Advice sought for clean installation on dual boot iMac

I have an Intel iMac running Leopard and a 40GB dual-boot Vista installation. I am considering upgrading to Snow Leopard. After reading some of these forums, I am fairly certain that I should do a clean install of Snow Leopard.
Is there a FAQ or advice column I can read on how to best proceed?
Thanks in advance,
- Paul

paulfaber wrote:
I have an Intel iMac running Leopard and a 40GB dual-boot Vista installation. I am considering upgrading to Snow Leopard. After reading some of these forums, I am fairly certain that I should do a clean install of Snow Leopard.
why?
Is there a FAQ or advice column I can read on how to best proceed?
if you want to do a clean install it's pretty simple. first back up your data. the best is to make a bootable backup using CCCloner or Superduper. a Time machine backup is ok too.
then boot from the SL install DVD, start disk utility from utilities menu and erase your main hard drive. quit disk utility and proceed with the install.
that's all. of course, if you want some of your old data on the new install you'll have to get it back from the backup afterward. depending on how much of it you want back you can do it manually or import it using Setup Assistant that you get when you first boot up. you can also do it later using Migration Assistant located in /Applications/Utilities.
Thanks in advance,
- Paul

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Backup a dual boot iMac with OSX + Vista to Time capsule and USB hard drive

I have just bought a Time Capsule which is now working as my WiFi Network base station and backs up an iMac and a Macbook. The iMac has both OSX and Vista (using Boot Camp) and I was using a USB Hard Drive that has 2 partitions (HFS+ for the Mac; NTFS for Vista) to back up the iMac. Rather than leave this attached to the iMac just to back up the Vista partition I would like to move it to the Time Capsule's USB port and use it as NAS. The idea being that it becomes a NAS with one partition used to back up the Windows data when I run the iMac with Vista and the other partition to archive the Time Machine backups from both the iMac and Macbook. I tried to connect it as it was but got an error and reading the forum it seems that it won't work unless both partitions are HFS+ or FAT. If I reformat the NTFS partition to HFS+ will I be able to use the built in backup function of Vista to back up the Vista partition to the USB hard drive? I read somewhere else that Time Capsule takes care of the formatting for an external NAS drive and Windows will be able to read and write to it even though it's not NTFS. Any ideas comments appreciated.

This is crude but if you need a work around, just plug the USB drive directly into the iMac.. copy the files to it.. then plug it into the TC.
You also do not need to use the TC as an intermediary between your iMac and MBP.. just turn on sharing in the computer.. so you can directly copy files from one to the other.. Macs have public access directory preconfigured for each user account.
As far as mounting the TC..
In finder use Go, Connect to server.. and type.
AFP://TCname or TCipaddress
Where TCname is the actual name of the TC.. I strongly recommend you follow SMB network rules.. ie if your TC has a name like
Fred Blog's Time Capsule 2445566.
It is too long.. it has spaces and it has non-alphanumeric characters.
Shorten it to FredTC
No spaces no characters that are NOT alphanumeric.
TCIPaddress is simply the standard IP.
You can also use CIFS://TCname which according to the article forces the connection back to SMB1 rather than SMB2 which as usual is broken.
But I would definitely use AFP if possible. I cannot understand the decision to move to SMB as standard.

Upgrade strategy advice sought for Leopard/BootCamp/Parallels

Hello. I have dragged my feel long enough with respect to upgrading from 10.4.11 to Leopard (I bought OS 10.5 when it was first released, but upgrade anxiety prevented me from impulsive early adopter installation).
I would appreciate advice from those with more experience than I about the best method of upgrading, keeping the following goals in mind.
First, my existing configuration is:
(1) Mac OS X 10.4.11 on internal GUID partitioned 500GB drive, with identical drive as clone via SuperDuper (160GB used)
(2) Parallels Desktop 2.5 Build 3214.0 (Windows XP SP2) is installed with an expanding drive option; the image, is winxp.hdd, located in ~/Library/Parallels/winxp/winxp.hdd. Currently 12GB.
(3) never used Boot Camp before, and don't have a partition for it
(4) separate 500GB drive for audio/music
(5) separate 500GB drive for video/movies
Goals:
(1) Upgrade to Leopard, with ability to keep my settings, apps, tweaks, prefs, network config, bookmarks, etc. as best as possible without compromising the integrity of the new install
(2) Create a Boot Camp partition on the main drive (about 120GB or so should be enough)
(3) Upgrade from Parallels 2.5 to Parallels 3.0 (I will buy the software)
(4) Migrate my existing Parallels 2.5 Windows XP drive image to the Boot Camp partition, so I can access it either from Boot Camp (natively) or from Parallels (virtual machine)
(5) Configure clone backups for Mac using SuperDuper (for which I already have a license - for years) and for Windows using Winclone (never tried it) on my current backup 500GB drive
(6) Configure Time Machine to an external FW800 drive for my Mac partition
I imagine this can be done, but I don't want to screw up on the order of the steps. Advice from anyone having experience with a similar upgrade would be graciously appreciated.
Thanks,
Stu

