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".

Marriage of Convenience: Snow Leopard + Windows XP

EDIT: Use a USB installer with Snow Leo Install DVD restored on it and with NetbookBootMaker applied to be bootable for this to work. Explanation found here.

Though I haven't tried it to see for my own self, it's common knowledge that Snow Leopard and Windows XP dual-boot is not exactly without some challenges - piece of cake for the common hackintosher with some experience under his/her sleeve or the great seasoned ones but not exactly that easy for noobs.

First off, Snow Leopard by default will only install on disks which use GUID as their partition scheme; Windows XP doesn't like that, cause being an older OS it wants to play only with MBR.

One solution is to just install Windows 7 instead of Windows XP. But people want to dual boot with Win XP for reasons they only know and that we should respect. It's their choice anyhow.

Ok, so it's gotta be Win XP, another solution is to hack the Snow Leopard installer to make it accept an MBR formatted hard disk as installation destination. It's doable, yes, but still requires work. I myself did not attempt this cause although there are good resources out yonder in the world wide web, there wasn't a thrust compelling enough for me to go down this particular path. Snow Leopard's happily running on the Mini. I didn't care enough to sweat it. Period.

So what do we do now? Look enviously at real Mac heads who can effortlessly configure Windows on their Macs to dual-boot with Apple's big cats? Not anymore.

Who says it's only them who can have the pleasure of using Boot Camp Assistant? Yep, a hackintosher by the name of "modbin" has graciously shared his talent with the community and brought us Boot Camp Assistant that will work on hackintoshes.

In a nutshell, Boot Camp Assistant is just a friendlier front end for the same old Disk Utility we've come to love (and hate at times). We obtain a partition on a GUID hard disk that Windows XP will want to install on.

So, here we go: