2 OS, One Computer

[Rock Raiyu]

Ok, I am computer crazy. I'm in like computers and figuring out how they work in all. So what I'm asking, how can I have 2 OS on my computer? I want to install Mac OS X on my computer but still have my Vista cause I don't have an external HDD or anything to backup everything. So how can I make it happen?

 

[RedIce]

Yes, you can have more than one OS on your computer, you need to have a program that launches himself before loading any OS and allows you to choose which OS you want to run.
Such a program normally is configurable to wait X seconds before loading a default Os.

One such program is GRUB http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GRUB .
This is called Multi boot http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi_boot .

 

[DarkLG]

Don't install 2 OS's trust me I did and when I tried uninstalling one of them i screwed up and now I cant go into recovery mode with my pc.

 

[Gore]

Ignore yaoluislg.

 

[AshuraZro]

Perhaps we should start with partitioning before we talk about boot loaders?

Before anything, I'd recommend checking out the Insanely Mac forums as there could very well be a start to finish guide on doing just this. Also, toss the OS X disk in and boot it just to make sure you can at least start the installer. A few circumstances may prevent the installer from booting and that'd be the first thing you'd bother looking at.

Having your vista disk will come in handy, especially if you fuck up and lose your vista install. The below instructs assumes you have this disk. I tossed OS X on a spare hard drive by itself but this should work. If you plan on looking at other things like various Linux distributions on top of this, I'd just invest in another hard drive as they are far from expensive.

To begin, Windows Vista currently resides on your hard drive that would probably have a single partition. You need to shrink the partition Vista is on so you can dedicate some space for the OS X install. I'm going to let someone else fill out how to do it since my track record with shrinking partitions is far from a good one. I've done it no problems but I've trashed partitions as well. Once shrunken and there's unpartitioned space on the drive, I'd just format it quickly with NTFS just so it's a little easier when beginning to install OS X. You'll format it again there but you'll be able to immediately recognize it from Disk Utility and format accordingly with a little less thinking required.

With this new partition good to go, you can toss in that OS X disk. After the installer has loaded, click Tools at the top of the screen and Disk Utility. It will load up and show your hard drive and both partitions. One will be your vista, one will be the empty one. Pick the empty one and format it as Mac OS X Extended Journaled. After that's done, you can quit out of the Disk Utility and the newly formatted partition should show up in the installer. Select it and keep going. Make sure you select options before installing. I can't tell you everything you need here as it may differ depending on your hardware. Just make sure the EFI bootloader used is MBR and NOT GUID.

Once done, hopefully you should be booting straight into OS X. If so, great! Now we need to get Vista booting again. Toss the vista disk and do a start up repair. It should re-install the BCD boot loader Vista uses. Boot the computer again and Vista will boot. If you haven't already, install EasyBCD. Then add a new entry and select Mac OS X. Save and restart. The menu should now allow you to select either Windows Vista and Mac OS X.

Final note! I may have mistakes in here. I still fully recommend heading over to Insanely Mac and reading up there. You can learn shitloads!

 

[Perseid]

If you only have one hard drive on a single partition installing a second OS would be difficult and risky. You can shrink your Windows partition with a program called Partition Magic so you can make room for the new OSX partition, but if something goes wrong while you do this it can blast everything currently on the hard drive, so unless you can make a backup or get a second hard drive(not external) to install the new OS to I wouldn't recommend it.

 

[Rock Raiyu]

I understand that I have to partition the drive to leave space for the new OS. I talked about that with my friend. I also know (now) that its called dual bootloading. and I need programs like GRUB like RedIce said to boot up and decide which OS to run. But I find that a bit complicated, so I did a bit of research and wondering if something like Easy BCD would be better to work with?

 

[AshuraZro]

I understand that I have to partition the drive to leave space for the new OS. I talked about that with my friend. I also know (now) that its called dual bootloading. and I need programs like GRUB like RedIce said to boot up and decide which OS to run. But I find that a bit complicated, so I did a bit of research and wondering if something like Easy BCD would be better to work with?

As I mention above, GRUB is unnecessary here. EasyBCD is far easier for this situation and will achieve your desired results.

I just want to stress. Worst case scenario here is that you toast your Vista install. Far from the end of the world and a reinstall builds experience. Still, just make sure anything really important is backed up if you can do so.

Also, yaoluislg IS an idiot and may have possibly experienced issues. But they would be completely unrelated and coincidental. I can't fully remember what he said originally but I think he said formatting a new partition destroyed critical system files on his windows partition. Which is full'o'shit.

 

[Foxle]

OS X does not install easily onto Windows machines, by design. Even if you know what you're doing it can still be a pain in the butt to install. The driver support is also very minimum once you get into it. All in all, it's not something you want to do on your only machine, especially if keeping data intact is important.

Throwing the dual booting scenario into this mix just complicates things even further, and there are several points where you could loose your ability to boot back into Windows.

Sorry to be such a downer. I tried to dual boot OS X a while ago and the whole thing didn't end well. I highly suggest trying something like Ubuntu is you're still interested in dual booting operating systems. It's different enough from Windows that it might be new and shiny enough for you until you can save up / convince your parents for a Mac.

 

[Rock Raiyu]

I understand that I have to partition the drive to leave space for the new OS. I talked about that with my friend. I also know (now) that its called dual bootloading. and I need programs like GRUB like RedIce said to boot up and decide which OS to run. But I find that a bit complicated, so I did a bit of research and wondering if something like Easy BCD would be better to work with?
As I mention above, GRUB is unnecessary here. EasyBCD is far easier for this situation and will achieve your desired results.

I just want to stress. Worst case scenario here is that you toast your Vista install. Far from the end of the world and a reinstall builds experience. Still, just make sure anything really important is backed up if you can do so.

Also, yaoluislg IS an idiot and may have possibly experienced issues. But they would be completely unrelated and coincidental. I can't fully remember what he said originally but I think he said formatting a new partition destroyed critical system files on his windows partition. Which is full'o'shit.

Alright, so I think I got the gist of it. I'll use Partition Magic to make some space for Mac OSX. Now an opinionated question: What version of Mac OSX should I use? Mac OSX Leopard or is there something better out there? I have a gaming/entertainment laptop.

QUOTE(sjones411 @ Oct 11 2008, 04:15 AM)

OS X does not install easily onto Windows machines, by design. Even if you know what you're doing it can still be a pain in the butt to install. The driver support is also very minimum once you get into it. All in all, it's not something you want to do on your only machine, especially if keeping data intact is important.

Throwing the dual booting scenario into this mix just complicates things even further, and there are several points where you could loose your ability to boot back into Windows.

Sorry to be such a downer. I tried to dual boot OS X a while ago and the whole thing didn't end well. I highly suggest trying something like Ubuntu is you're still interested in dual booting operating systems. It's different enough from Windows that it might be new and shiny enough for you until you can save up / convince your parents for a Mac.

Its ok. I'm quite aware of the risks, if worse comes to worse, I'll use my restore CD.. this is for my entertainment but more of a learning experience. So if anything happens, that will be my fault and I'm willing to take responsibility.

 

[Mangofett]

Before going even a step further; is your hardware compatible with OSX?

 

[Rock Raiyu]

Before going even a step further; is your hardware compatible with OSX?

I've done my research. The worst that can happen is not having my card reader work/web cam but I don't even use those much. Plus I can just switch to Vista if I need to use them..