In Need of Help [Tired of looking already]

Hi i am the owner of an 8.9 AAO my problem is i currently have my pc with windows XP which it brought plus 5 partitions in which i have
1: Windows 7 RC
2: Linux(UNR)
3: Linux Swap
4: Free Space ( This one i have made it into hfs+ and many other formats still cant get it to work)
5: Recovery

I already have all the files for the Mac OS X but what i want is to be able to install it without deleting any of the other partitions so at the end it would be

XP/WIndow 7/Linux/Mac

I really need a tutorial for making this work if anyone can help me please and explain to me in a little more detail in case i saw it but didnt understand it on another guide it would help a lot.

*Edit: I found a better way to explain my self the problem is that no matter what i do when i go to disk utility and erase the partition doesnt change to Mac type i am stuck in this step. What type does the partition have to be so that it can be used in the Mac Os X disk utility part?

Please if you know how to fix this leave links and detailed explanation of what i need to do.

 

I admire you for being so ambitious. You must be very familiar with disk partitioning, the extended partition, and logical drives. Please post some pictures of where you are stuck, and a copy of your partition table for analysis. You have come to the right forum for help and are definitely getting very near to success.

 

Ok thanks hope i can find the help i need for my problem.

Ok first of all My AAO has 160gb (Formatted is 150gb) of hard drive in which i have a MBR table with the following:
4.9gb - Acer Recovery Drive
85gb - Windows XP Service pack 3
21.4gb - Windows 7 Release Candidate
21.4gb - Free Space ( Waiting for MAC OS X)
15.4gb - Linux (UNR)
600mb - Linux-Swap

Ok next ill tell you how i did this in case you need to know the process which the hard drive has been trough
When i bought it it was
4.9gb - Recovery
144gb - Windows XP SP3

I downloaded Easeus Partition Manager Free Edition and did a few partitions which ended up like this
4.9gb - Recovery
85gb - Windows XP SP3
21.4gb - Fat32 (For Windows 7 )
16gb - Fat32 ( For Linux )
21.4gb - free space ( For Mac OS X )

I installed a few days after WIndows 7 Beta and this week changed it to the RC version.
After this 2 days after i got my UNR (after downloading and gettign a 8gb Usb to be able to install it)
for linux i took the 16gb Fat32 deleted it then made 600mb the Swap partition and the remaining 15.4 a ext3 partition and installed it

By this time my Hard drive is
4.9gb - Acer Recovery Drive
85gb - Windows XP Service pack 3
21.4gb - Windows 7 Release Candidate
21.4gb - Free Space ( Waiting for MAC OS X)
15.4gb - Linux (UNR)
600mb - Linux-Swap

Then after a few days of looking for the image and downloading it i found a guide on how to make it work from the USB from
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=11408 this guide.

Got it to work and now i was looking what type of partition i had to make my remaining free space to be able to install it without erasing any of the other partitions
i found places were it said that i had to make it Fat 32 and then erase it and format it in the Disk Utilities others said to make it HFS+ and HFS.

****Note this is were im stuck at the moment*****

I tried Fat32 with the Easeus Partion manager and tried to installed i put a label on the partition saying MACOSX and it appeared like that on the screen of iAtkos v5i i changed the format to Mac extended (journaled) and keep the same name and press erase. The partition got erased but it didn't get the format or the name i selected, the format never changed and the name was now disk0s4 and says its a linux type partition.

Well now after that i tried the last option i had to make my partition HFS or HFS+ format which i didn't know what program to use since Easeus partition manager didn't make that type of partition atleast not the free version. SO i looked and found Gparted and a guide for making it work from usb which i currently don't have a link for making it into usb.

Anyways after looking on many sites not finding anyone with the same problem i got bored of looking and gave up on trying to do this without any extra help so if you can help me please tell me if you need more info.

P.S. : ill try to upload pictures when i get home and personally i think its the partition which is the problem if any of you know a better program for making it HFS, HFS+ or which ever format it is tha ti need to use to make it work please leave a small guide and detail explanation i seriously am tired of looking around =P.

Thank you.

****Note: if your going to post that the only way to do so is uninstalling everything and making partitions by partition with the iAtkos v5i Disk Utility feature please don't post a reply i know this is a way that could work but im trying to do this without deleting any of my other partitions or harming them.******

 

i found this and maybe it can help with your partitioning and installation of osx : http://cy8erpunkthunk.blogspot.com/2006/03/triple-booting-windows-linux-and-osx86.html

 

I have a similar setup, what I did was using the UNR installer I created a partition of space formatted as FAT32. I then booted the OS X installer and erased the partition using HFS+ Journalled as the partition type, then I continued using the installer, customised my setup so that it didn't install PC EFI as the boot loader as I'm using grub and let it install.

What stage exactly are you getting a problem?

