Dual Boot XP & OsX86

its easy really :-P

my hd has 2 partitions, xp and documents

i clear half the xp partition first

then defrag

next using partition magic:

i resize the xp partition to half the size

which leaves a partition layout of xp, unpartitioned, and stuff

i move the xp and drag it to the right where the space was

new layout: blank, xp, stuff

i convert the xp partition from a primary to a logical, so both xp and stuff are now logical drives in the extended partition

i create a new partition in the space at the beginning. it is the primary partition, and i format it fat32 and give it an obscure temporary label (like wincrap)

i tell partition magic to apply the settings and proceed to make some tea

i reboot with the mac os x leopard disc and press when it says to boot from dvd

i drink more tea

a welcome thing eventually shows up - i ignore it!

i go to the utilities menu and select disk utility

on the left the disk is there with its three partitions branching out

i click on the partition named 'wincrap'

i click on the erase tab

and then i click Mac OS journaled fs (the top option)

I call the partition leopard

and i click erase

at this point in possibility i might have issues formatting it. in all reality this would be because something partition magic did to the fat partition wouldnt like mac. and the answer would probably be to format again but make sure it isnt set as the active partition

i swig more tea ;-)

i close the disk utility

and choose the language, and next the welcome thing

a license agreement pops down

but i actually read it all the way through! most peculiar. but most enlightening :-P

i choose the only install location option there is, being our newly formatted 'leopard' partition

i click next

it looks ready to go

but i stop myself from clicking next, because i must customise

since i am on an x86

in the customise thing i need to choose only the minimal of changes to get it running.

chipset (asus nforce mb)

graphics (nv gf6200)

ps2 keyb/mouse

sound (plain ac97)

osx86tools for post tinkering

cpu is amd 64 3000+

after the install

when it starts it says press a key for boot options

so i do, and type

-F

since the thing i read told me we have to do that once on first boot

having already got this working on my intel laptop, it annoys me to find it wont work!

it plays the intro video with sound etc, and far better than my laptop did!

then the welcome a quick start nonsense comes up and i cant click options

and the mouse becomes a wee catherine wheel thing

and it hangs

i restart again enraged, and boot with the -x (no driver safe mode) option

this time i can actually complete the registration wizard all the way through (if i dont it hangs)

and it dumps me on a safe mode log in screen,

and it has gave me the user image of a pair of wellingtons in a puddle

i log in with what i told it

and there is a moment of tension where the screen is almost that windows 2000 kind of blue colour

at this point i recollect on my laptop the desktop wallpaper and everything else just popping up

but not on this computer

oh no

it just waits in the blue

i click and throttle the mouse around to no avail

i hammer the keyboard and..

it makes a funky sounding error noise! so somethings working, in that the fact that it knows it's not working

i have no idea how to fix that.....

....however when i press a key to type in my boot options all i need to do to load xp is move with the arrow key down one partition and press enter. you are now dual booting both operating systems! great success!!

:-D