Tips

How To: Dual Boot Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Windows 7 on a PC

on 21 November at 11:05 pm
Mac OS X and Windows 7

Mac OS X and Windows 7

Geeks love Macs because Macs are really cool. They are slick, stylish and freaking awesome! What about windows 7, by the way? Yea, it is also cool, slick, stylish, bug free and freaking awesome! Being a hardcore geek, what will you go for? A Mac with Snow Leopard or a PC with Windows 7? Not sure? Why not go for both of them?

Oh! Don’t have the money to afford both? Don’t worry! gggadgets.com is here to help you out! You won’t even need to buy a Mac! Lo! This step by step guide will help you install Mac OS X Snow Leopard as well as Windows 7 on a single PC! You don’t even need a high end PC! Just your current computer will work!

Step by Step Guide to Dual Boot Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Windows 7 on a PC:

Note: You need to follow the steps in the given hierarchy. Performing them out of order will not work.

1. Backup your data:
The first and the most important thing is to backup your data. It is not optional at all because you need to format and partition your hard disk from scratch. Best option is to write the important files to a DVD ROM so that you are able to access them anytime, anywhere.

Tip: DVD ROMs work even in worst conditions when USB and network ports may fail.

2. Partitioning the Hard Disk:

One of the most fundamental things in getting a dual booted Mac OS and Windows system is the proper partitioning. For partitioning, you can use any method of your choice. I know you are pretty used to doing this simple stuff. You may use partition magic or you can even partition your hard drive by booting your system with a windows XP CD.

I assume that you have a hard drive with 120 GB of total capacity. You are about to divide it into 3 partitions of 50 GB, 30 GB and 40 GB. But for now, you’ll make only one partiton of 40GB and leave the rest of the space unpartitioned.

3. Install Mac OS X Snow Leopard:

The next step is to install Mac OS X Snow leopard on your PC*. Lifehacker has a pretty nice and handy tutorial for doing that. You don’t even need to do any hacking! Install Snow Leopard on the 40 GB partition. Do not touch the unpartioned space.

4. Install Windows 7:

Now you need to install windows 7. When you go through the boot process you can easily find the unpartitioned space. Divide it into two partions of 50GB and 30 GB each using the installation wizard. 50 GB is going to be the C:\ drive whereas the 30 GB one will be the data storage drive. If you prefer having only one drive, then you may go for a single partition of 80 GB. Install Windows 7 on the desired partition.

When you finish installing, you’ll be booting into Windows 7 only. There will be no operating system selection menu while starting up. No need to worry!

5. Set up dual boot:

Here comes the climax! Now you have to set up the dual boot of Windows 7 and Mac OS X Snow Leopard. It is as easy as 1 2 3!

Dual boot windows 7 and Snow Leopard

Dual boot windows 7 and Snow Leopard

  • Boot into windows 7
  • Open the browser and head to http://neosmart.net/
  • Look for the latest version of EasyBCD and download it. Current version is EasyBCD 1.7.2. You can download it here. It should work fine for Snow Leopard.
  • Install and run EasyBCD on your computer.
  • From the main screen of EasyBCD select the “Add/Remove Entries” option on the left side.
  • Select “Mac” tab.
  • Select “Generic X86 PC” from the drop down menu. Try the other options if it doesn’t work but that’s a very rare case.
  • You are all done. Reboot your PC and you can now see the boot menu showing Windows 7 as well as Mac OS X Snow Leopard. Select any of them and bingo!

Why not subscribe to gggadgets.com via RSS feed? You can join us on twitter and facebook too. Have fun!

*Disclaimer: We strongly recommend buying a Mac to use Apple software. Installing Apple software on a PC is against the copyright laws. That’s why we don’t provide the guide on installing Mac OS on a PC. This guide just helps with the dual boot of Mac OS X with Windows 7. We don’t offer any guarranties and are not responsible for any damage caused while following this guide.

Related Stories
  • Alex

    so.. i have a macbook, i have installed first snow leopard, then windows 7. But after the 2 are finished installing, the one that boots up is mac os… not windows. i`ve downloaded easybcd 2.1.1 but i ca’t select generic x86 pc unde mac… cuz it’s not there… so the tutorial isn’t helpful at all… :))

  • Pingback: Blog bookmarks 10/24/2011 « My Diigo bookmarks

  • Charlie

    It seems it’s possible to reduce a partition size in windows 7 without having to repartition the drives. So if I have windows 7, I don’t have to uninstall it to install MAC on it.

    Bad guide! BAD!

  • http://here Andrew

    you people are idiots who can not read, follow his steps to the t or don’t ask questions, if you got a question figure the answer yourself it’s not hard. NERDS

  • http://www.xdjpop.com joe

    i am yet struggling with it cant install snow leopard, installation fails mid way :(

  • Euan

    Is It Leagal

  • Prince

    You are awesome dude……………awesome..

  • http://Nowebsite K.Rajagopalan

    I have installed Win XP in C and Windows7 in E drives. D and F drives are empty but formatted as NTFS. Can I install Mac leapord 10.6 from DVD keeping all the three OS versions? Should I delete D or F drives and keep them unformatted?

  • Juan

    Hi, i have Windows 7 instaled, so my question is, can i install mac os with my windows 7.??.. or i have to install mac os first and then windows 7. Thank you.

