Another Triple-Boot Windows 7 thread (it's different, I swear!)

I've got a previous generation Macbook Pro (not unibody) 120 GB Hard Drive with the following setup for OS/Disk space:
OSX = 71 GB
Windows XP SP3 = 40 GB
...and I would like to make it this setup:
OSX = 61 GB
Windows 7 Beta = 10 GB
Windows XP SP3 = 40 GB
...preferably without remaking the Windows XP SP3 install. I don't care if I need to boot between OSX and Windows and then choose XP or Windows 7, but I'd really like the 2 Windows OS's to be on seperate partitions, and the Windows 7 Beta partition to be removable.
This discussions gives a walkthrough of something similar to what I want to try:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1853851
...except I have 3 quick questions, both the the author and to the general public:
1) Does his instructions hold the same for Windows XP with Windows 7, and not just Windows Vista with Windows 7
2) Can I do this without having to re-setup my Windows XP partition, and
3) Can I later remove my Windows 7 parition (and add the space to my OSX partition)
Thank you very much,
- Keith =D

According to the replies, I can do exactly what I wish by following these instrctions:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1853851&tstart=15
...except doing it with Windows XP instead of Vista.

Similar Messages

  • Triple Booting Windows 8 on Second Hard Disk

    Hi all,
    I have an Early 2011, 15 inch MBP and want to dual boot Windows 8 and Mountain Lion. Currently I have a 750GB HDD installed and have just recently replaced my SuperDrive with a 256GB SSD.
    The 750GB HDD is partitioned so that Windows 7 takes up 512GB and Mountain Lion has the rest and I would like to install Windows 8 to the SSD so I can migrate files across from Windows 7 at my leisure.
    The problem is Windows 8 is giving me an error as follows:
    "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style"
    Is there a way I can triple boot? If not how can I set up my disks so that Windows 8 runs on the SSD and Mountain Lion on the HDD?
    Cheers,
    Carl

    you need to put the superdrive back, so you can do the install.
    you would also need to disconnect one drive anyway in order to install to 2nd drive. you can't have OS X or GUID on one drive and install Windows to a different drive. That applies to my 4-dirve setup Mac Pro too.

  • Another Solaris 10/Windows XP Thread

    Hello, I am new to this board and have some general questions about installing a dual boot. I did some searching and read some threads but some questions were left open-ended so this kind of left me confused. I am also very new to Solaris and only have minimal experience with sunboxes and Sun software.
    I just ordered two 250GB Hitachi Deskstar hard drives. I want to put them in a Raid 0 (striping) configuration. I know i need to enable the features on the motherboard and set it up, because my raid will be software based, but will that hinder my installation of either operating system? My board is an ASUS A8N-SLi Deluxe if that makes a difference.
    I was also curious of which to install first, I am assuming Windows XP PRO. Also, what file system should I use? NTFS or FAT32 or if I have to do FAT32 could I convert it to NTFS at a later point?
    I should use partition magic to make the partitions?
    Thank you ahead of time for any help/comments.

    I just remembered that I would like to have the Windows OS on one partition and then everything else Windows on another. I heard its better because if the OS screws up you can reinstall it on that partition and still pull the data off the untouched stuff.

  • I want to triple boot Have Snow Leopard and XP on separate drives and I want Windows 7 on another drive, can it be done by temporarily removing the xp drive and installing windows 7 on another internal drive?

    I want to triple boot my Mac Pro I have Snow Leopard and XP on separate drives (osx on drive 1, xp on drive 2) and I want Windows 7 on another drive (drive 4, drive 3 is used by osx for storage), can it be done by temporarily removing the xp drive and installing windows 7 on drive 4?
    I realise bootcamp only allows 2 operating systems and refit could change the size of my current xp drive to accomodate W7, that is not an option here for various reasons one being the drive is pretty much at capacity with only about 30gig free (I work with video so that free space fluctautes quite a bit). I have a brand new drive 4 with 1TB set aside ready for W7 but I'm unsure how to go ahead?
    any help or advice would be really appreciated, thanks

    Boot Camp is used to support Windows on the same drive.
    You can have a different OS on every drive.
    You could have Windows 7, Vista, and XP all on one drive if you so choose.
    I recommend not putting Windows and OS X on the same dirve when talking about Mac Pro - unless you just need something small and lite.
    Remove all your other drives while you install Windows 7.
    You could even relocate XP - if you need it even - or recover the hard drive space.
    You should always keep 30% free for Mac OS; same for data/media drives.
    Considering 1.5TB WD Black $110.... and you want OS X to be on a fast high performance drive as well.

