Partition/Triple boot help

Hi, well i'm trying to triple boot my mac with ubuntu and xp. I'm following this guide:
http://wiki.onmac.net/index.php/TripleBoot_via_BootCamp#Installing_the_OperatingSystems
I get to the partitioning part using disk utility, but I get the following error:
macbooks-computer:~ macbook$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
#: type name size identifier
0: GUIDpartitionscheme *55.9 GB disk0
1: EFI 200.0 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 55.0 GB disk0s2
macbooks-computer:~ macbook$ sudo diskutil resizeVolume disk0s2 28G "Linux" "Linux" 10G "MS-DOS FAT32" "Windows" 17G
Password:
Started resizing on disk disk0s2 Macintosh HD
Verifying
Resizing Volume
50% ..Restarting resize 50% ..Restarting resize 50% ..Restarting resize 50% ..Restarting resize
Resizing encountered error Too many links (31) on disk disk0s2 Macintosh HD
macbooks-computer:~ macbook$
Can anyone help please?

Should I delete the folder named home?
Usually there is no folder named "home". I guess you created it. If so, I guess you know whether you can remove it or not.
In Finder, type shift-cmd-H to open your "Home Folder", whose name is your login name. There you find most of your data. Do not touch the Library folder. After backing up the Home Folder to the external disk, you can remove the contents of the Documents folder but better not to remove the Documents folder itself. Movies, Pictures, Movies etc. can be removed. If you know you have many data files in other places then also backup then and erase them. Then try resizeVolume again.
If it doesn't work, then backup everything (if the capacity of the external drive allows), reformat the internal disk and re-install Tiger.
If you are not sure what you are going to do, I strongly reccomend to use Parallels or VMWare.
Sorry I must going to sleep now. I hope someone else can help you howto backup your data.

Similar Messages

Partitioning/triple boot help

Hi, well i'm trying to triple boot my mac with ubuntu and xp. I'm following this guide:
http://wiki.onmac.net/index.php/TripleBoot_via_BootCamp#Installing_the_OperatingSystems
I get to the partitioning part using disk utility, but I get the following error:
macbooks-computer:~ macbook$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
#: type name size identifier
0: GUIDpartitionscheme *55.9 GB disk0
1: EFI 200.0 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 55.0 GB disk0s2
macbooks-computer:~ macbook$ sudo diskutil resizeVolume disk0s2 28G "Linux" "Linux" 10G "MS-DOS FAT32" "Windows" 17G
Password:
Started resizing on disk disk0s2 Macintosh HD
Verifying
Resizing Volume
50% ..Restarting resize 50% ..Restarting resize 50% ..Restarting resize 50% ..Restarting resize
Resizing encountered error Too many links (31) on disk disk0s2 Macintosh HD
macbooks-computer:~ macbook$
Can anyone help please?

My brother triple boots his MacPro. Since I don't have mine yet I must admit I didn't pay a lot of attention when he was bragging about it, although I think there some bit of advanced tinkering involved. Also, his triple boot might be Mac, XP and Vista (whether it would make a big difference if one added Ubuntu instead of a second Windows system I just don't know). He is currently on a business trip to Thailand and then Australia, won't be back until the end of the month. Best bet is Michael's suggestion to try the UNIX forum.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

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!

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.

Error "Building boot caches on boot helper partition failed" when installing Yosemite

I Have a MacBook Pro 8,3 17" and have been running OSX Maverick 10.9.5 quite happily. I finally decided to bite the bullet and update to OSX 10.10.1. I went through the App Store and clicked install on the Yosemite offered there.
THe install took about 55 mins and then right at the end it reported: Building boot caches on boot helper partition failed, install failed.
now i can't boot normally or restore from my time machine backup.
can anybody suggest a fix?

Install OS X Using Internet Recovery
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Internet Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION- R keys until a globe appears on the screen. Wait patiently - 15-20 minutes - until the Recovery main menu appears.
Partition and Format the hard drive:
Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
After DU loads select your newly installed hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall OS X: Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Install button. Be sure to select the correct drive to use if you have more than one.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
This should restore the version of OS X originally pre-installed on the computer.