  • Mauri Cabrera

    Thanks A Lot!!

  • Mauri Cabrera

    please, i have one question more, can i install snow leopard from a external hdd? how can i do it? please help! thanks

    • http://www.thegadgets.net James Cushing

      That question I can’t answer accurately. I’d take a look on Google and see what you can find.

  • Mauri Cabrera

    thanks a lot! i checked the system requirements of Mac OS X Snow Leopard and i think everything will be all right, y will try doing it and i would let your now for your page improvement. :)
    here are the hardware requirements for you all!:
    Apple states the following basic Snow Leopard system requirements are:
    Mac computer with an Intel processor (IA-32). “Yonah” processors such as Core Solo and Core Duo can run only 32-bit applications; later x86-64 architecture processors such as Core 2 Duo will also be able to run 64-bit applications.
    1 GB of RAM
    5 GB of free disk space
    DVD drive (also accessible via Remote Disc) or external USB or FireWire DVD drive for installation. thanks a lot!!

  • Mauri Cabrera

    does it work on a toshiba satellite u305-s5077??????
    intel dual-core t2080 @ 1.73 Ghz
    2gb DDR2 667 RAM
    120 HDD
    please help!!

    • http://www.thegadgets.net James Cushing

      Should work on any machine that can run Windows 7. Make sure to check the hardware requirements of the software first.

  • http://behoold.blogspot.com/ Dinesh Verma

    Thanks for the help buddy.

  • Rolo

    How would I install snow leopard with out re-installing and therefore starting from scratch on Windows 7. Could I just partition my hard drive without losing data? And how would I do so? Thanks.

  • Avinash

    no reply yet iam waiting for it please reply soon…………….

  • Avinash

    does the mac app store run in the dual boot?And can i buy a magic track pad for multitouch gestures in the mac os x snow leopard and also cant i install mac os x directly from a retail dvd?

  • Rickey Tuggle

    So I have never used Max OS I’ve always used windows. But there are some apps im interested in using that are Mac specific. My question is this.

    1.I have windows 7 Home Premium installed on C: Drive. = 1TB
    2.I have partitioned C:Drive into 3 partitions.
    1.(Partition 1 C:\Windows) NTFS (400 G)
    2.(Partition 2 N:\Max OS) NTFS (150 G)
    3.(Partition 3 O:\Storage) NTFS (450 G)

    I have Burned Mac SnowOSx Universale 10.6 to dvd. I want to install Max OS to N drive.

    So my next step needs to be to restart computer with Max OS disk in drive ( Boot from drive?) then install mac os on the N drive?

    Is it realy that simple?

    These are the steps ive gone thru w/o installing Mac just yet. But if this looks right to you folks then I am going to start my install today. Please let me know if you have any suggestions.

    Specs: Asus CG1330
    AMD Phenom II x6 1035T Processor 2.60G
    64 Bit
    16 Gigs Memory
    Windows 7 Home Premium.

    Thank you for your assistance.

  • hulk

    thank q

  • Pingback: Dual boot windows 7 mac os

  • Pingback: Win7 and SL 10.6 dual boot 0x0e

  • Pingback: How to install Mac OSX and Windows 7 on the same partition? Asus K50IJ - Pagina 2

  • Danny

    Does this work with Xp? Does mac have to be installed first?

  • Insert Name Here

    My laptop already has Windows 7 installed. So can I just download the Mac OS and continue from there or would I have to install Mac OS and then reinstall Windows 7???

  • Mathew

    Where can i get a copy of mac os x?

  • NOIgler

    >Geeks love Macs because Macs are really cool
    no hipsters and people with too much money on their hands like macs.
    real geeks will most probably use ubuntu.
    other then that nice tutorial and thanks

  • Desmond Packs

    Hello, this tutorial was very helpful, however I encountered some issues, and ended up using a combination of Lifehack’s tutorial, and another one mentioned below. I had no worries installing snow leopard, but when it came to windows 7, it would not let me proceed, as the drive had been formatted in GPT (even though i had a NTFS partition ready and waiting). I got around this problem by following step 1-3 on this site

    http://mymacbookmini.com/guides/hp-mini-311/dualboot-snow-leopard-windows-7-guide/

    I also used EMPIRE EFI to boot my snow leopard dvd, for some reason iBoot wasn’t agreeing with my computer.

    Hope this helps those who are stuck!

  • BrendanMP

    I was wondering, do i need to do everything on the other site, because that seems like way to much.

  • http://google.com xna gamer

    when i starting install snow leopard on my pc , it only appears gray screen and nothing other

  • shashi

    absolutly brilliant work
    i can do it i love operating systems

  • fspkwon

    And also this doesn’t just “work” for alot of things you need enablers injectors or dsdt and ssdt modifications. Some hardware is completely incompatible. Know what your getting into people this takes time patience and trial and error.

  • AEWSB

    Awesome Tutorial! =D
    Having just one question…
    i’m having a pc with win7, should i start with installing mac os x first or i could install it now and then use EasyBCD?

  • Warrior

    There is 1 weakness: Mac needs an Intel CPU. Therefor you have to do this on an Intel machine, not AMD.

  • nfh

    Thank you very much for this great tutorial!

    I’m trying to setup my laptop with not dual but triple boot.
    My idea is to have Windows 7 installed on my laptop’s hard drive, and a dual boot with OSX and Ubuntu on an external USB hard drive.

