Thu, 15 Nov 2007

6:06 PM - Researching boot camp

I've been asked to find a solution to using boot camp at work.  We need to image 20-30 machines in a dual boot setup.  According to various sources there are only a few options.

1. Netrestore.  The idea here is that you'd setup a Mac and make copies.  Windows must be on a NTFS volume.

2. dd.  This old friend can duplicate a disk including the GPT/MBR hybrid needed to boot OS X and Windows.  Of course if your drive is another size, you are out of luck. 

3. Manually setting up each machine with boot camp.  This one is out.

4. Imaging the machine as normal for OS X and then using a Bart PE disk customized with the OS X drivers for Intel macs to use Windows ghost.  Of course this breaks the Microsoft EULA for Windows.  I do like ghost, and this one is interesting.  We do not have a license that I can use in the CS department. 

I'm leaning toward the dd solution.  We could do that with a Mac OS X boot on firewire which Kirk is into right now.  I could script it pretty easily.  I can't find a firewire cable to test it tonight though.  I really do want to try this. 

There are further limitations.  GPT does not support extended partitions.  MBR does not support more than 4 partitions.  The combination means you can't use extended or more than 4 primary partitions.  One is used by EFI.  That gives you a maximum of three partitions for this to work in hybrid mode.  Windows must be on the last partition. 

Some people can get os x, linux and windows triple booting by using a third party boot loader.  The apple loader doesn't support triple boot effectively. 

Kirk has proposed multibooting OS X, OS X and Windows.  I'm not sure if that will work or not with Apple's software.  (10.4, 10.5 and XP)

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