Thanks again for your input.
The reason I want Boot Camp is in case I want to boot natively into Windows to take advantage of the performance boost. I would use Parallels when I want to use Windows for some quick operations while running OS X. From what I understand, using both Boot Camp and Windows on the same machine doesn't require any additional disk space. I think Parallels can run from an existing Boot Camp partition. That way, for example, you can use Windows from Boot Camp, create a document, and at another time, use Parallels, which will "see" the document created under Boot Camp, and vice versa.
The order in which I upgrade is probably important. For example, I have read that one can partition a disk on the fly under Leopard, but not under TIger. So, I guess I would upgrade from Tiger to Leopard (probably use Archive and Install), then partition my drive to create a Boot Camp partition, then upgrade Parallels from 2.5 to 3, and then somehow move my Parallels data to the Boot Camp partition.
Assuming I get this far, I would then set up backups using SuperDuper for the Mac OS X partition and Winclone for the PC/Boot Camp partition.
This seems like the logical order for these steps, but I imagine it will require more research on my part before taking these steps. I was hoping to get some insights from someone who has already ventured down this path.
Thank you.
Stu

Advice sought for a new PC build

Hello,
I could use a little advice about an "as silent as silent can be" system that I am trying to put together right now. I plan to build it myself. I have installed / replaced components in PC systems before but it will be the first time I build a PC from scratch.
Purpose of PC
To blitz anything that CS6 can throw at it right now and still be putting up a respectable fight when CS11 is eventually released. In order of importance, the system needs to excel at:
Video editing and effects using Premiere and AfterEffects
3D animation using Autodesk 3DS Max etc
Multimedia content authoring    (Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, Dreamweaver)
Music production     (Propellerhead Reason, REAPER)
Internet browsing, emails, iTunes and all other 21st century time-wasting activities.
Before I place any orders, I would appreciate it if you would let me know if you can see anything that I might have forgotten, any potential incompatibility issues or just any terrible decisions that I really need to rethink.
Components
Windows Professional 64bit OS
Do I need Ultimate?
Corsair Obsidian Series 550D Quiet Mid-Tower Case
Is this case cool and quiet. Are there better options than this that don’t look like either a teenage warrior’s wet dream or a hotel minibar?
Corsair Professional Series AX 760 Watt ATX/EPS Fully Modular 80 PLUS Platinum PSU
Honestly I have no idea. I picked it because it is highly rated for efficiency and should go with the case. Are there better options at a similar price point, especially in terms of heat / noise / known reliability issues?
Intel Core i7-3930K 6-Core Processor
I am definitely going with this CPU. I think.
Corsair 120mm Hydro Series H80i Digital High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
I chose this rather than the 100i because it can exhaust out the back of the case. I think this will be a better configuration for the case I have chosen and the location where the PC will live.
Asus P9X79 PRO Motherboard (Socket 2011, Intel X79 chipset)
It has all the features I want except on-board firewire which is not a deal breaker and has had good reviews. Can anyone recommend something better at a similar price point? Is it worth spending more to get a higher specified / workstation grade motherboard?
Asus Nvidia GeForce 2GB GTX 670 DirectCU II Graphics Card
Supposedly one of the quietest GTX670 cards on the market and ought to be fully compatible with the motherboard.
Pioneer BDR-208DBK 15X SATA Blu-ray writer
Storage Components
Corsair Vengeance Vengeance Performance 32GB DDR3 1866MHz CL10 (4 x 8GB) RAM
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1 x WD Caviar Black 1TB
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If you made it this far, thank you for taking the time to read this and any advice at all would be very much appreciated.
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Hello
I finished my build at the weekend and installed the OS and so far the process has been much better than I could have hoped for. Thank you for all of your help.
The computer is much faster and quieter than any computer I have ever owned before and (touch wood) is a joy to use. The Windows Experience rating is 7.8.
I am still running through checks to make sure everything is OK before installing the rest of the software but I have come across one issue that I think I ought to double check before I get in too deep.
So far I have connected 4 drives to the Intel SATA controller of my ASUS P9X79 Deluxe motherboard set to RAID mode:
Samsung 840 Pro 128GB SSD    ---- Not in RAID
Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD    ---- Not in RAID
2 x WD Black 500GB SSD in RAID 0
Pioneer Bluray Re-Writer BDR-208DBK
I have a WD Black 2TB waiting to be added to the system for non performance-critical storage once I am certain that I don't have an issue with set up.
I have 32GB of RAM installed.
I have installed and run the Samsung Magician software and the performance benchmarks for the drives are:
Seq Read 128K
Seq Write 128K
Random Read 4K
Random Write 4K
Test Range
Samsung 840 Pro 128GB
533
226
88655
4788
1GB
Samsung 840 Pro 256GB
534
263
91169
4956
1GB
2 x WD Black RAID 0
241
265
2610
1462
100MB
The SSD read speeds look fine but write speeds seem to be very low to me, certainly much lower than the speeds quoted by Samsung and confirmed in multiple reviews.
Does this look OK to you and if not, do you have any ideas about how I could improve SSD write performance?
So far I have followed the steps in the following guide to SSD/HDD optimization for Windows 7 to no avail (checked for latest firmware and drivers, turned off indexing, disabled hibernation, checked that TRIM is enabled, shrank page file to 4GB on OS drive, changed power options so drives never sleep .... have I missed anything?):
http://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/seans-windows-7-install-optimization-guide-for-ssds-hdd s
Finally, does the RAID drive's performance look ok.
I am suspicious that the write performance of the SSDs seems to be pegged to the write performance of the RAID, although that might be just coincidence.
One last thing, and thanks for your patience.
I am tempted to switch back to AHCI mode in the BIOS and re-run the benchmarks to see if the SATA RAID mode is the problem. This won't be too much of a hassle as the system is empty at present.
But if / when I return to RAID mode, I shouldn't have to do any pre-installing because the RSTe drivers are now already installed and up to date, is this correct?
My apologies if these issues have been covered before in the forum. I have looked but I couldn't find anything specific.
Regards
Michael