    Is this possible? How can I do that?

  • beedame

    great tutorial bro :) but i am in different scenario. i have currently win 7 installed on my PC, what if i just start installing mac on it without formatting the HDD and installing mac first? any help would be real real handy :)

  • Hayden

    Can this method work with 2 physical drives? I have 2, 250GB hard drives with windows 7 64x on one, and Snow Leopard on the other.

    Using Easy BCD does show my different physical drives but it gives me an error when trying to load Snow Leopard.

    Both physical drives run their respective OS fine.

  • Amritm

    Thanks for the great post, but it gets stuck on the apple logo when i boot the install dvd. Wht should i do ?

  • NoUseFor

    The only question that wasn’t answered about this guide, is :

    “HOW DID YOU PARTITION THE HDD : MBR or GUID?”

    thanks

  • http://misterholycrap.weebly.com Misterholycrap

    I alredy have 2 boot win xp and win 7 if just instal Snow leapard And use that program will it still work (cuzz i have seen in my school 3 boot´d pc using a custom booot loader it was like the ubuntu loader but it only had win xp win 7 and snow leopard)
    plz reply me at my website´s chat
    misterholycrap.weebly.com

  • APotter

    Still.. nobody answered the questions above considering installing this on 2 different HDDs. And can Leopard be installed AFTER there’s a Win installation running already and just point EasyBCD to the MAC drive.

    Thanks

  • Dan

    For those who are having problem installing dual boot Windows 7 & Leopard, check this site for help:

    http://www.hackint0sh.org/f184/80904.htm

  • saeed

    Hi dear OS X Professionals
    in first phase:
    I stuck in step 7 and never have a chance to see the installation screen.. I’ve tried -x but with no difference I get this error: “you need to restart your computer.hold down…” (Kernal panic)
    What should I do?
    I’ve tried both iboot & iboot-lagacy,
    without -x after hitting enter on install OS X after some seconds the laptop reboots automatically..
    I am so eager to install OS X on my laptop it is the third day in row I am trying..
    I really need it, if there is anybody could help me I will be grateful and even if I really get to have it on my laptop I will pay for your help,
    this is my Specs:
    Laptop: Sony Vaio
    Model: VPCF134FX

    CPU: i7 – 740QM
    Graphic: NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 425M GPU
    Ram: 4 G

  • saeed

    thnx

  • Pingback: MAC OSX Snow Leopard on PC - Torrent Invites - Get your free private torrent tracker invites!

  • Pingback: Mac - XboxMB - Xbox Message Boards

  • POPEYE

    Hi

    Your Manual doesn’t work for me. I have a Thinkpad T61p and tryin to install Windows 7 x64. Do you have an advice?

    Best regards

  • Pingback: Dual-booting help for PC? | Linux Tips

  • Mayur Rai

    I have done all the steps correctly but unable to boot with both os properly …
    when it comes to booting screen it shows both option (i.e- windows 7 and mac ) but it only boot’s from Windows 7 and when i select on mac it returns to previous page ……please tell me the possible errors I am really fed up from this situation ….

    • Mayur Rai

      And ya if you have any solution for this please send it to my ID too…”lifeonrocks91@yahoo.in”
      Thanx in advance

  • Sonny

    OK, well, the problem is that one of my friends wrote down an important essay on windows 7 while dual booting with mac os x, and then windows 7 shut down unexpected, so here’s my question: Is there any way of retrieving the data on the windows 7 partition via the mac os x partition?

  • Orion

    I’m building a Hackintosh based on Lifehackers newest specs, and I wanted to know If you can simply use a second hard drive instead of partitioning it. My current computer has an 80GB or 60GB HDD that I would use for Windows and I was going to pick up another to use for OSX. Most of the times I’ve tried to partition for multiple OS’ I’ve failed several times and had to constantly retry.

  • Adam Russello

    I already have Windows 7 Premium installed, so could I just create a partition and install Mac OS X Snow Leopard Upgrade in a new partition?

  • http://play-frogger.com/ frogger

    Very nice guide man. thnx

  • blackeye09

    i have a m9340f hp pavilion elite, i am having issues with installing. My computer is a quad core so i dont know if that’s the problem or not. I added a second hdd 600gb of space so iam using that to install mac osx snow leopard unto it. I have my original hdd running win7 so that not being touched.
    When i pop the dvd in and go the the darwin boot screen it says” press enter or f8 for more options…..” i press enter it runs and then for a split second i see the apple logo and my computer restarts. So I have no idea what the problem is……I know big question, lots of writing but please advice what i need to do next.

    Thanks in advance…

    • Orion

      You should probably head to Lifehackers newest guide. You need to download a few things called Chameleon boot (or something like that) and Multibeast, as well as a few other files to install OSX. Snow Leopard doesn’t recognize non Mac hardware meaning you can’t install it without those programs.

      • Orion

        By the way, the link to Lifehackers in the guide isn’t very recent. The newest is linked in there, it came out about 3 or 4 months ago.

  • Samuel

    Hm… It would probably be good to mention that this doesn’t work on just *any* hardware, as your article implies. In the Lifehacker link you posted, it mentions this very clearly, and links to here:

    http://lifehacker.com/5351485/how-to-build-a-hackintosh-with-snow-leopard-start-to-finish

    http://lifehacker.com/5351485/how-to-build-a-hackintosh-with-snow-leopard-start-to-finish#hardware

    Those with unsupported hardware may get it to install and boot, but they may have little to no luck with getting things like wireless/ethernet to work.

