Anyone installed Windows 7 via Bootcamp?

[.Simon]

Anyone done this yet? I did have Windows Vista installed a few months back but uninstalled as I wasn't using it.

I now want to play a few games again ... how easy is it to install Windows 7 via Bootcamp?

 

[cava83]

Very easy, same as any other operating system.

I would download the latest version from the apple site, follow the instructions for the installation, and there you are.

Don't forget to do all the windows updates and install and AV too.

 

[.Simon]

I remember when I installed Vista I had to manually install of the drivers for the Mac - does Windows 7 have the same issue?

Think I'm going to give it a try tonight!

 

[DMS]

I'll be doing mine tonight. My new i7 MBP turned up this morning
I've seen it done before though. Just run the Boot Camp assistant from within Applications > Utilities (IIRC), stick your Windows DVD in, run through the wizard, it installs, creates a script to install the drivers, bish bash bosh, job done.

 

[sneeks]

Windows 7 installed perfectly using Bootcamp.

 

[cava83]

Which bootcamp version did you use?

The one that comes with the mac (if you have tiger or snow leopard) or did you download it?

But generally, yes, no issues, wireless, cam and everything works well.

I have windows 2008 on mine.

Windows 7 installed perfectly using Bootcamp.

 

[.Simon]

I'll give it a go later - thanks for all of your're help!

 

[sneeks]

Which bootcamp version did you use?

The one that comes with the mac (if you have tiger or snow leopard) or did you download it?

I used the version that came on my MBP Snow Leopard disc.

 

[Racingblue182]

I had no bother with xp, but Win7 was a pain in the hole for me. I got the dreaded black screen on bootup. There is a good guide on the Apple site somewhere which directs you on how to solve the problem should you have it.

 

[KandyKing]

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/Boot_Camp_Install-Setup_10.6.pdf

 

[DMS]

Just doing mine now. Will let you know how it goes

 

[DMS]

Just done it.
Installed Windows 7 Ultimate x64 on a 32GB partition via Boot Camp and it works flawlessly. Gonna try and get Ubuntu installed on it now as a little experiment

 

[.Simon]

I keep getting an error message saying something about a file can not be moved, a common problem according to Google!

Very annoying.

 

[DMS]

Mine worked flawlessly. Did take about 3 attempts to burn the DVD from an ISO though for some weird reason.

 

[andywright182]

surely buying a mac is to move away from windows?

 

[DMS]

No not really. I brought mine so I could take advantage of having two good operating systems on the one machine. I wanted to use Mac OS X for the day to day stuff where speed would be an advantage, and Windows for my work / support stuff and maybe the odd game where Windows has the edge (compatibility reasons mainly).

I'm not actually trying to move away from Windows. I quite like Windows, but on speed and reliability Mac OS X wins hands down. I'm simply moving to Mac OS for the stuff I do day to day and using Windows for the stuff I actually need it for, therefore freeing up resources on my Windows instance and theoretically helping to prevent it getting bogged down with unnecessary crap.

That said, Snow Leopard is ace. I can see myself using it for more and more as I find decent applications to replace the Windows versions I currently use.

 

[.Simon]

I'eve been reading about the error that come up when I was installing Windows - it seems that I have to either back up, re-format and reinstall OSX or try to De-Frag the drive - until last night I didn't even think that was possible!

 

[DMS]

Have you tried deleting and recreating the Windows partition first?
Do you have the latest version of Boot Camp Assistant? (3.0 IIRC, the 3.1 update is only for the drivers after installing Win 7). Make sure you do a Software Update prior to trying again if not.

 

[Noj]

you need snow leopard to install windows 7

 

[.Simon]

Got Snow Leopard - managed to get Bootcamp to work, had to reduce the partition size to around 25 gigabytes. Which should be enough for what I need it for.

Going to try and install Windows 7 later.

 

[DMS]

You can extend the size of the partition easily enough anyway if you want.

 

[.Simon]

^ I did try, but I get the same "This file cannot be moved error bla bla", very annoying.

Now I have a 26GB partition, I hope it's large enough to play Flight Simulator! lol.

 

[DMS]

I haven't tried resizing it from within Mac OS. I did it from within Windows and it worked alright.
Go into disk management and extend the windows partition into the HFS+ partition used by OS X. By doing it this way I've successfully increased the size of my Windows partition from 32GB to 45GB (I did need the space).

 

[.Simon]

I tried that this morning but the Mac drive is grayed out for some reason!

 

[DMS]

Odd. Are you definitely running Disk Managment with elevated privileges?
Create a desktop shortcut to "diskmgmt.msc" then right-click it and run as an Administrator just to be sure.
Failing that, try Acronis Disk Director or Partition Magic instead. They shouldn't have any problems doing it I wouldn't have thought.

 

[.Simon]

Will give it a go tonight ..!

 

[.Simon]

Last night I deleted the Windows partition, I'm now running a full defrag of the system off line, it's been going all night so hopefully should be done before I get home from work.

Will try again later ... so annoying!!