Henry Cipolla

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Solutions to common problems encountered while configuring your PC to dual boot Vista and OSX

Saturday, April 26th, 2008 • Filed Under
PC Laptop + OSX There are a bunch of guides out there on how to dual boot Vista and OS X on your PC. While I have listed the general steps that I followed below, this post is intended to be a troubleshooting guide for some of the weird problems you can run into while trying to do this.

hfs+ partition error on boot
This usually means that you have a problem with your master boot record (MBR) or the partition id is unrecognizable to the loader. To fix this:

  1. boot the Mac OS Installer DVD
  2. from the Utilities menu, open a terminal
  3. from the terminal run
    fdisk /dev/rdisk0 (or whatever device you are using)
  4. look for your OS X partition. If the id for it is not ‘AF’ then setting it to AF should fix your problem. This is concerning though because Apple’s Disk Utility should set this properly.
  5. if the id is AF then you can rebuild your MBR by quitting fdisk and running
    fdisk -u /dev/rdisk0

b0 error on boot
This is usually caused by the OSX partition not being marked as active. To fix this:

  1. boot the MAC OS Installer DVD and open a terminal from the Utilities menu
  2. launch fdisk with
    fdisk -e /dev/rdisk0 (or appropriate device)
  3. press p and enter to see a list of partitions
  4. find your Mac OSX partition in the list
  5. type f to make it active. For example if the partition you want to make active is number 1, type:
    f 1
  6. enter the command:
    write to commit the changes
  7. on reboot, things work.

Windows fails to boot, claiming \Windows\system32\winload.exe is missing or corrupted
There are a number of things that can cause this. Fortunately this is really easy to fix. Just pop in your Vista DVD and run through the automated recovery to have it rebuild your \boot\BCD and update the MBR. Note that this requires that your Vista partition be flagged as bootable.

Vista DVD is unable to find any installations of Windows to restore or when you try and install Vista it gives you the error “Windows is unable to find a System Volume that meets its criteria for installation” or when you are manually using bcdedit to fix your mbr it tells you it cannot write to the disk
As unintuitive as it sounds, this is usually caused by the Vista partition not being flagged as bootable. To fix this, follow the steps for making a partition active from the b0 error on boot instructions, except use the id of your Vista partition instead of your OSX partition.

You have both operating systems installed and can boot Vista but EasyBCD does not have the auto-configure Mac device option that you are looking for
The fix for this is to not use EasyBCD for this. I find this to be an unnecessary complication. Instead, simply copy the Darwin x86 bootsector (known as chain0) tor you local hard drive and use bcdedit to make Vista’s boot loader load Vista:

  1. Copy chain0 to c:\ (or the root of whichever drive Vista is installed on)
  2. from an elevanted command prompt do the following:
    bcdedit /copy {current} /d “Mac OS X”
    bcdedit /enum active     this will display your active partitions Find the one labelled “Mac OS X”. Under it you’ll see a line titled “identifier” followed by a GUID sorrounded by {} chars. Copy that id
    bcdedit /set {IdYouCopied} PATH \chain0
  3. Reboot, you’ll see Mac OS X listed as an option. Select it. Then it will give 5 seconds to press a key to go into advanced options. Press any key. You’ll then see a list of all your partitions. Select the Mac partition and you should be good to go.

Steps I took to get my dual boot install working:

  1. I used the Disk Management snap-in to the Computer Management Console to shrink my Vista partition. This left me with a 30 GB Vista partition and a bunch of unpartitioned space. Using the same tool I created another 30 GB Partition.
  2. I booted the Mac Installer from a PC-bootable Mac DVD, used the Disk Partition utility to format the new partition with HFS+ (with journaling) and installed Mac on my box
  3. Installer finished, rebooted my machine and gave me HFS+ error
  4. I Rebooted the Mac Installer to fix that (this step is not necessary)
    Made the Vista Partition bootable and rebooted to see that Vista’s boot loader can’t find winload.exe. Used a Vista DVD to fix this
  5. booted Vista and copied chain0 to my root (c:\)
  6. used bcdedit to add an entry to the Vista Boot loader to boot Mac

Feel free to post any problems you have. Maybe somebody can answer them. :)

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There Are 9 Responses So Far. »

  1. Pingback by Just got back from The Cambridge Enterprise Web 2.0 Meetup : Henry Cipolla on 12 May 2008:

    […] My article about common problems that come up during this process […]

  2. Comment by Mikey on 19 March 2009:

    I did all the above and still get a “chain booting error” when I try to start mac When I ran the darwin utility from the iATKOS dvd before install osx …it failed to copy the bootefi stating that it could not unmount the drive …and so poo poo

    How can I manually correct this ?

    I’ve already manuallt done bcdedit and entered the identifier …and copied chain0 .

    HELP PLEASE !

  3. Comment by henry on 19 March 2009:

    Yikes. Ok let’s start w/ the basics. Can you run bcdedit and paste the output here, so we know what we are working with?

    – Henry

  4. Comment by Cheryl on 27 April 2009:

    I have the same problem as Mikey but was able to install. Edited bcd entries but ended up getting the chain error message. Here’s my bcd output. Just ignore XP, I have accidentally installed os x on that partition. I have no problems booting to Vista Business but when I select Mac OS X the chain error msg appears.

    Many thanks in advance.

