Q: Need advice on running Windows 7 under El Capitan on an iMac 27".
I was running Parallels on my MBP 15". It worked but was a little slow to boot and not completely satisfactory. They seemed to have problems with each update of the OSX. Now they require a complete upgrade for El Capitan. Last year I bought an iMac 27" 5K and want to run Windows on the iMac.
I have a program that I need to install that only runs under Windows (TurboTax Business). I'm about to use BootCamp and run Windows in it's own partition. I've read the installation instructions and watched a few YouTube tutorials on it. Looks like it won't be too difficult to install. One person highly recommended having a good back up of the internal disk drive as some have found some of the files corrupted when doing this, requiring a complete restore of the OS X and applications and files. I'm wondering if a good Time Machine backup is sufficient, or do I need to do another backup?
Also I haven't found this yet in the documentation, but it's probably there. I need to be able to access the same files in both Windows and OSX. I assume that is not a problem. Do I need to something special to make the files accessible to both operating systems? I believe they are all accessible no matter which system in control.
Guess I'm looking for some assurance that this is a good thing to do. I have a Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit DVD that I can use for the installation. I'll also use a jump drive as suggested for the installation. I've also been advised that it is best to download the support software first and put it on the jump drive before starting the installation.
I've been advised to give Windows 10 a little more time before upgrading to it. Windows 7 is fine for the limited use I'll have for Windows.Any comments on this?
Thanks for any advice here.
iMac with Retina 5K display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3), 8 GB, Late 2014, Airport Extreme,
Posted on Feb 12, 2016 11:04 AM
Also I haven't found this yet in the documentation, but it's probably there. I need to be able to access the same files in both Windows and OSX. I assume that is not a problem. Do I need to something special to make the files accessible to both operating systems? I believe they are all accessible no matter which system in control.
OS X can read NTFS files, but not write by default. Windows can read files, but not write, provided OS X is using a JHFS+ partition. Yosemite and higher versions use CoreStorage volumes, which are unreadable from Windows side. You should not repartition the disk, once Windows is installed. On a 2014 iMac, Windows can be installed using a non-legacy installation (aka EFI Boot), but W7 is very unstable and buggy in such an installation. Sleep/Hibernate are very problematic on W7 and W8+.
Posted on Feb 12, 2016 4:46 PM