Can you reverse boot camping your device?

Hi there,
I am thinking of dual booting my device to windows 8 for university and I would like to know if it is possible to reverse the dual boot if I am not entirely happy with it?
Can you entirely delete windows 8 off the mac or does it stay on there?
Thanks.

Bootcamp is (at least was when I tried it) only a partitionning tool. So if you're tired of your other os, you'll be able to recover wasted space whenever you want.
If you don't need windows for hard work, you may consider virtualisation.

Similar Messages

  • Can you run boot camp on an external HD for your Mac?

    Hello,
    I have a 500GB external Drive that I was thinking about doing boot camp on it if it would work to run Windows on it.
    Sean

    Basically, no. You may want to use a product such as Parallels Desktop.
    (28928)

  • Can you run Boot Camp and Fusion at the same time?

    Hi,
    I had boot camp installed on my mac pro and loved it. I decided to get greedy and install Fusion using the boot camp partition. The Fusion install went ok but then Microsoft started to get fussy. Every time I would do something on Fusion it would ask me to "Re-activate Windows" when I logged into boot camp. Maybe if I saw Fusion fully working I wouldn't want to run boot camp any more but I think I want to have the option to run either. Right now I only have 1 gig real memory on my mac pro and Fusion seems a little slow compared to native boot camp. Can I run both boot camp and fusion without having to buy two native copies of Windows XP pro? I don't want a "sensible" answer, I want an answer that takes into account how Microsoft treats this re-activation situation.
    I guess Leopard might make this all obsolete, but until then .....
    ... Flash Gordon

    You need to make sure to install VMware Tools into your virtual machine (while booted into Windows via Fusion). Once you do this you shouldn't have to continually activate Windows when going back and forth from Boot Camp to Fusion. I've seen this discussed over on the VMware Fusion discussion boards, so you may want to look there for more details.
    Also, if Windows starts telling you it's been activated too many times, you can call Microsoft and they'll give you an alternate activation key. The phone number is listed on the Windows error screen. I had to do it and they were very accommodating. I just told them I was running Windows in a virtual machine, and there were almost no questions asked.
    You don't need to buy 2 copies of Windows to run both Boot Camp and VMFusion.

  • Can you install Boot Camp on an SD Card?

    Rather than installing your Boot Camp partition on your Mac's internal drive, can you install it on an SD Card instead? That way you could put the SD Card into any Mac, and boot into Windows.

    I too would like to install a bootcamp partition on an SD card so that I will not loose a huge chuck of my internal drive to Windows, a system I need very rarely (this is important for all users of SSHDs, where internal storage space is precious).
    If it is not possible to create a bootcamp partition on an external SD card, how about installing Lion first on that SD card, booting from the SD card, and then creating the bootcamp partition on that card. I would think that Lion's disk utility would consider the SD card as the internal disk, and so should make the partition and allow the installation. Large fast SD cards are not cheap, but I would think that this would be an option for those of us with limited internal storage space.
    Has anybody tried this option?

  • Can you install Boot Camp on a Pegasus2 Logical Drive?

    Trying to plan my upgrade to the new Mac Pros and I'm wondering whether it's possible to install Boot Camp on a logical drive located on a Promise Pegasus2 Thunderbolt enclosure? Ideally I'd be setting up a series of logical drives on a Pegasus2 (2 to duplicate existing drives in my current Mac Pro, 1 for Time Machine, and 1 for Boot Camp) but I can't seem to find out whether Boot Camp partitions are supported...

    I too would like to install a bootcamp partition on an SD card so that I will not loose a huge chuck of my internal drive to Windows, a system I need very rarely (this is important for all users of SSHDs, where internal storage space is precious).
    If it is not possible to create a bootcamp partition on an external SD card, how about installing Lion first on that SD card, booting from the SD card, and then creating the bootcamp partition on that card. I would think that Lion's disk utility would consider the SD card as the internal disk, and so should make the partition and allow the installation. Large fast SD cards are not cheap, but I would think that this would be an option for those of us with limited internal storage space.
    Has anybody tried this option?

