Vista and MAC OSX

A

artstudio

Member
Is there any possibility to boot Vista (disk 1) and Mac OS 10.5.6 installed after Vista on disk 3 without BCD (I did not know for BCD antil now). I have tryed but withot any sucess.
 
C

Coolname007

Distinguished Member
Hi artstudio. Welcome to NST.
Yes, it is possible to boot OS X on another hard drive from Vista's BCD on the first hard drive.

The procedure:

  1. Install OS X on the alternate hard drive if not already installed
  2. After OS X is installed, reboot, go into the BIOS, and make sure Vista's drive is first in the boot sequence (if it is not, then you need to change the boot priority so Vista's drive boots first, and OS X's drive next)
  3. Boot into Vista
  4. Download the latest build of EasyBCD Beta, and install.
  5. Open EasyBCD, navigate to the Mac tab in the Add/Remove Entries section, and add a new entry to boot OS X, making sure to select the appropriate drive number, and to select the MBR option, not EFI.
  6. Reboot, and test the entry (if it works, then you're done, but if not come back here for more troubleshooting)
Cheers,

Jake
 
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A

artstudio

Member
I did as you said but nothing happened. There is a massage after I select Mac to boot (Chain booting error).
First of all there is no possibility to set Mac drive to be second boot drive.
My motherboard is ASUS A8N 32 SLI Deluxe. In boot sequences I can set Atapi CD room as first boot drive, as second boot drive Vista in my case and as third drive there is only one possibility and It is Floppy drive.
I have already installed Mac OS 10.5.6 on my PC separate disk (E disk) and if I want to change operating system I have to change boot disk in BIOS or during bios to change boot drive with key F8.
And after all if I want to add a new entry to boot OS X there is not possibility to choose drive number if I set MBR opinion.
 
Terry60

Terry60

Telephone Sanitizer (2nd Class)
Staff member
The BIOS for an ASUS mobo (like mine), has different pages for the boot sequence.
Have another look.
Theres's one page where you set the floppy/CD/HDD sequence, and then separate pages for the order of the CD drives, the removable drives and the HDDs.
 
G

gipo

Member
i have nearly the same problem... and like artstudio wrote, if you select mbr there is not the possibility to select drive number.
In efi mode you can select drive number but on restart give you no boot... if i press enter and i give instead than 80 or 81, drive number 82 osx boot perfectly and this is my third drive.
disk1 on sata1 = C: --> XP; D: --> Vista 64; E: --> Archive;
disk2 on sata2= F: --> Programs;
disk3 on sata3 partitioned in GUID --> OsX
Click to expand...
How is it possible (if is it possible) to give to easybcd this info about 82 in order to boot from this drive?
Thanks...
 
C

Coolname007

Distinguished Member
gipo said:
i have nearly the same problem... and like artstudio wrote, if you select mbr there is not the possibility to select drive number.
Click to expand...

artstudio said:
And after all if I want to add a new entry to boot OS X there is not possibility to choose drive number if I set MBR opinion.
Click to expand...

You're both right...I'm sorry. :S I thought there was an option under the Mac tab to select which drive number to point it to, with the MBR option selected, but I guess I was wrong, and that is only with EFI mode.
Artstudio, have you tried selecting EFI instead of MBR, to see if it works then?

Cheers,

Jake
 
C

Coolname007

Distinguished Member
Please post the contents of the menu.lst accessed when hitting the "Configure" button under the NeoGrub tab in the Add/Remove Entries section of EasyBCD, then. Also, do you know which drive number you selected when you tried the EFI option under the Mac tab?
 
mqudsi

mqudsi

Mostly Harmless
Staff member
With the current builds of EasyBCD, if you have OS X on another drive you need to select EFI then *at boot time* press enter to select a different drive.
 
A

artstudio

Member
The order of my drives now in the BIOS is: Vista System (Raid) first, Mac OS 10.5.6 Leopard second (WD Raptor) and the others (I have 5 disks)
 
mqudsi

mqudsi

Mostly Harmless
Staff member
pointing doesn't work in the current builds.

You need to restart, then select disk 82 at boot time.
 
G

gipo

Member
is it possible to increase the countdown time at the boot time... 2 secs are too quicker to select.. :wink:)) maybe 5 secs are better...
 
C

Coolname007

Distinguished Member
gipo said:
is it possible to increase the countdown time at the boot time... 2 secs are too quicker to select.. :wink:)) maybe 5 secs are better...
Click to expand...

Yes, just change the timeout in EasyBCD from 2 to something higher. :wink: I believe you will find it in the "Change Settings" section of EasyBCD.

Cheers,

Jake
 
G

gipo

Member
No... this is the timeout of the o.s. bootloader, where you can choose between xp or vista or osx... i was asking about the 2 seconds bootloader after you selected osx and where you have to change disk number (80, 81 or 82)...
 
JustinW

JustinW

Super Moderator
Staff member
gipo, boot into OS X if you can. Open a Finder window and navigate to:
\OSX\Library\Preferences\SystemConfiguration\com.apple.Boot.plist

There should be a timeout value in the file that you can change.
 
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