Bootcamp partition or Parallel?

So I know this is a common question, but l want to ask myself.
What is better for online gaming, Parallel or Bootcamp?
My computer is a Macbook Pro OSX 10.7.2, 2.2GHz Intel Core i7, 4GB 1333MHz DDR3.
Mac is cool but the downside is that I can't play online games and this makes me sad.
So I was thinking of either installing a Windows 7 or Windows XP on my computer.
but should I use Parallel or Bootcamp?
these are some of the game requirements that I play, I don't know that much about computers but if you could give me all your opinions on how well these would work if i put them on either parallel or bootcamp that would be awesome.
  Minimum                    Specs Recommended                    Specs
OS
Windows                    7/Vista/XP (Service Pack 2 or later)
CPU
Pentium                    IV 1.8 GHz (or equivalent)
Pentium                    IV 2.4 GHz (or equivalent)
Memory
512 MB                    of RAM
1 GB of                    RAM
HDD
1.8 GB                    of free hard disk space
Video                    *
GeForce                    5200 or Radeon 9550
GeForce                    7300 or Radeon X1300
DirectX
DirectX                    9.0c or greater
SYSTEM MINIMUM                    REQUIREMENTS RECOMMENDED                    SETTINGS
OS
Windows                    98ME/2K/XP
Windows                    98ME/2K/XP
CPU
Intel                    Pentium3 800MHz
Intel                    Pentium4 1.5GHz
RAM
256                    MB
512+                    MB
HDD
800                    MB
2+                    GB
Video                    Card
NVidia-Geforce2MX                    or
ATI Radeon 7000 or similar
DirectX 9.0c or later
NVidia-Geforce4
ATI                    Radeon 9000 or similar
DirectX 9.0c or later
Sound
N/A
16bit                    Sound Card
Network
Broadband                    Modem
Broadband                    Modem
Also if you guys could list price ranges that would be swell.

SinbadCristo wrote:
yes but how well will it run on parallels?
Windows runs very well in a VM such as Parallels or Fusion. But given the specs of your computer and your concern over how well it runs, why would you even consider installing XP, an old and unsupported OS?.
Windows 7 is much better from with respect to performance, security, and support.
If you want to run resource-heavy games then install Windows using Boot Camp Assistant. If you want decent performance for average use then install Windows 7 using a VM such as Parallels or Fusion.
You want price ranges for what?

Similar Messages

  • Question about Parallels using Bootcamp partition

    I was about to install XP on bootcamp but i would mainly be using parallels to run XP from the bootcamp partition. What i was wondering is that if i was to make any changes to xp like install a software and create a new folder through parallels, would it reflect on the actual bootcamp partition when i load into the actual XP partition using bootcamp? Basically, do the changes made to windows using parallels carry over to the bootcamp partition given you are using the bootcamp partition on parallels?
    Thanks

    Thanks a lot. While i am at it, if i use the bootcamp partition with Parallels, i cannot suspend the VM right?
    Parallels will behave the same, whether it has its own copy of Windows, or is using that on the Boot Camp partition.
    The only difference is backup. If you use Parallels with Windows in a disk image file (Preferably a sparse bundle), Windows can be backed up with Time Machine. If Windows is on its own partition, Time Machine can't handle it.

