Lion, bootcamp, and extra partitions

same issue, can anyone help?

Same problem!

Your not alone,

I'm new to a mac & upgraded to Lion straight away. So can't comment on previous OS's. I'd set up Windows as a second partition, done all the updates and installed my core programs. Which lead me to things that I would like available from both Lion and Windows 7. So I used the Lion drive util, shrunk the Mac partition and added a FAT one between the existing. Tried to boot to windows and got nothing other than something like Non bootable disk. So I thought go back into Lion and delete the newly created partition. i.e. restore it back to just Lion and Windows 7. I wish!!! That trashed the windows partition. - Boot Camp $uck$ like a Russian prostitute!!!

What I should of done, was hold the option key while booting, and choosing to boot off the windows install CD/DVD. The selecting the repair option (Available before it starts copying files). This checked my drive and fixed the partition table errors. THANKS WINDOWS/MICROSOFT!!!

My system now boots to both OS's & both can see my shared partition. - Sorted!

I've only just finished as I write this, and one strage thing is that when i removed the Windows DVD from the machine I can't see anything other than the Mac Disk in the Lion OS "Start Up" options. Not a problem, as I can just restart, hold the option key, and choose the OS to boot.

Hope this helps!!! :-)

Sorry, but your suggestion didn't help me. I did eventually get it figured out, I had to download gptsync (google it) and selected my fat32 partitions to sync to the MBR, and it let me install without using the Boot Camp utility. I'm posting this from windows 7 now 😀

Successful setup of OS X Lion + Bootcamp Windows 7 Ult + Data Partition

After many, many hours I think I've finally figured out how to successfully install Mac OS X Lion with Windows 7 on a Bootcamp partition AND an 3rd data partition. Here is a screenshot of my setup on my 13" MacBook Pro:

As you can see, I have my internal 500GB hard drive partitioned the following way:

• 120GB OS X Lion (system and apps)
• 316GB workspace partition (user files, projects)
• 64GB Bootcamp Windows 7 Ultimate

To make this work, I started with the standard procedure of installing OS X Lion on a single Mac OS Ext partition and using Bootcamp Assistant to build the Bootcamp partition for Windows.

Then I did 2 key things:

1. Before installing Windows on the Bootcamp partition, I first went back to Disk Utility, shrunk the OS X Lion partition, and inserted a 3rd partition Workspace_HD for all my user files. Then I restarted and installed Windows 7.
2. After Win 7 Ultimate, the Bootcamp drivers and Office 2010 were installed and activated, I DID NOT make any changes to any partitions. I can put whatever I want on any partition, but I CAN NOT shrink, resize, delete, create, or modify any partition. Any change to the partition tables after Windows is installed will BREAK the Bootcamp partition.

I went thru 3 broken installs of Bootcamp/Win7 to figure this out.

Again, the key to this working is creating your extra partitions AFTER you make the Bootcamp partition but BEFORE you install Windows. And after Windows is installed, you CAN NOT modify any partition.

I will rebuild my system for a 5th time to fully document the process with screenshots, but this time with 5 partitions: OS X Lion startup, Workspace, custom 20GB OS X Lion recovery partition, 30GB FAT32 shared Mac/Win data partition, and a Bootcamp partition with Windows 7 Ultimate.

Until then, I hope this works for you!! Good Luck!! ;-)

Ernie

I have tried hard to achieve the same result as ernie.

However, no success.

It is not possible to install Win7 in the BOOTCAMP partition if the preceeding partion is not contiguous!!

So, I am curious what the difference is between systems if one person is able to split the available disk space in partitions and the other is not.

I gave up.

- Brought the system back to the original disk layout

- Used BootCamp to install Win7

This is the only way it works for me.

As a newcomer in the Apple world I expected things to go smoother.

I have the feeling that it was not the best timing to buy an iMac with OSX Lion (according to other posts). I wonder if this would work with Snow Leopard.

But I am still happy with the iMac.

OSX Lion 10.7

8 GB RAM

1 TB HD

How did you accomplish this?

"I started with the standard procedure of installing OS X Lion on a single Mac OS Ext partition and using Bootcamp Assistant to build the Bootcamp partition for Windows.

Then I did 2 key things:

Before installing Windows on the Bootcamp partition, ..."

When I run Bootcamp Assitant it will not create a Bootcapm partition without installing Windows at the same time. The first thing it does when I set the partition size is to try to start a Windows install. And then, although I've got my Windows install disk in the disk drive, it tells me that it cannot find a Windows install disk!

Hmmm.... I'm going to recreate my steps and post a more detailed description. I've since done this exact same install on a MacMini with no problems. I should say that I do have a standard OS X Lion image that I use to install OS X, which takes 9min total, compared to 1hr+ doing it app by app. And you do have to Force Quit the Bootcamp installer when it asks you to insert the Windows 7 installer disc to start installing.

ernopena_nyc wrote:

Hmmm.... I'm going to recreate my steps and post a more detailed description. I've since done this exact same install on a MacMini with no problems. I should say that I do have a standard OS X Lion image that I use to install OS X, which takes 9min total, compared to 1hr+ doing it app by app. And you do have to Force Quit the Bootcamp installer when it asks you to insert the Windows 7 installer disc to start installing.

I would like to know what program you use to create a Image of OS X Lion, or any Mac OS.

I have searched and searched for a Apple OS X imaging program and the only things I can come up with is Cloning software. Which is not an Image.

I created an image of an OS X Lion install, complete with apps, using Apple's Disk Utility. It's very easy to do.

Hello ernopna_nyc

I try your setup OS X lion + Bootcamp Win 7 + extra data partition

it was very interesting to make the extra data partition between bootcamp partition and the install of windows 7

but I got a problem when it comes to install that it inherent to windows : windows can't recoqnize more than 4 partitions on a disk

when you install bootcamp you have in fact 3 partitions created on physical disk :

- one 200MB that is EFI Boot (Bios)

-one mac OS X that user see in utilitaire disk

-one windows bootcamp that the user see

but with mac os X lion we have that HD recovery disk that make an extra partition on the disk, and that makes 4 physical partitions

you see clearly those partitions when you boot on the windows install disk and you have to choose the partition to install windows

when I create my data partition and go to the windows 7 install, the bootcamp partition has dissepear, replaced by a not allocate partition and enable to format that

I am very curious and will be very happy to know how did to fix it? thanks to answer

krisranch wrote:

but I got a problem when it comes to install that it inherent to windows : windows can't recoqnize more than 4 partitions on a disk

That is incorrect. Windows can not use/have more then 4 Primary partitions but if you create a Extended Partition with logical drives inside the extended partition Windows can have 10s of drives on one physical disk.

Not sure if there is any limit to the number of Logical Drives in an Extended Partition. I don't think there is.

As Windows can not even see Mac HSF+ partitions, those partitions should not be a problem.

Hi!!

I am using mac mini late 2012..

it has mountain lion installed..

i need to install windows 8 using boot camp

also need to create a partition where i can use media files both on mac and windows...

i am a very new user....

can anybody help me with the same.....