  • Triple boot MacOS/Windows/Linux

    I managed to install triple boot environment: MacOS 10.7 (Lion) + Windows 7 (Ultimate) + Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot). If someone wants to know how I managed it I explained i below and my questions will come at the end of this thread.
    Installation of MacOS
    Firstly on my HDD /dev/sda with Disk Utility I created only one partition (whole HDD as one partiton) with GUID Partition Table (GPT partition sheme) because it is required by Lion and after that I regularly installed Lion on it.
    Installation of Windows
    Afterwards I splitted my only partition into three partitions (two partitions were added and first one was shrinked) with Apple's Disk Utility again. It is important to create additional partition with Disk Utility because that way it will tailor GPT partition scheme accordingly. After that I started Windows 7 installation and during installation process I deleted and recreated second partition and formated it. Deleting old and recreating second partition with partitioner within Windows installation process I created paralell MBR partition scheme with definition of partition that Windows 7 can understand and use. It is important to note that it is not allowed to create new partition for windows of different size because this will be partition defined in MBR partition scheme and it will be out of sync with GPT partition scheme. (One has to understand that we deal here with two parallel different partition schemas - GPT and MBR - and they have to be in sync meaning that definition of partitions on disk have to be the same in both schemes.) If you created new partition in Windows partitioner, it would be defined only in MBR partitions scheme but not in GPT and it will result in some problems with Linux installation. So I firstly created partitions (defined GPT partition scheme) with Disk Utility, and afterwards created windows partition on the same place of the same size in MBR partition scheme (during Windows installation process). Then I installed Windows 7 on that second partition.
    Installation of Linux
    Finally I started Ubuntu installation and installed it on third partition and install GRUB boot loadre in /dev/sda (MBR).
    MacOS is booted by default. But when I hold alt/option button during boot I was offered with two boot options; first one MacOS (disk icon) starting Lion and second one Windows (disk icon) starting GRUB linux boot loader. After starting GRUB I am offered boot menu to start Windows/Mac/Ubuntu.
    My question is how to define that GRUB is default boot loader?

    With Bootcamp tool you cannot create a triple boot scheme. Bootcamp only splits HDD space into two working partitions. (Actually there are additional EFI and Recovery partitions but I will ignore them). One workng partition is for MacOS and another left for Windows. It does not leave partition or empty sace for Linux installation.
    What you have to do:
    1) boot into MacOS and go into Disk Utility, delete the BOOTCAMP partition where your Windows now reside,
    2) in Disk Utility add two new partitions (define wanted size and name them e.g. WINDOWS and LINUX)
    3) boot with Windows DVD and format new created WINDOWS partition (delete and create it if you need)
    4) install Windows into this new formated WINDWOS partition, reboot and finish Windows installation
    5) boot with Linux DVD and start installation, install (define root) in LINUX partition, (leave bootloader to be installed in /dev/sda)
    Linux does not need additional swap partition like it required in the past. Now Linux works fine with swap in form of file like Windows. There are some other partitions like EFI at the beginning of HDD but you have t leave and ignore it.
    It is important to note that you have to tailor partitions of your HDD with Mac's Disk Utility because it will define them in both GPT (EFI needed for MacOS and Linux) as well as in MBR tables (needed for Windows). Later during installation of Windows you will format the partition dedicated to Windows but you must not change partition scheme (position and size of that partition created previously with Disk Utility) otherwise you will loose sync between GPT and MBR partition schemes.

  • Tutorial - How to triple boot OSX, Linux and Windows 8.1 with a shared Data Partition without any third party Win / OSX softwares

    This is not a question, but rather a personal guide that has proved to be running successfully.
    I would like to thank numerous sources, including Christopher Murphy's suggestions at:
    Re: Repairing Boot Camp after creating new partition
    Before proceeding, there are certain concepts needs to know:
    Why Boot Camp does NOT allow further partitioning of drives after Windows has installed?
    Answer: Because the way Apple configures the Mac to be recognized as non UEFI capable system on Windows.
    Quote from Christopher Murphy based on the above line:
    However, Windows on Macs right now use CSM-BIOS mode in Mac firmware that presents BIOS to Windows rather than EFI. Windows thinks it's on a BIOS computer, and therefore mandates the use of MBR for boot disks, rather than GPT. So that's why we have this hybrid MBR+GPT approach on Mac with Windows on it. You inherit the limitations of MBR, which is four primary partitions.
    So what does it means?
    It means that OSX + EFI + Recovery HD + Boot Camp partition = 4 primary partitions and thus any attempt to modify the disk will render booting issues of either system.
    For more info on GPT (GUID Partition Table disks VS Master Boot Record or MBR in short, you may visit: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn640535%28v=vs.85%29.a spx)
    So, how to overcome it?
    The general guideline is to install ALL GPT ready OS first then create a Data partition, before installing Windows (Which is again, NOT supported GPT due to EFI configuration by Apple where end-users are not able to modify it).
    Interestingly, since Mac Pro 2013 Late supports only Windows 8 and above, thus it is not known if this CSM-BIOS applies to it or not.
    Do take note that GPT disks in Windows can only be booted when the system meets the 2 requirements:
    http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn640535%28v=vs.85%29.a spx#gpt_faq_win7_boot
    1) Windows x64 version (Which is a must for newer Macs. If you cannot go to Boot Camp 5, then you need Windows 7 x86 or 32bit version)
    2) UEFI system. However, Windows sees all Macs (With the possibility of Mac Pro 2013 Late is an exception. To be determined) as BIOS, or rather NON-UEFI system.
    In short, booting on GPT disks is not possible for Mac in Windows.
    Summary,
    It is tested that a combination of the following will not work:
    - OSX + Windows + Linux
    - Windows + OSX + Linux
    - Windows + Linux + OSX
    Usually it can create the system un-bootable or OSX refused to install due to the system does not recognize such partitions and / or Disk Utility refused to format a free space. An example screen-shot is provided below:
    The error message is shown as
    Title: "Failed to erase volume" Message: "Failed to wipe volume, as an error occurred: MediaKit has reported that the device does not have enough free space to execute the requested operations."
    The second thing is about the preparations we need.
    1) 1X Windows 7 or 8 DVD or USB thumbdrive
    1A) If you uses a DVD to install, you will need another thumbdrive to load the BootCamp drivers for Windows as well as may requires an external DVD drive for newer Macs
    2) 1X Linux DVD of your choice. Personally I choose Fedora 20.
    So ready? Let's go.
    1. Using Disk Utility, shrink the OSX's partition size to what is needed. For me, I give OSX 150GB. Do NOT create any new partition.
    Disk Utility should see something like below whereby only OSX partition is left with desired disk space. The remaining space are to be unused disk space for the moment.
    Note: Click on the top most item that should start with the size of your HDD / SSD. Then clicked on "Partition" and specify the desired OSX size. Hit "Apply" after that.
    2: Download Boot Camp drivers only via Boot Camp Assistant. The USB thumbdrive shall be used later after Linux's installation.
    Boot Camp Assistant should see this:
    I have only selected "Download latest Windows Support Files from Apple"
    3. Insert Linux DVD, reboot Mac into EFI mode (The left most first "EFI mode").
    Note 1: Before rebooting, please plugged in an Ethernet adapter because Wi-Fi drivers is not installed.
    Note 2: For Thunderbolt adapters, it must be plugged in before reboot as hot-swapping is not supported under Linux. More on the tips at the end of this article.
    Note 3: Press and hold "Option" after the screen turns black. Release Option key after you see the image as below:

