Cannot backup Windows 7 (dual-boot) image to external HD (formated as Mac OS Extended)

I cannot backup my Windows 7 (dual-boot) image to my external HD (formated as Mac OS Extended). I installed MacDrive 8.0 hoping to solve the problem but Windows 7 gives me an error when I try to create a backup: "...drive is not formatted as NTFS, cannot use as backup...".
I also tried making an Image of the Windows 7 partition through Disk Utility but was not allowed to do so.
I am not sure where else to go from here. I need to keep my external hard drive formatted as Mac OS Extended but I also need to backup my Windows 7 partition. I only have the single external at the moment. Is there a way to backup my Windows 7 partition?
Thanks

Winclone will backup your Windows partition to a Mac formatted drive.
Just search for Winclone on this forum and on Goggle.

Similar Messages

Back up failed to external drive (formatted to MAC OS Extended)

I have recently bought an external drive, have used disk utility to format it to MAC OS Extended (journaled).
I have then used Time Capsule to complete a back up, but it fails every time I try.
The error message says" The backup was not performed because an error occurred while copying files to the back up disk"
I have then tried to repair the disk and it says the drive appears to be fine.
I cannot understand why the back up wont work.
I am still on snow leopard, but need to back up before I update to Mavericks.
Plrase help.

Hi there Shainj,
You may find the troubleshooting steps in the article below helpful.
Time Machine: Troubleshooting backup issues
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3275
-Griff W.

Cannot Add drivers to boot image

does any one know why ?
cuz i can in 7 but not in vista
cause of this , cannot successfly wds windows vista

Hi David Smale,
Added Windows 7 boot image to WDS then try to deploy vista again.
More information:
Windows Deployment Services Overview
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831764.aspx
Managing and Deploying Driver Packages
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd348456(WS.10).aspx
WDS - Using WAIK - Inject Driver into boot.wim image
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/195d1451-35c4-4117-b673-9d2acebb76b9/wds-using-waik-inject-driver-into-bootwim-image?forum=winservergen
I’m glad to be of help to you!
We
are trying to better understand customer views on social support experience, so your participation in this
interview project would be greatly appreciated if you have time.
Thanks for helping make community forums a great place.

Upgrading to lion: concern currently i amMac OS X 10.6.8 (10K549) with a windows dual boot (boot camp)

Upgrading to lion: concern currently i am running Mac OS X 10.6.8 (10K549) with a windows dual boot (boot camp) on a imac, hardward configuration is good. my question is if i upgrade to lion will it effect my boot camp windows environment in any manner shape or form or will it stay pristine and I will be able to access it with no problem. as for the upgrade does it give you a clean install and upgrade options
any insight would be appreciated.
Also has anyone, added another partition and installed lion in their leaving the snow leopard partion intact.

I would ask myself these questions first
What features am I hoping to benefit from by upgrading?
What apps do I have on OSX that I need to still fucntion? (research that they will)
Just a cautionary note - I have had problems, but only upgraded to see what was new - needed nothing, lost a lot

Will files saved on an external HD, formatted for Mac, be readable on a Windows machine?

Will files saved on an external HD, formatted for Mac, be readable on a Windows machine?

Only if the Windows computer has software such as MacDrive installed or the drive is hooked up to a Mac or AirPort Extreme and shared over a network.
(60143)

I am now using 10.6.8. Downloaded Maverick but cannot update OS on HD because get message the disk is not formatted as Mac OS extended(journaled). Tried to use Disk Utility as per instruction but cannot complete operation.

I am now using 10.6.8. Downloaded Maverick but cannot update OS on HD because get message the disk is not formatted as Mac OS extended(journaled). Tried to use Disk Utility as per instruction but cannot complete operation.

Barney-15E:
The partition method worked after some trepidation. I got the spinning beach ball after partitioning and couldn't go further till I named the second partition. That may have done it. Right now, things seem to be working o.k. I'm updating a current iPhoto and will have to get a MS Word program that will function on the current OS and a current Quicken.
If necessary, can start up from the 10.6.8 system which I downloaded to an external HD before updating. I can always fall back on that. Also, I hope I don't get too many disconnects. Thank you for your help.

Greeting, I want to reformat my external hard drive using Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted ) but before formatting it, I want to make sure that if I loose the hard drive or the hard drive get stolen, no one will be able to retrieve or recover the in

Greeting,
I want to reformat my external hard drive using Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted ) but before formatting it, I want to make sure that if I loose the hard drive or the hard drive get stolen, no one will be able to retrieve or recover the information on it so could you tell me what kind of encryption will be used or is there any way to recover the information?
Thanks!

I think FileVault is used to encryp internal hard drive but I wanna encrypt an external hard drive with Mac OS Extended Journaled Encrypted which is completely different!

WLAN module is sleeping from Windows Dual boot cannot Install

Hi I'm having problems installing from the Core installation disk due to Windows 7 or the Windows 7 Wifi driver for my computer shutting off the Wifi module when it restarts or powers off. I was wondering if anybody had any idea about that if so. How do I wake WLAN in Linux Dual-boot so I can have wireless internet access in Linux. I run an ASUS Laptop. My wifi driver is a Ralink 80211n Network adapter.

This is possibly due to windows having trouble to establish a wireless connection, then it shuts down the wireless card to save power.
Unfortunately on some systems, bios/efi doesn't re-enable the card at next boot.
I've encountered cases where the card stayed disabled, and the only way to get it back was use the network troubleshooter to get it activated gain.
That trick however only worked until windows lost wireless connection for whatever reason.
The only way to solve this permanently if found is to deny windows the option to shut down the wireless card at all.
To make this work however you need to change the wireless adapter settings :
In windows configuration panel, look for 'device management'.
In the tree, select the physical wireless adapter, choose properties .
you should see 4 tabs then, one of them (think it's called driver details) allows you to set many driver settings.
Look for an option called something like : "windows is allowed to shut down this device to save power" and disable it.
Edit : tried to make it more readable
Last edited by Lone_Wolf (2013-09-01 12:57:29)

EFI Update v2.6 breaks Windows dual boot

The EFI Update MBA51.00EF.B02 has broken WIndows on my MacBook Air 2012
Bootcamp Dual boot using OSX Lion & WIndows 7 was working fine prior to the EFI update.
Since then, the WIndows initial boot screen displays, but as soon as the GUI starts there is a blank notebook screen.
Using an external monitor connected via Thunderbolt > VGA adapter, the Windows GUI Logon & desktop shows on the external monitor, but Control Panel display manager cannot see the MBA own lcd screen as a display option.
This makes it unusable as a portable WIndows M/C, as instead of fixing WIndows it has broken it.
Can I regress ?
Is there a fix to this issue ?
Please Help

vintherine wrote:
the.ridikulus.rat wrote:
@vintherine: Everything you mentioned in the 1st post is correct. In your case the correct commands should be:
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=arch_grub --recheck
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Thanks. I've tried that, get now a single line with Windows, which does not work
EDIT: Are you able to boot Windows independent of GRUB, ie. directly from the firmware boot menu?
I've tried F12 key, found a menu, started on the HD, found a new menu corresponding with the EFI directories (arch_grub, Microsoft....). Microsoft entry sent me on... grub menu
EDIT: Can you try (note the extra line : "set gfxpayload=keep")
It's time for diner (i'm in France). I'll see this in the next hour.
Many thanks
Seems like the actual Windows bootmgfw.efi was overwritten by grubx64.efi or something else. In the boot menu Windows's entry (created by Windows installer) is usually titled "Windows Boot Manager".
EDIT:
Try this. Copy the files from Windows's C:\Windows\Boot\EFI to <EFISYS>/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/ . Overwrite any exisitng files, and make sure <EFISYS>/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/BCD file exists. That is the Windows equivalent of grub.cfg (although BCD cannot be read easily since it is not a text file). Try your menuentry again.
Last edited by the.ridikulus.rat (2013-09-27 18:29:09)

