Split HDD in Fusion for Windows

[Helmi74]

Hi,

i want to give something a try:

I got a selfmade fusion drive in a 2009 iMac which works well. It's a 256GB SDD + 3TB HDD. Both are 100% used for fusion with 1 partition on each.

After doing that i noticed that i may need windows on this machine as a boot option (not vmware/pd or anything like that). So i'm trying to find out what would be the best way to do that.

After searching around i found out that the only possible way seems to be modifying the partition table of the harddisk accordingly to have a partition for windows (I'd take around 200GB i think) at the _beginning_ of the hard drive (otherwise windows seems to have problems with harddrives that big).

Did anyone do something like that so far?

I'd take any other options but as far as i heard windows won't work/boot from USB or Firewire. Lightning isn't on board on my 2009 iMac.

I'd like to hear your thoughts or any tipps how to accomodate this.

Thanks,
Frank

P.S. Sorry for my bad english - i'm german

 

[hfg]

There are several threads here you can search for on doing just that, plus a link to TwoCanoes software which describes the required triple-partition on the 3TB hard disk to accommodate Window's 2.2TB limit.

You can also install your Windows to a partition on your SSD, then rebuild your DIY Fusion using the "DiskPartition" ID rather than just the Disk ID. I have posted in several threads on how to do this and it works fine.

Of course, you need to backup your data before doing either partition method, then restore after you are done.

-howard