Installation Questions (please help)

[D.Lewis]

Tomorrow I'll be (trying) to install Leopard to my PC. I currently have 2 hard drives:
HDD 1:
Partition 1: Vista Install

HDD 2:
Partition 1: Storage
Partition 2: EMPTY (formatted to FAT32, want to install Leopard here)

Basically I just want confirmation that what I'll be doing wont erase or tamper with the Storage partition (or any other ones). This is what I'll be doing, I'm not sure if I need to install the EFIv8 files or if they're built into the disk or w/e:

a. In the setup use the disk utility to 'Erase' the FAT32 partition to 'Mac OS Extended'
b. Get the 'Disk Identifier' for the partition (in format of disk?s?)
c. Unmount the drive and insert USB drive (labelled 123). Open Terminal and enter:
cd /Volumes/123/pc_efi_v8
./startupfiletool /dev/rdisk?s? ./boot_v8
dd if=./guid/boot1h of=/dev/rdisk?s? bs=512 count=1
dd if=./guid/boot0 of=/dev/disk? bs=400 count=1
d. Proceed with the installation etc.
e. Once working, use EASYBCD in Vista to setup dual-booting etc.

(I managed to work this out by browsing these and the InsanelyMac forums and the various tutorials scattered around and adopting them to my needs.)

If I wasn't clear, I just want to know whether I need to install the EFIv8 files with this disk, and confirm that what I'll be doing wont erase the other partitions. Thanks for your help :)

[naquaada]

Before installation: Remove HDD1.

HDD2: You can't install on a FAT32 partition, it must be HFS+. I presume the 'Storage' partition is from Vista and the filesystem is NTFS. I would recommend to backup the data and reformat the HD, with the Mac partition first. This is the best way because you could switch between MacOS and Windows with the Vista bootselector. Do the partitioning from Windows, not from the Mac Disk Utility. A Leopard partition should have a minimum of 15 GB. If you want to use the Storage partition from Windows and MacOS you must format it in FAT32, because MacOS is only able to read NTFS, but it can't read it. If this is done, jumper your HDD2 to Master (if it's IDE) and boot the Leopard DVD. Then let's do something more.

[roisoft]

it´s possible to share files leo/win with Macfuse and Ntfs-3g, other way is VMware fusion running a virtual XP.

[D.Lewis]

Thanks. The reason I formatted it to FAT32 was that I read it must be formatted to this for the Mac install disk to detect it, then I'd re-format it to HFS+ (this is Mac OS Extended, isn't it?) in the setup (a.). The 'Storage' partition is formatted to NTFS, it's simply used for storing movies, music etc.

So I should backup the files then re-format the whole of HDD2 to just one partition using Vista's built-in drive manager (but what format shall I format it to?), install MacOS, THEN make my 'Storage' partition again but using FAT32 so Mac also has write permissions - although I regularly use files around 7gb in size so FAT32 won't work for me. Could I use the NTFS-3G driver to enable Write access for NTFS?

[naquaada]

the NTFS-3G driver isn't the real thing. you have to mount the NTFS drives and so on... I didn't liked it. BTW, if you have OS X onece running, you don't need Vista anymore ;) How big are your harddisks. Are they IDE or SATA. What do you have for a system configuration?

[D.Lewis]

Both drives are IDE. HDD1 is 80gb. HDD2 is 200gb (partition 2 where I want to install MacOS is 60gb).

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+
MB: MSI K9VGM-V
GPU: Leadtek GeForce 8400GS 256MB
2gb RAM

[naquaada]

Hm, it has an VIAŽ K8M890 / VT8237A Chipset. I don't know how good it's supported. Are you able to boot from the DVD? Have you entered Disk Utility in the installations 'Utility' menu? Does it show your drives?

[D.Lewis]

I'm currently not at my PC, so I won't be able to check for a while. I'll check when I get back. Thanks.

EDIT: I see someone has got it to work with the VT8237A chipset: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=73524&st=1140&p=558783&hl=VT8237A&#entry558783

So fingers crossed :)

[D.Lewis]

I've just installed Leopard, but now I'm having some problems getting it to boot.

Before installing, I reinstalled Vista and moved some things around, so my HDD setup is now as below:
HDD1: (200gb)
Partition 1: Vista
Partition 2: Storage

HDD2: (80gb)
Trying to install Leo here

(I have unplugged HDD1 and still is unplugged). When I installed, I use the 'Erase' function in the Disk Utility to Erase the whole drive to MacOS Extended (HFS+). I then installed the EFIv8 files, and unselected Additional Fonts and Languages and let the installer do its thing.
Then when I tried to boot into Leopard, I got the error:
"HFS+ Partition Error"
When I tried booting with the DVD, I got:
"System config file '/com.apple.Boot.plist' not found"

I tried the 'Making Mac Bootable' instructions from the Known-Issues wiki, and now when booting without the DVD I get:
"B0 Error"
And the same error as before if I boot with the DVD.