T400s Linux/Windows dual boot with Linux from Esata Flash Drive

This project is about a dual boot Windows/Linux system without using the normal dual boot changes in the bootloader of the windows hard drive. When I started this I found bits and pieces of information on the web but no complete description so I wrote this post.
I have done a dual boot system on my previous Thinkpad where I had partitioned the hard drive between Linux and windows. For this project I wanted to leave the windows hard drive absolutely intact and unaltered, and boot Linux from a flash drive in the esata port on the back of the T400s. Obviously this uses the F12 boot list function key to boot from the flash. The advantage of this is that Windows is totally unaltered and when I need Linux, I plug in the esata flash drive, hit F12 during the boot cycle and select booting from the esata flash drive. The reason for Esata rather than USB is simply speed. I have a nice fast Linux installation.
I used the OCZ esata flash drive but suspect any of the alternatives will work. It did not need the accessory usb cable because the Thinkpad powered the esata flash directly.
To boot from the esata drive I had to make the following changes in the bios
    I left the esata flash plugged in as I went into the bios
    Bios>config>Serial ATA and changed the Sata controller mode option to compatibility
    Restart and back into the Bios
    Bios>startup>boot - in my case the esata flash drive showed up as ATA HDD2 and was excluded from the boot order so I had to un-exclude it and move it to the point in the boot order that I wanted.
Next I downloaded a linux installation iso and put it on a CD - in my case opensuse. Then booted from the CD
From now on this instructions are specific to opensuse and yast but can be generalized to whatever Linux is being used.
In my case yast came up with a good set of suggestions for automatically partitioning the flash drive but then crashed during the partitioning itself. So I rebooted and specified the partitions manually.
    A fat32 partition left as a partition which both windows and Linux could see (in my case about 20% of the drive) (/dev/sdb1)
    An extended partition with the remainder of the drive (/dev/sdb2) which contains the following logical partitions
    A linux Swap partition of 2GB (/dev/sdb5)
    A linux /home partition –the remainder of the drive (/dev/sdb6)
    A linux /root partition of 8GB (/dev/sdb7)
Yast automatically suggested mount points of C,D,E for the windows partitions. Unfortunately because of the way the Thinkpad hard drive was laid out Yast had C assigned the ThinkPad Service partition and D assigned to the SW_Preload (or main windows partition). However there was an edit function that allows for the reversal of those mount points so that the windows C drive is mounted in Linux as Windows/C thereby avoiding confusion. I had already backed up and removed the Thinkpad factory install data so I did not have to deal with that. Yast suggested Windows/E for the mount point of the FAT32 partition on the flash drive, which I accepted.
The yast install configurator made all this manual selection easy, and after the manual configuration the partitioning worked perfectly.
Next step was Linux user configuration which went fine
Next was booting.
In the section management tab
    delete the windows 1 and 2 options (since we are not dual booting directly)
In the boot loader installation tab
    uncheck boot from mbr ( this stops the install from installing Grub and dual boot on the windows c drive
    check boot from root partition (this installs grub and all associated files in the Linux root partition (/dev/sdb6)
I believe that the correct procedure at this point is to click Boot Loader installation details which will bring up the Grub device map. In the device map there will be a line for the fixed hard drive (aka the windows drive) and a line for the esata flash drive. When the installer started up these were in hard drive and esata drive order. However when we boot directly from the flash the esata drive will be grub drive hd0 and the fixed hard drive will be grub hd1. The device map order needs to be changed to reflect this ie the esata drive should be first not second.
I did not do this and ended up initially doing Grub command line editing to boot and later manually editing the grub files using information I had previously learned the hard way and through google.
At this point let the installer go ahead and install Linux. After doing this it should come back and tell you to reboot. Do not do it yet because we need to install the MBR into the flash drive.
I suspect that there is a way of doing this in Yast running from the Live CD but it was not obvious to me so I used the manual method that I have used before.
Open a root terminal
Mount /dev/sdb6 to /mnt/sdb6 (my linux root)
Touch /mnt/sdb6/boot/grub/flag
The purpose of this is when we go looking later at the grub command prompt we need an easy to find unique file
Start grub and do the following
#grub
            grub> find /boot/grub/flag
                (hd1,5)    -- the result of the find in my example
            grub> root (hd1,5)   -- using the result of the find in my example
            grub> setup (hd1)   -- install mbr -- my example parameters - if you get this wrong you will trash some other drive!!!
                  hopefully grub announces success
            grub> quit
Reboot and select the flash drive. In my case I still had the grub devicemap wrong and had to edit the grub commands during boot to tell grub how to find the correct partition and then edit them again after booting
Typical linux install issues that we all always seem to have and can be solved with a little (or a lot of) google research.
As I said at the beginning I now have an untouched windows installation and a nice fast Linux installation. I hope that this will be of some use to someone.