  • Parallels unmounted BOOTCAMP partition, I cant remount, cant use BC or Para

    This is a crosspost from the parallels support forums. Nobody has responded there and I have tried a few more things and all have failed, desperation is rising.
    I hope someone here has some kind of idea what might be going on because I have some very valuable data on my boot camp partition and I did not expect a trial of Parallels to destroy it...
    I tried installing the Parallels trial version of Desktop 6. For some reason it would not ID my boot camp partition and said that I had to mount it using the disk utility. I thought this was strange but didn't think much more of it. I continued to use my computer for other purposes for about an hour and decided I wanted to head back to my BOOTCAMP side, so I restarted into Windows and recieved "Disk read error, press ctrl +alt +del" from the DOS prompt. Restarted a few times and continued to get the same error.
    I returned to OSX and discovered that my BOOTCAMP partition no longer appears on my desktop, or as an option for Startup Disk. If I start Disk Utility, I see my OSX partition, and then I see my BOOTCAMP partition, but now it is unmounted (greyed out) and reads "disk0s3". Attempts to mount it have been unsuccessful. If I try the same from the terminal I receive "Volume on disk0s3 failed to mount".
    I attempted to use Parallels to read the drive to at least recover my important documents but when I pointed it to the (what used to be) boot camp partition, the virtual machine reported "no OS installed on this drive".
    In some research in the issue, I read something about MacFUSE or NTFS-3G locking down the mount abilities of the drive. Someone is having a similar issue as me here, for example. Finder does see a folder with one file called "ntfs-3g" in /opt/local/var/ in a FUSE folder, but other than that I see no indication of ntfs-3g being installed. Not only that but I attempted both uninstalling and installing MacFUSE from System Preferences. In both cases I could still not mount the drive or boot to my boot camp partition.
    Please help! I'm really at my wit's end here and I am horrified at the thought of losing all of my data.
    No idea if this helps but here is diskutil info on the partition
    Some further research indicates there may be an issue with MBR? This is getting far out of the realm of my expertise so I would have no idea where to start investigating.
    Device Identifier: disk0s3
    Device Node: /dev/disk0s3
    Part Of Whole: disk0
    Device / Media Name: BOOTCAMP
    Volume Name:
    Escaped with Unicode:
    Mounted: No
    File System: MS-DOS
    Type: msdos
    Name: MS-DOS (FAT)
    Partition Type: Microsoft Basic Data
    Bootable: Is bootable
    Media Type: Generic
    Protocol: SATA
    SMART Status: Verified
    Total Size: 125.3 GB (125294346240 Bytes) (exactly 244715520 512-Byte-Blocks)
    Volume Free Space: 0 B (0 Bytes) (exactly 0 512-Byte-Blocks)
    Read-Only Media: No
    Read-Only Volume: Not applicable (not mounted)
    Ejectable: No
    Whole: No
    Internal: Yes
    More information, from rEFIt:
    * Report for internal hard disk *
    Current GPT partition table:
    # Start LBA End LBA Type
    1 40 409639 EFI System (FAT)
    2 409640 243417127 Mac OS X HFS+
    3 243681280 488396799 Basic Data
    Current MBR partition table:
    # A Start LBA End LBA Type
    1 1 409639 ee EFI Protective
    2 409640 243417127 af Mac OS X HFS+
    3 * 243681280 488396799 07 NTFS/HPFS
    MBR contents:
    Boot Code: Unknown, but bootable
    Partition at LBA 40:
    Boot Code: None (Non-system disk message)
    File System: FAT32
    Listed in GPT as partition 1, type EFI System (FAT)
    Partition at LBA 409640:
    Boot Code: None
    File System: HFS Extended (HFS+)
    Listed in GPT as partition 2, type Mac OS X HFS+
    Listed in MBR as partition 2, type af Mac OS X HFS+
    Partition at LBA 243681280:
    Boot Code: Windows BOOTMGR (Vista)
    File System: NTFS
    Listed in GPT as partition 3, type Basic Data
    Listed in MBR as partition 3, type 07 NTFS/HPFS, active
    I have also tried booting from ubuntu live CD (which did not work and resulted in a very scary loud sysbeeping and flashing of the front LED). Then I tried booting from win7 CD. That may still be a viable option but I need to find a USB keyboard because the stock mackbook pro keyboard seems to not send input when i am prompted for "press any key to boot from CD/DVD".
    I also tried uninstalling parallels and installing VMWare Fusion. Fusion also does not detect the BOOTCAMP partition. It doesn't see it at all. Assuming this is because it is still unmounted.
    I do not care if I lose my install, I will probably want to do clean installs of both leopard and win7 after this is all over. But I really do need to recover my data. If anyone knows of a utility that can browse unmounted NTFS volumes locally from OSX, I will buy you a thousand peachy penguins.
    Message was edited by: emtheory

