Muubook Project | Dual-boot 3 Partitions : Mac OS X Leopard + Windows XP + shared NTFS on Macbook Pro

This is my first time that I have an Apple computer and have to play with OS X. However, I still want to have Windows XP on the same machine. As you may know, OS X 10.5 or "Leopard" supports having Windows on the same machine using feature called "bootcamp".

Nevertheless, my goal is to have 3 partition on this machine.
Goals
1) Mac OS X partition (HFS+)
2) Storage partition (NTFS) so I can keep my pictures, music or whatever in this drive
3) Windows partition (NTFS)

Challenges
1) Windows cannot read HFS+
>> I have to install a tool called Macdrive. It works!
2) Mac can read NTFS but cannot write.
>> Install latest version of Macfuse-Core and NTFS-3g will fix this. You will be able to read and write NTFS volume from OS X.
Macfuse-core : http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/
(I used MacFUSE-Core-10.5-1.1.1.dmg)
NTFS-3g : http://mac.softpedia.com/get/System-Utilities/NTFS-3G.shtml
3) Bootcamp supports only 2 partition, Mac and Windows.
>> This is the hardest part. It took me 2 days with 3 Windows installations until I can get what I want.

This is conclusion from all of my trial and errors about how to do it.

Read this first

I tried this on Macbook Pro 15" with Intel Core2duo using Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" and Windows XP Professional.

By using this method. You can normally restart in Mac OS X from Windows by right-click on boot camp menu and "Restart in Mac OS X". However, when you open "Startup Disk" on Mac to choose to boot from Windows, you will NOT see the Windows there. Don't worry. You can still boot from Windows by pressing "option" key (The key on the left of left Apple button) while the machine reboot to open boot menu. You can select Windows from there.

Instructions

1. Install Leopard
   
1. Install Mac OS X Leopard.
2. Install Macfuse and NTFS-3g
   
2. Partition
   
1. Run bootcamp to create Windows partition but when it ask you to insert Windows CD and press the button. Don't do it. Exit the program.
2. Run Disk utility (see Appendix below)
3. Click on the harddisk.
4. Click on "First Aid"
5. Verify and repair your Leopard partition first.
6. Click on "Partition"
   
7. Resize Leopard partition. You can drag the bar to resize it
   
8. Make new Mac partition in the middle by pressing "+" to add new partition and select its type to be Mac OS Extended (Journaled) (The one on the top).
   
   **It must now be a Mac partition and we will convert it to FAT in the end otherwise you will not be able to install Windows completely.
   
   
9. Here are what I have (top to bottom in this order)
   
• Macintosh HD (HFS+) 31GB
  
• Storage HD (HFS+) 80 GB (Approx.)
• Windows HD (FAT32) 31GB
3. Install Windows
   
1. Eject your OS X CD
2. Insert Windows CD
3. Quit disk utility
4. Quit Mac OS X installation.
   
5. It will ask you to choose "Restart" "Startup Disk" , ... Choose "Startup Disk" and select your Windows CD and restart
6. Wait for a while you'll see "Press any key to boot from CD.." so Press any key
7. Then wait for setup to initialize.
   
8. After enter Windows setup, select the 31 GB partition. and try to install Windows on that partition. If it ask you to format it or not, you MUST format it no matter you want to use FAT32 or NTFS for your windows drive.
   
9. Finish the rest of Windows setup.
10. When you are in Windows, insert OS X cd and run bootcamp setup to install drivers.
11. Install Macdrive
    
4. Convert Mac partition in the middle to NTFS
1. Run Disk Utility
2. Erase that Mac partition to FAT partition
3. Restart in Windows
   
4. Look in my computer. You should see the main Windows drive and another FAT32 drive. Remember its drive letter.
   
5. Run command line.
   
6. type "convert X: /fs:ntfs" and enter (Replace "X" with your drive letter)
5. Enjoy!

Note: This is summarized from my trial and error which I think that it should work. What I actually did is I installed Leopard. Then I installed Windows using Bootcamp once. Then I try to resize the Leopard partition and create a new FAT32 partition. However, it destroy my Windows so I try to reinstall Windows in the same partition again. This times both Leopard and Windows work and both of them can see the FAT32 partition. So I try to convert that partition to NTFS and it works.

Appendix

How to run Disk utility

1. Insert your OS X cd into CD drive
2. Restart and press "C" while booting.
3. You'll enter Mac OS X setup screen.
   
4. Choose language
5. Look on the top menu bar. Click on utilities>>Disk utilities