    For the unfortunate part that did not make it on time to edit the images:
    9. Install the Windows Support software from your CD/USB drive to gain full functionality of your computer. Reboot and go to Windows again.
    Note 1: You may choose to eject disc at this point of time. For Apple SuperDrive users, you will need to wait until the drivers (i.e. Boot Camp support files) is installed and rebooted before ejecting is reasonably possible (As I failed to figured out how to right click without the drivers)
    Note 2: Unlike Windows 7 on KBase article TS4599 Keyboard/trackpad inoperative, black screen, or alert messages when installing Windows 7, USB stick can be plugged in after the Windows installation is done. This is because Windows 7 (And probably Windows 7 with SP1 DVD) does not have a built in USB 3 drivers when it was released back in 2009 where USB3 has not arrived then.
    Note 3: Due to TPM, Bitlocker is not supported without the use of thumbdrives.
    10. Using Disk Management to determine the given drive letter for the DATA partition (DO NOT DELETE and RECREATE partition or else you can goodbye to booting Linux and OSX). Disk Management will not allow you to format it as exFAT / FAT32 in graphical way.
    Note: You may remove or modify some of the disk letters in Disk Management. However, do NOT remove / modfify the drive letter for the partition with 200MB size in HFS. This is because it will disallow booting of Linux and neither could Windows nor OSX can do anything EXCEPT to reinstall Linux only.
    11. Open Command Prompt in Administrator Mode (Important!!), and key in the following command:
    format F: /FS:exFAT
    Give this volume a label after it has successfully formatted before hitting "Enter" again.
    Note: Mine Data partition was assigned as F drive. Please make necessary adjustment to "F:" should your Data partition is assigned to other letters.
    12. After that, Setup your Data partition structure as you like.
    Tip: Minimally create the important folders such as:
    - Music
    - Documents
    - Movie (Videos)
    - Downloads
    - Pictures
    All these folders are commonly used by the 3 OSes. I do NOT recommend changing of /home (OSX and / or Linux) and / or user home directory (Windows) either partially or as a whole.
    This is because of compatibility issue.
    On a side note, iTunes Media Library used in OSX and Windows are NOT able to be use interchangably due to hard-coded path used.
    13. Useful troubleshooting in Fedora / Linux:
    With references to these:
    http://chaidarun.com/fedora-mbp
    http://anderson.the-silvas.com/2014/02/14/fedora-20-on-a-macbook-pro-13-late-201 3-retina-display/
    http://unencumberedbyfacts.com/2013/08/16/linux-on-a-macbook-pro-101/
    I would like to highlight a few important points:
    1) Wi-Fi driver:
    http://rpmfusion.org/Configuration
    Note 1: The sound driver should be installed at Out of Box Experience. However, the Wi-Fi is not.
    Note 2: Install both free and non-free repository. By the way, some other software like VLC can only be found after the Free Repository is installed.
    Search for "akmod-wl" in Gnome-Package-Installer in order to install Wi-Fi drivers
    Note 3: For those who do not have Ethernet adapters and their Mac does NOT have a built-in Ethernet port, it is recommended to get one. This is because Fedora 20 does not have a good support for iPhone USB tethering. Unsure for Andriod / Blackberry / Windows Phone users.
    2) Grub Menu:
    It will show several options to boot into OSX, even of the capability to boot into x86 or x64 mode. However, neither of them is bootable except Linux and the rescue.
    Hence, it is recommended to remove the items by hand in this file:
    /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/grub.cfg
    Command to be used:
    "sudo gedit /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/grub.cfg"
    Parts to be removed:
    - For any extra kernels, delete the target entry by locating the line "menuentry" under "/etc/grub.d/10_linux" sector to one line above the next "menuentry".
    It is recommended to keep one main kernel, and one recovery at the minimal.
    - For other OS, delete all the entry (Since neither it can works) under "/etc/grub.d/30_os-prober" sector without removing the lines starts with ###.