    Still no definitive solution but a few updates.
    I was able to boot off the win7 DVD. Apparently I was not slamming the keys fast enough the first few times. I selected the option to repair an installation of windows, but it couldn't identify any NTFS partitions. At that point I decided any hope of booting from this partition was lost, and I may as well just focus on data recovery. I found a tool called FileSalvage which sweeps partitions, mounted or unmounted, and looks for the signature of known file types. It can then restore those files. I believe I should be able to restore most of the files I need with this type of tool, but unfortunately it costs $80. I am still looking for any similar DIY or freeware solutions.

  • New MBP,..Should I install Bootcamp first,..then Parallels to the Bootcamp partition?, New MBP,..Should I install Bootcamp first,..then Parallels to the Bootcamp partition?

    What is the install process for Bootcamp/Parallels?
    I have a new MBP being delivered today and need to install Windows for one program. What is the process to install a VM?
    I heard that I should install Bootcamp first, then install Parallels to the Bootcamp partition. Any advice? Thx.

    I guess I shold explain more about what I am doing.
    I will be running a CRM program (Windows Based), and a Order Entrry program (Windows Based) (Memory Hog) all the time. Along with this, I will have Lotus Notes for Mac and Mac Mail open all the time.
    Is there any harm, comcern, issues, hesitation,....to using Bootcamp to Parallels/Windows?
    I just want to get this configuration correct the first time.
    Also,...Am I able to drag files between Mac/PC ???

  • How should I upgrade hard drive with bootcamp partition & Parallels too

    I need to replace the hard drive in my 24" iMac (model 8,1 - early 2008).  My major concern is how to deal with my Windows XP in Parallels using a Bootcamp partition.  I have yet to find software that runs in OSX 7 (Lion) that will clone both the OSX partition and the Bootcamp NTFS partition.  It would appear that the most practical approach would be to use bootcamp assistant to remove the NTSF bootcamp partition and then clone just the OSX partition to my new drive and then recreate the bootcamp and parallels installations and reinstall Windows XP from scratch.   Seems rather inelegant, so I'm hoping someone has advice based on experience.  I'm truly hoping there is a more elegant way and any suggestions are appreciated.

    Kinda sticky, but there is a way.  You'll need three separate tools for the job:
    The External Hard Disk: Indispensable.  Get one that's at least 2x bigger than your current internal drive.  You'll need it as an interim storage point
    Winclone:  This free software will allow you to image the Boot Camp volume.  Since the developers closed shop, it's off to MacUpdate for a copy. Run it and clone the data to the external drive
    Carbon Copy Cloner 3.4.3: Same as above, but for your OS X volume.  This essentially puts a slick front-end on Disk Utility's cloning powers, but it really works well.  Get it at http://www.bombich.com/
    As for restoring the volumes:
    Restore the Mac side first from Snow Leopard, using the created image from CCC.  Let it take up the full of the new drive
    Now, run Boot Camp Assistant to size up a new Windows volume. You should not need to reload Windows--that's where Winclone comes in.
    Use Winclone to recover the XP side now, and if necessary, resize the volume.
    If done correctly, you'll keep XP as you update to Lion on the Mac side--but you can't upgrade the drivers past 3.2.
    Nate

  • I have installed bootcamp and thereafter parallels, I now need to reduce disksize of bootcamp partition. Q is how?

    I now need to reduce disksize of bootcamp partition. Q is how?
    Parallels does not allow this function as I have checked with them

    I don't know of any way to do that without removing it completely, using the Boot Camp Assostant program again, or maybe by using some third party software. But I have no idea what that third paerty software is.
    Simply fact is once you create a BCA partition you really can't change it or your OS X partition and expect the Windows side to still work.

