobo until you mentioned uphuck's version.

 

Do you recommend using uphuck 10.4.9 v1.3 instead?

[devilhood]

Uphuck's v1.3 is the best 10.4.9 Installation Disc available.

 

I'd highly recommend that everyone uses this

 

Edit: Uphuck 1.4 is now available so get that instead

[ericp]

I have the Foxconn G965 with ICH8R and Jmicron 361 mobo.

 

Vista was originally installed with SATA Mode set to IDE.

 

I found out that because of my board I need to do the following to install OS X86:

 

1) Use IDE to SATA converter for my DVD-RW and have a SATA hard drive.

 

2) Change SATA Mode from IDE to AHCI in BIOS.

 

Following your recommendation, I installed uphuck's 10.4.9 v1.3 DVD. Success!

 

Now my problem is, I cannot boot into Vista using AHCI. If I revert back to IDE, I can boot back to Vista but fails to boot OS X86.

 

I read in some other forum that even when they re-install Vista using AHCI, they have problems booting it. I also tried modifying the msahci.sys keys in the Vista registry prior to changing the BIOS to AHCI but didn't work too.

 

Shouldn't the patches for ICH8R and Jmicron in uphuck's release fix the IDE/Jmicron problem so OS X86 will still work even when I run in IDE mode?

 

Any solution to this problem will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[ericp]

I finally made my Vista and OS X dual-boot on my Foxconn G965 and convert Vista to AHCI from IDE without re-installing the OS.

 

From Vista:

 

Tried again changing the "Start" key in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci, to "0".

 

Downloaded recent Jmicron IDE-SATA Raid driver from Foxconn and latest Intel G965 chipsets. You should have the zip file extracted to a folder. BIOS is also updated thru included Foxconn BIOS updater.

 

Boot from Vista install CD and select Repair. Select "Load Drivers" and browse to your Jmicron files and add the driver. Do the same for the Intel chipset drivers.

 

Restart your PC.

 

From BIOS:

 

Changed SATA Mode to AHCI.

 

Make sure the "Hard Disk Boot Priority" remains to be your SATA Drive (I don't know how it happened but mine was changed to my USB Drive when I re-booted so I got the "No Active Partition" error).

 

Reboot and select Vista (I used EasyBCD previously to automatically create my dual-boot script).

 

Vista will announce it has found and installed new devices. In the Device Manager, under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, you should have Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller (I don't know if it was already there before though).

 

Restart your PC.

 

Boot to Mac OS X. Voila! (I already had it working before, I just fixed the problem with Vista when using SATA mode to AHCI that is required by OS X).

 

Boot to Vista. Voila again!

 

Now I just have to figure out how to make my other devices (Marvell Yukon Controller and NVidia 7200 GS) working. I'm a Mac Noob! Help!

 

Ayos na sana...

 

 

Ok, got my Marvell Yukon Gigabit Controller working thanks to the guys on this thread:

 

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?sho...mp;#entry394564

 

I guess I need to replace my NVidia 7200 with a 7600...

 

 

Update:

 

NVidia 7200GS/7300SE now working using Diabolik's 10.4.9 NVidia Installer.

 

http://diabolik1605.com/DHF/iNVidia.html

 

QE/CI supported; 1440X900@60 resolution

[doktorklaus]

I recently received an Acer 5100 notebook computer all nice and equipped with Windows Vista, which is awesome, I guess, if you really, really need to have Solitaire and a Start menu, and I was all excited when I saw this guide after trying [and failing] to get OSX going with Acronis.

 

Anyway, I'm having some trouble; it's probably just a hardware issue, but I haven't been able to find a solution for it [if there is one.]

 

When my computer starts, it goes directly into whatever's on the active partition [Vista], and then the DVD drive kicks in. If you change it in the BIOS for the DVD drive to go first, it does, but the hard drive doesn't seem to start. For this, at least I think so, Disk Utility is claiming that my only disks are my DVD drive and the OSX DVD I have in it.

 

If I follow the guide and set the new partition to active, when the computer starts, the DVD drive doesn't kick in, and all I get is an infinite loop of it suggesting I boot from a floppy because there's nothing on the disk.

 

I've seen a few posts saying there's trouble with SATA, but nothing really explaining what to do about it.

 

Suggestions ? It'd be nice if this could work out.

I'd be happy, even, if it were possible to just replace Vista with OSX. I'm hesitant to try in case I eff something up and have to reinstall Windows, and MS pulls one of those "this has already been installed/your hardware is different than we remember; give us 300$ or grandma feels the pain" jobs they like to do.

[iwill]

Hello,

 

nice guide guys. I have a problem. After installing Mac OS, I get the boot choices (MAC and XP). MAC Doesn't work, when i choose that option, it doesn't do anything, my XP loads normally.

What would be the solution?