  • I have forgotten my iPad password and tried to back up and restore my iPad but it says you need to unlock your device before you restore it but that is the whole reason I am trying to restore my iPad. Can anyone help?

    I have forgotten my iPad password and tried to back up and restore my iPad but it says you need to unlock your device before you restore it but that is the whole reason I am trying to restore my iPad. Can anyone help?

    Forgotten passcode or device disabled after entering incorrect passcode

  • Can't install boot camp(Am in desperate need of help!!!)

    Ok, the story, I will try to make it short:
    -Got my Imac a month ago. Installed Boot Camp Vista Home Premium 64 Bit. No problem. Ran smooth.
    -Later I got VMWare fusion and decided to check it out. Didn't like to to much, but now I can't install Boot Camp.
    -When using Boot Camp assistent, it creates my partition(which 200 GB) Fat32! The problem is, when it wants to boot to install. It ejects the Vista installation DVD! No matter what I do.
    -*If I hold down the ALT key(option button) during start up*, it will show a grey screen with two options(The Macintosh HD and the Windows Partition). Selecting the Windows partition gives a black screen with an error; *"non-system disk press any key to reboot"* Only problem is that the keyboard was dead or frozen so had to crash the machine.
    -Pressing D on start up to enable the *Apple Hardware Test* showed no problems.
    -Pressing Alt + Cmd(command) + P + R to *delete the NVRam and PRAM*, did not have any effect. I think I did it right though, because there came a second start up sound.
    -Pressing S + Cmd(command) on start up to run *User Single Mode*, with the command; "/sbin/fsck -fy" did not reveal any problems either, except for a weird long messege that kept coming up, and which interupted the line I was writing on several times. The messege was as follows: +":/root# AppleUSBEHCI[0x6e8t000]:: Found a Transaction Past the completion deadline on bus Oxfd, timing out!(Addr: 6EP:4)"+
    *Ran a program called Partition Inspector;*
    * Report for internal hard disk *
    +Current GPT partition table:+
    +# Start LBA End LBA Type+
    +1 40 409639 EFI System (FAT)+
    +2 409640 1531068455 Mac OS X HFS++
    +3 1531330600 1953525127 Basic Data+
    +Current MBR partition table:+
    +# A Start LBA End LBA Type+
    +1 1 409639 ee EFI Protective+
    +2 409640 1531068455 af Mac OS X HFS++
    +3 * 1531330600 1953525127 0c FAT32 (LBA)+
    +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 1531330600:+
    +Boot Code: None (Non-system disk message)+
    +File System: FAT32+
    +Listed in GPT as partition 3, type Basic Data+
    +Listed in MBR as partition 3, type 0c FAT32 (LBA), active+
    I don't know what any of this means, but I suspect the Boot Camp partition is the last one. I wonder what "Boot Code: None(Non-system disk message" means!?
    *When running diskutil:*
    *diskutil list*
    /dev/disk0
    #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
    0: GUIDpartitionscheme *931.5 Gi disk0
    1: EFI 200.0 Mi disk0s1
    2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 729.9 Gi disk0s2
    3: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 201.3 Gi disk0s3
    /dev/disk1
    #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
    0: FDiskpartitionscheme *931.5 Gi disk1
    1: WindowsFAT32 My Book 931.3 Gi disk1s1
    /dev/disk2
    #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
    0: FRMCxFREDADVD *3.5 Gi disk2
    *And when I searched on the boot camp disc specificaly:*
    Device Identifier: disk0s3
    Device Node: /dev/disk0s3
    Part Of Whole: disk0
    Device / Media Name: Untitled
    Volume Name: BOOTCAMP
    Mount Point: /Volumes/BOOTCAMP
    File System: MS-DOS FAT32
    Partition Type: Microsoft Basic Data
    Bootable: Is bootable
    Media Type: Generic
    Protocol: SATA
    SMART Status: Verified
    Total Size: 201.3 Gi (216110792704 B) (422091392 512-byte blocks)
    Free Space: 201.3 Gi (216109285376 B) (422088448 512-byte blocks)
    Read Only: No
    Ejectable: No
    Whole: No
    Internal: Yes
    Other things I tried:
    -Tried going into Startup disk, to force Vista to install from boot up, but it ejected upon startup anyway.
    -Tried rebooting while holding down "C" to force a startup from a CD/DVD. Vista installation DVD still ejected.
    -Tried reinstalling Leopard with the Leopard Installation Disc 01, but it also ejecred upon rebooting to install! < This lead me to believe that it's my Superdrive that is messed up, but it plays DVD Movies just fine, and I even just now just burned the Vista installation DVD to my desktop in a .dmg file. So I am not sure if that is it!
    -I tried taking a different Windows Vista DVD(Windows Vista 32 Bit Home Premium) to see if it could install from that. It could not, and ejected upon startup like the Leopard and 64 Bit Home Premium Vista Installation DVD!
    I am new to Mac, but I am desperate after getting boot camp to work again. I have litterly been trying to figure this out for days, and I can't get it to work. I tried to call Apple but they couldn't help me.:( I could really use your help. I just want it to work.
    And speaking of working, I haven't been to work for two days, because I have been home trying to figure this out. It's critical that I get boot camp working. So please, mates, can't you help me.
    I simply don't know what to do:(
    Cry
    -Oil Pedestal

