Mac Pro- format 1 drive to 2 NTFS for Win 7 and XP

JHendrix wrote on 1/13/2010, 9:00 AM
I have a mac pro and want to have a vegas 32 bit and 64 bit partition.

I want to format 1 drive to 2 NTFS partitions and install Win 7 64 on 1 and and XP 32 on the other.

I installed NTFS for Mac on Leopard partition (http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/). Im assuming I can now format the 2 partitions NTFS in OSX and then install the Win OSes normally.


Anyone else do this?

Comments

mdopp wrote on 1/13/2010, 9:52 AM
That sounds impossible to me since the Apple boot-manager can just handle one NTFS and one HFS+ partition.
But - why don't you just install Win 7 64 using bootcamp ?
Forget about the 32 bit Windows - both the 64 and 32 bit version of Vegas will run fine with a 64 bit Windows. At least on my Mac Pro this works nicely.
However, I have Vista 64 and not Win 7 64. I heard there are still some issues with Win 7 in Bootcamp. Don't know the details, though.
BTW, the paragon software will only allow you to read and write NTFS partitions. It is not a partition manager.
JHendrix wrote on 1/14/2010, 4:45 PM
I want two installs because after much tweaking I finally have a clean and "OK" running 32 bit vista and I cant afford to start experimenting unless I have a sure fire system ready to take over - cant afford the down time.

"BTW, the paragon software will only allow you to read and write NTFS partitions. It is not a partition manager."


right but once its installed the option to format NTFS becomes available in Disk Utility, thus the reason I supposed I could format to 2 partitions then install.
JHendrix wrote on 1/14/2010, 6:56 PM
"I heard there are still some issues with Win 7 in Bootcamp"


it would be nice to know what those problems are
JHendrix wrote on 1/15/2010, 5:40 PM
update:

used paragon in osx and created 2 NTFS partitions on 1 internal drive.

Installed/restored a backup of vista on 1 partition using winclone

booted into to vista no prob

inserted win7 dvd > held down C key - didnt work

inserted win7 dvd > held down option key > selected win7 dvd - installed no prob (but had to reformat the paragon ntfc partition at install time for some reason)

can now boot into any of my 4 OSX versions or select windows via option key on reboot (oddly, whichever windows I choose in the mac dialog, I am taken to the Windows boot manager where again, I select which win os to launch.

seems to work fine except Im screwed bcuz of the version of macpro I have it will only install 32bit...I know there is a workaround for it but I havnt had the time to try yet. I will either have to try that of buy a newer macpro to make it work (more easily) with the 64 bit win os.
mdopp wrote on 1/16/2010, 1:53 AM
This is Apple's statement about running Windows 7 in Bootcamp: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3920
Apparently they don't fully support it yet but I have seen numerous reports of people who are using it without problems...
Congrats for getting this complex setup running :-)

What macpro do you have? AFAIK the very first version doesn't support OS X 64-bit. I have the 'early 2008' version and I can choose to boot into 64-bit OS X by holding down both the '6' and '4' keys at boot-time. There is also a terminal command to make this permanent if you wanted to...
Vista 64 did install without any issues on my machine as well.
JHendrix wrote on 1/16/2010, 9:45 AM
"I have the 'early 2008' version and I can choose to boot into 64-bit OS X "

unfortunately, I have the model right before yours. Mine is:

MacPro2,1 --- 8 Core

my understanding from reading threads elsewhere (which may or may not be correct) is that its a matter of the install process only and once a user can figure out how to install the windows 64 bit os it will actually run it. I understood a disk image of windows had to be made to do it and that's where I got lost/gave up

here is a thread talking about it:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2268170&tstart=45


JHendrix wrote on 1/18/2010, 11:51 AM
in case anyone has this issue i "beat it"

http://www.gopulls.com/blog/2009.08.26/install-windows-7-x64-on-a-mac-beat-the-select-cd-rom-boot-type-error/


i now have w7 64bit on macpro 2,1 and it is pretty darn cool