Triple Boot Macbook - OSX win XP win 7

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Hi guys,

Glad I found this forum! I have spent hours trying to get a triple boot happening on my macbook but havent had any luck! I have read countless sites about triple booting on the mac but very few have spoken about doing it with two different windows operating systems (Most cover OSX Win XP Linux).

I really need to get this going for well, home use (OSX) and both windows variants for work.

I have tried with and without bootcamp. whenever i repartition after using boot camp the windows XP partition dies! and when I dont use bootcamp I cant get XP partition to install after it does its first reset.

I did meet one person that had this setup working last year but no longer have contact with them so I cant ask! If anyone has done this any help would be ace!

Thanks.
 
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MacBook 10.6.2 (2.4 Ghz) | Time Capsule 500GB
I've asked the same question. I've seen many unrelated "tutorials" on you tube with multiple windows drives. I hear its not recommended but I see no reason why it should be complicated or unstable. If you see any one online, like you tube, or a forum, ask them, or beg them, whatever works. Then come let us/me know.
 

chscag

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You can do it two ways: But first... BACK UP and make sure it works!

1. Download and install rEFIt. Be sure to read the instructions carefully. This will give you an EFI boot menu and loader. You'll also need to create two separate partitions in addition to your MacIntosh HD partition. You can not use Boot Camp to do this, instead use Disk Utility. Install XP on one partition, Win 7 on the other.

2. Buy Fusion, or Parallels, or download the free VirtualBox. Create two separate virtual machines; one for XP, the other for Win 7. Install them.

Regards.
 
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thanks for the reply!

I need them to be native so that rules out any virtulisation. I will be using the XP and OSX installs to run a variety of virutalisation scenarios.

I have already put refit on to help with the boot selection process and used disk utility to create 2 additional partitions however now that i am not using bootcamp when install XP after the first restart (when installing) it falls to resume due to Hal.dll error or a disk read error.

Each time it happens you need to format and start again.
 

chscag

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The "hal.dll" error is usually caused by an incorrect "boot.ini" file. Remember, that boot.ini in XP tells the boot loader where your system partition is and where (which partition) the Windows folder is located. Check the MS KB for boot.ini correct notations and partition numbering.

Regards.
 
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Yeah I have read that it needs to be the 4th partition, but listed as "c" drive, so when I repartition and play around I end up passing the hal.dll error for a lovely disk read error!

the pain!!!
 
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Here is a good step by step article

Here is a link to a very easy to follow article by Spencer Harbar.
The scenario described is for Mac OSX, Windows Vista and Windows 2008 Server.

Triple Boot MacBook Pro


The order you need to do the installation/partition is this;
Mac OSX, Win XP (instead of Vista), W7 (instead of Windows 2008 server).

You must install XP before W7 or XP will overwrite the W7 boot loader and you will not be able to boot into it again. (though there are articles on the inernet relating to Vista/XP dual boot on how to fix this if you need to)

When I set this up, I partitioned my Windows partitions as NTFS to get past the 32GB barrier. However I then installed two third party solutions.
On Mac OSX Paragon NTFS for Mac.
On Windows Macdrive

These allow me to browse any partition form any OS so I don't have to reboot to get to data all of the time. It also means all partitions are scanned by my Mac Antivirus software - Intego
 
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I had triple boot working OK on my old system, however I have just installed a new 500GB HDD, with Snow Leopard and I get the same hal.dll error.

I checked boot.ini (the usual culprit with thse kind of errors, and also checked if hal.dll was Windows/system32 and sure enough all was in order.

To avoid wasting too much time, I have resolved the problem by doing this:
Boot into Mac OSX, go to Applications-->Utilities-->Disk Utilities
DELETE the second FAT32/NTFS partition you were going to use for W7.
ERASE the FAT32/NTFS partition you were going to use for XP, gove it a label like XPPRO3 when you erase it.

Now reboot and hold option/ALT key on reboot and select the win XP bootable installation CD.
The installation should now proceed OK.

I plan to create the second partition either from XP disk manager or during installation of W7, that should resolve the boot issues.
 
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Hi guys,

Glad I found this forum! I have spent hours trying to get a triple boot happening on my macbook but havent had any luck! I have read countless sites about triple booting on the mac but very few have spoken about doing it with two different windows operating systems (Most cover OSX Win XP Linux).

I really need to get this going for well, home use (OSX) and both windows variants for work.

I have tried with and without bootcamp. whenever i repartition after using boot camp the windows XP partition dies! and when I dont use bootcamp I cant get XP partition to install after it does its first reset.

I did meet one person that had this setup working last year but no longer have contact with them so I cant ask! If anyone has done this any help would be ace!

Thanks.

Hint.

You need one partition for each OS.
Partitions on a MAC are done via OS.X

So the question is, how many OS and partitions can Bootcamp handle...

Regards,
Coolknight
 

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