Advice sought for formatting external HD

Hello all,
I'm finally in a position to replace my unsatisfactory backup system (a borrowed communal external HD formatted to FAT32) with my very own external HD. I'm looking for advice since I've never done these things before, and my reading around this forum and others has been very helpful, yet left me with some questions.
Situation:
I have a new WD 120GB USB 2.0 8MB cache Passport portable HD preformatted to FAT32 and I want to use it primarily to regularly clone my MacBook's 80GB HD using Super Duper to make a bootable backup; as well as to store other media files (which I'll back up seperately elsewhere); and it would also be convenient to be able to use it to share files between my Mac and various PCs as I travel.
Plan:
I presumed it would be best to create three partitions on the new external HD: one 80GB volume for the bootable clone; one 20-30GB volume for the media file storage; and one 10-20GB volume for the inter-system file-sharing. I would format the first two volumes HFS+ and the third FAT32.
Questions:
1. Does this sound like a wise way to proceed?
2. Can I safely make partitions formatted in different file systems as described (HFS+ and FAT32)?
3. Is there any degradation of files or other disadvantage to storing and moving files between HFS+ and FAT32 (ie in using FAT32 in general)?
4. Do I need to make the bootable clone volume a full 80GB, even if I plan never to fill the MB's HD to more than 65GB?
5. If I do this, would it be better to zero out the entire HD and format the third, FAT32 volume anew from Apple's Disk Utility, or (and would this even be possible?) simply skip the zeroing out of the first two HFS+ volumes--assuming one cannot zero out isolated volumes-- in order to leave the last, FAT32 volume formatted as it came from Western Digital?
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Rhys

