Triple Booting OX + OSX + Windows XP

I read the Boot Camp manual on page 9 and apparently I misread it thinking it was possible to partition your Mac drive into three partitions and then install Windows on one of them. Apparently it referred to internal disks, not internal partitions which I got mixed up.
Anyway I have already partitioned my hard drive into three partitions with OSX installed on the first two.
The last partition is Mac OS Extended, but nothing is on it.
Can I still install Windows on it even though Boot Camp says I can not?
Is it possible to backup Partition 2 (OSX) to a disk image, then merge the partitions to one drive, then install Boot Camp, and then split the OSX partition back to two partitions?
If Disk Utility would not do the trick, what program might allow me to do that?
Thanks for any help.

Apparently Disk Utility was able all by itself to resize the first partition and then add a second partition between OSX and Windows, after I installed Windows XP.
I just resized the first partition, added a new one called Mac 2, and clicked on apply and it was as simple as that!
It's on days like this when Apple's software "simply works" that I am elated to own a Macbook.
My next computer will be a Mac Mini to replace my 4-year-old Dell Dimension.
Way to go Apple.

Similar Messages

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

Macbook Pro - 2 Hard Drives - Dual Boot OS OSX + Windows

Hello guys, I've been facing an issue here
I bought an SSD 2 years ago and changed the original MBP HD. I did a fresh install of OSX while still having my optical drive. Everything is fine with the OSX installation.
Recently I bought an enclosure and installed the original MBP HD drive into the optical drive slot. Now i have two HD's on my MBP (Early 2011 - Unibody Model)
The configuration for the Hard Drives is as follows:
SSD Drive - disk 0 - OS X Running fine
HD Drive - disk 1 - clean formatted to accommodate Windows 7 installation
I started the BootCamp Utility formated the second hard drive to install windows from bootable USB. Everything works fine until the point where the Windows installation actually expands the files. I always get the same error, that windows cannot be installed on that drive and any changes will be reverted back to original settings.
Several hours after researching the whole thing this is what I've got:
The error that I am getting is for the configuration of the drives, a fix to this problem is to take out my SSD, install the old HD in its original position, install windows normally, put my SSD back in its position and put the old HD in the optical drive and thus I will have the Dual Boot of two OS in two different HD's. That's really really awful as I have to take appart again the whole thing and swap between the drives till the process is finished. This is because The EFI boot + Windows to be installed require the disk that windows to be installed to be on main slot - disk 0.
My question here is, is there any fix to the BootCamp assistant to let me install windows on the hard drive that it is located on the disk 1 position?
Moreover is there any way to install windows through the environment of OSX with the use of a VM, but, the windows to be a bootable OS rather than a VM bootable image? (on disk 1 - optical drive SATA port). - What I mean by that is, while running OS X normally on disk 0 run a VM software that will mimic the environment of a bootloader so that I can install windows on disk 1, but after I shut down my computer, windows should be accessible on disk 1 as a normal installed OS.
Sorry for the long post and thank you very much for your time, any suggestions would be really helpful.

You can install Parallels or Fusion, either will work. When you setup either Parallels or fusion you can tell it to use your already installed Boot Camp installation of Windows as its target guest operating system.
You would then just boot into OSx, start your VM (Parallels or Fusion), then you'll have access to both OSx and Windows without having to reboot.
I have this setup and two monitors. I have my Windows running on my external monitor and OSx running on my Macbook Pro monitor at the same time.
Beware that you will need to re-register Windows to get a second key. This is free and easily done either online or by calling the Microsoft registration number. The reason for needing a second key is that Windows, although only installed once in your Boot Camp partition sees the virtual hardware created by your virtual machine and thinks it has been reinstalled on a new computer.

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

Triple Boot (OS X, Windows, Ubuntu[Linux])

Hi Apple users! I could use some help over here. Well, I want to install Ubuntu on my MacBook Pro but I want full power boot like how Windows run on Boot Camp. I have installed Windows 8.1 Pro using Boot Camp. I have 2 partition right now. Research I've done not I expected. I require/ need full power boot on Ubuntu. I don't want to use Parallel Desktop, VMware Fusion, VirtualBox and others apps that don't give enough satisfactory. If you require my specs, here you go!
OS X Version: OS X Mavericks 10.9.4
Processor: 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory: 8GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Graphics Cards: NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024MB and Intel HD 4000
Storage: 2 partition (OS X & Windows[Boot Camp])
Require full specs then my MacBook is MacBook Pro 15-inch Retina Display Mid 2012 & Early 2013)
Message was edited by: MasterStealth90

Can't be done if you are using Boot Camp. Boot Camp will not work with multiple partions on the drive. Read the Boot Camp instructions.

