[Harrison]

If you are looking for instructions on how to dual boot Vista and OS X, without XP, please click here.
Overview:
This process will involve partitioning your drive into three separate portions, allowing you to tri-boot with XP, Vista, and OSX. This method has been tested on a Mac Mini, iMac and Mac Book Pro, with great success. This has not been tested on a Mac Pro, but should work on all models no matter what. Partitioning will not affect your OS X data, but, it will erase your XP data if you have any. If you need the XP data, please back it up before beginning. Good Luck!
What you'll need:

1. A Mac with 1 GB+ RAM and 128 MB+ video card (if you are running a Mac Pro with the stock video card, you'll need at least 2 GB)
2. Boot Camp 1.2
3. A blank CD
4. A CD Burner
5. Windows XP Pro Service Pack 2
6. A bootable Windows Vista Beta 2/RC 1/RC 2/Final DVD
7. A full backup of all data on Windows XP data, if you have any. This will not affect Mac OSX at all.

The Process

1. First, we need to make sure that OSX is the only partition on your drive. Before performing this step, please back up all your XP data, if necessary. Open Boot Camp, and press "restore the startup disk to a single volume"
2. This should only take a moment. Now, open Terminal (Hard Drive -> Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal). Run the following command:
   
   CODE
   diskutil list
   
   Mine looked like:
   
   CODE
   /dev/disk0
   
          #:                   type name               size      identifier
   
          0:  GUID_partition_scheme                    *233.8 GB disk0
   
          1:                    EFI                    200.0 MB  disk0s1
   
          2:              Apple_HFS Macintosh HD       233.4 GB  disk0s2
   
   Note the Apple_HFS Macintosh HD name, in this case, disk0s2.
3. Key: xM=number of GB you want your Mac Partition to be
   xX=number of GB you want your XP Partition to be
   xV=number of GB you want your Vista Partition to be
   Now, type in the following code:
   
   CODE
   sudo diskutil resizeVolume disk0s2 xMG "MS-DOS FAT32" Vista xVG "MS-DOS FAT32" XP xXG
   
   Here is my example for a 150 GB hard drive, with numerical values inserted:
   
   CODE
   sudo diskutil resizeVolume disk0s2 50G "MS-DOS FAT32" XP 50G "MS-DOS FAT32" Vista 50G
4. The command will take 30-90 seconds to run.
5. Now launch Boot Camp, insert a blank CD and select the option to "burn drivers only" When your drivers have been burned, insert the Windows XP SP 2 disk and restart your computer, holding down the option key until you see the boot options screen.
6. Boot from the XP CD.
7. Let the setup run. When you get to the install screen, press ENTER to install. When you see a choice of partitions, choose drive (D:)
8. A notification will come up saying that drive (C:) has not been formatted. This is important. Tell the installer to format the drive in NTFS (Quick) mode. When that's done, the same screen will come up again, except you now have to format drive (D:) in NTFS (Quick) mode. Note: You are installing in drive (D:), but you have just formatted drive (C:) as well. If you did not get the message asking to format drive (C:), please do so manually before installing XP.
9. When that's done, the install will begin.
10. During the install, do not activate Windows! Choose to "Activate Windows Later"
11. The Windows XP install can take anywhere from 20-70 minutes depending on the speed of your computer.
12. The XP setup is now complete. You can leave the driver install for later, because of course, you're eager to install Vista!
13. Restart your computer, and boot from the Vista CD. If this does not work, continue with the font in italics. If it does, skip the italics.
14. Restart your computer and boot from the XP disk.
15. Install XP in drive (C:). Again, do activate Windows later.
16. When the XP install is complete, there is no need for you to install your drivers, this XP will be erased.
17. While booted into your second XP install, put in the Vista CD.
18. Select "Install Now" and go through the boring, but necessary, on screen prompts. When asked to upgrade or perform an advanced install, select "Upgrade".
19. Vista will now install. The setup may tell you that drivers are incompatible, but you do not have to worry about that. Continue with step 22.
20. Press "Install Now". When asked to check for updates, say yes. When asked to upgrade or advanced install, select advanced. Specify drive (C:) as the place to install. Then enter your serial number. Vista will now install.
    This can take as long as 2 hours depending on the speed of your computer.
21. Vista will install, restarting a few times during the install.
22. If your drivers work when all is finished, you're done!
23. If your drivers are not working, please look at this page.