  • VMware Fusion Performance: Bootcamp Partition or Virtual Machine?

    I'd like to run ArcGIS 9.3 in Windows XP using VMware Fusion. Can anyone comment on the virtues/drawbacks of using a bootcamp partition versus creating a VMware "Virtual Machine"?
    With bootcamp partition I can gradually increase the size of the partition as the partition becomes full using Drive Genius, correct?
    What about performance?
    Thanks!

    Visit MacTech.com and read their two benchmark reviews of Parallels, VM Fusion, and Boot Camp.
    You cannot "gradually increase the size" of a Boot Camp partition. To change the size you must first delete the existing partition then create a new, larger partition. Doing so will delete the entire Windows system, so be sure to back it up beforehand.

  • Help! Win 8.1 Bootcamp partition vanished

    Hi all
    My Windows 8.1 Bootcamp partition has vanished.
    Last night I was playing a Windows game, all was well and I shutdown the machine at the end of the night.  This morning I got up, powered up the Mac Pro and noticed it was stuck in an OSX reboot cycle.  I held the alt key down and the 3 boot partitions popped up OSX, Recovery, Windows 8.  I selected Recovery and ran the Disk Utility,  "Check" disk tool.  It reported that the EFI was bad so I clicked on Repair.  It then said it couldn't repair it.  I rebooted again and this time there are now only two options, OSX and Recovery.  I clicked OSX which loaded fine.  I have no idea how this happened when the machine was off over night and fine the night before in both Windows and OSX.
    So now I have no way to boot into Windows on my new Mac Pro 2014 machine.
    Bootcamp is on the internal SSD along with OSX
    I have never resized the partitions
    I have not installed anything new in the last few weeks
    I do not visit dodgy websites and run Malware bytes anti malware regularly (never found an issue to date)
    Last night I added a secondary HDMI monitor
    The day before yesterday I unplugged everything and rearranged my office
    I uninstalled Parallels Desktop Trial (expired) 1 week ago from both Windows and OSX
    I have backed up the Bootcamp partition to an external drive using Disk Utility 
    I CAN browse the bootcamp partition using finder and the folders and files are all visible.
    New Mac Pro. 512GB SSD, OSX 10.9.3, 16GB Ram, Thunderbolt Display, HDMI Dell Display
    Any help would be much appreciated as some of my key work software is on the BOOTCAMP windows install.

    There is overcharging protection in the battery and the adapter, both. This can also be seen on OS X side under System Report -> Power. If you adapter is plugged in and the battery is charged, it will say 'Not charging' despite the fact that the power adapter is connected.

  • Installing Windows on existing bootcamp partition

    Hi,
    My iMac is 4 years old. When i first set it up i created a partition called BOOTCAMP 211 Gb in size. I was unsure how to run Windows products on my iMac but ended up buying and using Parallels successfully until now. But there have been so many updates to Parallels and each at a cost that i am trying to find another way to run windows cheaper and possibly faster.
    I was going to install Windows to BOOTCAMP but I'm not sure how to of about it and if it will damage my OS in anyway now that it is not being done as part of setup. I don't have my windows disk but have my Windows 7 Professional Key that i was using with Parallels.
    I was proposing to do the following.
    1. Download from microsoft the iso image for Windows 7 Professional. How do i install to the BOOTCAMP partition if its a file of type ISO? Doing this won't affect my MAC OS?
    2. I was then going to activate using my existing key.
    3. It should run as with Parallels and possibly faster, correct?
    Really appreciate your help with this.
    Thanks,
    Mike

    If you iMac has a built-in Optical drive (or originally had one), you will need to burn the ISO you download to a physical DVD.
    Use Bootcamp Assistant to partition (if necessary), or use the existing partition. If there is an issue, the partition can be manually cleaned up, if necessary.
    I suggest starting at How to install Windows using Boot Camp - Apple Support .

