Install Snow Leopard without wiping hard drive (XP+OSX)

[Shadow3k]

I wanted to save factory installed and configured Windows XP SP3 on my Compaq Mini 311 and try Snow Leopard on it. Here is guide how to do it.

Requires:
- USB DVD drive
- SnowOSX Universal 3.6 (hackintosh install distribution, because Retail don't support install on MBR partition and Windows XP SP3 doesnt support GUID)
- Partition Manager 2010 Free Edition (from http://www.paragon-software.com/home/pm-express/)
- TransMac (to easyly fix or recover Leopard from Windows XP)
- Extra folder containing also fixed kernel (http://rapidshare.com/files/338383593/Extra.zip)

Steps:
1. Install Partition Manager 2010 Free Edition on Windows
2. Resize Windows XP partition hard drive using Partition Manager. (do not turn off power when resizing partition even process looks frozen (its not actually), just let it finish, its just take time)
3. Create HFS+ partition using Partition Manager.
4. Reboot and check that everything went fine. (if not - Active@ UNDELETE 7 is a good tool to fix lost or broken partitions, it helped me when i mess up partition table with gParted)
5. Install Snow Leopard using SnowOSX Universal on HFS+ partition. (all defaults)
6. If you used version 3.6, then you end up with 10.6.2 kernel that doesn't support Atom), so here you need to add fixed mach_kernel to Snow Leopard. Get fixed kernel and copy it on Snow Leopard partition using TransMac.
7. Boot Leopard with fixed kernel.
8. Copy MowgliBook Extra folder files to yours /Extra folder
9. Fix possible errors with Kext Utility and disk permissions with Disk Utility.
10. Reboot to all working Snow Leopard (except wifi, Broadcom 4312 is not supported, card rebranding is unsuccessful - system freezes on extracting card firmware)

Result:
- dual boot system with Windows XP SP3 and Snow Leopard, Chameleon bootloader

So here is one way to get wi-fi working:
1. Update 311 firmware using F.04 F FIRMWARE (Recovery firmware image to circumvent the half-height MiniPCIe/USB whitelists) (icelord created) (http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index. ... pic=195381) (it is must do if you will add non-HP wifi card, otherwise netbook will not boot)
2. Get Snow Leopard supported wifi card (i found that for example Atheros AR5006EG (rev 01) work out of the box in 10.6.2)
3. Add wifi card to free WWAN port (wifi antenna wires are short, so additional wifi antenna or extenders will be needed)
4. Boot .

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Thanks to hackintosh community for great tools and all work to make possible run Mac OS X on PC.

[skapplin]

A few caveats for the above outlined installation procedure.

1. As described it does not seem to work with a Windows 7 installation. At least it did not for me.

2. The copy of Mail included with the installation is the wrong version. The version in the installer is for 10.6. It will not work with 10.6.2. If you happen to have access to the 10.6.2 version of Mail from your Mac then you can replace the one that is installed with the later version. I doubt you can succeed trying to use a 10.6.2 Combo Updater to update the one that is installed since that will likely upset everything else.

3. This version of the 10.6.2 Snow installer has the same problem as others in that the Ethernet connection is lost when you put the computer to sleep. There is no recourse but a reboot.

Otherwise, this method does work to install Snow Leopard. My only outstanding question is that the instructions have you copy the patched kernel to the root of the OS X volume. There is also another kernel file in the /Extras/ folder. Are these both necessary? Can one of them be deleted?

Startup time seems unusually slow. It takes about one minute from power-on until the spinning gear stops. My MSI Wind U100 only takes about 40 seconds. Video performance seems less than spectacular but that may be due to a lack of ION supported video drivers, although OS X does support the 9400M GPU.

[Shadow3k]

Yes, you are right, so here are issues with installation:

- Mail version is wrong (at least with install from SnowOSX Universal 3.6)
- no ethernet after sleep

Cant confirm slow start up, on my opinion start up time is ok. And instant wake up from sleep is GREAT!

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BR, Shadow3k

[Shadow3k]

update: WARNING! DO NOT INSTALL UPDATED KEXTS FROM MP MINI DARWIN PROJECT THREAD USING PROVIDED IN THREAD INSTALLATION PACKAGE, IT WILL BROKE WINDOWS XP partition - because it is not for MBR partition scheme.
update2: HF3 installation package script will also delete Extra folder from Leopard partition. In this installation method we dont have EFI partition so normal leopard boot will be broken.

So dont install package - just extract updated/new kexts from installation package using pacifist and place them in your extra folder.

Extra folder provided in first post contains MowgliBooks extra folder updated with extensions from HF2 package (MINI DARWIN PROJECT THREAD http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index. ... pic=195381)

[Shadow3k]

this is offtopic, but i will post it here

Recently i have updated XP to Windows 7 and bootloader was overwrited by Windows bootloader. So here fast fix how to dualboot Windows 7 and Leopard:

- install EasyBSD (in Windows)
- add Mac OSX entry using EasyBSD to windows bootloader.

Thats all!

Dualboot Windows 7 and Leopard (chainboot via Chamelion) with MBR partition scheme is working nicely.

p.s. from Leopard is possible to restore manually Chamelion bootloader and replace Windows bootloader but i didn't do it... may be later

[johnnyfinlandia]

Hi

Just bought a 311c with 1GB and have 2GB waiting.
This netbook has Win7 Home Premium from new (not XP).

Is there a workaround or better guide to easily install Snow Leopard keeping the original settings (hidden partition etc). ?
(you mentioned this doesn't work with Win7)

- install EasyBSD (in Windows)
- add Mac OSX entry using EasyBSD to windows bootloader.
(is there a guide on these .. I have an original Snow Leopard bought from Amazon on disk .. do I just put it on to USB and use that?)

I was also thinking of installing a new 320GB drive from Dell and wondered if that was easier .. install OSX first and then add Win7 on top ? Is there a guide how to do that for the 311c ?

Thanks,
John

[Shadow3k]

This netbook has Win7 Home Premium from new (not XP).

Check for proper guide here http://code.google.com/p/hpmini311/

--
BR, Shadow3k

[Tetonne]

Hi
right now i've :
3 partitions :
- C: main
- D: recovery (don't know how to preserve that in case of)
- an other one for windows i think :?
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i'm ready to lost the 10 Gb for W7 recovery :lol:
can i erase all execpt the recovery partition? will i be able to recover W7 in case of? :roll:

i think about formatting the rest of the disk (160 Gb less recovery) with 2 partitions :
- mac 100 Gb
- the rest for the dual boot with W7 that i will found back with the recovery (if it's ok) ops:
so finally i'll have 4 partitions, EFI, MacOS X, W7 and the recovery one.
my formatting road map is correct???
thanks for help or advices lol
regards

[Shadow3k]

Make backup of "Window7" partition or "Recovery Partition" to USB/USB-HDD with software of your choice. Then you are safe to try and format without losses.

[311_owner]

hi there, tempted to give this a try

is this still the best way to install osx snow leopard 10.6.4 in a mini 311 that currently running win xp sp3?

thanks