Erzeugen von Boot-Caches auf der Boot-Helper-Partition ist fehlgeschlagen.

Ich bekomme neuerdings - nach Installation einer Sonnet SSD Pro mit 2 SSD's folgende Fehlermeldung bei der Auswahl des Startlaufwerks:
Sie können dieses Volume nicht als Startvolume festlegen. Erzeugen von Boot-Caches auf der Boot-Helper-Partition ist fehlgeschlagen.
Starten funktioniert auch nur nach hochstarten mit gedrückter option-Taste und manueller Auswahl des Startlaufwerks ... Hilfe ...

Do you have both W7 and W8 on the iMac? If not, depending on your specific Mac model/year, the correct Bootcamp drivers can be downloaded and installed in W8/Bootcamp.
You can download the appropriate drivers by using Bootcamp Assistant and put them on a USB drive.

Triple Booting - OS X, Vista, XP + Data partition (4 partitions)

I successfully set up a triple boot environment yesterday for my new MBP. Pretty simple process. The first time I did this, I ended up with 3 bootable partitions and then a chunk of space that was unpartitioned. This isn't exactly what I wanted.
I am stumped on how to get my partitions to behave as intended.
I wanted 3 bootable OS partitions and one Data partition on a 160GB drive. The Data partition is intended to be an MS-DOS FAT32 partition for sharing information/programs between XP and Vista.
I started with a single Mac OS X partition and resized the volume as such:
sudo diskutil resizeVolume disk0s2 60G "MS-DOS FAT32" Data 40G "MS-DOS FAT32" Vista 24.35G "MS-DOS FAT32" XP 24.35G
The resize works as expected. However, upon rebooting in to XP for installation, the partitions are not identified as expected.
The Data partition is seen as C: 40G
The Vista partition is seen as D: 24.35G
The XP partition is not recognized and is seen as unpartitioned space 24.35G.
This view is also true when booting into the Mac Install Disc 1.
All partitions are listed as Mac OS X Extended. Any attempts to segment the drives into Mac OS X Extended and MBR (for FAT32) causes the Mac partition to convert to MBR as well.
Ideally, I would like to see the following:
Mac OS X 60G Mac OS X Ext. (Boot)
Data 40G FAT32 C:
Vista 24.35G FAT32 D: (Boot)
XP 24.35G FAT32 E: (Boot)
Can anyone point me in the right direction to get this setup working as desired?
MBP Santa Rosa Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Thanks xnav
i ended up following this guide to get XP Pro and Vista 32bit working (no linux).
http://www.fosk.it/quad-booting-a-macbook.html
so far it seems to work really well.
John

I have Mac mini and there is partition of boot camp but some miss understanding the osx 10.8.2 is deleted and while I m going to recovery mode the portition can not removing and the also cant repaired what I do I need urgent help ???? Please ?????

I have Mac mini and there is partition of boot camp but some miss understanding the osx 10.8.2 is deleted and while I m going to recovery mode the portition can not removing and the also cant repaired what I do I need urgent help ???? Please ?????

Do you have a Time Machine backup or clone? If not,
all is lost if you have in fact deleted your OSX partition
and you will have to do a reinstall from Recovery HD
and install all else.

I was partitioning my HD to allocate free space to give to my windows partition in Boot Camp. Now I cant access my windows partition at all. Please help.