    Auto Mount exFAT partition:
    - After installing extra packages for exFAT support (Since it is not supported by Fedora 20 from a default installation), you may wish to edit "/etc/fstab" in order to mount the exFAT partition during boot time.
    Command to be used:
    "sudo gedit /etc/fstab"
    Add the following line in gedit:
    UUID=702D-912D /run/media/Samuel/DATA                   exfat    defaults        1 2
    Note 1: For DATA partition, OSX & Boot Camp partition, Fedora defaults mounts under: "/run/medua/<Username with case sensitive>/<Partition Label Name>"
    Note 2: UUID is unique ID. You can find out the UUID by:
    Step 1: First determine the DATA partition number:
    "sudo gdisk /dev/sda"
    Step 2: Determine the UUID of this partition number:
    "sudo blkid /dev/sda8"
    Reference 1: http://manpages.courier-mta.org/htmlman5/fstab.5.html
    Reference 2: http://liquidat.wordpress.com/2007/10/15/short-tip-get-uuid-of-hard-disks/
    3) Overheating CPU
    Solution is to issue the following command in Linux terminal: su -c "echo -n 1 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/intel_pstate/no_turbo"
    4) System resumes immediately after suspend
    Solution is to issue the following command in Linux terminal: su -c "echo XHC1 > /proc/acpi/wakeup"
    5) What does not works well out of box:
    - Both GNOME and KDE's fonts are too small to be readable for out of box experience. Additional configuration is a need. (Some of the info can be found on "More Tips" later)
    - Thunderbolt hotplugging is NOT supported under Windows and Linux so far. Neither FaceTime HD camera works as well.
    - The red light in Headphone jack is always on. I do not have luck in switching off the light without losing the sound.
    Note 1: It is determined that the module "snd_hda_intel" is used by both cards (HDMI and normal output)
    Note 2: It is also known that blacklisting it can switch off the redlight at the price of muting the system.
    Note: Based on this article, http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1574
    A Mac (Except Mac Pro) needs servicing when there is a red light while the system fails to detect internal speakers. However, this article does NOT applies to this issue.
    5A) More Tips:
    Install gnome-tweak-tool for more customization
    Search for: "gnome-package" to install:
    Install Gnome Package Installer for advanced package repository
    Install Gnome Package Updater for advanced updates to be install (Whereby Fedora's App Store alike might not show the relevant updates)
    14. Verify if disk is still GPT:
    Use Gdisk to determine if the disk is pure GPT:
    http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1742682
    Command: sudo gdisk -l /dev/sda (The entire hard drive)
    You should see the MBR is "Protective" instead of anything else.
    15. Congrats, the system is ready for triple boot. (I forgot to eject my Windows DVD when the photo was taken)
    Note 1: You cannot set the default startup disk in Linux due to the lack of Boot Camp Control Panel in Linux.
    Neither is changing startup disk recommended in Windows due to the inability to display correctly.
    For me, I click "Cancel" whenever I am on this tab (Feel free to make other Boot Camp adjustments in other tabs).
    Only OSX I know that can show the startup disk options correctly.
    Note 2: For some reason, OSX likes to auto mount the EFI partition everytime it boots up. It is not known to have any issue for ejecting other disks or mounting disks via Disk Utility.
    Note 3: It is not determined if any Firmware or System upgrades will cause issues. It is only known that all 3 OS's regular updates should not be an issue.
    System Updates excludes Mac OSX 10.9.3 updates to OSX 10.9.4 type as I had done it on a OSX 10.9.4 Mac or Windows 8.1 to Windows 8.1 Update 1 since my Windows DVD comes with Update 1.
    System Upgrades refers to OSX Mavericks to Yosemite, Fedora 20 to Fedora 21, Windows 8.1 Update 1 to Windows 8.2 / Windows 9 for that matter.
    Note 4: Reset SMC and / or PRAM will NOT affect your ability to boot any of the OS (OSX, Recovery HD, Fedora & Windows 8)
    Yup, that is it!