  • http://123386761.co.cc Gage

    Hello! I have Windows 7 on my Acer Aspire One D260 and I want to get Snow Leopard on it. I managed to split the partitions, but I don’t have a flash drive or DVD large enough to put the .iso file on it. And am I supposed to extract the files off of the .iso?

  • Wyatt

    I have Windows 7 Professional, and tons of media, should I have to still backup my data? and also, it came preinstalled onto my computer so should i have to somehow aquire an install disc and start from scratch?

  • Omer

    Owaeis,

    nice post; wanted to ask.. does this work on an AMD system??

  • Pingback: Win7-OS X Dual Boot endless loop - Hackint0sh

  • ChrisK

    Nice trick OWAEIS!! I tried it with my new MacBook Pro, OS X 10.6 but encountered problems booting up.

    Is it possible to put Win 7 64bit on the 1st partition instead of the 2nd?

    Chris

    • ChrisK

      I know where I did wrong but thought I ask as in the 1st instance that I tried it, when installing Win 7, the partition list had many for me to choose from, had 2x128Mb partitions and 1x146Gb partition. Both partitions were suppose to be 160Gb. :(

    • http://thegadgets.net Owaeis

      Are you mad? This ‘nice trick’ is for PCs not Macs! Lol :D

  • ShifterX

    So, I have a .dmg file, for Snow Leopard, but no Mac to use Disc Utility with. Anyone know of any programs that will allow to make the installable version, or am I out of luck? Also Snow Leopard is the one for Intel Machines, correct?

    • ShifterX

      I’m about to experiment with unetbootin to make the USB Installable. I’ll let you know how that goes.

      • ShifterX

        No dice. Guess I have to find a Mac. Bummer.

  • http://www.wmaus.net Winni

    “Installing Apple software on a PC is against the copyright laws.”

    No, it isn’t – as long as you legally purchased the software. In no country on this planet would installing Mac OS X on non-Apple hardware be against existing copyright laws. It’s a violation of Apple’s EULA, that’s all, and a EULA is just a contract with certain terms, not a law.

    In several countries, Apple’s EULA itself probably isn’t even legally binding (in Germany, for example) for a range of legal reasons, one reason being that the user only is informed about the terms of the EULA -after- having purchased and installed the software. You cannot impose terms and conditions on a customer after a product is being sold.

    I know that you all will now refer to the Psystar case: But Psystar lost their case because they MODIFIED Apple’s software and distributed this modified software along with their computers, and THAT made it a copyright infringement. PearC, a German “Hackintosh” seller, bundles their computers with unmodified versions of Mac OS X (they have a boot loader that makes it possible to install a regular retail copy of OS X on their systems), and they’ve been doing this for years now without ever having been sued by Apple. I guess Apple’s German legal department knows that they would lose this one in Europe, where the copyright laws are not only concerned about the companies, but also about the users and customers. Microsoft lost a similar case years ago which deemed Microsoft’s OEM EULAs and software/hardware bundle practices illegal in Germany.

  • Tim Co

    How will i be able to do this if my BIOS doesn’t have MB Intelligent Tweaker? :(

  • Tim

    I wish I had found this sooner… I had just erased my Mac partition cause up until now the only way I saw it was to install Mac over windows. And I had installed windows over mac. :(

  • KJ

    I have the same question as @Antec

    I also have windows 7 ultimate installed with lots of softwares.
    Do i have to format it completely and start afresh

  • Antec

    Great post,
    I was just wondering, i already have win7 ultimate insalled and dont really want to uninstall it atm. But i have a spare 500gb HDD sitting around, could i just install os x on that and then jump to step 5?

    Thanks

  • http://thegadgets.net Owaeis

    wow! Great discussion going on! Keep up guys! Glad at you!

    - Owaeis/CEO Thegadgets.net

  • http://none Mahendra Liya

    Hey,
    I just got a mac os .dmg file which I successfully burnt to a dvd. Now, When I try to boot from the DVD, I get the following error:

    System config file /com.apple.Boot.plist’ not found

    Can you help me with this?

    I have Acer Aspire 4720z, Intel Pentium Dual Core processor T2330 with 1.6 GHz and 1GB Ram, 160 GB Hard disk.

    Thanks in advance.

  • Joe Morgan

    I have partitioned my hard drive into 3 parts. One NTFS for Windows, one NTFS for storage, and one HFS+ for the OS X installation. Something’s not going right with my installation though, shall I partition them all to NTFS, or FAT32? Or will that not change anything? Thanks,
    Joe.

  • Joe Morgan

    I have partitioned my hard drive with a 200gb ntfs partition (for windows), an 100gb ntfs partition (for storage), and a 200gb hfs+ partition (for os x). Is this okay, or shall I format the mac partition with ntfs or fat32? Something isn’t working when I install snow leopard, could this be the reason? Thanks, Joe.

  • Vincent

    Sorry, my internet connection crapped out on me. Please ignore my previous comment, if it is still there anyways.

    Is it okay to use 2 hard drives? Will dual-booting still work?