I was partitioning my HD to allocate free space to give to my windows partition in Boot Camp. Now I cant access my windows partition at all. Please help

TTBOMK the only way you can increase the Windows partition is to repartition the drive back to a single partition
Then reinstall Mountain Lion
Restore all data from backup
Create new larger partition with Boot Camp
Install Windows
Restore data from backup
Allan

Triple boot is working - question about RefInd

Question at bottom...some history first...some of this may save you some trouble if you are attempting a triple boot setup:
I bought a new Mac Mini yesterday to be used as a machine to test software I develop that needs to run on Windows, Mac, and Linux so I needed to setup a triple boot. I thought it would be much easier than it turned out. I spent so many hours pouring over posts and tutorials and none of them worked. I ended up piecing together advice from several posts to get it working. I first was installing RefInd and then trying to repartition the hard drive. That was the first roadblock because the instructions said to just drag the partition smaller and that wasn't an option because all you can do is split the partition and I don't believe it allowed changing the format type. Several posts had scary long instructions that sounded like it would destroy the hard drive. I finally found a post with a one line command that allowed me to revert the core storage and turn it back into a normal partition and then I was able to continue with the original instructions. I create the extra Windows, Linux, and Linux Swap partitions but the next roadblock was when I tried to boot to the Win7 CD in a SuperDrive it would launch windows setup but the keyboard and mouse wouldn't work. So I tried creating an ISO image from the CD and using BootCamp assistant and created a bootable USB drive with the driver support. It just would not recognize the USB drive as a bootable device. So I had to blow away all the extra partitions before it would allow me to use bootcamp to create a windows partition. It took me 3 tries because I kept trying to shrink the Mac partition first to leave space for Linux but the bootcamp assistant will automatically add that free space back onto the Windows partition when it divides things up even though the numbers on the partition screen look like what you want it's not what you get if you tried to leave free space. So I decided I would let it do it the way it wanted and then hope I could reduce the Mac partition after I got dual booting to Windows working. So that all worked according to plan and in fact the exact same USB drive worked when letting the assistant do the reboot so not sure what they got going on there. Got Windows configured and now RefInd was showing Mac and Windows at startup. Then I booted back into Mac reduced the Mac Partition and added the Linux and Linux Swap partitions back in. I erased the USB drive and created a bootable image using Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. That installation was tricky but got it done following some instructions I found that were close to what I ran into.
So now the triple boot setup appears to be working and my only confusion is what I'm seeing on the RefInd Boot screen. After installing Ubuntu I now have 3 additional icons. One is a round orange circle with a white circle inside that I believe is the Ubuntu Grub loader. Then I have two Penquin icons which I believe are showing two different kernel versions. I was expecting only one icon to show up when I installed Linux so I'm confused about why there are 3 icons and which one I should be using to boot into Linux. Any RefInd experts out there that can advise?
Thanks,
Gil

Hi
I didnt hear or read that a notebook would be repaired for free if the warranty is not valid this is new to me.
Anyway, the Toshiba authorized service provider in your country could help you in such case.
I mean your notebook does not boot up but its not known whats wrong exactly
You said that a GPU is dead are you 100% sure or its a guess?? I think its a guess.
In my opinion its not easy or not possible to say whats exactly wrong without putting the hands on the unit. You know what I mean
So call an local ASP and ask for the further handling regards

Triple boot with XP and 7

I know that this isn't technically Boot Camp, since I'll be using rEFIt for my boot loader, but I'm hoping somebody in here can help me.
I carved out 3 partitions using diskutil and formatted 2 of them FAT so I could load windows on them. I got rEFIt installed and it is working fine. I installed XP on the last partition (because I read that Windows needed to be on the last one and was hoping 7 was smarter) and verified that it was bootable. REFIt was working fine on it. I installed 7 on the middle partition, but when I choose to boot to that partition from rEFIt it says it can't find NTLDR. The interesting part is that if I pick the last partition for XP, the boot NTLDR shows up and I can select with Windows 7 or the previous version of windows.
What I want to do is get the boot loader for 7 fixed to point to the right partition for NTLDR so that I can use rEFIt to choose my OS. I know that I could just boot to the XP loader and then choose 7, but it isn't a pretty.
Thanks for any input or advice.

