(for background see
http://forum.voodooprojects.org/index.php/topic,649.15.html - I figure I've drifted far enough astray of the original topic)
So after procuring a general retail 10.6.3 dvd, I encountered no problems in loading OS X via the lifehacker guide --
http://lifehacker.com/5360150/install-snow-leopard-on-your-hackintosh-pc-no-hacking-required (My mobo is the same..). This was on my new clean 1TB HDD. At this point,
OS X booted and worked.
I then used Disk Utility to shrink the OS X partition to 500 GB, create a new 500 GB(-) FAT 32 partition in the freed space -
OS X still booted and worked.
I then Installed Win 7 Pro 32-bit on the FAT 32 partition (reformatting to NTFS in the process).
Windows booted fine. In fact, Windows was the only OS I could boot. I *think* I could still boot OS X from my flash drive I created as part of the lifehacker install process (included Chameleon & Extras for my mobo -- see link above for details).
I found a thread indicating that there is an installer for 'Chameleon 2 RC5_pre8' that was purported magically make dual boot work. I installed it to my USB flash drive - which was rendered useless for booting anything.
I could no longer boot OS X from this flash stick.
I tried installing 'Chameleon 2 RC5_pre8' to my HDD - this
rendered Windows unbootable. I now had a system that was once again
totally dead.I plugged my iPC drive back into the system -- using this, I created a new 'lifehacker usb install/boot stick'. After unplugging the iPC drive, I can again boot my SL Retail install at will.
Using my Windows install DVD, and <shift>-F10 to get to a command line, I played around with diskpart making various partitions active. However, I still do not have a dual boot system. In fact, without the USB stick as boot device, I cannot even boot OS X.
So with all this framing the situation:
Am I tilting at windmills, or is a dual boot system possible with GUID, OS X retail, Win 7, on a single HDD?
If this is possible, is Chameleon capable of booting either at will, or do I need yet another utility?
There seems to be some magic incantation regarding which partition is active upon the install of each item. However, I have yet to see a cogent explanation of what these restrictions are. Can anyone point me to an explanation of what the dependencies upon active flag actually are?