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InfiniteMac OSx86 › Leopard 10.5 › Dualboot Windows 7 & OS X Leopard
106,619 reads · 2009-01-13 – 2009-10-12
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Dualboot Windows 7 & OS X Leopard

I've a question and hope you can help me Here it is: I own a hackintosh for almost half a year now. However, now that Windows 7 is available I want to install it as well, as I don't get the FullHD Resolution of my display with OS X (…

Primary Author
@millenium man Published 2009-01-13
Collection
Leopard 10.5
Archival Footprint
106,619 historical reads · 7 curated field notes (from 14 dispatches) · 2009-01-13 – 2009-10-12
Credited Voices (7)
@millenium man (6)@dnyanesh (2)@monsieur.d (2)@JesterDev@Ali C.@Bartounet@thorazine74

I've a question and hope you can help me Here it is:

I own a hackintosh for almost half a year now. However, now that Windows 7 is available I want to install it as well, as I don't get the FullHD Resolution of my display with OS X ( thanks to ATI X1400 -_-).

Therefore I'd like to ask, how to dualboot Windows 7 and Leopard!
Is it like Vista, so could I just use a Vista - OS Guide? Which one would you recommend?
And right now I'm using a Leo4all v3 OS X - should I change? Is there something new/better (I'm on a Thinkpad 2007-6RG) ? With Leo4all v3 I already now which drivers to select etc. - but as mentioned my graphics card doesn't work (artefacts + max. res. only 1600x1400) - do you thing another distribution could solve this problems?

& I'm looking forward to your answers!

Author Updates & Technical Revisions

Follow-up dispatches by @millenium man

Author Update #1 @millenium man 2009-01-16

Can nobody help me?

I created one partition with the OS X Installation Disc. Next I installed OS X. However, when I try to install Windows 7 on the other free HD drive space is says that it isn't able to install, as the partiton table or something similar is not correct.

Installing Windows 7 and then OS X doesn't work either!

I also tried to create the partitions in Ubuntu, but that also didn't help…

Author Update #2 @millenium man 2009-01-17

Thanks for your replies!
I'm not quite sure what it exactly said - but I'll take a picture the next time I try to install it!

Author Update #3 @millenium man 2009-01-20

OK, now thanks to JesterDev's manual OS X and Windows 7 now work!

However, there is a minor problem:

Darwin Bootloader automatically boots OS X when the countdown is over - but I want Windows to be the default!
I've already searched a bit and tried

<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>rd=diskXsY</string>

which caused a total crash of OS X.

As an alternative I could also use the Windows Bootloader (actually I would even prefer it), but when I choose OS X in the Windows Bootloader nothing happens - I only get a black screen!

I've also read that Darwin always boots the active partition, however when I set the Windows partition active the Windows bootloader comes up! It also comes up when I select Windows in the Darwin Bootloader.

To sum it up: I either have to repair the Windows Bootloader to boot OS X, or I somehow delete he Windows Bootloader so that Darwin is the only Bootloader and I can set the Windows partition to active and therefore as teh default boot.

Hope you can help me! Any answers appreciated

Author Update #4 @millenium man 2009-01-22

Has nobody an idea as to hot to delete the Windows Bootloader :

Synthesized Community Field Notes

7 technical responses curated from 14 original dispatches

Field Note #2 @monsieur.d 2009-01-16 ↳ Re: @millenium man
@millenium man... as the partiton table or something similar is not correct.

As a general rule, it is useful if you copy the exact message you get and post it so that people don't have to guess what is happening. Maybe that is why nobody replied.

I haven't installed Windows 7, so I can only try to guess what's happening.

Have you tried to install Windows 7 to a blank HDD (i.e. remove all partitions first) using, say, 50% of the capacity and then install MacOS to the remaining 50%?

Field Note #4 @dnyanesh 2009-01-17

I know that. I just provided him with an alternate way.

Field Note #5 @JesterDev 2009-01-18

For starters, Windows 7, like past versions does not respect the MBR (master boot record). So you will need to install Windows first, then OSX86. OSX must have a primary partition to boot from also. This can all be done from within, Windows command prompt with diskpart.

Follow this guide: http://www.insanelymac.com/lofiversion/index.php/t12926… ↗

The guide is for Vista yes, but it works just the same for Windows 7. Print the guide if you can, or use another computer to read it from.

In addition, if you use Gparted to parition your disks (see the guide) then you will have to delete the partition that you want windows to go in, and recreate it from within the windows 7 installer. It does not like the partitions that Gparted makes and will not install on them. Unless of course you already have Windows 7 installed, then just ignore this last paragraph.

Anyway this is what worked for me. Good luck!

Field Note #6 @Ali C. 2009-01-18

I have to say it...second drive FTW. Installing Windows 7 was a piece of cake for my Hack for that very reason.

Field Note #7 @thorazine74 2009-10-12

I think you're mixing up things, you cant delete windows bootloader, windows obviously wont boot without it, you are confusing the bootloader (the one who kickstarts the os) with the bootmanager (the one who lets you choose which os to boot) that is active and shows the boot menu.
The boot partition determines which bootmanager is active, but when you choose to boot windows in chameleon, you would still see windows bootmanager.
In latest versions of chameleon you can set the partition to boot by default using the "Default Partition" argument in the boot.plist, you would have to change that to your windows partition

Corroborated & Participated: @Bartounet
Sources & Contributor Provenance (7 credited usernames · Thread #1923)
UsernameDossier ContributionDispatchesActive Window
@millenium manPrimary Author62009-01-13 → 2009-01-22
@dnyaneshContributor22009-01-16 → 2009-01-17
@monsieur.dContributor22009-01-16
@JesterDevContributor12009-01-18
@Ali C.Contributor12009-01-18
@BartounetContributor12009-10-11
@thorazine74Contributor12009-10-12