  • Mac Pro 2010 triple boot (Snow Leopard + Windows + Yosemite)?

    Hello All,
    This is my first question here, I'm usually trying to find the answer myself, but this time I wasn't able to find anything clear enough to me. So I hope that someone can give me clear and easy to understand answer. I must also tell that my English isn't perfect, but should be more than good enough for communication. :-)
    I have Mac Pro 2010, 4 core CPU 3.2 GHz, 6 GB RAM, ATI 5870.
    HD Bay 1: WD Black 1 TB - Boot Snow Leopard 10.6.8
    (Just to add: I am happy because when I bought my Mac it came with 10.6. I am happy with it, it's stable, and I want to keep it as it is)
    HD Bay 2: WD Black 1 TB - Boot Windows 7 x64 (bootcamp, full drive)
    (I am very happy how it works, so I want to keep it as is)
    HD Bay 3: WD Green 2 TB - for all kind of data storage
    HD Bay 4: Was empty until yesterday, but now I have another WD Black 1 TB to put it in - still not formatted.
    I would like to install Yosemite on that new drive (first I was thinking about Maverick, but then I saw that some new applications will not run, like Final Cut Pro X, new MS Office, still in beta, plus I would like to use iMessage, etc.), and keep everything else as it is now - absolutelly untouched.
    • Is it safe to do it, or I can make some mistake and lose Snow Leo and/or Windows?
    • Is position of the drives important? Should I, for example, put new drive in a Bay 3, and move data disk to Bay 4, or it doesn't matter?
    • When I download it from App Store, and when installation starts automatically, do I have an option to select to keep untouched everything I have now?
    (I don't want even to collect any data from Snow Leopard, like mail settings, bookmarks, applications installed - absolutely nothing, it should run as a totally new comp and without any interaction with Snow Leopard, except ordinary hard disk access, like any other hard drive)
    • Will my bootcamp drive be safe, I will still be able to boot from it?
    I was also thinking about this:
    I saw that it is possible to make bootable USB flash drive with installation. If I do that, and if I phisically unplug all other drives except a new one, then do installation, shut it down, and plug back all other drives, will everything work? Will I have triple boot when I press option key during start-up? Does all this makes sense at all to you?
    Finally, does anyone have some experience with Mac Pro 2010 + ATI 5870 with Yosemite? Is it smooth, no problems with graphics or some other things?
    I will really appreciate some answer about all this.
    Cheers!

    Some tips about Yosemite and Core Storage from MacIntouch Reader Reports on Yosemite:
    Ric Ford [MacInTouch]
    Yosemite's changes have led to questions and confusion about disk formatting and partitioning issues, backward compatibility, and dual-booting Mac OS X 10.6 and Yosemite. Below are a few notes on these issues from an email discussion (questions, tips and clarifications are welcome). 
    Core Storage changes debuted in OS X 10.7 Lion, with Apple's new FileVault 2 whole-disk encryption and hidden Recovery Partition.
    Generally, running OS X 10.7 and up shouldn't corrupt or convert the HFS+ partitions used by pre-OS X 10.7 systems (still supported in later OS X versions). There are, however, a few special cases to beware, and this is where things get confusing. Here are some specific issues:
    1) FileVault 2 encryption and "Fusion" drives both depend on Core Storage, so applying those to any partition will render it inaccessible by pre-OS X 10.7 systems.
    2) Yosemite's installation process silently converts a partition to Core Storage, incompatible with Mac OS X 10.6 and earlier. Ars Technica's review describes this issue.
    3) Running Disk Utility's "repair" function in Yosemite against a Mac OS X 10.6 (HFS+) partition has caused problems in some cases, such as making the Mac OS X 10.6 partition unbootable.
    (A search for Core Storage on MacInTouch will turn up more discussion and tips.)
    See also:
    Core Storage [Wikipedia]
    OS X Mountain Lion Core Technologies Overview (PDF) [Apple]
    OS X 10.10 Yosemite: Installation [Ars Technica]
    File system changes in Lion [Ars Technica]
    Can't remove Core Storage from hard drive [Apple Discussions]
    How To: Disable CoreStorage on Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) [Symantec]
    http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/yosemite/index.html#d16apr2015

  • How can I triple boot with OSX, Windows XP, and Windows 7 RC?

    Here's the short story:
    I have OS X 10.5 and Windows XP on an internal drive.
    My goal is to install the Windows 7 RC on a bootable external drive connected through eSATA
    Currently:
    I used Winclone to copy my XP partition (with a different-looking desktop) onto the external drive to test if I could boot from it. Seems the EFI boot sequence recognizes the external copy in any case. Picture here: [http://img171.imageshack.us/i/library5991.jpg> (ignore the backup hard drive)
    When I select the Windows icon on the left, it boots the internal drive partition. However, when I select the icon on the right, it also boots the internal partition.
    Is there any way I can manipulate the BIOS emulation to chose between the two drives? Would clearing the internal Windows partition let it default to the external one? Would just installing Windows 7 RC resolve the issue?

    Hi KWarp,
    here a guide on how-to triple boot OSX, XP and Vista http://guides.macrumors.com/Triple_Boot
    Replacing Vista with Windows 7 should be no difference.
    To my knowledge Windows can not be booted from an external harddisk and I don't think that Microsoft has changed that with Windows 7 (although I like to be wrong on that ).
    Intel-Macs don't have a BIOS but use its successor EFI.
    Tools for 'fumbling' with EFI are restricted to Apple Technicians.
    Regards
    Stefan

  • HT4818 I have installed bootcamp that worked properly.  Then I have partitioned the OS X 10.8.2 and installed another OS X 10.8.2 and I have got two MAC boot options and Bootcamp disappeared from the Option menu. How can I boot Windows again and keep both

    I have installed bootcamp by the bootcamp assistant and worked properly.
     Then I have partitioned the OS X 10.8.2 and installed another Mountain Lion System and I have got two MAC boot options and Bootcamp disappeared from the Option menu. However, Bootcamp still remained in the Startup Disk in the System Preferences. When I tried to boot Bootcamp using the Startup Disk it did not boot and received a message that there is no bootable device. I have not lost any data and can read Bootcamp partition from both OS X systems. Please advise how can I boot Windows / Bootcamp again? Thank you. 