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

Triple Boot on 2012 MacBook Pro

Hey guys,
I'm trying to get a triple boot installation going on my macbook. I'm kinda stuck now so I had to reach out here for help.
Currently my macbook has 5 partitions.
sda1 = mac boot
sda2 = mac os
sda3 = mac recover
sda4 = partition I created with mac os disc utility for ArchLinux
sda5 = windows partition that was working created with bootcamp
I read over the wiki:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/MacBook
I created sda4, and originally I tried to create three more partitions out of sda4 using cgdisk. The extra partitions I created would never show up so I couldn't mount them... finally I just decided to mount and install /dev/sda4 without a boot or swap partition. I went through the installation as normal.
I also installed refit.
At this point I think i have arch successfully installed on sda4, I just can't boot to it. Refit doesn't recognize the linux partition, it sees the windows, but windows won't boot either, I can only boot to my mac osx parition.
What should I do at this point? what logs and command outputs do you guys need to help me get this working.
Last edited by brarch (2013-02-17 20:11:55)

HalosGhost wrote:Also, I'm not positive of this, but I think Macs can only boot to hfs(+) partitions, even with refit/find. I'm not positive of that, but I'm fairly sure that's the case.
No, you're mistaken on that. HFS+ does have some advantages (you can get boot loaders on HFS+ to show up in Apple's boot manager, for instance), but it's not a requirement.
The Windows boot problem is most likely a result of the fact that Windows requires a hybrid MBR entry, but chances are that entry has been lost and not re-created. Given the partition layout, you'll need to use gdisk to re-create this entry. See the gdisk documentation (to which I just linked) for details.
For Linux, a boot loader is required, and it's not at all clear what boot loader is installed, if any. It's possible to boot Linux on Macs in either BIOS mode or EFI mode. IMHO, EFI mode is superior if it's possible, but it poses problems on some models, so you may need to use BIOS mode. The details of how to get it working depend on which mode you use, and there are multiple boot loader options for each mode. It looks like the wiki covers both modes, with an emphasis on rEFIt and GRUB, but I've not read the whole thing. IMHO, rEFInd is superior to rEFIt, but I'm biased (I'm the one who forked rEFInd from rEFIt). If you install rEFInd and a filesystem driver for whatever filesystem you used for your Arch partition, you should be able to boot Arch directly from rEFInd. You'll need to adjust the boot parameters manually the first time you boot, though, and create a refind_linux.conf file to bypass that need on future boots.

Triple Boot Macbook

Hi,
Is there any way of triple booting my MBP? I already have 2 mac partitions (main Lion partition for general use and a smaller Snow Leopard partition for my music software). I am wanting to use Boot Camp to install Windows 7 and it just told me that i couldn't because it needs to be installed on a disk that is a single partition.
If i were to backup my SL partition with CCC and then erase it, then install Windows 7, could i then split my Lion partition and restore the SL partition that i previously had?
Thanks
mrmeister

I finally tried this today and i'm happy to report that i'm now posting this from my Windows 7 partition (although Iwon't really be using it for internet at all, just a few minor games), i can still use everything on Lion for day to day usage, and i was using Logic with all my plug-ins before.
Everything is working as it should be.
Just to go over what i did:
- I had my full drive as 2 partitions; Lion and Snow Leopard
- I used Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) to make a complete backup of SL
- I then deleted the SL partition on my internal drive
- I installed Windows 7 using Boot Camp (I couldn't get it to download the Boot Camp 4 drivers however, the progress bar kept freezing at the same point, so i used my SL install DVD to install the Boot Camp 3 drivers, then used Apple Software Update to upgrade to version 3.3)
- Finally, I booted back into Lion, split the Lion partition using Disk Utility (one for Lion, one for SL), opened CCC and selected the SL backup as the source, and the new partition as the destination and chose the menu option "Restore items from a backup" to copy my SL partition exactly as it was
Now when I hold alt (option) at startup, I get a choice of 3 partitions to boot into; Lion, SL and Windows.
I hope this helps people trying to do the same as me
mrmeister

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.

Is this the best way to Triple Boot?