Yes! Too much for me.
I've opened Disk Utility, selected the WD external drive (which has 111.8 GB)), selected the GUID partition scheme under "options", selected 3 partitions under "volume scheme", selected Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for the first two volumes and MS-DOS File System for the third, checked that each of the three volumes when selected still appears under "options" as GUID, sized the first volume at 70GB (the MB's drive that I will be cloning is 74.5), the second at 26.79 GB, and the third at 15 GB.
So it looks like GUID partitioning by DU will allow FAT32 (I assume that's what MS-DOS File System is). However, I still haven't pressed the "partition" button yet, so I don't yet know for sure. I'm busy all day today and need the MB to be ready for other things, so I'll try later on, tonight or tomorrow.
If I'm forgetting anything, please let me know, and if anyone already knows whether or not this will work please chime in before I go ahead.
Anyway, thanks for your help, everyone.
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Prepurchase advice sought for Fivespot

It looks like I'm going to have to do something that twenty+ years of computing experience have made me hate to do: buy a product with many reported problems.
The fivespot. So far as I can tell, it's my best deal (as a current Verizon customer) for travel within the U.S. and Canada ... and perhaps a trip farther offshore later in the year.
Trouble is, many users are reporting problems. M-a-ny users!
I'm trying to accumulate pre-purchase advice, to limit my grief as much as possible if and when I order the device.
This is how it looks so far:
1) Expect to use the device tethered only. I can live with that.
2) Go into device manager, update the driver software for the wireless adapter. I just did that.
3) If necessary, be prepared to enter VZ Access manager and change the 802.11 mode.
4) If necessary, I might need to change 'Network mode' in VZ Access from global to CDMA.
Can anyone else provide any tips?
I ask because I'd much rather have the troubleshooting information in front of me now than suffer for hours on hold with a tech.

Hello,
I usually do a bit of research (product reviews, customer feedback, online forums, etc.) before making a purchase like this. However, in this case, I kinda bit the bullet, and went into the Verizon store last night, asked a few pointed questions, and left the store within 30 minutes with a installed and setup 5-Spot in my hands. Charged the 5-spot for approx 5 hrs as recommended when I returned home, and was online in the house in no time. I was impressed. Did not do much surfing, or downloading because I wanted to conserve the data usage. Went into email only. The performance was fine, the browser loaded in good measure (msnbc.com with all the graphics and ads). I'd say it's equal to if not better to starbucks wifi, but without other users' contention.
The install was done at the Verizon store because I had my MacBook with me--it took approx 15-20 mins. tops including the account and password setup and demo.(no CD to insert). Just inserted the 5-Spot to the Macbook via the provided USB port, and the computer took care of everything.
My main purpose for this is not to download or stream movies or songs, but as an alternative to a home-based ISP--mainly for email (no text messaging).
Next I will take it out in the 'public' to see how the Verizon wifi Hotspot works--since this connection, and its data usage will not be charged to the account.
One minor problem I have encountered so far is that the specified url that's supposed to allow me to configure the 5-spot seems to have been taken down by Verizon. Other than that, it's been seamless so far.
Hey, the device was free--what more do you want?
Good luck!

Advice sought for external display for old mac book pro

Hi Guys,
I've got the older style mac book pro which is about 3 years old. It's 17 inch but I'd like a bigger screen. Unfortunately the Apple display doesnt work with my model as it's the wrong connection - and whilst it looks fab it's too expensive anyway.
I was wondering if anyone could please recommend a good 24" display not made by apple but that would fit my MBP? I'm on a bit of a budget and would rather keep it under £250 if possible.
If there's any that has built in speakers too that would be a bonus!
I've had a look on the web and can see there is a lot of choice - but I would rather go on the opinion of fellow macophiles!
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Mac partition dont work on my dual boot imac

Since some days my mac partition wont start up. The windows partition works fine. Recovery dont work. Not even in save mode. I have upgraded my mac to lion from the original snow leopard install. al worked fine until some days ago. No rinstall with the original disks or restore/repare. Starting up with the snow leopard dvd the screen shows disk utityties but selecting them takes forever. already tried diferent startup posibilities (puschin different keys) but nothing helps. I dont need to recover the old installation, i have everyting in backup, but want to reinstall at least my mac os. Anyone? I suspect a automated disk utility in windows to have damaged my mac partition. My Imac is 2 years old.
Roger

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Recommendations? USB 2.0 & Firewire PCI card for MDD Dual Boot G4 (1.25 Ghz

Can anyone recommend a good USB 2.0 and Firewire combo PCI card? (at least 3 USB 2.0 ports and 2 FW) for my G4 MDD Dual Boot- 1.25 Ghz)?
I have an Orangelink+ Micro USB 2.0/FW PCI card from the days of OS 9- that's supposed to be USB 2.0 under OS X, but isn't (it shows up as max 12/mbps in System Profiler). I'd like to get an external Hard Drive and most of them are USB 2.0 now.
Another question:
Under system profiler, it shows that I have one USB 2.0 port. I'm assuming it's an internal port, because all of the external ports show transfer rates of 12mbps. Is this a correct assumption?
Thanks in advance for any help!