    Recommendation 1: Use a VM for this. It's essentially a giant C.F. to do this with native booting, and is potentially fragile.
    But if you're going to ignore that and do this anyway, realizing that it can break anytime in particular with OS upgrades, and that it's very difficult to impossible to resize the three volumes once you've installed the systems:
    1. create three partitions, setting each to be the size for OS X copy 1, copy 2, and Windows respectively. The Windows partition needs to be set to MS-DOS format (actually FAT32) which later in the Windows installer you'll reformat as NTFS. Do not use Boot Camp Assistant to resize/partition the disk, it simply won't work for this use case.
    2. install OS X copy 1
    3. install OS X copy 3
    4. Use gdisk (available at sourceforge) which is a command line only application, to create a new hybrid MBR adding only the last partition (Windows) to the hybrid MBR and setting it to be bootable. As a concequence you will not be able to see/share either OS X volume from within Windows. The Windows NTFS volume will be visible from within OS X.
    5. Install Windows to the only partition its installer should see (confirm size), you'll need to format it NTFS first, and I suggest using the fast format option if available.

  • Virtualization of Windows Partition on Triple Boot System

    I have recently triple booted my Macbook using the following partitioning tables:
    (hd0,0) /dev/sda1 - EFI
    (hd0,1) /dev/sda2 - Storage (FAT32)
    (hd0,2) /dev/sda3 - Ubuntu Linux (ext3) <- GRUB
    (hd0,3) /dev/sda4 - Windows XP (FAT32)
    (hd0,4) /dev/sda5 - Mac OS X (Mac OS Extended)
    I used the Bootcamp drivers to get Windows XP working correctly, but I had to use rEFIt as my gui bootloader.
    My desire is to also be able to virtualize my Windows XP of the /dev/sda4 partition inside Mac OS X using either VMware Fusion or Parallels Desktop. I have tried the trial versions of both and both don't appear to handle my partitioning scheme very well. Parallels returns an error stating that I have a non-standard Bootcamp partition (due to "multiple" Bootcamp partitions; probably from my FAT32 storage partition). VMware Fusion just attempts to boot the storage partition and it returns the obvious error of "No Operating System".
    Is there any work around to this? I would think that it should be an option to create a virtual machine from whichever partition you have an OS installed in, but that doesn't appear to be the case...
    Thanks in advance!

    The boot selector built into the Intel MacBooks will only show one non-Mac partition per drive and it will always be labelled "Windows". There is a utility called Refit ( http://refit.sourceforge.net/ ) which replaces the Apple-provided boot selector with one which is capable of triple-booting. It doesn't remove or overwrite Apple's boot selector, so you can always go back to the original if need-be.
    I believe you may also be able to dual-boot Linux and Mac OS... then use a boot selector under Linux (such as GRUB) to pick between Linux and Windows.

  • Triple Boot Snow Leopard, Leopard, Windows 7 RC

    I just managed a triple boot setup on a new MBP. I now have Snow Leopard 10.6.1, Leopard, 10.5.8, and Windows 7 RC and can boot easily to
    any of them with the option-key at power on. These are the steps I followed:
    1) Installed the windows 7 RC via Boot Camp as per this
    recipe: http://www.simplehelp.net/2009/01/15/using-boot-camp-to-install-windows-7-on-you r-mac-the-complete-walkthrough/
    2) Formated an external FW drive with 3 partitions: Clone, Backup, and Media.
    3) Used Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) to clone a 10.5.8 installation I have on a mac-mini onto an external FW drive. (Even though I have a
    Leopard family pack install disk, you can't boot from it - at least I couldn't and anyway, most of what I wanted was on the mini anyway).
    4) Used Time Machine to backup the 10.6.1 onto the FW drive Backup partition (I guess I could have used CCC but I was familiar with Time
    Machine and not with CCC until today).
    5) Used WinClone to make an image of the BOOTCAMP partition on the external FW drive (just in case)
    6) I booted the MBP from the Clone of 10.5.8 to make sure it would work and that there would be no driver issues (trackpad etc) - it worked
    just fine.
    7) Now comes the scary part: (I have read a lot of posts about the challenges of doing a triple boot with a Boot Camp Windows partition
    already installed that result in XP or Vista not being bootable. Lots of folks have found workarounds to solve this I know). With the
    machine booted from the clone of 10.5.8 -RUNNING ON THE EXTERNAL FW DRIVE, I launched the disk utility and and resized the 10.6.1 partition
    to half what it was. (click on the 10.6.1 partition and then click on the + sign at the bottom left - this will allow you to keep the
    contents of 10.6.1 intact but free up some space). Call the new volume whatever you like and format it Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
    8) Used CCC to copy the clone of 10.5.8 onto the new partition created in step 7.
    9) Shut down and Power-up with the option key and all was well. All three OS's available. No modification of the Windows 7 bootmgr or any
    other boot parameters.
    10) Boot to the 10.5.8 partition and change the computer network name to something else other than the name of the mini.
    Worked for me and wasn't as difficult as some of the other approaches.

    Just one question: Why would you create a partition for Snow Leopard and Leopard?