    Windows Boot Manager
    ——————–
    identifier {bootmgr}
    device partition=C:
    path \bootmgr
    description Windows Boot Manager
    locale en-US
    inherit {globalsettings}
    default {current}
    displayorder {ntldr}
    {current}
    {9c3113ad-33c9-11de-b271-dc6e7d1c7978}
    toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
    timeout 30

    Windows Legacy OS Loader
    ————————
    identifier {ntldr}
    device unknown
    path \ntldr
    description Windows XP Professional

    Windows Boot Loader
    ——————-
    identifier {current}
    device partition=C:
    path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
    description Windows Vista (TM) Business (recovered)
    recoverysequence {572bcd55-ffa7-11d9-aae0-0007e994107d}
    recoveryenabled Yes
    osdevice partition=C:
    systemroot \Windows
    resumeobject {94d21bcf-3343-11de-beef-806e6f6e6963}

    Windows Boot Loader
    ——————-
    identifier {9c3113ad-33c9-11de-b271-dc6e7d1c7978}
    device partition=C:
    path \chain0
    description Mac OS X
    recoverysequence {572bcd55-ffa7-11d9-aae0-0007e994107d}
    recoveryenabled Yes
    osdevice partition=C:
    systemroot \Windows
    resumeobject {94d21bcf-3343-11de-beef-806e6f6e6963}

  5. Comment by henry on 27 April 2009:

    Both of you guys with the chain error, have you seen this thread:
    http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=107391

    Also is this 64 or 32 bit (I don’t think it matters).
    And can you provide some fdisk output so we know what your partitions look like?

    – Henry

  6. Comment by Cheryl on 28 April 2009:

    Thanks Henry, would really appreciate any help here. Yes seen lots of thread but couldn’t figure out much. Not very technical.

    I only know print using fdisk so here goes.

    *1 07 97091576 HPFS/QNX/AUX
    2 07 95344632 HPFS/QNX/AUX
    3 05 76662784 EXTENDED DOS
    4 00 0 UNUSED

    It’s currently flagged to 1, resulting to the chain error
    If I flag 2, it displays HPFS Partition Error
    If I flag 3, it displays a blank screen with a cursor

    ===
    Using Vista->My Computer, it shows
    C: 26.9 GB free of 46.2 GB
    and D:, with no information about D

    Using Vista->Disk Management, it shows the following:
    Line 1:
    [blank] Simple Basic [blank] Healthy (Active,Primary Partition)
    Capacity: 22.45GB, Free: 22.45GB
    Line 2:
    [C:] Simple Basic [NTFS] Healthy (Sys,Boot,PageFile,Active,Crash,Dump,Primary Partition)
    Capacity: 46.3GB Free:26.97GB
    Line 3:
    [D:] Simple Basic [Raw] Healthy (Primary Partition)
    Capacity: 45.46GB Free:45.46GB
    Line 4: (CD Drive info)

    However at the graphical blocks below the textual info, it displays 5 blocks:
    Block 1: (color dark blue)
    C: 46.30GB NTFS (Sys,Boot,PageFile,Active,Crash,Dump,Primary Partition)
    Block 2: (color dark blue)
    D: 45.46GB RAW Healthy (Primary Partition)
    Block 3: (color light green)
    14.11GB Free Space
    Block 4: (color dark blue)
    22.45GB
    Healthy (Active,Primary Partition)
    Block 5: (color black)
    20.73GB unallocated

    I think I installed iATKOS_v1.0 at the drive with 22.45GB space. I wanted to install it at the 5th block but couldn’t figure where it was at the Mac Disk utility.

    I have an HP541 CoreDuo T5670@1.80GHz 3GB ram running on Vista Business. I used to have XP Pro together with Vista but I think I’ve installed iATKOS there but that doesn’t matter for now.

    If it is hopeless and if my iATKOS installation was wrong/done on the wrong partition can you please advise how I’d do it if: I want to keep Vista where it is, install XP in the future, and install iATKOS.

    Thank you so much. I owe you big time for this.

  7. Comment by Cheryl on 28 April 2009:

    I realized I didn’t show the AF thing.

    continuing Fdisk info–

    I selected partition 3, it showed
    fdisk 2>
    *1: AF HFS+

  8. Comment by henry on 29 April 2009:

    Ok, a few things:

    This is interesting to me:
    *1 07 97091576 HPFS/QNX/AUX
    2 07 95344632 HPFS/QNX/AUX
    3 05 76662784 EXTENDED DOS
    4 00 0 UNUSED

    It shows that you have two Mac partitions, where you should really only have one. Did you try installing it twice?

    When you said that if you flag 2 it shows the HPFS error, you mean that it always shows the HPFS error when you turn on the computer, or only when you select OS X from the boot menu does it show that?

    Also, did you play with EasyBCD? I have never found any success with this program, but I’m curious what it thought of your situation.

  9. Comment by Cheryl on 29 April 2009:

    Hi Henry- I installed it just once but I went through the disk utility twice ‘coz i couldnt figure out which partition I’m supposed to use.

    If I flag 2 it wouldn’t load any boot options showing Vista and Mac OS and will boot directly to the HPFS Partition error.

    Haven’t tried EasyBCD, will look into that. If I’m not able to fix this problem i might just do another reinstall, this time being careful of partitions and where i install the mac. Thanks =)

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