I need to get windows on my MBP in snow leopard. I have a 750gig HD half full, with 375gig free. Can I add Windows even if I have a ton of apps and files already on it. I dont want to wipe it and start from scratch. I cant get AutoIT to work the way I need to in order to learn it.
my work is switching BACK to PCs. I use 25+ Applescripts I have written myself and now will need to learn AutoIT for PC.
You can load Windows through BootCamp (Applications > Utilities). It partitions part of the drive into an FAT partition that a Windows install disk will format as NTFS. That way Windows will use all of the RAM and CPU, after you shutdown and boot into the Windows sector.
Rememebr that it is tricky to change the size of this bootcamp partition later, so you should have at least 60 GB (but with large programs to load just allocate 120-150 GB and be done with it).
Also remember that you need 15% of the OSX partition free to allow OSX to swap OS parts onto the HD, when deciding the allocated BootCamp partition size.
Or you can load Windows into a VM (Virtualbox, VMWare Fusion, Parallels) and run both side-by-side. But you need more than 4 GB RAM because the two OSs will be sharing CPU and RAM.
You can load Windows through BootCamp (Applications > Utilities). It partitions part of the drive into an FAT partition that a Windows install disk will format as NTFS. That way Windows will use all of the RAM and CPU, after you shutdown and boot into the Windows sector.
Rememebr that it is tricky to change the size of this bootcamp partition later, so you should have at least 60 GB (but with large programs to load just allocate 120-150 GB and be done with it).
Also remember that you need 15% of the OSX partition free to allow OSX to swap OS parts onto the HD, when deciding the allocated BootCamp partition size.
Or you can load Windows into a VM (Virtualbox, VMWare Fusion, Parallels) and run both side-by-side. But you need more than 4 GB RAM because the two OSs will be sharing CPU and RAM.
thanks, I am doing simple scripting, just making folders and renaming files. I'll allocate 50gig for this. That should be plenty. I dont need to run side by side. Thanks so much for such a nice reply.
If you only allocate 50 GB, you need to turn off "recovery partition" in Windows, as that will keep many GB aside for "undo and recovery" operations. You need to strip Windows down to barebones and not load too much under that BootCamp.
Also ...
BootCamp essentially alter the bootsector of the system to allow dual-booting. This NORMALLY goes without a hitch, but some times corrupts the boot secotr and requires reload of OSX. If you make a clone (CarbonCopyClone, $40 download) before you BootCamp you can boot from it and reload the OSX onto the disk IF the BootCamp goes bad. This is not suggesting you will screw up, just saying that it is better to be prepared to recover with grace.
Boot Camp is risky. I would try VirtualBox instead:
It doesn't work well with 10.8.2, but thus far works with everything earlier.
VirtualBox seems VERY weird to me. How hard does this request have to be.
a brody is smart. Starting with VM to be get used to things may be better, then move up to the big leagues.
I installed ubuntu under Virtualbox, and found the rompts not very confusing. Also, I felt very safe that I could stop the program which was Virtualbox without risking OSX.
VirtualBox works great on my MacBook Pro 3,1. I've run it on 10.6 and 10.7.3. I use XP SP 3 on it. I've run it on my iMac 10,1 and my iMac 5,1. Nothing that weird about it. No rebooting needed. No partitioning needed.
Runing VMFusion with Windows XP, Vista, 7 and various Linux's
VirtualBox with Windows 8
All cloned together to a external drive with Carbon Copy Cloner, piece of cake and it's bootable. 😉
Bootcamp? Blah! If I need Windows performance I'll guy a gaming tower.
Windows in BootCamp or Virtual Machine?
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents
Bootable clones and virtual machines rule, TimeMachine is for newbies and Bootcamp is a severe pwning waiting to happen.
My vm gets pawned, it's only seconds to revert to a earlier snapshot. 😉
a brody wrote:
Boot Camp is risky. I would try VirtualBox instead:
It doesn't work well with 10.8.2, but thus far works with everything earlier.
What about the performance of VirtualBox? I use some SoundSoftware with Parallels and Windows7. It's almost ok but I have problems with ASIO and PErformance issues from time to time. Wouldn't it be better to directly reboot into windows7 instead of running it virtual?
I run remote desktop on virtualbox to telework into my office. I have no issues with performance. But performace often has more to do with the application hardware requirements. Look at its requirements, and ask the virtualization software community if you can expect the same performance. Games are much more particular about hardware performan than any other software.
Try parallels , works like sharm , i have been using it for two years and no problems other than windows normal problems, integrates nicely with MAC environment, and you dont have to rebbot
need to get windows on my Mac