    Does [this firmware update|http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/firmware_hardware/imacefifir mwareupdate13.html] apply to your machine? If so, putting it on may fix the boot from DVD problem.

  • Can't install Boot Camp - Mountain Lion

    I had previously installed Windows XP running under Parallels. When I updated to Mountain Lion I uninstalled Parallels. I decided to just run XP in Boot Camp, as I need it only once in awhile. I downloaded Boot Camp 3.2 which says it's compatable with XP. When I try to download the Windows Support Software to install XP, it will not load. It says that it is not available on the server. Is there a solution for this?  Thanks!!!

    It takes awhile, but this seems to work…
    Make sure you have:
    * Wired USB Keyboard & Mouse
    * Snow Leopard CD
    * WinXP CD
    * 16GB Thumb Drive
    * Everything on your system backed up... just in case
    * Lots of time set aside
    In the unlikely event of a water landing, make sure you have backed up your system prior to attempting this!*
    Connect your wired USB keyboard & mouse and Install SL to the thumb drive (This part is like watching paint dry.) then reboot your Mac. Hold down the option key right when you hear the boot chime and select the thumb drive as your boot device. Once SL boots up, you can then use the boot camp assistant to create the BC partition and begin WinXP installation. Note: the WinXP installer will tell you it doesn't recognize any of the partitions and will ask you if you want to delete & repartition as MBR... DO NOT REPARTITION WITH THE XP INSTALLER. If you do, the XP loader will get confused on where your windows installation is. Select the Boot Camp partition and format NTFS**.
    After install make sure you run the BC driver setup so all your devices will play nicely. You might also need to run apple software update to get the last supported XP drivers (which I believe is BC v3.2) as well as download/install the latest video drivers directly from nvidia or amd/radeon.  Once everything is up to date, you should be able enable bluetooth to setup/use your wireless keyboard and mouse.
    Another thing to note: the BC icon in the windows control panel works like a champ, however the one in Mountain Lion does not acknolegde you have boot camp installed... so to get to your XP partition you have to hold down the option key on boot and select it by hand... or you probably could install a boot manager.
    Did I leave anything out?  Oh....Good luck!!
    * Back everything up before attempting the rest of these steps.
    ** Again... everything should have been backed up waaay before you get to this step.

  • After upgrading to Lion can't get Boot Camp to work! Just get "startup dusk cannot be portioned or restored to a single partition"?

    After upgrading to Lion can't get Boot Camp to work! Just get "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition". Anytone?

    This message, and threads like yours got asked daily for over two years, now it is only a couple times a week!!
    Is it so hard to follow through? you were to have backup already, clones are best, then erase/format and restore.
    Then partition.
    Some have been able to use Disk Utility booted from OS X DVD or another drive, and repair the drive.
    You have to use Boot Camp Assistant (99.9% anyway) to create and achieve a proper Windows Master Boot Record partition.