Sorry. Posted in wrong section.
Reposted in "Expanding" section.
Moderator- feel free to delete.

[SOLVED] Dual Boot Window 7 & Arch on a Uefi system.

From the Wiki
Windows 7 x86_64 versions support booting in x86_64 UEFI mode from GPT disk only, OR in BIOS mode from MBR/msdos disk only. They do not support IA32 (x86 32-bit) UEFI boot from GPT/MBR disk, x86_64 UEFI boot from MBR/msdos disk, or BIOS boot from GPT disk.
I don't understand this. As stated in the title I have a ueif system so that means I have to create a GPT disk ? I already have a gpt disk which I confirmed by running Arch Live USB. Under type it said GPT. I don't understand this at all
However if Arch is installed in BIOS-GPT in one disk and Windows is installed in BIOS-MBR mode in another disk, then the BIOS bootloader used by Arch CAN boot the Windows in the other disk, if the bootloader itself has the ability to chainload from another disk.
Note: If Arch and Windows are dual-booting from same disk, then Arch SHOULD follow the same firmware boot mode and partitioning combination used by the installed Windows in the disk.
In the Note above it says both Arch and Windows follow the same boot mode if they are dual booting from same disk. I DO NOT want to do this. I have already decided to partition my drive with 200 Gb going to Windows and 500 Gb going to Arch. Does this mean that I should install both in different modes i.e. Arch in Bios-GPT and Windows in Bios-MBR.
The recommended way to setup a Linux/Windows dual booting system is to first install Windows, only using part of the disk for its partitions. When you have finished the Windows setup, boot into the Linux install environment where you can create additional partitions for Linux while leaving the existing Windows partitions untouched.
UEFI systems
Both Gummiboot and rEFInd autodetect Windows Boot Manager \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi and show it in their boot menu, so there is no manual config required.
For GRUB(2) follow GRUB#Windows_Installed_in_UEFI-GPT_Mode_menu_entry.
Syslinux (as of version 6.02 and 6.03-pre9) and ELILO do not support chainloading other EFI applications, so they cannot be used to chainload \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi .
Computers that come with newer versions of Windows often have secure boot enabled. You will need to take extra steps to either disable secure boot or to make your installation media compatible with secure boot.
Being a beginner should I go with Gummiboot then. GRUB made a mess last time.
Also my secure boot is NOT enabled so is that good.
I have read the FAQs, Beginner's guide, Installation Guide, Dual Boot wiki entry but I just don't understand the above concepts. But it looks this this is the main thing in dual booting. Almost everything else is doable but this I have to get right on account of what happened the last time I installed Arch without getting the above right.
Last edited by Some Arch Lovin (2014-06-14 08:53:14)

A few issues with the dual boot setup
Hello again, I lost my dual factor authentication grid from lastpass. Opensuse was acutally overwriting new pdf files over my old pdf files so now that grid pdf is actually an Arch cheat cheet with the name last_pass_grid.pdf. And the gmail account I used to register to Arch forums is also in last pass.
This is why I created another account. I am some arch lovin.
The installation went smoothly but I could not dual boot Windows7 with Arch because my Win7 image is not UEFI bootable so had to dual boot win8(not a fan at all) and arch.
Almost everything is working correctly. I have a few issues that aren't affecting how the system is working but they still need sorting out.
I'll do them one at a time but I want to know from the admins if I should start a new thread? Because in a way this thread accomplished it job i.e. win7 and arch dual booting in uefi system.
If the answer is yes I should create a new thread depending upon the issue then I will do that but in case its a no since I have only 2-3 problems I am going to ask help for the first one.
My gummiboot is not working on startup. I have to press f12 and use bios booting menu to boot. The problem with that is if I put Windows at the top of the boot priority the bios does not show F12 and F2 at the time of booting up so I can't access the boot menu. I have to boot into Windows and crash it by holding the power button and then the F12 options shows up and I am able to boot into Arch. If I put Arch at the top then Windows keeps restoring back to an earlier version due to start up options.
NOTE : I can't be sure but one it did work(only once). I checked the images online to compare with what I saw and its very similar. An all black screen with three bootloading options
Windows
Arch
Opensuse(don't know why I created a completely new GPT partition table)
This is what I did while installing Gummiboot
# mount -t efivarfs efivarfs /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
# pacman -S gummiboot
# gummiboot install
I tried going through the gummiboot to see if I can do something but it very difficult to comprehend as a beginner. All I get is the characters gummiboot understands but thats all.
Last edited by Archer61 (2014-06-11 13:48:56)