  • Bootcamp Partition Will Not Mount - Size Bootcamp Partition Will Not Mount - Also Size Discrepancies

    I have bootcamp installed on an internal hard drive in my Mac Pro running 10.8.5.  This HD had two partitions, one of which I had 200GB allocated for my Windows install.  I reached a point where I was at nearly 100% capacity on that drive and needed more room.  This is what I did:
    Used Disk Utility to shrink the Mac OS Extended partition.
    Erased free space on that partition.
    Booted back into Windows and used MiniTool to extend the bootcamp partition to unallocated space.
    MinoTool then performed a restart and finished it's job upon startup.
    I am still able to boot into Windows and Mac just fine and I did create a backup of each OS before starting.
    I have two issues now, however.  Parallels no long recognized that Bootcamp partition.  I decided to delete that VM and I had to uninstall Parallels completely anyways due to an upgrage isse to Parallels 9.  After upgrading, Creating a VM from my BC was not an option.  This is because the BC partition will not mount, it is greyed out in Disk Utitlity.
    I tried installing Tuxera NTFS and the disk still cannot be mounted. 
    The other issue is that Disk Utility does not show the Bootcamp partition with the correct size.  It still shows it with the original 200GB but does show that the Mac Partition was shrunk.  In Windows, however, either using MiniTool or Windows Disk Managment, it shows the correct sizes for the partitions.
    I'll attach a screenshot of DU.
    I would like to be able to mount the drive successfully so that I can use the partition once again for Parallels.
    This is the system.log display when attempting to mount the BOOTCAMP partition and when disabling Tuxera from the system preferences:
    Nov  7 08:35:46 ***-mac-pro.local com.apple.SecurityServer[27]: Succeeded authorizing right 'system.volume.internal.mount' by client '/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app' [973] for authorization created by '/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app' [973] (100013,0)
    Nov  7 08:35:46 ***-mac-pro.local com.apple.SecurityServer[27]: Succeeded authorizing right 'system.volume.internal.mount' by client '/usr/sbin/diskarbitrationd' [15] for authorization created by '/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app' [973] (100002,0)
    Nov  7 08:35:47 ***-mac-pro kernel[0]: NTFS driver 3.10 [Flags: R/W].
    Nov  7 08:35:47 ***-mac-pro kernel[0]: NTFS volume name BOOTCAMP, version 3.1.
    Nov  7 08:35:47 ***-mac-pro kernel[0]: NTFS-fs error (device /dev/disk3s3, pid 5414): ntfs_lookup_inode_by_name(): Directory index record with VCN 0x3 is corrupt.  Corrupt inode 0x5.  Run chkdsk.
    Nov  7 08:35:47 ***-mac-pro kernel[0]: NTFS-fs error (device /dev/disk3s3, pid 5414): ntfs_windows_hibernation_status_check(): Failed to find inode number for hiberfil.sys.
    Nov  7 08:35:47 ***-mac-pro kernel[0]: NTFS-fs warning (device /dev/disk3s3, pid 5414): ntfs_system_inodes_get(): Failed to determine if Windows is hibernated.  Will not be able to remount read-write.  Run chkdsk.
    Nov  7 08:35:47 ***-mac-pro kernel[0]: NTFS-fs error (device /dev/disk3s3, pid 5414): ntfs_attr_find_in_attribute_list(): Base inode 0x9 contains corrupt attribute list attribute. Unmount and run chkdsk.
    Nov  7 08:35:47 ***-mac-pro kernel[0]: NTFS-fs error (device /dev/disk3s3, pid 5414): ntfs_inode_read(): Failed to lookup data attribute.
    Nov  7 08:35:47 ***-mac-pro kernel[0]: NTFS-fs error (device /dev/disk3s3, pid 5414): ntfs_inode_read(): Failed (error 5) for inode 0x9. Run chkdsk.
    Nov  7 08:35:47 ***-mac-pro kernel[0]: NTFS-fs error (device /dev/disk3s3, pid 5414): ntfs_inode_attach(): Failed to load inode 0x9.
    Nov  7 08:35:47 ***-mac-pro kernel[0]: NTFS-fs error (device /dev/disk3s3, pid 5414): ntfs_secure_load(): Failed to load $Secure.
    Nov  7 08:35:47 ***-mac-pro kernel[0]: NTFS-fs error (device /dev/disk3s3, pid 5414): ntfs_mount(): Failed to load system files (error 5).
    Nov  7 08:35:47 ***-mac-pro kernel[0]: NTFS-fs error (device /dev/disk3s3, pid 5414): ntfs_mount(): Mount failed (error 5).
    Nov  7 08:35:48 ***-mac-pro.local com.apple.SecurityServer[27]: Succeeded authorizing right 'system.privilege.admin' by client '/Applications/System Preferences.app' [5297] for authorization created by '/Applications/System Preferences.app' [5297] (100012,0)
    Thanks,
    Josh