  • Arch, Windows 7 and PC-BSD Triple Boot

    Hi Folks,
    Thinking about setting up a triple boot system like the one described above. I have had numerous ideas for a partitioning scheme, but nothing seems neat because of the requirement that both Window and BSD need to be on a primary partition.
    My basic requirements are:
    Arch Linux
    separate /boot (as I want to use BTRFS for root)
    /root (BTRFS)
    /swap (not essential for Arch, as I have 4 GB RAM)
    (Is a home required, or can I have a tiny /home for .(config) files?)
    PC-BSD
    separate /boot (as I want to use ZFS)
    /, /var, /usr (ZFS pool)
    /swap (essential for ZFS as I have heard it is RAM hungry)
    (Is a home required at all. First time with BSD, so not sure how it works)
    Windows
    1 large C: drive (Easy)
    Shared storage drive
    (recommendations for the most mutually compatible file system? It pains me to say, but FAT32?)
    So, should I go with the GUID partition table so I can just make all of these, or is there some clever trickery? I was considering LVM to make my Arch root and small home, but that does not really solve the four primary partition limit on the MBR.
    I should add, I have a working Windows 7 and Arch setup and my main reason for wanting a BSD is so that I have the full gamut of OSes for learning and experimentation. I like the idea of Windows 7, an Arch/BTRFS/Gnome and a BSD/ZFS/KDE...
    Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
    Scott
    Last edited by well.heeled.man (2011-07-31 00:14:11)

    @well.heeled.man
    from my own experience i would recommend you pure FreeBSD instead of PC-BSD (even tho they are the same in nature), the main problem is that pc-bsd is somehow not complete .. too many preinstalled stuff, ports witch is 1st thing to learn in FBSD is way too complicated with those jails.. and never the less fbsd + kde is not a good start - better use xfce at most
    as for partitions well ...
    I think FreeBSD/PC-BSD uses a single physical partition, logically sub-divided to allow for snapshots
    yes that is true
    as for zfs start learning by use files instead of partitions or harddrives unless you are ready to loose your data O.o
    example
    cybertorture@ego ~
    > sudo zpool status
    pool: tank
    state: ONLINE
    scan: resilvered 32,5K in 0h0m with 0 errors on Tue Aug 2 01:45:54 2011
    config:
    NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM
    tank ONLINE 0 0 0
    /home/zfs ONLINE 0 0 0
    /home/zfs1 ONLINE 0 0 0
    /home/zfs2 ONLINE 0 0 0
    /home/zfs3 ONLINE 0 0 0
    /home/zfs-spare ONLINE 0 0 0
    spares
    /mnt/data/zfs-test AVAIL
    errors: No known data errors
    cybertorture@ego ~
    > ll /home/zfs*
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512M 2 авг 1,53 /home/zfs
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512M 2 авг 1,53 /home/zfs1
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512M 2 авг 1,53 /home/zfs2
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512M 2 авг 1,53 /home/zfs3
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512M 2 авг 1,53 /home/zfs-spare
    about GPT, any reason not to use msdos ? maybe you have 2.2+ GB harddive  ?
    edit: about partitions
    sda1 ntfs - windowze
    sda2 ext2 - boot (safe bet)
    sda3 ufs - fbsd
    sda4 - extended
    sda5 btrfs - arch
    sda6 ntfs - shared storage
    Last edited by cybertorture (2011-08-02 00:39:51)

  • Triple Boot; Mavericks, Snow Leopard & Windows 7

    Hello
    Has anyone had experience of creating an installation that can triple boot, Snow Leopard, Mavericks & Windows 7?
    I have software that can only run 10.6.8, some that will only run 10.7 or beyond and some Windows only. I'd like to use a single machine.
    Many thanks in advance.
    Stevie

    Hello
    I just came across this
    https://discussions.apple.com/message/16073483#16073483
    snow leopard, lion and windows 7 discussion
    I reckon the principle is the same
    Stevie

  • Triple boot Lion/Windows/Ubuntu

    I am being given a new Macbook Pro for work.  Because of my personal preference for the UI in Mac OS X, and my business requirement to do software development in Windows and Linux, I'd love to be able to triple-boot into either Lion, Win 7, or Ubuntu, and have a common directory tree where I can store data that I need in all three OSes, such as source code trees (mostly managed by Perforce), email profiles (for Thunderbird), and iTunes content, as well as plain old "documents".  Is this something Bootcamp will be able to handle?  If so, what is the best format for the partition hosting the shared data?

    What I ended up with was pretty much what the referenced article describes.  I'm so much not an expert on partitioning that I hate to even describe what I think I saw, but if you'll all promise not to laugh me out of the room...
    I created four partitions as suggested, one for each OS and one for "Common", but then I found that I couldn't do anything with the Common partition, like format it.  I'm not sure why, but that's what it looked like.  What has turned out to be a satisfactory solution for me is three partitions, one for each OS, and the bulk of the disk assigned to the Linux partition, formatted in ext3.  There is an open source ext3 driver for Windows (http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2fsd/) that works very nicely, and an affordable (for me, anyway, at $39.95) commercial product, Paragon ExtFS, for OS X, that gives those two OSes r/w access to the Linux partition.  I created a folder there, /Common, and I'm home free.
    Well, sort of.  This gives me all three OSes, a common storage center, and a nice little boot menu (rEFIt), but the Linux installation is very problematic.  It seems that our good friends at Apple aren't quite as helpful with Linux as they are with Windows, in that there is no suite of drivers available a la Bootcamp.  As yet, I haven't even figured out the Ethernet setup.  Fortunately, Bluetooth works out of the box, and I can get net access via my iPhone's Personal Hotspot feature.  I use Linux mainly for software development anyway, so it's adequate (just barely) to my current needs.