Hi chrissh
i tried this exact procedure... on the exact same notebook (T400s). However, as soon as I set the
   Bios>config>Serial ATA to "compatibility", I cannot use my default Windows installation! I immediately get the "blue screen of death".
I doubt I did anything differently since this is the first step of your procedure and my laptop is brand new!
any idea?

Disk Utility hanging on Erase/Partition OR Howto backup a dual boot Mactel?

I'm trying to use Disk Utility to format an external usb hd as HFS+ for backing up my Macbook. Running 10.4.7 and Disk Util 10.5.6 (latest version afaik)
Problem is whenever I try to either Erase format a hard drive using my usb2 external enclosure, Disk Util just kinda freaks, not really doing anything, and after a minute or so becomes the program becomes unresponsive. Luckily the rest of my system keeps on working, and I can just force quite disk util. But when I try to shutdown/restart my system I'm forced to do a hard power down.
I've tried leaving Disk Util running overnight, thinking it was just needing a little extra time to get thru the process, but nothing changed when I woke. And a gave the macbook a good hour to shutdown cleanly, but it stays stuck with the blue screen and the spinning gray wheel at the very end of teh shutdown cycle.
Looking at the disk util log (after force quiting and restarting the util) it will simply say:
Aug 12 03:24:09: Disk Utility started.
Preparing to erase : “Mb”
Creating Partition Map
Aug 12 03:25:50: Disk Utility started.
I've also tried running disk util off the osx install cd (tiger 10.4.6), but i get what seems to be identical behavior, and i have to manually turn off the macbook.
I've tried this with two hard drives with identical results. In Windows (boot camp) im able to format the partition fine, but it only does ntfs because of the drive's size (and I'm not trying to use a windows fs anyway).
I plugged the usb hd into a powerbook, and used a 10.4.0 retail cd to run disk util (no hd in the powerbook) and its able to erase/partition the disks just fine. I can then plug them back into the macbook and theyre recognized just fine. But its PPC system and doesnt offer for gtp partitioning which I'm thinking will be a problem because ultimately I'm trying to use this drive to do bootable backups of my macbook.
I'd like to figure out what is wrong with Disk Util. But even if i get the partitioning working, i have the larger problem of -how- to backup the macbook's hd onto an identical sized hd (80 gigs), that will make both osx and windows bootable backups that I can restore off of.
One thought was to use the unix utility dd, and just do a bitwise copy of one disk to another. Any idea if this would work?
Another option would be manually creating the partitions myself, and then backing up each of the drives seperately. Not sure if I could even make a bootable backup of windows from within osx.
I know I'm not the only one running boot camp and looking to have reliable backups. What are other people doing to address this issue.
Ideally I would like to find a solution that:
*creates an identical disk with two bootable partitions
*can be automated, or at best a few simple steps that can be done once and then walked away from
Thanks for the help
macbook Mac OS X (10.4.7)