Partitioning Hard drive ubuntu arch dual boot

Hello I am running on Ubuntu 11.10, and I'd like to try out Arch Linux. I'm pretty much a complete beginner, and would like to know exactly how to manually configure my hard disc partitions to allow for a ubuntu/arch dual boot.
I have read the beginner's guide and have tried searching for existing documentation on how to configure the partitions. I have not been able to find anything helpful and I apologise if there are already clear instructions aimed at beginners floating around. In this case, could someone point out this documentation to me?
Thank you
Last edited by Goatfluff (2012-01-14 03:28:42)

Hi there and welcome to arch.
First off, Google offers a plethora of information as to how to go about it.
Our wiki has also quite a few hints.
Just have a browse around. There's plenty of info out there.

[SOLVED] Advice for Arch install with rEFInd dual boot Lenovo laptop?

I am trying to plan an Arch install on a new laptop for dual boot with Windows 8.1, but I know there is a potential to cause huge problems so I have been trying to read and learn about the hard disk partition structure and how I might install the rEFInd boot files so that I am still able to boot Windows once Arch is installed. (Unfortunately for some tasks such as updating the maps on my satnav box Windows is essential). However I am really quite unsure if I am doing the right thing in the way I am thinking about the Arch install so I would appreciate any help from experts on the forum.
The laptop is a Lenovo IdeaPad Y510p which came with Windows 8 pre-installed, with the option to upgrade to Windows 8.1. The upgrade was completed without issue and I then looked into the question of hard drive partitions and boot. I had read posts on the Ubuntu forums about users who had installed Ubuntu on this same laptop and ended up being unable to boot Windows afterwards so I wanted to tread very carefully before executing anything which might cause really major damage. I had also read on the Lenovo forums replies about people who had replaced the hard drive and installed linux only to find that they could not boot to the recovery partitions, with replies from Lenovo moderators saying that if the partition structure had been changed then the laptop would have to be sent back to Lenovo for a factory repair.
On this laptop to get into the bios or boot options you do not just press the power button and hit an F key, but instead there is a special small "OneKey Recovery" button next to the power jack, which opens up with options for BIOS setup and boot options as well as normal boot or recovery. This OneKey Recovery button is therefore needed to boot a usbkey - the power button only allows it to boot to windows presumably until/unless a different bootloader and NVRAM entry is amended.
I have done all the initial ( safe!)changes necessary to move to the point at which I can execute the Arch install. From within Windows (switched off fastboot, and shrunk the "C:" drive to make space for linux partitions). I have also switched off Secure Boot from the BIOS, and made sure that Windows still boots up fine.
The current arch install iso (February 2014) boots under uefi just fine - and of course once booted I have access to the gdisk programme. That certainly showed the pre-existing partitions on the drive (8 partitions with partition number 2 being the EFI partition, and three recovery partitions!) with a GPT partition table, and it should therefore be possible to make the necessary new linux partitions in the now unallocated space on the disk that was freed up with the internal disk management facility within Windows 8.1. So at that point I created three partitions for a root partition (type 8300), a swap partition (type 8200) and another type 8300 partition which will become /opt in the installed Arch system.
In order to try and not make any changes to the partition structure I let the three new linux partitions be number 9, 10 and 11.
I am told that for a GPT disk it is a definite no-no to try to create more than one EFI partition. So I will need to use the existing EFI partition to place the rEFInd files and the kernel once I install Arch.
In this (Y510p) laptop the EFI partition contains the following structure:
BOOT/ - containing only boot.sdi
BOOTSECT.BAK
EFI/ which contains two directories Boot/ and Microsoft/
so EFI/Boot/ contains only Boot64.efi which is likely a fallback copy of the Windows 8.1 bootloader
and EFI/Microsoft/ contains a Boot/ directory - so
EFI/Microsoft/Boot/ contains loads of language specific directories like en-GB/
plus bootmgfw.efi (which I believe is the Windows main efi loader file)
bootmgr.efi
memtest.efi
The scheme that I am planning to use which I have previously used in pure Arch uefi machines, is that /boot is a directory in the root partition, /. That way /boot is an ext4 directory and will contain the kernel and initramfs plus the rEFInd linux config file.
Then I can mount the EFI (vfat) partition as /boot/efi and so I can then make a /boot partition under /. Then the EFI /BOOT/ directory would be seen in Linux as /boot/efi/BOOT/ and the Windows efi stuff would be in /boot/efi/EFI/Boot/Microsoft/Boot/ in which case I would presume that I have to make a new directory in /boot/efi/EFI/refind/ and put the refind stuff including the filesystem drivers there, and let the kernel go into the (ext4) /boot/ directory which would be preferred! However I am not 100% confident that this is what will work and I need to read more before trying to do the install. The thing that concerns me is how the system will handle the uefi boot process, and whether it would auto-detect the Windows efi file as well as the Arch refind efi file once the system has started up?
... and then there is the issue of the NVRAM entries and I am no longer confident that if I use the usual tools to create an entry (efiboomgr or bcfg), that I will get a successful dual boot system!
There is still a chance that I would irrevocably damage being able to boot to the Windows and Recovery partition boot options by messing up the EFI and/or the NVRAM so I have to tread very very carefully with this.
If anyone has gone through this kind of dual boot install with a Windows 8 or 8.1 machine using rEFInd for the bootloader, and can offer advice or help here I would very much appreciate it. I have another pure Arch system which uses rEFInd that works extremely well, but it seems that dual boot with uefi is a rather more complex animal than a pure linux system!
Last edited by mcloaked (2014-02-22 10:06:03)