    Thanks,
    Vincent

  • Vincent

    Please excuse my ignorance, but

  • amir

    hello followed lifehacker instruction to the t, however how did u get over the mbr/gpt issue? when you format the hard drive for snow leopard it requires gpt. than when you go to windows, it requires mbr partiion. got through the snow leopard intallation, and after some research got it to work. but now windows 7 wont install bc the hdd is formatted to gpt which is apples partition table. ive seen this question once before and it was unanswered

    • C

      To install Win 7 on the secondary partition you need to se the active partition to the one you want Windows to be on. seatch for ‘diskpart’

  • Erfan

    Hi Owaeis ,
    tnx for your great post, but i have a problem !!!
    first i partition my HDD with Win XP CD and i make a 10 GB for Mac OS X and 20 GB for MAC APP(S) (Bcause i can’t Install App like “Fink” in The same drive that i install mac os x , i don’t know why!! but i have test it before. ) any way!
    i insert Mac OS X 10.5.2 and Ersae that 2 Partition to Journaled and i install mac os x in 10GB drive.
    after installation i install fink in the app(S) drive. and every thing was good.
    so i insert the Win 7 DVD and Partion my unpartition space and install win 7 on it. after that i instal Easy BCD v 2.0 and add Mac OS X bootloader ( i set “EFI(Defult)” as the model )
    after restarting my PC i saw 2 Bootloader, win 7 is ok! but when i select Mac OS X nothing there was something missing….
    ” insert Windows CD and Hit Repair …..” there was something like that
    so i insert Win 7 DVD and Repair my Startup but i’m still have the same problem…
    help me plz Bcause i really need to do this

    • http://thegadgets.net Owaeis

      It’s a hard nut to chew but you’d have to start over. Try try again. :P

      • Erfan

        i have tried it several time but …..
        if i create just one partition for mac ( whitout app drive ) i cannot install application on mac.
        i exactly do everything u said but it doesn’t work for me !
        any idea?

  • khaled

    thanks man but how do i partition on mac os x space for windows 7

  • Calla

    But then why do I need to make three partitions instead of two? Also, does this work with Leopard?

    Thanks for the guide.

  • Pingback: Dual Boot Windows's 7 & Mac os x Snow leopard

  • Stefan Metodijev

    I have installed Windows 7 Ultimate about a year ago. It was installed in C:/ partition. I keep ALL MY DATA in D:/.
    I have Windows XP SP3 in partition F:/. My idea is to FORMAT F, and then install Snow Leopard there, simply by putting disc and running installation through W7. Will it work that way for Mac OS(that is how i installed XP SP3)?

    I think this is the simplest way to do that. Isn’t it?

  • http://- kevin

    Hi,
    Does anyone know if this dual boot hack only works with the Snow Leopard edetion or also with a normal OS X DVD ?

    thx

  • Pingback: The Skinny On Dual-Booting Your Computers | Welcome to the I.T. Jungle | LabMonkeys.net

  • Dushan

    Hi,

    I would like to know if u can dual boot mac os x snow leopard on a portable HDD and leave win 7 on the first hdd coz i already got win 7 in good running place.

    or can i partition unused space and dualboot coz i dont want to format the hdd.

    please reply or email me dushan@hotmail.com.au

  • Rasboi

    Hi. i am currently running windows 7 64 bit with a total of 921 GB ( My C Drive ) . Is it possible to set aside some GB for the mac and install it there. I dont wanna reformat my windows 7 as i have already installed my stuff

  • linuxgeek

    uhh just wondering but if you were a computer geek wouldnt you be running linu,x ( even though mac is linux) windows sucks, unless you dont know how to use a computer. In which case it’d be better for u to use a pen and a peice of paper. Linux is god

  • hafiz

    hi, what about if i already installed windows first then later installed MAC. does mac overwrites the boot loader, how do i get into windows in order to perform the dual boot.

  • Steve

    I’ve seen this question asked several times unanswered, so I half expect mine to go the same.

    I have my genuine windows 7 install and recovery disks, as well as that $29 OSX Snow leopard disk. I have two separate HDDs, both 160GB.

    Windows 7 is already installed on my PC. Is it possible to just install OSX onto the other HDD without partitions? Or can I partition the one and do that? I don’t have a Mac to use Lifehacker’s thumbdrive method.

  • j

    I already have windows 7 preinstalled on my computer. Can I just install Mac os x on unformatted hard drive space?

  • killernet2010

    hi,

    ive having real issues getting the dual boot to work, i can install osx 10.5.6 with no problems and i can install windows 7 with no problems, but once windows 7 is installed i just cant get it to boot in to the mac os anyone got any ideas what im doing wrong ??

    thanks for any help

  • Akarsh

    The tutorial given on lifehacker to install mac on pc, requires another mac for preparing thumb drive. My problem is that i don’t know anyone with a mac. Is there any alternative?? I genuinely wish to install and use snow leopard on my pc running with windows 7.

    Please help me!!

  • Pingback: My Hackintosh – fusion3k.net

  • Bobby

    SORRY I doubled posted, Lag..

  • Bobby

    How can you install back Windows 7 if it was already preloaded with your computer when you bought it? I’m afraid when I do this, and install mac and stuff, I won’t have my windows again.