I'm trying to use Disk Utility to format an external usb hd as HFS+ for backing up my Macbook. Running 10.4.7 and Disk Util 10.5.6 (latest version afaik)
Problem is whenever I try to either Erase format a hard drive using my usb2 external enclosure, Disk Util just kinda freaks, not really doing anything, and after a minute or so becomes the program becomes unresponsive. Luckily the rest of my system keeps on working, and I can just force quite disk util. But when I try to shutdown/restart my system I'm forced to do a hard power down.
I've tried leaving Disk Util running overnight, thinking it was just needing a little extra time to get thru the process, but nothing changed when I woke. And a gave the macbook a good hour to shutdown cleanly, but it stays stuck with the blue screen and the spinning gray wheel at the very end of teh shutdown cycle.
Looking at the disk util log (after force quiting and restarting the util) it will simply say:
Aug 12 03:24:09: Disk Utility started.
Preparing to erase : “Mb”
Creating Partition Map
Aug 12 03:25:50: Disk Utility started.
I've also tried running disk util off the osx install cd (tiger 10.4.6), but i get what seems to be identical behavior, and i have to manually turn off the macbook.
I've tried this with two hard drives with identical results. In Windows (boot camp) im able to format the partition fine, but it only does ntfs because of the drive's size (and I'm not trying to use a windows fs anyway).
I plugged the usb hd into a powerbook, and used a 10.4.0 retail cd to run disk util (no hd in the powerbook) and its able to erase/partition the disks just fine. I can then plug them back into the macbook and theyre recognized just fine. But its PPC system and doesnt offer for gtp partitioning which I'm thinking will be a problem because ultimately I'm trying to use this drive to do bootable backups of my macbook.
I'd like to figure out what is wrong with Disk Util. But even if i get the partitioning working, i have the larger problem of -how- to backup the macbook's hd onto an identical sized hd (80 gigs), that will make both osx and windows bootable backups that I can restore off of.
One thought was to use the unix utility dd, and just do a bitwise copy of one disk to another. Any idea if this would work?
Another option would be manually creating the partitions myself, and then backing up each of the drives seperately. Not sure if I could even make a bootable backup of windows from within osx.
I know I'm not the only one running boot camp and looking to have reliable backups. What are other people doing to address this issue.
Ideally I would like to find a solution that:
*creates an identical disk with two bootable partitions
*can be automated, or at best a few simple steps that can be done once and then walked away from
Thanks for the help
macbook Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Cannot get to dual-boot screen after Win 8.1 upgrade

Hello,
I have an iMac with Mavericks. Recently installed Win 8 to dual-boot. Instrux then were to hold OPT button during startup to be presented with options for OS with which to boot.
Since Win 8.1 upgrade there is no way to get to that prompt. MS/Win help topics not useful (unsurprisingly). I have the original install disk but would far prefer to save my current config of Mav. Thoughts for workaround?
Cheers,
Michael C

holding down option key at bootup not giving you the bootmenu have nothing to do with win8.1
even if one never installed anything in terms bootcamp at all then holding down the option key should give the option between osx and the restore to last clean osx version
if you don't get the option then I'd say the cause is not windows as the menu is handled by the bootloader which is before windows takes over

Unable to import Windows 7 boot images

When we installed our SCCM 2012 server, no boot images appear to have been created. I have since upgraded to R2, and added CU3, and there are still no boot images available. I would like to add boot images for Windows 7 x64 but so far have been
completely unsuccessful. I have tried creating images with MDT on the server, and they will not import. I have also created them with WAIK 3.0 with the WAIK 3.1 Supplement from a Windows 7 machine, and those will also not import. In every situation I
receive the following error: The specified UNS path does not contain a valid WIM file or you do not have permission to access it. Specify a valid path. This occurs if I try to import from a share on the sccm server, or from a share on
another computer. The permissions on the share are set at Everyone--full control share permission, and NTFS permissions are set to give the system account, the computer account and domain admins full control. The SMSProv.log file shows the
following error on each failed attempt: Failed to get the image property from the source WIM file due to error 80070002. I have read everything I can find and tried everything that people are mentioning that has fixed the problem for them, and so far
no success. I feel like I must be missing something, but I'm not sure where else to look. Any suggestions will be most appreciated!