  • Can I Use Boot Camp to Install Windows XP on Late2012 MacMini

    I can't remember everything I've read here in the Community, I still have my Windows XP laptop, haven't used it except to transport videos. Can I use Boot Camp to partition & install the XP on my Dec 2012 Mac Mini? Running Mountain Lion 10.8.5. I still have my Seagate ext HD 1.5 TB, connected to the Mini, but haven't reset it to Mac only. I'm having a slight prob with memory loss, mine, not the Mac's. I think I read that I can't do this with Mountain Lion, but when I try to find what I think I read, it's so far back, I can't get to it. Please help? Thanks in advance.

    The Late 2012 Mac mini only supports 64-bit Windows 7 and 8 versions, so you can't install Windows XP with Boot Camp.
    If you need Windows XP, download an application like Parallels, VMware Fusion or VirtualBox, create a virtual machine and install Windows XP there. You shouldn't have any RAM problem with Windows XP.
    OS X can copy to FAT and exFAT drives, so you can format your external drive in "MS-DOS (FAT)". First, open Finder, choose your external drive in the sidebar and copy all the files to the desktop. Then, use Disk Utility to format your external disk in "MS-DOS (FAT)" > http://pondini.org/OSX/DU1.html Finally, copy all the files back

  • Can't install Boot Camp Drivers on Win 7 (Fusion)

    I'm really sorry - I know this has been asked a thousand times before, but every response I've found so far either didn't work for me or it was too technical for my limited knowledge. I'm on the verge of tears after having tried to solve the problem for over 5 hours. It's past 2am here in Australia and I really should go to sleep but this is driving me insane!
    Yesterday I installed Windows 7 on my Macbook Air (13" 2011 model, running Mountain Lion) using Fusion 5. I need to run Windows-only applications for work, which also requires accents (I am a translator).
    As I didn't go about it using Boot Camp, I tried following this step-by-step to get my keyboard working properly: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&d ocTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&externalId=1005578
    No luck.
    I downloaded the drivers using Boot Camp onto a USB stick formated as MS-DOS (FAT). I tried running setup.exe but keep getting the horrible "This version of Boot Camp is not intended for this computer model" no matter what (tried the "Troubleshoot compatibility" trick, tried re-formatting my stick and downloading the drivers again... nothing worked).
    I then tried to run AppleKeyboardInstaller64.exe only and got an installation wizard. Windows says installation is complete, although I can't see this driver on the program list (should I?) - I can only it see it when I go to Control Panel\Programs\Programs and Features (from there I get the option to uninstall it but not to open it). HOWEVER, when I attempt to add an Apple keyboard, I can't see any, under any language.
    I have tried alternative solutions like building my own keyboard layout but that didn't work either because I can't make the accent functions work in order to set up the layout!
    Adding a foreign keyboard layout to Windows just gave me a very random set of strokes that will drive me insane if I have to type them regularly.
    I just want to be able to use the standard strokes for accents on both OS:
    Alt+e for á
    Alt+i for ^
    Alt+c for ç
    Alt+` for à
    Alt+n for ~
    Can any good soul help me? I'm not an IT person, just someone who used to be married to her Mac (a very happy marriage) and who is now about to throw the laptop out of a window. Please HELP!!!

    That article was also my starting point and I have followed those steps again and again and again. I haven't slept, I haven't done anything other then try to make it work for more hours than I can count. I came here for help because that solution is not working for me.
    The region and keyboard type settings simply don't have the Apple keyboard layout listed. As I said, someone on the Fusion forum tried to follow the article's instructions too and he managed to get it working because he COULD run setup.exe (Boot Camp Drivers) on his machine, and I CAN'T. Yes, it is all explained in that article... but the drivers WON'T INSTALL, I get an error message saying "This version of Boot Camp is not intended for this computer model".
    First you said it wasn't physically possible for me to install the drivers, then you said I should just follow the article. Well, the article clearly says "Install the Boot Camp Windows device drivers in the virtual machine" which you just said couldn't be done! I want to cry. I should have just bought a second laptop, this is too painful.

