Building a triple-boot Mac: OS X 10.9, Linux Mint 18, Windows 7 #

This process was tested on a MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012)* and Samsung 830-Series MZ-7PC128B/WW 128GB Solid State Drive with OS X 10.9.5, Linux Mint Cinnamon 18 64-bit, and Windows 7 64-bit.
  1. Install SSD. Any existing data will be deleted.

  2. Boot from Mavericks installer

    1. Disk Utility > Partition (GUID), format (Mac OS Extended (Journaled)), and name (OSX) volume

    2. Install Mavericks to OSX normally

  3. Boot from SSD

    1. Boot Camp Assistant > allocate partition space as desired (keeping in mind that the Linux Mint partition will be carved out of the Windows partition)

    2. Install Windows normally

  4. Boot from Linux Mint 18 installer

    1. Install Mint normally, selecting "Install Linux Mint alongside them" and specifying the desired sizes of the Windows and Mint partitions

  5. When installation completes, boot to Startup Manager by holding the Option key. There are 3 options:

    1. OSX = Mavericks

    2. Recovery-10.9.5 = OS X Recovery

    3. Windows = GNU GRUB, from which Linux Mint 18 or Windows 7 can be booted (ignore the OS X 32-bit and 64-bit entries)

Notes:

/mac | Oct 18, 2016


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