I'll throw all the details here so this might be long: I'm running a MacbookPro4.1 (Early 2008 model). Processor: 2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Memory: 4GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 512MB Software: OS X 10.8.2 (12C60) Boot ROM Version: MBP41.00C1.B03 I fresh installed Mountain Lion. Then set up three addition partitions. I installed Windows 7, and updated it. WIndows 7 still worked at that point. Then, I installed Linux Mint. I followed the instructions on this thread that has more details: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1908210 Toward the end of the guide, I installed Gdisk and ran: Code: sudo gdisk /dev/disk0 Password: GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.5 Partition table scan: MBR: hybrid BSD: not present APM: not present GPT: present Found valid GPT with hybrid MBR; using GPT. Command (? for help): r Recovery/transformation command (? for help): p Disk /dev/disk0: 488397168 sectors, 232.9 GiB Logical sector size: 512 bytes Disk identifier (GUID): 7309B92F-DD71-449D-9D9B-F2E29E86E591 Partition table holds up to 128 entries First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 488397134 Partitions will be aligned on 1-sector boundaries Total free space is 1272637 sectors (621.4 MiB) Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name 1 40 409639 200.0 MiB EF00 EFI System Partition 2 409640 330877591 157.6 GiB AF00 Mac OS X 3 332148736 391002111 28.1 GiB 0700 Linux 4 391002112 430063615 18.6 GiB 0700 NOTHING 5 430064613 488396644 27.8 GiB 0700 Recovery/transformation command (? for help): h WARNING! Hybrid MBRs are flaky and dangerous! If you decide not to use one, just hit the Enter key at the below prompt and your MBR partition table will be untouched. Type from one to three GPT partition numbers, separated by spaces, to be added to the hybrid MBR, in sequence: 2 3 5 Place EFI GPT (0xEE) partition first in MBR (good for GRUB)? (Y/N): y Creating entry for GPT partition #2 (MBR partition #2) Enter an MBR hex code (default AF): Set the bootable flag? (Y/N): n Creating entry for GPT partition #3 (MBR partition #3) Enter an MBR hex code (default 07): Set the bootable flag? (Y/N): n Creating entry for GPT partition #5 (MBR partition #4) Enter an MBR hex code (default 07): 83 Set the bootable flag? (Y/N): n Recovery/transformation command (? for help): w Final checks complete. About to write GPT data. THIS WILL OVERWRITE EXISTING PARTITIONS!! Do you want to proceed? (Y/N): y OK; writing new GUID partition table (GPT) to /dev/disk0. Warning: The kernel may continue to use old or deleted partitions. You should reboot or remove the drive. The operation has completed successfully. (to clear up the confusion, although partition 3 says to be Linux, it is windows and partition 5 is linux) After writing it, it didn't change the table. I re-booted on a live Linux Mint OS, ran gdisk and it gave me the same table with partition number 5 as 0700. I rewrote it, and partition 5 still remains as 0700. However, although 0700 is correct for partition number 3, so shouldn't it still boot windows? Then I opened the fdisk and here is what I got: Code: sudo fdisk /dev/disk0 Password: Disk: /dev/disk0 geometry: 30401/255/63 [488397168 sectors] Signature: 0xAA55 Starting Ending #: id cyl hd sec - cyl hd sec [ start - size] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1: EE 0 0 2 - 25 127 14 [ 1 - 409639] <Unknown ID> 2: AF 25 127 15 - 1023 254 63 [ 409640 - 330467952] HFS+ 3: 07 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 332148736 - 58853376] HPFS/QNX/AUX 4: 83 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 430064613 - 58332032] Linux files* If you have any other ideas throw them out there and I will be happy to hear; however, I am generally looking for one of two conclusions: a) How to fix the tables to boot Windows and Linux or b) How to remove the partitions and fix the tables so that I can restart and dual-boot Linux and Mac OS X
http://www.rodsbooks.com/ubuntu-efi/index.html this should help your problem 1st step * Set up disk with 2 partition's * install OS X to partition 1 * Use "Empty Space" for partition 2 for Mint & Windows 7 2nd * Setup Partitions for Mint & Windows 7 * Boot Mint and Create 2 Partitions formatted as FAT32 on "Empty Space" with gpart. * Leave 128 MB empty space in front of each Partition. * Label Partition table so it looks like this: Disk 1 = EFI Disk 2 = OSX Disk 3 = HDRecovery Disk 4 = Mint Disk 5 = Windows 7 3rd * Install Windows 7 to Disk 5 * "Format" Disk 5 from Windows Install Menu, "DO NOT DELETE" * If you get error message "can not install to gpt". Use gptfdisk and fix MBR. Needs to be Hybrid GPT. 4th * Install Mint to Partition 4, format partition as ext4 * Set bootloader to install to /dev/sda * Use grub2 for boot loader, it should be default loader. I've never used Mint, so I'm not 100%. Do not set boot loader to use "grub.efi" after you get install. You will be booting from Hybrid GPT. FYI - * You cannot triple boot using ACHI / EFI with Windows 7. Windows 7 only going to work on Hybrid GPT. It's pain in a** to boot Windows7 on GPT as dual boot. There has been some success, you will need to check out this thread on Mac Rumors for more info. * You can dual Boot OSX & Linux with ACHI / EFI * If you Upgrade to Windows 8, triple boot will work on GPT Partition Scheme using EFI for all 3 OS's.