Does anyone know whats wrong? I'm going to now to installing Leopard again, so I'll post back if it works or I get errors again.

[roisoft]

What partition scheme are you using MBR or GUID?

If you want to use a guid partiton scheme , boot into install dvd and before the install open a terminal and install EFI

I suppose that you are using a pendrive to install efi

diskutil list

umount -f /dev/diskXsY

cd /volumes/"name of your pendrive"/boot_v80

./startupfiletool /dev/rdiskXsY ./boot_v8

dd if=./guid/boot1h of=/dev/rdiskXsY bs=512 count=1

dd if=./guid/boot0 of=/dev/diskX bs=400 count=1 (very important at this point unmount all partitions on your guid drive if the b0 error persist, repeat this step)

[D.Lewis]

Right now it's reinstalling, but this time, I used the Partition tab in Disk Utility to format the drive, and used the GUID format. Hopefully it works this time.

[naquaada]

Are you really using zephyroth's image? Or when do you install EFI v8? I never had this option on zephyroth's image, only languages (French only) and Nvidia drivers. I got mine searching for 'AMD Leopard' in the bay, it's the image from 11-26-2007. There is also an RC2 image from ToH in the bay, but this isn't even booting on our nForce4 systems.

I'm still using my 3-partition system, installing first Tiger, then Leopard, fix from the Tiger system the Leopard problems (deleting GeForce.kexts and NVidia.kexts on my ATI system), making the Leo partition bootable, plug in keyboard and mouse into USB and finish the Leopard installation. This method was always working for me. Seems a bit complicated, but works every time. You have a smaller harddisk, so I would recommend only 2 partitions, about 12GB for the 2nd partition (which is used for test and recovery purposes), the rest for the main partition. And check if you have the correct image.

[D.Lewis]

Finally managed to get it to work by running Repair Permissions from the DVD after installation and re-installing the EFI files :)

Now I just need to get Ethernet, Graphics and Sound to work lol

And I'm 99% sure I'm using the Zephyroth image. I didn't download it from a torrent site, instead I used a warez forum and Rapidshare.com

[naquaada]

what for options do you have on the DVD, in the customized installation. Zephyroth's image has the Additional Fonts, French language, Gutenprint printer drivers, X11 and nVidia drivers.

[D.Lewis]

Yes, they're the options I have. When I installed I had the printer drivers and X11 checked, the rest unchecked.

The nVidea ones were labelled for the 8800, although I've been reading that they work for my 8400 aswell. Can I install these drivers without reinstalling? Would "Zephyroth NVidia Universal Installer" work? Thanks.

[roisoft]

Install the Nvidia Universall Installer.

[D.Lewis]

It worked :) Now I just need to get the Audio and LAN drivers...

Sorry for all these questions, but does anyone know why in Leopard, I can see the 'Storage' partition from my other drive, but not the Vista one? (Both of them are formatted to NTFS).

[naquaada]

Open the Disk Utility (in Applications/Utilities) and search on the left side for your Vista drive. If its grey, select it and use the 'activate' button in the top button list. Then the drive should be shown. Tip: put a dot '.' before the drive names of the Windows drives, like '.Vista' So these drives aren't shown on the Mac desktop, but you still can access them on the left side of a finder window.

[D.Lewis]

Thats the thing, it doesn't show in the Disk Utility either, and Leopard seems to think that hard drive is 128gb as it can't see the Vista partition.

See: http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/9597/picture1uu9.png
That Maxtor drive is supposed to be around 200gb and show the Vista partition. (and I know the partition exists, because I can still boot to it).

UPDATE: I got the audio drivers working :) For anyone looking for them (ALC883), heres the installer I used: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=36520. And it seems as though there isn't any LAN drivers for mine, so I'm going to try with a PCI card.

[naquaada]

Whoops. Have you checked the settings in the BIOS? Ist the HD set to LBA, Large or Auto? Some HDs have some kinds of size limiting jumpers, often 40 or 136 GB, this would explain the 128 GB size. Maybe Vista cares not about this, OS's are working different. I have an NEC DVD-RW drive in my computer which is not recognized in BIOS, but in MacOS I can use it without problems and can even burn DVDs with it. That's also a feature whats not so easy to explain.