Uninstalled and reinstalled ADK--no improvement.
Every time I try to import a boot image, the SMSProv log shows this:
~ $$<SMS Provider><01-21-2015 15:30:43.623+300><thread=7084 (0x1BAC)>
CExtUserContext::EnterThread : User=COP\reistg Sid=0x01050000000000051500000010DFF9978E4D14F2AFDA7FC15A0C0000 Caching IWbemContextPtr=000000385D804E50 in Process 0xd80 (3456)~ $$<SMS Provider><01-21-2015 15:30:43.623+300><thread=7084
(0x1BAC)>
Context: SMSAppName=Configuration Manager Administrator console~ $$<SMS Provider><01-21-2015 15:30:43.623+300><thread=7084 (0x1BAC)>
Context: MachineName=xxx.xxxx.xxx~ $$<SMS Provider><01-21-2015 15:30:43.624+300><thread=7084 (0x1BAC)>
Context: UserName=COP\reistg~ $$<SMS Provider><01-21-2015 15:30:43.624+300><thread=7084 (0x1BAC)>
Context: ObjectLockContext=1316ccc7-f4be-40c3-9b9e-c34dd1028080~ $$<SMS Provider><01-21-2015 15:30:43.624+300><thread=7084 (0x1BAC)>
Context: ApplicationName=Microsoft.ConfigurationManagement.exe~ $$<SMS Provider><01-21-2015 15:30:43.624+300><thread=7084 (0x1BAC)>
Context: ApplicationVersion=5.0.7804.1400~ $$<SMS Provider><01-21-2015 15:30:43.625+300><thread=7084 (0x1BAC)>
Context: LocaleID=MS\0x409~ $$<SMS Provider><01-21-2015 15:30:43.625+300><thread=7084 (0x1BAC)>
Context: __ProviderArchitecture=32 ~ $$<SMS Provider><01-21-2015 15:30:43.625+300><thread=7084 (0x1BAC)>
Context: __RequiredArchitecture=0 (Bool)~ $$<SMS Provider><01-21-2015 15:30:43.625+300><thread=7084 (0x1BAC)>
Context: __ClientPreferredLanguages=en-US,en~ $$<SMS Provider><01-21-2015 15:30:43.626+300><thread=7084 (0x1BAC)>
Context: __CorrelationId={2F91BBB1-35A9-0008-97BC-912FA935D001}~ $$<SMS Provider><01-21-2015 15:30:43.626+300><thread=7084 (0x1BAC)>
Context: __GroupOperationId=13101 ~ $$<SMS Provider><01-21-2015 15:30:43.626+300><thread=7084 (0x1BAC)>
CExtUserContext : Set ThreadLocaleID OK to: 1033~ $$<SMS Provider><01-21-2015 15:30:43.626+300><thread=7084 (0x1BAC)>
CSspClassManager::PreCallAction, dbname=CM_COP~ $$<SMS Provider><01-21-2015 15:30:43.626+300><thread=7084 (0x1BAC)>
PutInstanceAsync SMS_BootImagePackage~ $$<SMS Provider><01-21-2015 15:30:43.627+300><thread=7084 (0x1BAC)>
CExtProviderClassObject::DoPutInstanceInstance~ $$<SMS Provider><01-21-2015 15:30:43.627+300><thread=7084 (0x1BAC)>
GetStorage : doing Loggin due to aged out context~ $$<SMS Provider><01-21-2015 15:30:43.627+300><thread=7084 (0x1BAC)>
************ WBEM Missing property TransformAnalysisDate~ $$<SMS Provider><01-21-2015 15:30:43.645+300><thread=7084 (0x1BAC)>
************ WBEM Missing property TransformReadiness~ $$<SMS Provider><01-21-2015 15:30:43.645+300><thread=7084 (0x1BAC)>
~*~*~e:\qfe\nts\sms\siteserver\sdk_provider\smsprov\sspbootimagepackage.cpp(3634) : Failed to read image property from the source WIM file due to error 80070002~*~*~ $$<SMS Provider><01-21-2015 15:30:43.669+300><thread=7084 (0x1BAC)>
~*~*~Failed to read image property from the source WIM file due to error 80070002 ~*~*~ $$<SMS Provider><01-21-2015 15:30:43.669+300><thread=7084 (0x1BAC)>
Auditing: User COP\reistg called an audited method of an instance of class SMS_BootImagePackage.~ $$<SMS Provider><01-21-2015 15:30:43.669+300><thread=7084 (0x1BAC)>
CExtUserContext::LeaveThread : Releasing IWbemContextPtr=1568689744~ $$<SMS Provider><01-21-2015 15:30:43.678+300><thread=7084 (0x1BAC)>

Dual boot Win7 on external eSata drive with Precision M4700

Because virtualization doesn't support some HW devices I need, I would like to dual boot Win7 Pro/64 on an external (removable) HDD connected to the eSATA port of my Precision M4700.
eSata means optimal performances, but will the boot menu be happy with a removable disk, i.e. which will NOT be permanently connected (obviously I won't boot the OS on the removable disk if it is not connected) ?
And on the legal side, is it OK to use the OEM license of the OS that shipped with the system for this ?
As a side question, are the OS entries in a Win7 boot menu bound to a physical disk on a specific Sata port ? IOW, what happens if I move a HDD with a bootable partition/volume from the internal bay (port 0) to an external eSATA enclosure connected to the eSATA port (port 5) ? Is the eSATA port transparent to the Win7 boot loader ? Will the volumes and drive letters remain unchanged and appear seamlessly to the OS on it ?