    Josh,
    I will defer to Christopher on correcting the GPT, but I agree it is incorrect. On a much simpler, single disk Macmini with Bootcamp...
    sudo gpt -r -vv show /dev/rdisk0
    gpt show: /dev/rdisk0: mediasize=500107862016; sectorsize=512; blocks=976773168
    gpt show: /dev/rdisk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0
    gpt show: /dev/rdisk0: Pri GPT at sector 1
    gpt show: /dev/rdisk0: Sec GPT at sector 976773167
          start       size  index  contents
              0          1         MBR
              1          1         Pri GPT header
              2         32         Pri GPT table
             34          6        
             40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
         409640  725093952      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
      725503592    1269536      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
      726773128        632        
      726773760  249999360      4  GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7
      976773120         15        
      976773135         32         Sec GPT table
      976773167          1         Sec GPT header
    sudo fdisk /dev/rdisk0
    Disk: /dev/rdisk0          geometry: 60801/255/63 [976773168 sectors]
    Signature: 0xAA55
             Starting       Ending
    #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]
    1: EE 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [         1 -     409639] <Unknown ID>
    2: AF 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [    409640 -  725093952] HFS+       
    3: AB 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [ 725503592 -    1269536] Darwin Boot
    *4: 07 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [ 726773760 -  249999360] HPFS/QNX/AUX
    diskutil list /dev/disk0
    /dev/disk0
       #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
       0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk0
       1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
       2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            371.2 GB   disk0s2
       3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
       4:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                128.0 GB   disk0s4
    PS: I see Christopher's response.

  • Make Bootcamp partition on former laptop drive bootable again

    I have my former laptop drive with its OS X partition and its Bootcamp partition.  Only the OS X partition comes up on the list when the option key is held down at startup.  The Bootcamp partition seems absolutely fine and I can access the files but I can't boot into it because it doesn't come up on the startup options list.  I am now running Lion on my new laptop and I'm assuming that to be the problem?  Hoping someone can help.  I would have liked to have migrated the Bootcamp partition to the new laptop but that seems much more difficult than anticipated because it would appear you can no longer create a blank Windows partition as the install disk has to be inserted when you create the partition.  I'd settle for just being able to boot into it on the, now external, drive.  I can move the stuff I really want off my old OS X setup to my new laptop and then I could even dedicate the whole external drive to Windows if I wanted - as long as it's bootable!
    Any help will be much appreciated.  I have searched around and no-one else seems to be describing quite the scenario I have.  I tried using refit it sort out the problem but it just didn't seem to do anything - I installed it on the OS X partition on the external drive and perhaps ought to have installed it on the laptop's internal drive instead - not sure - either way it didn't ask for a startup disk to be chosen and has had no effect when I try to startup again.

