So most of you know that you can dual-boot OS X and Vista or OS X and XP. Great. But what is you want to triple boot OS X and XP and Vista? Well, a member of the OSx86 Forums has come up with a solution. It requires you to totally wipe down your hard drive and re-partition it into three partitions and, using Boot Camp, install Vista and XP onto two of them. Also, Vista Beta 2 does support EFI (I can confirm this as I was able to run the installer without Boot Camp), so you may be able to install Vista on an external hard drive. Still, this doesn’t answer the more important question: isn’t one Windows enough torture for your Mac?
Does Vista support EFI or is it just that the Apple update with software-based BIOS support also supports what Vista requires?
My understanding was that MS announced that Vista will not support EFI some time ago.
Yes, this is a confusing one. When I was able to boot the Vista install disc, I did so without running the Boot Camp Assistant, though it may just be that the BIOS support came in the firmware update, which I installed, not running the Boot Camp assistant. Also, a folder labeled "efi" is in the vista install disc, along witha folder labeled "bios."
Windows Vista currently does not support EFI booting and will not support it at launch. More information about EFI booting is available on Microsoft's website.
Boot Camp is comprised of two seperate components, the Boot Camp Assistant application and the firmware update. Boot Camp Assistant is an application that allows users to resize their hard drive into two partitions and burn a CD containing Windows XP drivers. The firmware update, however, allows BIOS booting through EFI. This can be verified by booting from ANY Linux installation CD or DVD using a distribution that does not support EFI booting.