 

Well i tried formating the partition to fat32 with Linux(UNR)/Windows XP/Gparted and i stay stucked in the same place, When i go to Disk Utility i get this

My Hard Drive
Recovery Partition
XP
MACOSX(partition i labeled after changing to fat32) <--------------------- I choose this one click Mac extended (journaled) then erase
linux(UNR)
swap
Windows 7

My USB with the image
iAtkos 5vi


After like 10 to 20 secs it finishes and the partition now changed it stayed the same format but the label changed to disk04 which cant be used for Mac OS X this is where im stucked you could say if anyone knows whats wrong please reply.

Note: I will try doing it again like you posted to see if it works, so when i get home ill re post.

 

Can you print out the partition table, indicating which partitions are primary partitions, and which are logical partitions? Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, OSX86 may not like to be installed into a logical partition ... thus causing this failure to erase/format/install

 

Uhm the only logical partitions are the Linux swap partition and the recovery partition.
Oh and sorry i haven't been able to see the pc because of family meetings and things and i haven't tried anything else and cant take pictures but i think by tomorrow ill get the pics and check everything that has been posted here.


Edit: Ok i got home and tried doing the partition again from linux UNR i made it first free space then made it Primary and FAT32 after i went to Mac installer it said NONAME in the partitions list i pick it erase it and once again it goes to disk0s4 cant be used. I tried doing first aid and it says
Verifying volume "disk0s4"
** /dev/disk0s4
Invalid BS_jmpBoot in boot block: 000000
Error : File system verify or repair failed

note this is after i did erase.

Please if anyone know what could be wrong please post uhm and liek i said before the only partitions that are logical are the swap and the recovery partitions.

 

Can't help you further without seeing a print out of your complete partition table ...

 

Uhm its ok i finally was able to do it i just had to erase partition 3, 4, 5 and 6 (Windows 7) (Mac free space partition)(Linux)(Swap)
and put mac after exp and before windows then install linux at the end i didnt have to delete xp or the recovery which was the main idea to keep those 2 intact
thanks for the help with this i followed the things you all said and the links you provided and well finally got it working. Problem Solved i guess.

Note just in case for anyone else having this type of trouble

I have 3 Primary Partitions:
[Fat32] Recovery --------->4.9gb ( For this process do not
[NTFS] XP --------------> 20gb touch these 2 Partitions *if you don't wanna delete them that is*)
[HFS +] Mac OS X ------->20gb ( If its not a Primary it wont work and to make it work Format it to Fat32 in Windows XP or with Gparted then re format it in Mac OS X and install)

Also 4 Logical Partitions
[NTFS] Windows 7 RC 1 ------> 20gb (Yes it runs pretty well on a logical Partition)
[Ext 3] Linux [UNR] ----------> 19.5gb
Swap -------------------> 512mb
Fat32 Partition --------------65gb {Remaining Space} ( To transfer files from one OS to another without having to turn off the PC. Untill now it has worked just fine no problems with this
partition works on all 4 OS without having any problems with any of them.)



***Now i got another much annoying problem, my booting process to get to any of the operating Systems, Linux is easy cause since i installed it last hes providing the boot menu to get to Windows 7 , XP and Mac i have to at least pass two boot menu's to get to them something like this:

Linux Boot Menu(1)
(Linux)------> Start Ubuntu (UNR)
(Windows Loader) ----------> Sends to Next Booting screen (2)

Windows Boot Menu(2)
(XP)----------------------------------------------------------------------->Windows XP Boot Menu(3)
(Windows 7)-----------> Start Windows 7(RC 1)

Windows XP Boot Menu(3)
(Windows XP)------->Start XP
(Mac OS X)--------------------------> Start Darwin Boot Menu(4)

Start Darwin Boot Menu(4)
(Recovery)---->Start Recovery
(Mac OS X)------>Start Leopard
(XP)-------> Boot Menu(2)
(Windows 7)------>Boot Menu(2)

Yeah that's around how much i have to do to get to Xp , Mac or the Recovery. WIndows 7 and UNR aren't hard to get 2 but my main OS is XP right now cause of all the files inside so its kind of annoying to do this every time i turn on the pc plus to get to the Mac OS X for testing or usage is really long and it gets boring so is there anyway i can change all this into one booting screen?

Oh and just one booting screen something like this:

Boot Menu
XP -----> Start XP
Mac OS X -----> Start Leopard
Windows 7 ----> Start RC 1
UNR -------> Start Ubuntu

No double screen or triple or quadruple for that matter (Double screen isn't so annoying so if its the only choice ill take it but nothing more than that if its possible).

Please post any ideas or tutorials for this i really don't have much free time to look for it my self so if you can help me by finding it for me it would be great, once again thanks for the first problem hope you can help me out with this next one.

 

For the boot loader you need to edit your GRUB file, which is a bit of a pain if you've not done it before, this guide explains it a bit better than I can. The one part I stumbled on is where you tell it which HDD and partition to boot from you *must* specify wherever your linux partition is. If you follow that then you should be a-ok.