  • Jeffenwolf

    So if I need to format my windows 7 partition down the line (I like to format windows every year or so) will that break my osx’s ability to boot? In other words, if I format the partition with my windows 7 os installation, re-install windows 7 to that same partition, re install the boot manager application you’ve recommended, will all be well?

  • Pingback: Adding Windows Partition to Chameleon

  • josh

    i have a windows 7 update disk is it the same as an installation disk

  • jules

    I followed these instructions but when I reboot windows loads fine but if I choose osx I get “windows failed to start installation disk” file \NST\nst_mac.mbr

    I’m using snowleo 10.6 and it was working fine. I partitioned my 160gb drive osx was installed on 40gb the rest for windows

    • Alimpan

      What I assume your mistake is, that when you used EasyBCD, you didn’t mention the drive where the Mac OS was installed.

      To fix this, boot from Windows,open EasyBCD (I’ve got 2.0.3, so some options may vary from the previous versions), and slect ‘Advanced Settings’. Select ‘NST Mac OS’ or whatever name you specified, in the ‘Basic’ tab, click on ‘Drive:’. Select the partition where you installed Mac in. Then click on ‘Save Settings’.

      Hope I helped.

      To OWAEIS,

      Thanks for the guide (tho I’ve not installed Mac yet). I need to clarify few things.

      I’ve got Windows 7 Ultimate, and two hard disks. One of 80 gb (that’s where my current OS ie Windows is installed), with C:\ as the directory for Windows. The other one is of 500 gb, with nothing in it at all. I wish to install both the OSes there.
      First ques. is that is there any option to format particular partitions in the Disk Utilities, or maybe delete a partition? Then I’d partition the drive where my Windows is installed, and leave it like that.

      Then, what do I do to install Mac on the 500 gb HD? Do I need to partition the 2nd drive before starting the installation of Mac, or during the installation? Please help.

      Third, in the instructions that were given with the torrent file, it was written that I had to mention -v arch=i386 or arch=i386 if I’m using a x86 based system. Plz suggest me when do I have to type in these in detail.
      The file that I downloaded it was an image file, and I wrote the image using Windows Disc Image Burner. The OS is Mac OS X 10.6.2 Snow Leopard.

      Please, kindly take your time to reply to the above queries, either here, or to my email at sober.z@live.com… Please do forgive me if I wasted ur time, but I wanna install Mac on my PC.

      Thanks in advance

  • Benji

    I have windows 7 already installed on my laptop, so is it possible to install EasyBCD and setup the dual boot on Windows, then install Snow Leopard onto another partition? I can boot from a SL disc successfully, and even get through installation. However, when SL installation finishes and I reboot it comes up with boot0 error. I had to use Win7 recovery discs to restore my system, so I’m just wondering if it’s possible to install Snow Leopard as a dual booting system without having to reinstall Win7 and lose data?

    • http://thegadgets.net Owaeis

      I’m not sure and that’s not my recommended method!

      • http://none Max Balboa

        Great tutorial!

        I got one question, what partition table did you use? MBR or GUID?

        Thanks.

  • whit

    I have an original snow leopard DVD can I work with this one or does it have to be the Hackintosh ?

  • JohninSF

    Does anyone see any issues with installing Snow Leopard on this system?

    ASUS UL20 Series UL20A-A1
    Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300(1.30GHz) 12.1″
    2GB Memory
    250GB HDD Intel GMA 4500MHD NoteBook
    Windows 7 Home Premium

    Blowing away Win 7 and re-formatting HD seriously considered.

  • Josh

    oh yeh, and when I try to set mac partition as active, it gives an error saying this cannot be done on this partition type.

    • http://thegadgets.net Owaeis

      I can’t assist you on your own invented method. You used “Shrink volume” which was not my recommended method.

  • Josh

    I tried Easy BCD after installing Windows 7 first and then Mac OSX. But after boot it shows a Windows Recovery screen when I try to boot into Mac OSX. When I use diskpart on windows it shows that the Mac OSX is installed on an extended partition 0 and logical partition 3 within that. I tried configuring EasyBCD on both 0 and 3 but none of them boots up MacOSX… any hints on how to get it to work?

    • http://thegadgets.net Owaeis

      May be you’d need to start over and avoid any mistakes you made.

  • Mike

    So is it possible to just use the Windows 7 disc management utility, shrink drive C by 40GB and then install OS X and then somehow use a utility just like EasyBCD but for MAC and enable dual booting?

  • Mike

    Question. Just like the others, bought a new laptop and there is no CD included, its on the Recovery partition of the drive. Can I just reserve 40GB of the HDD for OS X and then boot and install OS X onto the 40GB? But Im guessing if you did it this way you wouldnt be able to boot into Windows 7 again? Or following your method listed, how do you install windows 7 on the “80GB” partition if your windows 7 installation is on the default partition provided by HP?

    Thanks, hopefully you understand what Im saying.

    • Josh

      hey there… you could use “Shrink volume” from computer management to resize an existing partition on Windows 7, and install Mac OSX on that. Thats what I did.

  • V0rtex

    If my laptop is currently running windows 7 with files and things saved into it already, can I just partition my drive then install snowleopard with out backing up my windows and wiping my drive?

  • Fernando

    Hi, i like the guide. I have a problem when i’m trying to boot the usb with snow leopard inside. The only thing that appears is the coursor, nothing more. And never boots, what could it be ?

  • Kieth

    If I already have Windows 7 installed on my C: drive, can I just partition part of the drive and leave windows 7 alone. I can’t reinstall windows 7, lost the cd (stupid, I know), so do you have to wipe it completely off? If I have to wipe the disk completely clean, could I instead use a external hardrive, or would that be to slow with USB 2.0.

  • marcreed

    Could I format using disk management as it gives me some crap about if you format to dynamic the current os cannot be run from it(which im using b: which as far as I know doesn't have a os i installed.
    RSP
    Marc.

  • http://www.haloreachbeta.com/ Ryan

    How do you get around OS X needing a GPT partition while Windows needs an MBR partition?

    When I format the drive for OS X, it formats the entire drive as GPT. So then when I try to install windows on a separate partition, it won't install because it can't install on a GPT drive. There's no way to make one partition GPT and another partition MBR on the same drive, at least not that I can figure out.

    • http://thegadgets.net Owaeis

      If you strictly follow the above tutorial, you won't face this problem. Here
      I'm explaining it again for you:

      1. Do Windows installation prior than Mac OS.
      2. During Windows installation, leave some unpartitioned space for Mac OS.
      3. While doing Mac OS installation, locate unpartitioned space and format it
      accordingly.

      Hope, you get it.

      • http://www.haloreachbeta.com/ Ryan

        The problem is (at least that I ran into), is that in the Mac disk utility is was not possible format a partition as GPT. It required the entire drive being formatted GPT. If I select just one partition, the GUID option is grayed out.

      • JohninSF

        OWAEIS:

        Love this Guide and sorry to split hairs. However, this comment conflicts with your original post where you stated the following:

        1. Backup your data
        2. Partition the Hard Disk
        3. Install Mac OS X Snow Leopard
        4. Install Windows 7
        5. Set up dual boot

        Could you clarify which is the correct way since I may end up doing this?

        • jeroen

          Hi all,
          i have a question :D
          Can i install Mac OS X Snow Leopard on a other internal hardisk on my pc?
          and then set up a dual boot between win7 and mac osx
          that’s because i have already a working win7 on my pc.

  • want my osxpc

    ive tried this 3 different ways, run into the same error everytime. ive done everything perfectly because everything works until i get to the Mac OS loading screen, i let it load up and it goes into error mode. i have pictures of what it looks like if anyone is interested in diagnosing and helping me make this work.

  • Thomas

    Does this work? I want to know if it does before trying it.

    • silentfire619

      Thomas,
      I have tried it and so far it has not worked. I haven't been able to successfully dual boot both. I get an error when trying to boot into Snow Leopard.

      • http://thegadgets.net Owaeis

        @thomas and silentfire619, it should work, I am running Mac OS X & win 7 on my laptop using the above method.

      • want my osxpc

        Same here, i did everything and installed snow leopard perfectly but it wont let me boot into snow leopard. has no problem with windows 7.

  • Chris

    I tried installing Snow Leopard but I keep getting kernel panics before the install.
    Is there a fix?
    Thanks.

  • rondus18

    Is it really necessary to “format and partition your hard disk from scratch” because I've created partitions before and my date was fine. Why can't I just create my partitions and leave my C drive alone?

  • Mitch

    HI,
    Does this work with OS X ‘Tiger’ as i dont have a Snow leopard DVD?

    • http://thegadgets.net Owaeis

      yup!

  • luke

    so, if I do this, i would not be able to access a back-up from my external hard drive? I use a netbook and don’t own an external optical drive, but this looks awesome.

  • charles

    Hi,
    Is it possible to install Mac on a logical drive?

    • http://thegadgets.net Owaeis

      Not sure :(

  • Riad

    I have question. In that guide, it tells you to purchase a mac dvd. Is they saying to purchase actual MAC OS X DVD Installer or is that Snow Leopard 10a432 edition?

    I tried to install it by restoring 10a432 into portable hd, and boot from there into my laptop. It can see the destination hd, but when I select it, it doesn’t do anything. I am going to try to use MAC OS X DVD.dmg (actual file from Apple)

  • Riad

    Owaeis, Thaks a zillion, man. I got it to work :) :) :) :). It was so stupid that i missed to click “CUSTOMIZED” during installation wizard. From there, you have to select all kext files related to your hardware. No more “still waiting for root device” or error. It is running fine with Win 7 with EasyBCD.

    My touchpad, keyboard, ethernet and wireless is n’t working. I don’t worry about sound.

    Owaesis, since i got it to work with your help, i have to bug u again for this. is there any good Snow Leopard that i can do to install in my PC as dual OS? Initially, i wanted Snow Leopard. With your advise. iPC Leopard worked well :). Please advise or provide me any good link.

    • http://thegadgets.net Owaeis

      yay! :D You need to install the kexts for ps/2 mouse to get the touchpad working, find it over the web. Its the first time I’ve see som1′s ethernet not working, try to find kext for that too. Have you tried lifehacker’s guide for Snow Leopard?

  • Riad

    Honestly, still it is not working. I applied solution to remove *ATA* file and replace it from DVD per instruction from iClarified. Didn’t work. I wonder if I should change com.apple.plist file. Still search in google for different solution. If you know anything that will work, please let me know. Thanks again

  • Riad

    Error: “Still waiting for root device” in verbose mode.

