Windows7 on Mac Attempt 2

Following on from the problems I had from my live blog, I decided to re word the information and help that I have found since. Thank you to YouTube and TUAW

If you are looking at installing Windows 7 on a mac there are a number of things that you need to check and read beforehand.

• Back up your system
• Have a copy of Windows7
• Have you Mac OSX install disc
• Read through online help and process fully (I missed a bit and had a nightmare)
• Watch this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NWIm2f_Vtc) by Setvesmacfix
• Make sure you have run your software update on apple, so Bootcamp supports Win7 by reading this article (http://www.tuaw.com/2010/01/19/boot-camp-updated-now-supports-windows-7/) From here you can see the list of compatible machines.

First of all you will want to boot up in Mac operating system and open up bootcamp assistant. You can search for this in spotlight or find it under applications>Utilities. You will be asked how much you want to partition. I recommend at least 20gb, depending on what you intend to do. The Windows 7 install will take up 9gb on it’s own, so make sure you leave enough room for upgrades and programs that you want to run. I’m only running really small programs, so I chose 10gb.

You will next be asked the version that you want to install. For some reason it said 64 or 84 on my version. Not sure why, but I chose the 64x install. I have tried to look at the significance of this, but have not seen anything much. I have seen people choose a 32x over a 64x on the beta version of Windows 7, but there isn’t much about on the recent update of bootcamp. I may try a new install in a few weeks, but for now I have it all working, so don’t want to break it.

Next screen will ask you to choose the partition you want to install to. You will need to choose the BOOTCAMP partition and then select advanced option and format. This will make sure that the partition is formatted as NFTS and allow you to proceed. You will not be able to proceed until you have chosen this and formatted the BOOTCAMP section.

Once you choose next/proceed, it will start the install process. During the install process, the system will reboot a number of times. When rebooting the message press any key to boot from CD/DVD, but don’t press the keyboard and just allow the system to boot up in to windows.

It did seem to be taking ages to “expand the files”. Took a good 2-3 mins before it moved from 0%.

Finally came up complete and had to restart. Only option was run from cd/dvd. (this happened a few times). I first of all made the mistake of pressing a key, but this started the install process again.

Once it has rebooted you will then be ask for network settings and time zone, set up a name and password. Then another restart and it will ask you to login and prepare your desktop.

IMPORTANT – The bit that I didn’t realise I needed to do.

After the final restart I was working in windows on my Mac. Not something I am loving, but it is working. However you have not finished just yet. You may notice that you have no sound etc. This is because you need to install the Mac drivers. To do this you need to insert the Mac OSX and open the folder to view the files. Choose a folder called Bootcamp and then setup.exe This will run through the process of installing the drivers needed. Once you have done this you can restart and boot in to Mac by pressing and holding down the option key (the one between ctrl and cmd keys). Once in the Mac OS you can go in to system preferences and start up disc. You can then choose to boot up in to Mac OS by default instead of Windows7. Lets face it you own a mac and will be using Mac more than you Windows system.

There you have it all done. You should now be successfully running Windows7 on your Mac. There is plenty of video tutorials on YouTube, but feel free to post a comment and ask me a question, but I am not technical and just wrote this blog from my point of view from installing. If it goes all wrong then don’t come crying to me.

Dubzie86 tells me the following:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86?wasRedirected=true

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki?search=X64

Wiki pages for x86 and x64 architecture. Basic low down is that one is 32bit and one is 64bit. 64bit being better performance wise. U can’t install a 64bit copy on a 32bit machine but I believe newer macs are 64bit anyway. U can install 32bit on 64 so that’s what’s recomended if u don’t know what one u have.
Hope that helps.