I was faced with a problem: I have two computers, one a PC running Windows 7 and the other, an Apple running Mac OSX. I wanted to backup my music files from my PC to my Mac because my Mac has an external HDD formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled). I am now able to backup my files through my network by using this FREE and easy to use program: SyncToy.

To take it a step further, I setup the Windows Task Scheduler to backup my music every week at a set time while I will be away from my computers.

SyncToy can be found here in both 32 and 64 bit versions. Compatible with Windows 7, Vista, and XP. You can download it here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=c26efa36-98e0-4ee9-a7c5-98d0592d8c52&displaylang=en

Instructions on how to setup Windows Task Scheduler to work with SyncToy can be found here: http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/01/01/schedule-synctoy-to-run-and-automatically-and-repetitively/

Last night:

UUUUGH, what a nightmare. I followed some online tutorials of people who claimed they had their dual boot computers working. ALL of them suggest installing Windows XP first. I did this, created 2 partitions (3 total – 1 for OSx, 1 for WinXP, 1 for a shared storage drive in FAT32). I dropped the ‘chain0′ file in the C:\ drive and edited the boot.ini to have Mac OSx listed at boot. Everything was going quite smooth until I went to install OSx. I was able to format the 2nd partition into MacOS Journaled; woopie. The custom settings I chose worked fine, the install peformed normally. When OSx rebooted after installing it hung; fuck. I tried googling the error, a few people had encountered this as well, but nobody gave a concrete answer. After digging through forum after forum, I ended up giving up for the night.

Fast-forward to today:

Still unable to get into either OS. Tried tinkering around more and going through random forum walk-throughs, but to no avail. I decided to try to install OSx again; perhaps I forgot a custom setting or skipped a step. Went through the install again; a-ha! I had missed one crucial step! OSx installs, and I am quite sure it will work now. I wait for the boot,…nothing…then the same error. Soooo, I try installing once more, different settings. Not working.

So now, I’ve given up dual booting by installing Windows XP first. I wiped the entire drive to all zeros to have a clean start. Partitioned the HDD into three again. Installed OSx; might I add, no errors this time? This leads me to believe that Windows XP screwed something up in the boot sequence (thanks Bill). The next thing to do is install XP and try my first dual boot strategy. This time things will go better than the last.

Installing Windows XP on Partition 2

So I installed Mac OSx86 on my spare computer. If you missed it, you can read about some of my adventures HERE. I am currently trying to figure out how to dual boot with Mac and Windows and having a few troubles. The main problem being, I installed Mac OSx first. There are many guides that suggest you install Windows first, but I had not read them until now haha! So, anyways, I’ve been tinkering with the Windows boot.ini a lot, because for a while I wasn’t able to boot into Mac. Found this small boot program called “chain0″. It isn’t working fully properly so far.

** Small update ** I am able to now boot into both OSs, but through an extra menu. I have to go through BOTH the Windows boot loader AND Darwin’s boot loader to get into Mac OSX, where I only have to select “Windows XP” from the Windows boot loader to get into my XP partition. What a nightmare. I may just end up reformatting both OSs and start over from scratch. I have only installed 2 or 3 programs so far in OSx, and haven’t installed even a driver yet for Windows. Let the tinkering continue!