  • How to triple boot (MacOSX / Win7 / Linux) a MacBook Pro (Retina, late 2013) with Refind

    ok it's not a question, it's an howto.
    You do it at your own risk. No failure reported so far, but I'm not responsible for anything.
    If you try to multiboot your MacBook Pro (MBP hereafter) you may face a new complexity. With on partition, Bootcamp does a pretty amazing job installing windows. But when you want to partition your disk in your own way, Bootcamp may fail to install windows and another third OS. You may also want to have a share partition between your OSes, hence have multiple partitions. Most of this tuto should also work for Windows 8 and for other Macbooks.
    Problem 1 : Bootcamp does it with one partition that it divides in two and allow to setup Win7. Not all time though since some user reportidely have problems to get USB 3 support and the keyboard and mouse are non working during the install / setup phase.
    Problem 2 : Windows 7 is not able to install itself to a GPT partition and needs an Hybrid MBR. Bootcamp does this, but just for a Dual OS setup. So to make the magic happen in a multi OS environment, you'll have to do want bootcamp does, manually.
    Step 1 : Download the OS X Recovery Disk Assistant from Apple and flash it to a USB stick. (http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433)
    Step 2 : Reboot, holding the option key (aka CMD, left of spacebar) down, to trigger the boot menu options. Start the usb drive with OS X recovery and enter the partition tool. Create 3 to 4 partitions, suiting your tastes. Just put windows partition first and I recommend to put the partition sharing data across OSes second, MacOS 3rd and Linux Last for example. MacOS and Linux are fine with pretty much every setup, Windows need the 1° usable partition.
    Step 3 : Migrate your Macos using the same tool (google it for details) or Reinstall MacOS from the recovery partition. (more about migration here, but there are better tuto on this)
    Step 4 : Start your MacOS and create a bootcamp USB stick with the bootcamp tool. You need an ISO from Win7 (or Win 8) and a drive of at least 4 GB. Bootcamp will most likely complain about the fact that it will not be able to install 7 due to the fact that you don't have only one partition, ignore and proceed to the Bootcamp USB stick setup.
    Step 5 : Adding the USB3 support to your Win7 installation. Plug your newly created Win7 USB stick to a computer running Windows. In the sources directory, copy the boot.vim on your disk drive and add the drivers that Bootcamp added to your USB stick, in the $WinPEDriver$ directory and follow these instructions to add them to your boot.vim image. Follow carefully every step, it does works. Add the drivers you feel like, commit and copy back your boot.vim image, patched, to your USB stick, in the sources directory.
    Step 6 : In your MacOSX, install the GPT fdisk partition tool. You just have to unzip the archive. Win7 is unable to install to a GPT disk, so you will have to create a (dirty) Hybrid MBR. From a terminal, launch GPT fdisk. Carefull here, the Win7 is most likely not the 1st but the 2nd or 3rd because there is an UEFI partition before. Just check before adding them if in doubt, by striking p. Then key in r then h then the number of the partitions you want to add to this hybrid MBR (the Win7 & the Shared one). Accept the type 07 for this partition and type y, n & finally w. (more details here for the fans)
    Step 7 : Reboot, keep the CMD key down to trigger the boot option menu. Reboot on the USB stick, install Win7. If it doesn't understand the partition made for it, format it, if needed, from the 7 installer, delete and recreate it.
    Step 8 : Install your favorite Linux distro with a USB stick generator. (see here & here). No complex part, except that Grub will most likely scratch your nice Hybrid MBR, rendering Win7 inaccessible. No problem, reboot in MacOS and redo step 6, this will revive your win7.
    Step 9 : It's cosmetic but keeping CMD key down to boot is not so practical. ReFind does it just great. Setup is super easy, just kick install.sh from a shell in MacOS. Fine tune decoration and some stuffs later on from the config file.
    Step 10 (optionnal) : You want it all, without switching between OSes? Having Windows app running within MacOS is easy, with most native hardware acceleration preserved, using Parallels desktop. It also works with a "simple" Bootcamp Windows setup.
    Enjoy your mighty triple boot MBP.

    Just ordered a Retina MacBook Pro11,2 (mid-2014 15", 2.2GHz Intel Core i7, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, OSX 10.9.4 Pre-installed - Build 13E28)  and have the exact same issue.  The first thing I did when i booted it for the first time was enable FileValut2 and encrypt the disk.  Though I failed to notice this behavior prior to encrypting the disk, the stuttering/lag happens without fail every time I have logged in from a cold boot, locked screen or sleep. Additionally I have noticed the same stuttering behavior when switching tabs on various built-in OSX applications such as the tabs on the About This Mac > More Info.... (System Information) dialog for example, and similarly other dialogs that experience this behavior of resizing when switching tabs. I was running no other software than About This Mac > More Info ... (System Information) and OSX 10.9.4 itself.  The issue happens without fail with and without a USB mouse plugged in.
    I am really glad to have found this thread and with such recent posts.  I'd love to find out that this is just a software bug that will be fixed when OSX 10.10 "Yosemite" is released.  If not, I hope the cause of this bug is determined soon so I can still exchange or have it repaired.
    Migflono and Matthew, would you be able to post your hardware specs for comparison? 

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