[broken]

What about using an external drive for any of these?

I have a new External Hard Drive for this machine but I am not sure How I can use it to back up the OS's [primarily the Windows] so I dont have to install.....

Let me know what you think.

[Harrison]

Windows (as far as I know) does not support External Drive booting at all. You may want to consider storing your files on the external drive, but keeping your operating systems on an internal drive. For example, put your pictures on your external drive, install your games to the external drive, etc.

[broken]

Are you familiar with external drives? I am not....

How do I keep my windows files from merging with my mac files on the external drive.....

[Harrison]

You have to do what is called a partition. I'll be happy to lead you through it if you wish.

[shockme17]

i tried to install a second xp, because my keyboard was unusable to install vista, and the setup files installed fine, but afterwards, the drive would load, and i'd get an ntldr error, or the other windows that i previously installed would start..

not sure what to do..

edit: i decided to get rid of the partitions and just use a regular bootcamp partition. I've successfully deleted the two partitions. However, when I try to use diskutil to restore the mac partition to full size, i get this error:

Resizing encountered error No space left on device (28) on disk disk0s2 Macintosh HD

I've opened diskutil, and it shows my mac partition as having 81GB and then 30GB in free space.

How can I restore my mac partition to how it used to be, or make a partition that the bootcamp assistant will recognize?

I attempted to install windows using the freespace, but got nervous when it didn't leave space between the xp partition and the mac partition.

[Harrison]

Did any other errors happen in the second XP installation? And, were you successful in installing Vista by itself or did that fail because of keyboard errors?
Also, what type of system are you on?

[shockme17]

no other errors happened in the second installation. i wasn't able to boot to the drive to continue the installation. i couldn't install vista, because i couldn't get the second installation of xp to finish installing, and there were keyboard errors.

how can i restore my macbook's mac partition back to 1 without losing data?

[Harrison]

Boot from the XP CD, delete the third partition. Then reboot to OS X, open Boot Camp, and select "Resize to a single volume"
Your OS X data will remain intact.

[hc-]

I know this is an old topic, but I have to post this.

In the guide there is something wrong.
You have to create the Windows Vista partition first, then the XP.

The guide says
sudo diskutil resizeVolume disk0s2 xMG "MS-DOS FAT32" Windows XP xXG "MS-DOS FAT32" Windows Vista xVG

but it's supposed to be
sudo diskutil resizeVolume disk0s2 xMG "MS-DOS FAT32" Vista xVG "MS-DOS FAT32" XP xXG

If you use the first method, your XP-partition will be your Vista-partition, and vice versa.


Just wanted you all to know, so there won't be any misunderstandings.
I personally did this mistake myself, and it took quite some time to do it all over again.

[Harrison]

Thanks a bunch hc-. Never fear to dig up an old topic for a correction . Always appreciated.

[dasaint80]

I can't burn the drivers from Boot camp cause boot camp assistant wont let me go pass the first screen. it says the startup disk can not be partition or restored to single partition. were else can I get the drivers, can I get them from the disk once xp is installed??

Also when I install XP it goes through the blue screen setup(initial install) Once the computer need to reboot it goes back into OSX.....How do I make it stop that?

I went into Startup Disk and selected Windows, but I still get an error when I try to install it....I'll try it again tomorrow hopefully I'll be able to get something going!!!!
Thanks

Steve

[dasaint80]

anyone??!?!

[hc-]

Has this been tried with Leopard yet?
When I tried to execute the command in Terminal.app, it stopped at 0% when it tried to verify the disk.

[Harrison]

Sorry, dasaint, for my late response. How many partitions do you currently have?

[hc-]

It's only one partition on the right now.

[Harrison]

Which command are you referring to? The list command or the actual partition command?

[bcode]

I triple booted my mac again last week, but this time the bootloader only shows one windows installation. Anyone have any ideas on how I might make the Apple bootloader recognize the second windows installation?

[wongatron2]

Hi,

When I choose Drive D to install XP, it doesn't ask me to format C drive. How do I do it manually?

Also, I am having the same problem as dasaint80. When I try and install XP and it restarts, I can't get it to continue installation. Does anyone have any ideas?

Tim

[dnywlsh]

Harrison, could you tell me how to Tri-Boot Mac OS X, Vista and Windows 7? I don't feel like re-installing my Vista Partition (it takes forever to install). Thanks.