    • http://thegadgets.net Owaeis

      o_O Com’on Riad, you are doing good but you must had finished playing with OS X first. Once its going fine, then go for Win 7.

  • Riad

    UPDATE: “Owaeis”, thanks for your help. I found the problem. no solution yet :(. I went into VERBOSE mode with -v command. I tried all the command listed in iPC website for solution. It didn’t work. If anyone has any solution, will be great.

  • Riad

    I installed it successfully. After installation was completed, it prompted me to restart. Then, I install Winodws 7 and EasyBCD. EasyBCD works fine, but i get stuck in gray screen with stop symbol and spinning wheel. I wonder if it is video card issue. If so, then i wouldn’t able to install mac

  • Riad

    Awesome! Finally, I installed Mac with EasyBCD. However, mac leopard doesn’t load. I get apple screen with STOP symbol. At the bottom, the wheel is keep circling. It doesn’t load. Do you know why?

    • http://thegadgets.net Owaeis

      did it use to run before? If yes, then keep on trying, it must boot after successive tries.

  • Riad

    Thanks for your reply. Is there any Snow Leopard ISO I can use? Will Snow Leopard Universal work with above instruction? I want Snow Leopard :). It looks awesome

    • http://thegadgets.net Owaeis

      look in the post above, I’ve provided a link to a lifehacker’s article for installing Snow Leopard on PC.

  • Riad

    Hi. I am struggling to install Dual OS Windows 7 and Snow Leopard. I have a DMG copy of Apple Mac OS X 10.6.1 and windows 7 enterprise install into my laptop. I went so many website and youtube videos, but no luck.

    I made two active partition. Windows 7 installed into C and other partition is formated as Extended (Journel). I put Snow Leopard image into portable HD(formated with extended (journel) using VMWare version of OS 10.5. I installed Chameleon R3, it shows which parition i installed from portable HD. Apple comes up, then I have gray screen with mouse curer(which I cannot even move). I don’t know why. I have Intel 5 seris video card in my Sony Vaio laptop.

    When I used above instruction, I get into kernel Panic. When I used Chameleon R3, I stuck again into gray screen. Any advise would be really appreciate. Thanks a lot.

  • Ben

    Thanks very much for the awesome post! I’m still having some trouble, though. I followed the directions but upon reboot, when I select the mac os, it takes me to a grub bootloader that asks me for input. The other option gives me a “insert your windows cd” error. Can you please tell me what I have to do with that grub loader? Thank you!

    ~~B3N

    • http://thegadgets.net Owaeis

      Ben, you’ve done something wrong. Most probably you’ve corrupted your Mac OS X installation or you haven’t selected the right drive from EasyBCD. Did you succeed to run Mac OS alone before installing Windows 7?

      • Joel

        do you have to install windows seven if you alredy had it installed and can you use the original cd of mac os x because i have it

  • Jack

    Right now I don’t have a copy of Win7, is this possible on Vista too?

    • http://thegadgets.net Owaeis

      yep! It will work perfectly for Vista too :)

      • Jack

        Thanks buddy :D

  • Omar

    thanks for responding! but that still doesn’t answer one of my other questions. Do you have to patch the os x disc? or can you install with a retail disc? Thanks for replying1

    • Omar

      also, this method works on amd-cpu’s right?

      • http://thegadgets.net Owaeis

        yep, right!

        • Omar

          So a non-patched version of 10.6? or will i have to resort to manual hacking of the iso on my friend’s mac?

          • Omar

            oh. forgot about the link. sorry to bother you =) thanks anyway!

    • http://thegadgets.net Owaeis

      Omar, you won’t need to patch a Mac OS X CD/DVD yourself. Just download a hackintosh version of your choice and install it. It should seamlessly install like the Windows 7 does. Better follow lifehacker’s tutorial on that. Link is mentioned above in the post. :)

      • Omar

        thanks!

        • http://thegadgets.net Owaeis

          You are welcome! I hope thegadgets.net serves you well and it will keep on doing so in future too!

  • Omar

    what about the os x disc? does it need to be patched? and i have Windows 7 Professional already installed on my laptop. Can’t i just partition that and in install 10.6 on the un-formated space?

    • http://thegadgets.net Owaeis

      you can!

  • Jeremy12321

    Can you start at step 3 directly with a brand new HD or do you have to install windows first then start from the begining

    sent from iPhone

    • http://thegadgets.net Owaeis

      @Jeremy I won’t recommend starting at step 3 because you need unpartitioned space before moving forward. But you’d install Win 7 after you are done with the OS X.

  • http://theparafactor.com Greg

    I followed this to the T, but when I load the installer for OSX, (image created from upgrade DVD of snow leopard) my HDD does not appear. It does show in the Hackintosh startup options, but not in Disk Utility

    • http://thegadgets.net Owaeis

      use some hackintosh flavor like iAtKos, ideneb etc. Better follow lifehacker’s tutorial on that.

  • Pingback: uberVU - social comments

  • http://www.crispytech.com saad

    Awesome Post.Thanks alot

    • http://thegadgets.net Owaeis

      You are welcome. That’s what I am here for! :P

  • http://segmentnext.com Zawad Iftikhar

    Nice…. Two rivals side by side in the same PC, in Perfect Harmony :P

    • http://thegadgets.net Owaeis

      absolutely! They won’t quarrel! :D