When I got my new macbook pro I knew I'd need a triple boot setup, so I used bootcamp to create a windows partition for me, then created a Linux partition by hand and went ahead installing Linux. In this setup I have rEFIt as primary boot manager; for starting Linux I have a grub (-pc, v. 1.9.8) in the Linux install partition.
Now after I received my Windows licence via eBay
I went ahead installing Windows Vista. Installation would not work first, the problem mentioned here before, no system volume matching the criteria... I first tried to solve this by using the Windows installer to delete and recreate the partition and then format it, no success. Finally I picked up somebody else's advice and used the Windows command line window to set my installation partition to 'active'.
After install and reboot I did no longer see the windows partition as choice in rEFIt's boot menu. Obviously it could no longer recognise it since I had replaced the original partition created by bootcamp by the one created by the Windows installer. I allowed rEFIt to 'repair' my partition table, no effect at all (apart from now having set the Windows partition's file system ID to 'FAT' instead of 'NTFS' which I changed back after this had not been a success). I tried to use bootcamp for selecting Windows by pressing ALT when booting, it would only boot into grub and from there to Linux. Adding a "windows" section to grub did not help either, I'd always boot into Linux.
I then checked the partition table under Linux and found that the Linux partition was set to 'bootable' but the Windows partition wasn't. So I set it to bootable in Linux' fdisk program and retried. Now I would get 'no operating system found' when entering Windows boot via 'ALT' key. Also, once I had booted Linux via grub once more, the bootable partition was again the Linux one. I tried to use Windows' "repair" program from the install disk (though I was *really* scared to do this), no success either. bootcamp would not help me since It only works on a single partition, only I have already a partitioned hard disk.
Now I'm stuck. I'd be ready to reinstall Windows, but I don't really believe this would help since I had not done anything to that installation at all. Maybe my lack of understanding of the technical concepts is the problem, but after a night of several dozens of reboots I don't really see how I can possibly get this working. Any hints?
Now after I received my Windows licence via eBay
I went ahead installing Windows Vista. Installation would not work first, the problem mentioned here before, no system volume matching the criteria... I first tried to solve this by using the Windows installer to delete and recreate the partition and then format it, no success. Finally I picked up somebody else's advice and used the Windows command line window to set my installation partition to 'active'. After install and reboot I did no longer see the windows partition as choice in rEFIt's boot menu. Obviously it could no longer recognise it since I had replaced the original partition created by bootcamp by the one created by the Windows installer. I allowed rEFIt to 'repair' my partition table, no effect at all (apart from now having set the Windows partition's file system ID to 'FAT' instead of 'NTFS' which I changed back after this had not been a success). I tried to use bootcamp for selecting Windows by pressing ALT when booting, it would only boot into grub and from there to Linux. Adding a "windows" section to grub did not help either, I'd always boot into Linux.
I then checked the partition table under Linux and found that the Linux partition was set to 'bootable' but the Windows partition wasn't. So I set it to bootable in Linux' fdisk program and retried. Now I would get 'no operating system found' when entering Windows boot via 'ALT' key. Also, once I had booted Linux via grub once more, the bootable partition was again the Linux one. I tried to use Windows' "repair" program from the install disk (though I was *really* scared to do this), no success either. bootcamp would not help me since It only works on a single partition, only I have already a partitioned hard disk.
Now I'm stuck. I'd be ready to reinstall Windows, but I don't really believe this would help since I had not done anything to that installation at all. Maybe my lack of understanding of the technical concepts is the problem, but after a night of several dozens of reboots I don't really see how I can possibly get this working. Any hints?