How can I make triple partition for OSX, Windows 8, and for saving Data

I read many articles on googles yet I still can't figure out how to.
The point that I get is when you're installing Windows using bootcamp, before it actually try to install windows, i have to go back to OSX, choose disk utility and create the 3rd partition.
But after I continue the installation, the windows boot camp partition can't be formatted and worse I can't use the drive to install windows 8.
Other I read about deleting the recovery partition in order to make it works?
I don't know .... I tried and I failed many times *sigh*

1. Boot Camp doesn't support Windows 8, so wait until Apple releases new Boot Camp drivers.
2. Boot Camp requires only one volume on the hard drive, so you can't create a volume to store data

[SOLVED] Triple Boot Arch Linux, Windows 7 + Windows 8 on second disk

Hi,
I have installed Arch Linux and Windows 7 on my primary disk. Everything's perfect. I want to install Windows 8 on my second disk. My only problem is how do I make grub2 recognize Windows 8 on the second disk and add it to the grub file, so i can boot Arch, Windows 7 and Windows 8.
Thank you for your time,
Deadvi
Last edited by Deadvi (2012-08-29 21:24:00)

It overwrote the MBR from the first disk, even though you installed Windows 8 on the second disk? That's odd... Make sure that the boot order in the BIOS is right (that the drive with Arch Linux is the first to boot) and from a 2012 Arch Linux install media run:
# mount /dev/sdxY /mnt #Your root partition.
# mount /dev/sdxZ /mnt/boot #Your boot partition (if you have one).
# arch-chroot /mnt
And continue with the instructions from here. If you don't have a 2012 Arch Linux install media (or you only have some other "live" Linux distribution), use the old chroot way.

Triple Booting MacBook. OSX-XP-Vista

Im attempting to Boot Mac OSX Windows XP and Windows Vista.
Using the boot camp editor.
40 GiG Mac
Via Boot camp only allows 2 partitions
108 Windows
Used Vista to Splite the 108
60 gig 1 partition Vista
48 Gig 2 partition XP
Ive installed XP first - Completed and was bootable.
After I installed Vista. Xp no longer Locates it self on the same partition.
Good Job Vista.
Installed Vista first - Completed and Bootable.
XP after Same problem Locates it self on different partition. After Editing its boot.ini to the right partition . Xp logo begins, and then black screen. Restart Mac book.
Anyone attempt this or have any suggestions- Main objective is to have 3 os on the Mac Book.

Boot Camp Splits 2 partitions.
Mac is 1 the other partition is Windows.
From windows I Split the 108 into 2 partitions.
its at this point where XP fails Regardless.
If I Installed Xp first it would completed Successfully Reboot no problems
Once Vista is installed. Then Xp no longer works vista takes over the partition XP was on Unknown Why. So I edit the boot ini to poit to the Correct partition From the Vista boot loader I tell it to load the XP partition See the Xp loading screen and then Blue Screen Stating unable to mount.
Mac will always think there are only two partitions.
Windows Notices 4 partitions.
200mgs primary
40gig Mac Unknown
60 Vista primary
48 Xp primary

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!

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.

When I boot up my iMac and hold down ALT it boots straight into windows 7 without giving me the option to boot OSX back up. Have I lost OSX and all my files completely? Please help

I set up boot camp for my iMac with windows 7. All was fine and it gave me the option to boot into windows.. I then used windows for a few hours and shut down the mac to boot back onto OSX when I was done.. This time my mac booted straight to windows 7 even with me holding down the ALT key it gave me no choice.
I'm assuming the boot camp set up was wrong somewhere but is there a way to get back on to OSX now?? Please help

1. Have you tried both Alt keys - maybe your Alt key is dead.
2. Do you have wireless keyboard? Have you tried to change batteries? USB Keyboard?
3. If your Win is installed correctly then you have also installed all windows support software.
There should be Startup manager like on the Mac (next to the clock little bootcamp app or in control pannel) to restart your Mac into the Mac partition.

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?

Missing small OSX window that shows progress of loading OSX when booting

I recently reinstalled Leopard using Erase & Install...
Now when I boot into Leopard...the grey windows appear with the chasing arrows..
the screens turn the Apple blue...this is when the small white OSX window should appear..the one using a progress bar to indicate what services are loading..
I see no progress window now...my machine doesn't hang...and it does launch the desktop.
I seem to remember my first installation of Leopard having this window appear before my desktop shows....as in Tiger.
Has anyone experienced this phenomenon?
I would like to have the machine operating 100%...so any solutions or suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks Chuck

etresoft wrote:
Charles Cohen wrote:
Has anyone experienced this phenomenon?
Yes. I, too, have noticed the lack of this window. That is not necessarily a bad thing. Not having the window doesn't mean anything is broken. Leopard boots and runs very fast. Much faster than Tiger.
This could be related to Apple's transition from SystemStarter to launchd. The idea is that instead of launching a bunch of system services at startup, in case anyone needs them, launchd will start the requested services only as they are needed, thus saving startup time and memory.
I believe you are correct. Leopard boots very fast. That other screen was a kind of "um" screen while things happened in the background.
Likewise, Leopard shuts down almost instantly, from desktop to off.
I suspect that those other screens are there and will occasionally show up when the OS does a forced journal on boot or some new SW is installed that requires a reboot.
It's a good thing.

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.

Triple Booting OX + OSX + Windows XP

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