    you have to have the Windows partition on an internally connected drive.
    Using Windows on different hardware / motherboard may not work or be stable even.
    Re-activation on new hardware
    Lots of people want to run Windows off external drive, and answer is no.
    Boot Camp Assistant in Lion would be happy to set aside 60GB.
    If you don't have the Windows DVD then how do you intend to? do you own one? there are other options includinig buying Windows 7 system builder for Home Premium 64-bit or windows 8.
    Parallels may allow you to access and run as a VM using the old Windows.
    External Windows may not show in Startup Disk for a number of reasons. - mounting and seeing the drive and NTFS, the use of some NTFS 3rd party drivers for OS X.
    Try WinClone latest or something else to image and restore.

  • How to clone bootcamp partition on Mac?

    Hello!
    I currently have a 200GB bootcamp partition on my 2TB internal iMac hard drive. I want more space for my windows partition. I have a spare 500GB Hard drive laying around, and was wondering if there was a way that I could clone the bootcamp partition from my iMac onto that drive. I'd still want it to be bootable.That way I could have an extra 300GB of space without sacrificing my internal HD. Is there an easy way to do this? Thanks!
    Thomas

    Mac OS Yosemite and Win8.1 on external Thunderbolt/USB 3 drive.
    How to:
    Remember before you start: Make sure you have updated backups on everything involved, unmount all not necessary drives. during the different stages unmount the drive not working on i.e. if you are doing things on the  external unmount the internal. Take your time and be sure to choose the right drive and partition so you don’t mess everything up.
    1. Update all Mac OS updates from Mac App Store.
    2. Run Boot Camp on internal (original) drive, including make a USB stick drivers for Win (Can take forever on a slow USB stick, but will get there) Install Windows from DVD or similar (I did from a bought DVD, no OEM allowed)
    3. Test-run and configure and add all updates for Windows and installing an Antivirus app is also good to do.
    4. Install a new fresh Mac OS on an external USB or Thunderbolt drive (or use CarbonCopyCloner to get a copy of internal Mac OS)
    5. Check the new external Mac OS by rebooting to it. if Ok, reboot to internal again.
    6. Run WinClone 4 and make an image file from the Boot Camp to an image file to your desktop.
    7. Run Disk Utility and select your external drive, Choose the Partition tab, click the + below the main (only partition), select the space between the now two partitions and drag upp or down until lower parts size is at least a tad bigger than the original Boot Camp volume or bigger. Select the new partition and rename it and choose to format it to MS-DOS FAT. Execute.
    8. Run WinClone again and choose your new image-file, and target your new FAT-partition on the external drive.
    9. Reboot the Mac, and when screen goes black, press and hold the alt-button until the startup drives is shown, select the new Windows disk on your external drive. If all ok your computer will start on Windows on your external drive. When running Windows goto your USB-stick open the Boot Camp folder and run the setup.exe.
    When all seems to work ok reboot again and this time to your internal Mac OS.
    10. When in your internal Mac OS, run the Boot Camp app again and make sure only the Remove Win8xx is checked, run and the Boot Camp will be removed on your Mac drive.
    Check-run everything agan.
    Thats how I did it, might be easier way but at least I’m a happy camper now :-)
    So now I have the options to run Mac OS on my internal drive, run Mac OS on my external together with Parallels Desktop and Windows 8.1 in a virtual or just run Windows only on the external drive (best for gaming etc in windows)

  • Bootcamp boots in parallels but not form start up.

    hi i was having problems installing bootcamp and installed it to my partitioned (partitioned by bootcamp installation app) side of the HDD it will load up perfectly within Parallels but not through the boot selection on start up and shows a error about no bootable something.
    should i uninstall the bootcamp and parallels and try to install it again through the utility or how do i set it to be able to boot form start up to it withought a Virtual machine?

    1. Remove the Parallels VM.
    2. Remove the Bootcamp Partition using Bootcamp Assistant.
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    Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
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