Hi all, I have a had a pickle of a time setting up Leopard...with my triple boot setup.
I am curious if I went about it "properly"or if there is a better way.
Use instructions at your own peril if you wish. I am not responsible for errors or any problems you may have by using my instructions. This is my individual experience. *I am happy if this works for someone* struggling to set up a triple boot, but am posting this more so to see if there are any improvements to be made, or mistakes that need correcting to this method...
I had an Intel MBP (SR) with 3 partitions. Tiger, Vista and Ubuntu but when trying to install Leopard it said it would not install and I would have to change my drive to guid partition scheme.
So, through trial and error this is the only way I could get it to work.Keep in mind I started from scratch with vista and ubuntu, but did make a backup of my tiger drive.
1. BACK UP
2. Wipe everything and repartition internal disk to guid partition map and 1 partition. Install Leopard.
3. Use either disk utility or carbon copy cloner(my purchased copy of SuperDuper is still not able to do what CCC, a free program can do,apparently because they are trying to figure out time machine and are holding up a leopard compat. version, uuughh, but thats a different post...) to clone Leopard to external drive that is set up as GUID partition scheme.Make sure you are able to boot this external.
4. Wipe internal, repartition to 3 partitions using disk utility and MBR partition scheme in this order from top to bottom(in disk utility partition gui);
  a. Leopard partition: OSX extended journaled
  b. Vista partition: I think there is only one option: maybe Fat? Just make sure you select "windows" format (The vista installer will need to reformat this during install anyway)
  c. Ubuntu partition: "Free Space"
5. Then to install leopard, (which apparently won't install on a drive set up as MBR partition scheme, but that is what we formatted the internal drive as anyway) clone the external copy of leopard to the internal OSX partition we just made.
6. Then install vista by booting from install cd. During install you may have to reformat the Windows partition using the windows installer, but it should install fine after that.
7. Then Install ubuntu using live cd/dvd to the internal free space partition, splitting/ formatting the last partition using the ubuntu install/partition tool on the "manual"partition mode(make sure you are using the correct free space partition. I confirmed this by looking at the sizes of the partitions that showed up): "free space" into root and swap partitions if you want. I used ext2 for root
     *Side note:*If you have the same MBP as me you may have to change some setting when booting the live cd: Once the cd loads and you get to the preliminary menu window, press F6 to edit. A command will show up on the screen: You have to erase the last two words starting at "quiet" till end. Then write "allgenericide" in their space, keeping all of the command before quiet.  then press enter. It should then load to the ubuntu desktop where you can click on the install icon.(this took me a long time to figure out. I have also have to do this everytime I want boot into ubuntu, which stinks. Anyone know how to resolve this? (Linux masters?)
8. boot into osx and install rEFIt
Issues:
1. My Leopard partition is not showing up in OSX's startup disk pane in sys pref. but it is booting/ showing up as if it was, if having trouble, try holding option key during startup.
2. I have also had a few issues with rEFIt not starting up as default menu, but when holding option key at startup it will show up. Then gives me the option of OSX, Vista or Ubuntu once selected.
3. And the command thing with ubuntu at every startup I mentioned earlier.Is there a way to write allgenericide as a default or any other way to fix this?
If anyone has a better way of accomplishing this please let me know. I got to this point through a lot of trial and error and I'm not sure if there is a more stable/better way for a triple boot setup...
I would like for the Leopard partition to show up as the osx startup disk in the pref pane, but regardless it is still working.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems boot camp makes the drive into an MBR partition scheme anyway, so I'm curious what others who were already running dual or triple boot, boot camp systems had to do when upgrading their boot camp setups from tiger to leopard. Did it not allow you to install to the MBR partition scheme made by boot camp? Did you have to start from scratch as well?
Thank you in advance for your patience and support.

http://wiki.onmac.net/index.php/TripleBoot_viaBootCampI would install Vista before installing Leopard.
That has worked better for me anyway.
And that may make Leopard the default.
In Vista, AppleControl is under /Windows/SysWOW64 if you ever need to get to it (there is also AppleOSSMgr and AppleTimeSrvc )
http://wiki.onmac.net/index.php/TripleBoot_viaBootCamp

Partition/Triple boot help

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