Boot camp on new macbook with 10.6

Improved protocol: Create virgin 10.6.8.1 installation image to simplify installation proceedure and delete need for a mac which can boot from 10.6.3.

The following will remove the necessity of having an earlier Mac capable of booting off a 10.6.3 disk. I am using a 16GB USB stick (SanDisk Cruzer 16GB) for this, partitioned into three, with creation sizes of 7GB for 10.6.8.1, 5GB for 10.7 and 4GB for Updaters. This gets all the files needed for this protocol onto one USB stick.

Add the creation of a virgin Mac OS X 10.6.8.1 system, completed to initial log-in by following the instructions found at: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3264421?start=0&tstart=0

Mount the disk image (system.dmg) created above. Use CarbonCopy Cloner to clone all files from the mounted disk image created above to the 10.6.8.1 partition on your USB stick.

Later use CarbonCopy Cloner to clone all files from the USB stick to your 10.6.8 start-up partition on your new Mac.

Follow all steps posted earlier, (December 11th, above) through the completion of step 12, then:

13. Install Mac OS X 10.7

14. Restart (Option key) in 10.7, do basic configuration, defer transferring files, etc. until later.

15. Run latest 10.7 combo updater from the USB stick.

16. Install CarbonCopy Cloner to 10.7

17. Clone 10.6.8.1 virgin system from USB stick to 10.6.8.1 partition on internal hard drive.

18. Restart (Option key) in 10.6.8, do basic configuration, defer transferring files, etc. until later.

19. Run latest 10.6 combo updater … 10.6.8.1 as of this writing.

You now have a complete triple boot machine. Go back and configure everything as you want or need.

In step 10 you say to insert the Windows 7 install disk and that it will start up. At this point, the Mac hard disk has three empty partitions. Is that correct?

Stephen,

Yes.

Well, akjim2, I completed all the steps up to step 10 successfully. But, when I inserted my Windows7 Professional install disk, it only found a single partition (0). It did not see the three partitions that I had created in step 6. Any suggestions?

Stephen, Did you have success in step 6 and write down the partition number at step 7? If so, is the partition presented by your Windows installer disk the partition you wrote down at step 7? If so, while your installer disk is behaving differently than mine you should be good proceed with your Windows installation.

If you are uncertain whether you had success at step 7, start your new unit in target disk mode and take a look at it using your old mac. If you see the partitions you created in step 6, then you can return to step 7 and record the Windows partition address if you didn't retain your first note.

Here is what happened akjim2:

On my first try I created the three partitions on my new iMac (connected by Firewire to a macbook). In terminal, I used the command line in your protocall, substituting my disk # (1) and my partition sizes. I confirmed that the partitions were there. However, when I booted up the new iMac with the Windows 7 installation disk, it saw only one partition (0). So, I hooked up the Firewire and using my macbook, ejected the Windows install disk. I then disconnected the Firewire setup and booted my new iMac using my Lion install disk. I checked the partition setup using DiskUtility and discovered that the disk had been formated in the old mac partition format instead of the GUID partition table.

So I started over using the same command line in your protocall but added the instruction "GPTFormat" that the tech-recipe author used. This resulted in the new iMac disk being partitioned as before, but in the GUID partition table format. I then disconnected the Firewire set up and booted up the new iMac with the Windows 7 install disk. This time the Windows install disk would not boot in the new iMac.

At this point I gave up my effort to have three bootable partitions (10.7, 10.6, and Win7) and went to a single partition on the new iMac and used Bootcamp Assistant to create the windows disk and then used my Windows 7 install disk to install Windows in the partition created by Bootcamp Assistant. This time my Windows 7 install disk booted, saw the bootcamp partition and installed Windows without a hitch.

Strange, but that is what happened. Why it worked for you and not for me is a mystery!

Stephen, I'm sorry for what you went through without getting there! I can't offer any additional explanation either. Glad that you are at least up and running.