Dell Mini 9 OS X/XP Install Question

[pinkoos]

BigGuynRusty wrote:
[quote=RAMd®d]
That's correct - 16GB is plenty for an Leopard install, using a retail disc...no hacked/stolen version necessary

Yes, if that's the only OS you're installing.

I took BG's post to read installing OS X in addition to XP, having three partitions would not work.

Pruning X before and after an Install can get it down by a few G.

Absolutely correct RAM, but after rereading my post it comes off either way.
8GB SSD = Stolen/Hacked OSX
16GB SSD = Retail OSX Leopard install
32GB SSD = Lots of space

BGnR
Okay, thanks for clearing that up. But does anybody know about just installing XP on either an SDHC card or even a USB thumb drive?

[SDGuy]

pinkoos wrote:
Okay, thanks for clearing that up. But does anybody know about just installing XP on either an SDHC card or even a USB thumb drive?

I haven't done either - but can say that I've read that a Mini 9 WON'T boot off of the SDHC slot. You might be able to relocate it to a USB reader and boot off of USB..

[pinkoos]

SDGuy wrote:
[quote=pinkoos]
Okay, thanks for clearing that up. But does anybody know about just installing XP on either an SDHC card or even a USB thumb drive?

I haven't done either - but can say that I've read that a Mini 9 WON'T boot off of the SDHC slot. You might be able to relocate it to a USB reader and boot off of USB..
Okay, that is definitely good to know. I'll search around a bit more about a USB thumb drive option.

[vicrock]

Try searching here:
http://mydellmini.com/forum

[Gilbert]

gabester wrote:
Dual boot is a little tricky to figure out but I managed it as follows:

1. Install and update OS X per other instructions. Once complete, make an image of the install onto an external drive.
.....

5. Reboot to OS X (however you first booted to install above) and copy your image from step 1 above back to partition 3.
g=

What software does one use to make an image of the install and to restore it back to partition 3? Not that I have a Dell Mini, but was hoping to use a similar process on my MSI Wind hackintosh.

[Jem]

BigGuynRusty wrote:
Absolutely correct RAM, but after rereading my post it comes off either way.
8GB SSD = Stolen/Hacked OSX
16GB SSD = Retail OSX Leopard install
32GB SSD = Lots of space

BGnR

I don't think that strictly speaking this is true. There IS a way to do an install with a retail Leopard DVD, that just barely squeaks on to an 8GB SSD. The method is over at the mydellmini forum. Once the basic install is complete, you can start paring out a lot of unneeded apps, swap files, etc. I then ran xslimmer to get the total install size down to about 5GB. Then ran updaters to 10.5.6, slimmed it down again, and then installed iPhoto, Appleworks, etc.

Works fine now with about 700MB free on the boot drive.

[gabester]

Gilbert wrote:
What software does one use to make an image of the install and to restore it back to partition 3? Not that I have a Dell Mini, but was hoping to use a similar process on my MSI Wind hackintosh.

Well, there are a few ways to do it. In my case I had a SATA drive I pulled from my Intel Mac Mini and put into an external USB case and ran chameleon on it; I now use that drive to test how compatible a given netbook model is with OS X. So in my case I simply used Disk Utility to make the image; although I also have a full disk image from my dual-boot install on a Dell Mini 9 in Ghost (version 11 if you must know; I had version 8 as well but it didn't recognize the HFS+ partition as anything.) So if you can get some kind of retail leopard install booting, you can make a disk image with that of your mini's SSD onto an external USB HD.
g=

[jcocci]

gabester wrote:
Dual boot is a little tricky to figure out but I managed it as follows:

1. Install and update OS X per other instructions. Once complete, make an image of the install onto an external drive.
2. Reformat drive as MBR with 3 partitions. Partition 1 for XP sized as needed, partition 2 for the syslinux bootloader (200 megs should be more than enough) and Partition 3 for OS X.
3. Install Windows on Partition 1.
4. From Windows, copy Syslinux install onto Partition 2. Use DISKPART utility to make partition 2 the active partition.
5. Reboot to OS X (however you first booted to install above) and copy your image from step 1 above back to partition 3.

Now your Mini should dual boot into XP or OS X.
I hope I have not left out a step... there are more detailed instructions elsewhere if you have questions or need details about any of the sections.
g=

Thanks for the instructions. When you say copy Syslinux install which files exactly are you referring to?

[jcocci]

jcocci wrote:
[quote=gabester]
Dual boot is a little tricky to figure out but I managed it as follows:

1. Install and update OS X per other instructions. Once complete, make an image of the install onto an external drive.
2. Reformat drive as MBR with 3 partitions. Partition 1 for XP sized as needed, partition 2 for the syslinux bootloader (200 megs should be more than enough) and Partition 3 for OS X.
3. Install Windows on Partition 1.
4. From Windows, copy Syslinux install onto Partition 2. Use DISKPART utility to make partition 2 the active partition.
5. Reboot to OS X (however you first booted to install above) and copy your image from step 1 above back to partition 3.

Now your Mini should dual boot into XP or OS X.
I hope I have not left out a step... there are more detailed instructions elsewhere if you have questions or need details about any of the sections.
g=

Thanks for the instructions. When you say copy Syslinux install which files exactly are you referring to?
OK, I figured out how to get syslinux installed properly and it gives me the option of where to boot, but when I select osx I just get the opening apple grey screen with the spinning wheel and eventually it just reboots. Windows seems to start up and work just fine. I did end up getting syslinux installed after I reloaded my osx image so I am going to try to reload the image to see if that does anything. Thanks.

[jcocci]

jcocci wrote:
[quote=jcocci]
[quote=gabester]
Dual boot is a little tricky to figure out but I managed it as follows:

1. Install and update OS X per other instructions. Once complete, make an image of the install onto an external drive.
2. Reformat drive as MBR with 3 partitions. Partition 1 for XP sized as needed, partition 2 for the syslinux bootloader (200 megs should be more than enough) and Partition 3 for OS X.
3. Install Windows on Partition 1.
4. From Windows, copy Syslinux install onto Partition 2. Use DISKPART utility to make partition 2 the active partition.
5. Reboot to OS X (however you first booted to install above) and copy your image from step 1 above back to partition 3.

Now your Mini should dual boot into XP or OS X.
I hope I have not left out a step... there are more detailed instructions elsewhere if you have questions or need details about any of the sections.
g=

Thanks for the instructions. When you say copy Syslinux install which files exactly are you referring to?
OK, I figured out how to get syslinux installed properly and it gives me the option of where to boot, but when I select osx I just get the opening apple grey screen with the spinning wheel and eventually it just reboots. Windows seems to start up and work just fine. I did end up getting syslinux installed after I reloaded my osx image so I am going to try to reload the image to see if that does anything. Thanks.
OK, after a bit of struggling and trial and error I got it all working. THe problem was I needed to modify the install of Leopard to be able to boot from a MBR disk. After I did that and re-installed I had to re-do the Syslinux boot partition and now everything seems to be working just fine. Thanks.