Dual Boot Active Partition

[gdg444]

Hi Guys, Really new to all this.

I have Windows 7 64bit on C: drive partition0
I have OS X 10.6.3 installed using iATKOS S3 version 2, Chameleon 2 RC4 as boot loader, updated to 10.6.4 on partition1 C: drive

Installed both on same drive because C: drive is a faster drive 10,000RPM

All is working well as far as I can tell.

Now, as far as I know, there can only be one Active partition per drive and currently OS X is Active.

What this does is make Windows backup fail being it's not the active partition, so when I need to make a backup in Windows, I have to make the partition Active using command prompt, make the backup, reboot, then make OS X active to boot back using Chameleon 2.

It's not that big of a deal, just wanted to know if there is a better way?

Also, would I be able to restore Windows from a backup image file if Windows partition is not the active partition, possibly using a command prompt to make it Active with the repair disk?

[kyndder]

Boot with your Win7 DVD, at the menu choose repair your computer,


select Command Prompt and run the following commands..




bootrec /fixboot

bootrec /fixmbr




Close command Prompt and restart, in windows download this file and extract

to your c:/,




http://www.mediafire.com/?md0wj0mm189




Download this program, run it and add a entry for your OSX install (this is pretty easy do do)

and restart.




http://neosmart.net/downloads/software/Eas...BCD%201.7.2.exe




If everything works you should now see the menu of OSs to select

what you want to start.

[gdg444]

Thanks, Worked great.

What is the purpose of the Chain 0 file? Placed it at the root of C: rebooted a few times with and without chain 0 did not see any difference.

What I did was not use the repair disk but just made Windows Partition Active, thus making Windows bootloader work. Added a entry for OS X with easyBCD, now I have the choice of OS with Windows bootloader.

If I choose OS X it loads Chameleon 2 to boot into OS X with Windows now being the Active partition making backups work without the work around I was having to do. Time Machine also works great in OS X.

So I guess this is the correct way....right?

[Blackosx]

Hello again gdg444

You can successfully use Chameleon to boot your OS X install and Windows 7 install while still leaving Windows the active partition.
You will need to use the a variation of the boot0 file, named boot0hfs and install it with a modified version of fdisk, named fdisk440.

Have a read of
http://forum.voodooprojects.org/index.php/topic,1430.0.html
which also makes references to
http://forum.voodooprojects.org/index.php/topic,1141.0.html

[gdg444]

Blackosx, I read those threads and found myself saying "What" out loud several times. This may be beyond my current skill set, being I only had a Hack for about two weeks now. (I'm learning)

I'm willing to try this, I have searched this forum and others but no one says "How To" get this done.

I did not see any link to the files or exactly what I was suppose to do with them if I did get them. Someone said the file you posted had since been updated, but no link as far as I could tell.

Right now My set up,

System starts, goes to windows bootloader pick OS, if I choose windows boots normal, (Windows Active) If I choose OS X Chameleon loads and boots into OS X (not Active) as far as I can tell.

This is really fine this way, now I can use Windows backup and restore that was not working when windows was not active.

I would love to be able to bypass windows boot loader, and get back to the way it was with Chameleon but with windows Active, just do not know how.

[Blackosx]

Hi gdg444

Okay, I understand..  and yes, it can be a bit overwhelming when first trying to get your head around this stuff. Maybe for now at least, leave your system as it is and come back to this in time.

Regards

[gdg444]

Hi Blackosx,

In all my searching yesterday I did find your "How To" guide on a complete install very well written, easy to understand, maybe not as easy for me at this stage to implement.

Part 9 was what we are talking about here, it was very informative, took some of the mystery away.

Still, your right, may have to come back to this later, would be nice.

[Blackosx]

Great. I'm happy you found it useful. That complete guide on InsanelyMac is not really suited for this forum though there are parts that can be followed to give an overview of a dual boot concept.

[gdg444]

Hey Blackosx,

Well, I have a hard time giving up when I was so close to what I was looking to accomplish. 

After reading your material a couple of times, I was pretty much under the conclusion that I was going to have to start from scratch. reformat, create new partition just for Chameleon etc.

Then I found Dr. Hurts Chameleon 2 RC5 pre8 installer with all the code already included. I had both OS X and Windows DVDs ready to go, for a complete re-install just in case, but it worked wonderfully, does exactly what I needed. Just booted into OS X ran the installer.

Could not have been any easier.

Not sure what pre version Chameleon is up to now but since he used pre8 for the installer, I'm hoping he will update when he has the time or it be include in RC5 final version.

Now all is well with the world.......

[Blackosx]

Well that's wonderful. Well done
Yes, Dr Hurt's pre8 installer was a test to trial a revised boot0 as spoken about in the threads I posted for you earlier. It was Windows friendly and as you have discovered worked great. The file it uses is now known as boot0hfs in RC5 and can be installed using fdisk440, also part of RC5, instead of the dd method that's in Dr Hurt's script.

The latest pre-release of Chameleon RC5 is no longer using a 'pre' status in the build number, but is up to build r173.