Hi Benoitm,
Assuming the M4700 can boot from an external eSATA port, this should be possible. And it should be possible to install onto an HDD then put that drive in an external case and boot from it. Your preferences and drive letters should be retained. You might want to verify your system can boot to an external HDD first.
The Dell license only covers the version of the OS that came with the system. In theory, dual boot requires two licenses.

[SOLVED]Windows dual boot

Here's my fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x495d01ab
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 3060 24579418+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 3061 4365 10482412+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 4366 16832 100141177+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 16833 19457 21085312+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 16833 18137 10482381 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 18138 18790 5245191 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 18791 19312 4192933+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 19313 19326 112423+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda9 19327 19457 1052226 82 Linux swap / Solaris
and here's my menu.lst
# Config file for GRUB - The GNU GRand Unified Bootloader
# /boot/grub/menu.lst
# DEVICE NAME CONVERSIONS
# Linux Grub
# /dev/fd0 (fd0)
# /dev/hda (hd0)
# /dev/hdb2 (hd1,1)
# /dev/hda3 (hd0,2)
# FRAMEBUFFER RESOLUTION SETTINGS
# +-------------------------------------------------+
# | 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024
# ----+--------------------------------------------
# 256 | 0x301=769 0x303=771 0x305=773 0x307=775
# 32K | 0x310=784 0x313=787 0x316=790 0x319=793
# 64K | 0x311=785 0x314=788 0x317=791 0x31A=794
# 16M | 0x312=786 0x315=789 0x318=792 0x31B=795
# +-------------------------------------------------+
# general configuration:
timeout 5
default 0
color light-blue/black light-cyan/blue
# boot sections follow
# each is implicitly numbered from 0 in the order of appearance below
# TIP: If you want a 1024x768 framebuffer, add "vga=773" to your kernel line.
# (0) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux
root (hd0,7)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/e20fd940-03ae-48c4-a666-790e9be9e5d5 ro vga=792
initrd /kernel26.img
# (1) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux Fallback
root (hd0,7)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/e20fd940-03ae-48c4-a666-790e9be9e5d5 ro vga=792
initrd /kernel26-fallback.img
# (2) Windows Vista
title Windows Vista
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
Yet when I select Vista from the grub, all I get is an error saying that my windows boot manager needs to be fixed and I should put in my Windows CD etc....
I want the grub to be in the MBR...I just need to be able to access the Windows OS as well. Is there something wrong in my menu.lst file ?
Last edited by Inxsible (2009-02-13 07:33:36)

Funny, I have an HP Laptop that dual-boots Vista and Arch x86_64. I don't seem to recall having a problem. I installed Vista first (system restore disk <yech!>), then used gparted to resize the Vista partition, then did a standard Arch install.
# cat /boot/grub/menu.lst
default 0
timeout 30
color light-gray/black light-gray/blue
title Arch Linux
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/fbece3b5-a239-4f40-91b6-d82986108e2d ro
initrd /boot/kernel26.img
title Arch Linux Fallback
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/fbece3b5-a239-4f40-91b6-d82986108e2d ro
initrd /boot/kernel26-fallback.img
title Windows
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
makeactive
# fdisk -l /dev/sda
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x9c5a55bb
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 6374 51199123+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 18396 19457 8522752 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 6375 18395 96558682+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 6375 6501 1020096 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 6502 9051 20482843+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 9052 18395 75055648+ 83 Linux
Partition table entries are not in disk order
I'd be happy to send you any parts of my laptop configuration that might help.
Last edited by airman99 (2008-12-24 14:19:52)

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