The official how to dual boot vista and osx thread

[jus10]

Things you need

-Desktop/Laptop running Windows Vista. (May run with XP..but not tested.)
-iATKOS v1.0 DVD image available from any popular torrent site or google it.(Approx size 2.16 GB)
-Windows Vista boot DVD
-Optical DVD drive

Before you start…..

-InstallWindows OS on your C drive. (primary partition 1)
-Create an empty primary partition to use for OS X (Say Partition 2)

Steps : (Follow these steps exactly..in the same order..)

-Right click on My Computer and Click on Manage. Select Disk Management. -Now Create a new Volume for OSX by shrinking an existing volume. You need atleast 5GB of space and the new volume should show up as Unallocated.
-Make sure that the partition shows up as Unallocated, else repeat the previous step.
-Now restart the machine and boot into the Leopard DVD that you burned using the iATKOS v1.0 DVD Image.
-Press F8 as the countdown begins and type -v at the prompt and hit enter.
-You should see scrolling text on the screen now. If it stops anywhere then drop a comment and I’ll try to help you out.
-After a while you should be looking at the Leopard Installer. Follow the instructions on Screen.
-Once the Loading Bar vanishes Select Utilities -> Disk Utility .
-Select the Volume you created previously and format it as MAC OSX Journaled Extended. Once the formatting is done the volume is ready for installation.
-Now Close Disk Utility and Select Utilities -> Darwin Boot. Type Y at the prompt.
-At the prompt when it asks for the Disk Number enter 0. For the Partition Number if your Leopard Partition is 2nd on the disk, then enter 2 and so on.
-Accept the following prompts and you should see a success prompt saying that so many block of data were written successfully.
-Now get back to the Leopard Install Screen. Choose the partition that you made in the beginning and follow the instructions on screen.
-Please don’t select any patches etc during the installation, this is normally the reason for most failed installations. Just the plain install would do.

-Once the Install is done, reboot with the DVD in the drive. Press F8 at Darwin Boot Loader and type -s and press enter.
-Execute the following commands :
fdisk -e /dev/rdisk0
flag 1
quit
reboot

Now before the PC restarts remove the DVD. At this point you should be able to boot into Vista normally.
Note: If you are unable to log into windows, because there is an error which says “winload.exe” corrupted.! Relax. Just insert the Windows VISTA boot DVD into the drive and restart. Click on “Repair computer” once you are inside the DVD and it will automatically detect if a problem exists and suggest “Repair and Restart”. Press the same, and remove the DVD once the PC is about to restart. You should now be able to log in to vista without any problem.

Now that we have almost everything running fine, lets proceed with the dual boot setup.
Boot into Vista. Copy the chain0 file from the Leopard DVD to C:
Open the “Command prompt” with “Elevated Admin” privileges from the Start Menu.
Type the following into the prompt
bcdedit /copy {current} /d “Mac OS X”
bcdedit /enum active
bcdedit /set {GUID} PATH \chain0

In the first command type {current} as it is, literally..nothing else..just {current} with the brackets. In the 3rd command however, replace the {GUID} with the alphanumeric GUID you see in the enumerated list under MAC OS X. You can see this list on your terminal as soon as you type the 2nd command above.

Close the Command Prompt and Restart Vista.
You Should now be looking at a screen with two options to boot into Mac OSX or Vista.
Select Mac OSX to see if you can boot into it. You should see the familiar Darwin boot Loading screen with the timer going down. If you dont do anything, then it counts to zero and again shows the menu screen with Vista and MAC OSX options. Dont panic!
Again select MAC OS X, and now as the timer counts down, Press F8. You would see a list of partitions on your disk with their names. Select the partition with MAC OSX installed by using up/down arrows and press ENTER.

There ya go! Your Mac should be booting up as you read this..
See it was that simple. No more HFS+ and Blinking Cursor errors. Just follow this guide step by step and you should be able to dual boot Windows Vista and Leopard in no time. If you have any questions just drop in a comment, I’ll reply at the earliest.

For Drivers and Patches I suggest you look at the InsanelyMac Forums.

[Nathan]

Looks good brah.

[jus10]

Originally Posted by Nathan

Looks good brah.

Thanks man

[Ak4]

Just a quick question before I do this finally. If I install with the latest iAtkos image will I be able to upgrade to Snow Leopard? I believe the current iAtkos is just Leopard or whatever.

[TravisH997]

I'm bout to start this shit but with the latest iAtkos, hopefully it works

[jus10]

Originally Posted by Ak4

Just a quick question before I do this finally. If I install with the latest iAtkos image will I be able to upgrade to Snow Leopard? I believe the current iAtkos is just Leopard or whatever.

If you get version 10.5.7 or above then you can use the built in software update in order to upgrade.

[Psygonyx]

Do these instructions apply to the Win7 RTM & iATKOS v7 as well?

[jus10]

Originally Posted by Psygonyx

Do these instructions apply to the Win7 RTM & iATKOS v7 as well?

Yea it should work out just fine

[howtogrowbud]

here is a tutorial on how to dual boot windows 7 and linux if anyone is interested
Win 7 & Linux | How To Grow Bud