 

iWill

[shadowfox745]

hii tried using EasyBCD to get the windows boot loader up and it did, but when i choose "Mac OS X" it goes to vista, and the vista option goes to vista, anyone helpme fix it pls?

[Computer Guru]

Hi shadowfox,

 

Probably the default OS in the Darwin bootloader is Vista, and you're reaching the timeout. After you select OS X from the Vista menu, hit the `esc` a couple of times and the arrow keys too. You should get a second menu, this time OS X's.

[iwill]

I am stuck. After I choose MAC OS it boots up but stops at a command called darwin, and doesn't do anything. I don't see the apple logo anywhere

my windows XP still runs fine.

 

any suggestions?

[iwill]

Now I am stuck at the blue screen thing! Some slow progress. devilhood I checked your info about that, but my laptop is not duo core, so any idea what might be the problem for the blue screen!

[devilhood]

Well, seeing as you haven't stated what system you are trying to run the Mac on, how can I possibly troubleshoot it for you? we're not telepathic you know

 

Try booting with the kernal flag -v and tell me if there are any errors being displayed.

[Cloud_sb]

Hey devilhood, folowed your tutorial and its by far the best out there but still i have a problem.

Everything goes well until i have to choose a language, i choose it, continue, erase the disk but it just hangs the whole pc up.

Sometimes it does erase and it hangs during installing or it says after installing that there were some critical errors and i have to reinstall.

 

Is it because i burned the dvd at 16x? so maybe some write errors.

Or because my HDD is Sata?

Or a combination? or something else?

I use the JaS OSX 10.4.8 .iso image and i have a MSI Nforce 4 motherboard and a AMD Athlon 64 3500+

[herbalb]

First of all, thanks for this great guide I really need a fool-prof guide. ;-)

Here is my situation, I would like to install Vista and XP on my 2xSATA harddrives (combined in Raid) and OSX on a separate IDE harddisk (because my A8n-SLI mainboard uses nforce4 I think it would not work if I used another Sata disk). XP on the 2xSATA drives and Vista+OSX on the IDE-drive would be fine also - as long as it works and XP (which I use most) can be on the RAID every option will be fine.

 

So my question is, what to install first of these three? Should I first install XP on RAID with seperate partions for XP and Vista, then create a partition for OSX on IDE drive, after XP has been installed (try to) install OSX on the partition created for it and finally install Vista? Or what would you suggest/what way would be the easiest and safest way?

[iwebz]

devilhood thanx for the wonder ful guide .... I am having one prob i have already installed windows xp and had separated a partition of about 20 GB (unformatted) i made this partition active and left out these steps:

 

DISKPART> create partition primary size=n id=af

[where n = the size in MB of the partition, however if no size is specified then the remaining space of that drive is used]

[where af = hfs+ compatible]

Will proceed to create a bootable primary partition for the Mac

 

For example: create partition primary size=100000 id=af

This will create a 100GB partition for Mac OS X.

 

DISKPART> list partition

This will show you the partitions on your selected disk

 

DISKPART> select partition n

[where n = the newly created OSX partition]

This will specify the partition

 

now i installed MAC OS X... After mac is installed i press F8 and iam presented with only one option n that is for MAC OS X, windows has just disappeared... Further more when i load up mac i cant see the disk in which windows is installed..... Is this problem got some thing to do with disk permissions???? or have i done sumthing wrong... AND MOST IMPORATANTLY IS THEIR ANYWAY TO ACCESS MY WINDOWSXP WITHOUT HAVING TO REFORMAT MY SYSTEM...

 

HELP WILL BE APPRECIATED... ONCE AGAIN THANX FOR A WONDERFUL JOB THAT YOU ARE DOING...

[daven1986]

hi there,

 

have a quick question.

at the moment i have vista on my primary IDE drive, and a free 100gb drive waiting for OSX.

The 100gb drive is IDE and i also have another SATA drive used for my data.

 

my question is, can i install OSX on my 100gb drive, while keeping vista on the other IDE drive and dual boot?

 

if so what changes will i have to make to the instructions in the original post?

 

thanks

 

daven1986

[yelloguy]

Thanks devilhood, worked perfectly with Uphuck 10.4.0 v1.4i r2. The only little confusion for me was after you write in bold

If you want to Dual-Boot with Vista...

 

Right before that, if you can move the instructions to fix windowsload.exe problem, alot of people following your advice to use Darwin would be all set before they get to that (bold) part. I had to read that section several times and try a couple of things. Turns out all I needed was boot from Vista disk and Repair the Vista installation. And now I use Darwin the way it installed. It gives a timeout for additional options. If I press enter, it gives me three partitions to choose from. If I choose the Vista or OSX partition it boots into the respective OS (the third partition is the recovery partition.. oh shoot.. I hope booting from the third partition does not restore the laptop.. will need to fix that).