Visiting Hackintosh Shrines

image is actually for NetbookInstaller

And I meant "cyber shrines". Those links at the left sidebar, "Stuff to read" list, aren't merely there just to make this blog enticing according to a rule (I forgot which number it was) for blogging: "Readers love links. Link to other blogs and sites you find interesting." Not the exact words but works to an effect like that.
While that may probably be true - I, as a reader love links a lot - I look at my "Stuff to read" list as resources for the beginning hackintosher like me.

Remember this post about dual-booting Snow Leopard and Windows XP via Boot Camp Assistant on GPT (GUID Partition Table) formatted hard drive? I did that on my HP Mini 1000 and then forgot it almost completely so when I next tried to do it again, I was literally and utterly at lost when the Windows XP install process couldn't move beyond copying install files onto the designated partition.

Being the noob that I am, I resigned it all to the randomness of the whole hackintoshing exercise. But as it turns out, I was the random one - random whims of trying this and that and not documenting stuff to stay on top of the overwhelming surge of resources or lack thereof. The truth is, there's no such thing as "randomness" in the straightforward science of computing; it's clear and precise definition of 0's and 1's and it was only my addled brains that lacked the faculties to process what's laid before me to absorb.

It was no random thing that I'd been able to dual boot Snow Leo and Win XP on a GPT formatted hard drive. It was something called "gptsync".

What gptsync basically does is create a hybrid partition table from a GPT partition; that is MBR + GPT. I've forgotten that I used a USB installer which I'd made by restoring Snow Leopard Retail DVD on it and then making it bootable via NetbookBootMaker. Using this medium, I proceeded with the steps of installing Snow Leo on my then functioning HP Mini 1001TU and one of the steps in that process was to setup my partitions.

In short, I formatted my drive with gptsync feature from NetbookBootMaker. I was using gptsync all along and I never knew until now when I visited this "hackintosh shrine".