How do you select which Partition/OS to boot?

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The goal for me is to have Mac OS, Ubuntu, and Windows 7 bootable on my MBP. Ideally i'd like to have it where it boots up Mac OS by default, unless I hit "option" at boot then it will let me pick between Mac OS, Ubuntu, and Win7. I think this is possible but since i'm new to mac i'm not sure.

Where i'm at now is I used bootloader to repartition my hard drive, I then made the windows partition and installed that. Once Win7 was setup I used "Wubi" to install Ubuntu. I couldn't get Ubuntu to load with that method. So I put in the Ubuntu CD and resized my Windows Partition and then installed Ubuntu on the freshly created space borrowed from the windows partition. Now unfortunately when I turn my MBP on and hit option the only selection I get is for Mac OS.

Can anyone offer some assistance on this?

Thanks
 
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The goal for me is to have Mac OS, Ubuntu, and Windows 7 bootable on my MBP. Ideally i'd like to have it where it boots up Mac OS by default, unless I hit "option" at boot then it will let me pick between Mac OS, Ubuntu, and Win7. I think this is possible but since i'm new to mac i'm not sure.

Where i'm at now is I used bootloader to repartition my hard drive, I then made the windows partition and installed that. Once Win7 was setup I used "Wubi" to install Ubuntu. I couldn't get Ubuntu to load with that method. So I put in the Ubuntu CD and resized my Windows Partition and then installed Ubuntu on the freshly created space borrowed from the windows partition. Now unfortunately when I turn my MBP on and hit option the only selection I get is for Mac OS.

Can anyone offer some assistance on this?

Thanks

What is sounds like to me is that when Wubi failed, and you resized your hard drive partitions it messed with your current win7 partition. If you boot into OSX and click your hard drive does it show three distinct partitions OR only the size allocated to your OSX partition.
 
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What is sounds like to me is that when Wubi failed, and you resized your hard drive partitions it messed with your current win7 partition. If you boot into OSX and click your hard drive does it show three distinct partitions OR only the size allocated to your OSX partition.

I boot into OSX, select documents in the bottom right and open that. Then in the top left under devices it says Mac OS X, iDisk, Untitled. Upon clicking "Untitled" i see my windows drive. In there I also see a folder that says ubuntu. However, I think that ubuntu folder is there because of the wubi install, not when I attempted to fully install Ubuntu with the disc.
 
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I boot into OSX, select documents in the bottom right and open that. Then in the top left under devices it says Mac OS X, iDisk, Untitled. Upon clicking "Untitled" i see my windows drive. In there I also see a folder that says ubuntu. However, I think that ubuntu folder is there because of the wubi install, not when I attempted to fully install Ubuntu with the disc.

In my opinion Wubi is terrible and very problematic. To completely alleviate you of your problem i would suggest writing 0s to your non-OS X partitions, and deleteing your non OS X partitions. Then repartitioning and attempt again to install Ubuntu (not ugly wubi) & Win7. And if you have no crucial data and/or its backed up just reinstall OS X to ensure everything is clean. Although this takes time i've found it to be the best way to fix failure of installation related issues.

Ekim
 
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In my opinion Wubi is terrible and very problematic. To completely alleviate you of your problem i would suggest writing 0s to your non-OS X partitions, and deleteing your non OS X partitions. Then repartitioning and attempt again to install Ubuntu (not ugly wubi) & Win7. And if you have no crucial data and/or its backed up just reinstall OS X to ensure everything is clean. Although this takes time i've found it to be the best way to fix failure of installation related issues.

Ekim

Do you think I should just reinstall, have 1 partition, and then set up Ubuntu and Windows 7 on parallels, virtual PC, or some type of virtual machine maker?

Would my computer struggle to run Mac OSX and then Win7 virtually?
 

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Ekim is correct. Start over. But this time don't use WUBI, rather download and install "rEFIt". But be sure to read the instructions and make a backup first!

Link

Regards.
 
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Do you think I should just reinstall, have 1 partition, and then set up Ubuntu and Windows 7 on parallels, virtual PC, or some type of virtual machine maker?

Would my computer struggle to run Mac OSX and then Win7 virtually?

It all depends on your specific hardware. Truthfully... i question why you need to install ubuntu on a mac o_O lol.. just my opinion.. i mean mac is based off of unix as is linux so they are very similar. Although if you insist on installing all three operating systems i would suggest reinstalling OS X and then using the default boot camp partition on your mac for win 7, and using virtualbox or vmware for ubuntu.

EDIT: to answer your virtual question about win7... it is a resource hog (just like vista), so i wouldn't advise running a vm of win7 unless ur on a iMac or MacPro (with >4gb RAM and a 2.8ghz processor -- thats just my opinion). I wouldn't even run it on my MBP that has the beefed specs... lol.

Ekim
 
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I would recommend Parallels or VMWare Fusion.

I currently use VMWare Fusion, with VM's for Windows 7, Windows XP, Ubuntu 9.04, OpenBSD 4.5 and even an MSDOS 6.1 w/ Win 3.11 just for fun. :)
 
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I installed virtual PC (because I get it for free through school) and it wouldn't open. It kept say that it unexpectedly closed.
 
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I installed virtual PC (because I get it for free through school) and it wouldn't open. It kept say that it unexpectedly closed.

I would recommend using VirtualBox, its current and really the only decent free vm software. You can download it at VirtualBox.com and its extremely easy to setup. Like i stated before, i wouldn't retry doing any of this without reinstalling OS X to make sure all bugs and kinks are completely removed! :)
 
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I would recommend using VirtualBox, its current and really the only decent free vm software. You can download it at VirtualBox.com and its extremely easy to setup. Like i stated before, i wouldn't retry doing any of this without reinstalling OS X to make sure all bugs and kinks are completely removed! :)

I completely reinstalled OS X so there's only 1 partition.


Just as an fyi, it's virtualbox.ORG
 
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Good Picking

There is a free program called bootpicker. After the initial set up it will let you choose from three OS to boot from without having to do the the option key thingie.
 
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I got Windows 7 installed by using VirtualBox (great program). However, I try to put my Mac Applications CD in to load the drivers but it doesn't recognize the disc.
 
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