vipin wrote:I have recently bought the y510p , im planning to install Arch , this is my 4th laptop , i had installed Arch in all the other 3 with no problems, but im a bit worried with the installation as this is the first laptop which has EFI , im a linux user for the past 6 years , i started with fedora , now i like Arch , mike documentation is excellent, i just had one question when i had grub , it automatically finds the new kernel when i update (grub.conf/menu.lst gets updated), does rEFInd also do that.
When there is an update to the rEFInd package you need to copy the files across to your ESP from the files contained in /usr/share/refind/ usually you need to copy the refind_x64.efi binary as well as the icons, fonts, and drivers directories. Since there is flexibility in how you configure the kernel and initrd files in terms of where they are located whether you need to do anything else when a new kernel update arrives depends on how you set your system up. If you have the /boot directory as your ESP partition which will then have the kernel and initrd files updated by default then there no need to do anything else when there is a kernel update. If the ESP is then at /boot/EFI and within that is your refind/ directory then that is where the replacement files go if refind-efi gets a pacman update. So it is actually fairly straight forward. If you configure rEFInd to look for kernels in some other directory than /boot/ then you may need to copy the files there after a kernel update but there is more information in the arch wiki about this.
During a refind-efi package update there are helpful files in the pacman output (and log) reminding you of what you need to do. eg for the latest refind-efi update you get:
[2014-06-18 18:48] [PACMAN] upgraded radvd (1.12-1 -> 1.13-1)
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] rEFInd UEFI application has been installed at /usr/share/refind/refind_*.efi
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] Other UEFI applications have been installed at /usr/share/refind/tools_*/
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] UEFI drivers have been installed at /usr/share/refind/drivers_*/
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] Copy the efi application (according to your UEFI ARCH)
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] and /usr/share/refind/refind.conf-sample to a sub-directory of <EFISYS>/EFI/
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] as refind.conf and add an entry to firmware boot menu using efibootmgr
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] or mactel-boot (for Macs)
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] rEFInd Icons have been installed at /usr/share/refind/icons/
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] rEFInd Fonts have been installed at /usr/share/refind/fonts/
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] HTML Documentation is available at /usr/share/refind/docs/html/
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] More info: [url]https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/UEFI_Bootloaders#Using_rEFInd[/url]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [PACMAN] upgraded refind-efi (0.8.1-1 -> 0.8.2-1)
I hope that helps.
By the way you can also boot uefi using grub and in fact you can get rEFInd to chainload grub as a backup bootloader as an added safety factor and have both rEFInd as well as grub installed simultaneously. How that can be done is explained in the thread at https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=181906
Last edited by mcloaked (2014-06-25 17:41:12)

Advice sought for clean installation on dual boot iMac

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