Use to be able to run 10.6.8 under VM inside Lion. Seems that is not an option.
Dual SSDs and put your 3 operating systems spread out.
Thunderbolt Macs have fast storage and so can run OS X off TB port. Also putting Windows VM on TB interface rather than run natively.
There are those that have had 3rd data partition and a few with triple boot but that is harder and not sure - might need to give up Lion/ML Recovery - not sure how they both get along now in your setup with the updated Recovery.
This is probably the best thread I saw on the subject:
100 Gb Main OS X Lion Partition
600 Gb OS X Documents Drive - Could be ML
100 Gb Partition Windows 7
Any change to the partition tables after Windows is installed will BREAK the Bootcamp partition.
I have solved (problem) by deleting the 600 MB Recovery just before I started installing Windows 7. The 600 MB Recovery partition is not needed.
Successful setup of OS X Lion + Data Partition + Bootcamp Win7 Ult
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3293948
how to successfully setup Mac OS X Lion on one partition, a seperate data partition, and Windows 7 Ultimate on a Bootcamp partition .
Here is a screenshot of setup on MacBook Pro:
![User uploaded file]()
Here is a quick step by step:
Install OS X Lion on a single partition hard drive.
Run Bootcamp Assistant.
Download drivers for Mac and burn to CD.
Make 60GB Bootcamp partition for Windows.
When prompted for install disc, STOP installation and quit Bootcamp.
Launch Disk Utility. Look at the 2 partitions.
Shrink Mac OS X partition to 100GB.
Click on + to create a 3rd partition in free space.
Split that partition into however many other partitions you want.
Quit Disk Utility.
Insert Windows 7 installer DVD and restart Mac.
After the startup chime, hold down OPTION key.
Wait a while until the Windows 7 DVD appears and select it.
Mac should start up from DVD. Start installing Windows 7.
Continue until finished. DO NOT connect to internet.
Load Bootcamp drivers CD that you burned and install.
When finished, restart and log into Windows 7.
Continue installing your applications. Do activations.
When finished, restart, holding down the OPTION key.
You are done. You should now see your OS X Lion and Win 7 partitions.
Next am going to rebuild my system again 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.followed all the steps from ernopena_nyc but with 2 more steps
![User uploaded file]()
- Install OS X Lion on a single partition hard drive.
- Delete Recovery Disc from Lion OSX over the terminal, Boot DVD or whatever u wanna use (Partition is around 600 Mb)
- Run Bootcamp Assistant.
- Made a 100GB Bootcamp partition for Windows.
- When prompted for install disc, STOP installation and quit Bootcamp.
- Launch Disk Utility. Look at the 2 partitions.
- Shrink Mac OS X partition to 100GB.
- Click on + to create a 3rd partition in free space.
- Quit Disk Utility.
- Insert Windows 7 installer DVD and restart Mac.
- After the startup chime, hold down OPTION key.
- Wait a while until the Windows 7 DVD appears and select it.
- Mac should start up from DVD. Start installing Windows 7.
- Format the Bootcamp Partition with NTFS Fileformat (when prompted where to install Windows 7, otherwise u can't select the Drive).
- Continue until finished.
- Load Bootcamp drivers with Mac OSX Snow Leopard DVD (Bootcamp is not on the burned Lion DVD) or download them and burn them to DVD.
- When finished, restart and log into Windows 7.
- Continue installing your applications. Do activations.
- When finished, restart, holding down the OPTION key.
- You are done. You should now see your OS X Lion and Win 7 partitions.
One user comment:
got the same problem that Windows 7 destroyed the OS X partitions. After installing on 4 Macs I found the clue why Windows destroyed the OS X partitions: You cannot have a disk with more than 4 partitions in Windows 7 because it is booted via the MBR partition table. And I had five partitions.
I went thru 3 broken installs of Bootcamp/Win7 to figure this out.
Again, the key is creating your extra partitions AFTER you make the Bootcamp partition but BEFORE you install Windows. And once Windows is installed you CAN NOT make any modifications to any partition.