  • Can I install Boot Camp on an external disk?

    I have a MacBook Air ( version 3,2) and I am running out of space to install Boot Camp. I use Windows 7 by the way.
    Can I install Boot Camp on an external disk? How do I go about doing this? I have an Apple external super drive and I have two USB ports on my computer.
    Can I install the mac operating system on the external disk including the Applications and then install Boot Camp as per usual? How would I get the Windows 7 program to install on the external disk using the superdrive that I have?

    BootCamp will only install on an internal disk.
    If you are wiling to do some work,  do some Google searches, use third party tools, and make your own custom Windows install disc, then you might be able to get what you want, but there is no guarantee that it will work on your specific hardware.
    I researched this topic a year or two ago and found people claiming that using rEFIt and custom built Windows install discs, that they were able to do what you seek.  After reading through all the instructions, I found it much easier to upgrade the HD in my MacBookPro to a 500GB drive and just installed my BootCamp on the spare 180GB space from the upgrade.  That took me a little over an afternoon, and it was fully supported...

  • How can I activate Boot Camp Assistant?

    How can I activate Boot Camp?  I want to install an educational library that is on a CD.  People that have PC's can use the CD.  I have a mac mini and I want to open the CD to read/review.  I have the Snow Leopard model.

    Open Boot Camp Assistant in the Utilities folder. You will see the following:
    Click on the Print Installation & Setup Guide button. Click the OK button in the dropdown panel. You will now see the main Print panel. You can now print the document to your printer. If you prefer to make a PDF file you can read on the computer instead, then select Save as PDF from the PDF dropdown menu on the lower left. Save it to the location of your choice.
    Now, read this document carefully in order to follow the proper procedures for creating a Windows partition on your hard drive to which you can install Windows 7 from a retail Windows 7 installer DVD.
    Other options for running Windows:
    Windows on Intel Macs
    There are presently several alternatives for running Windows on Intel Macs.
    1. Install the Apple Boot Camp software.  Purchase Windows XP w/Service Pak2, Vista, or Windows 7.  Follow instructions in the Boot Camp documentation on installation of Boot Camp, creating Driver CD, and installing Windows.  Boot Camp enables you to boot the computer into OS X or Windows.
    2. Parallels Desktop for Mac and Windows XP, Vista Business, Vista Ultimate, or Windows 7.  Parallels is software virtualization that enables running Windows concurrently with OS X.
    3. VM Fusionand Windows XP, Vista Business, Vista Ultimate, or Windows 7.  VM Fusion is software virtualization that enables running Windows concurrently with OS X.
    4. CrossOver which enables running many Windows applications without having to install Windows.  The Windows applications can run concurrently with OS X.
    5. VirtualBox is a new Open Source freeware virtual machine such as VM Fusion and Parallels that was developed by Solaris.  It is not as fully developed for the Mac as Parallels and VM Fusion.
    6. Last is Q.  Q is a freeware emulator that is compatible with Intel Macs.  It is much slower than the virtualization software, Parallels and VM Fusion.
    Note that Parallels and VM Fusion can also run other operating systems such as Linux, Unix, OS/2, Solaris, etc.  There are performance differences between dual-boot systems and virtualization.  The latter tend to be a little slower (not much) and do not provide the video performance of the dual-boot system. See MacTech.com's Virtualization Benchmarking for comparisons of Boot Camp, Parallels, and VM Fusion. Boot Camp is only available with Leopard or Snow Leopard. Except for Crossover and a couple of similar alternatives like DarWine you must have a valid installer disc for Windows.
    You must also have an internal optical drive for installing Windows. Windows cannot be installed from an external optical drive.

  • Early 2008 Mac Pro - Can't load Boot Camp drivers for Win 7 64

    Trying to install Win 7 64 bit on my early 2008 Mac Pro.  I downloaded the Boot Camp drivers 4.0.4033 and installed them on a USB drive but, for some reason, when I try the install them during the process, I get a message that my hardware is not recognized.  Skipping the driver loading process, I am able to install Win 7 but when the system trys to restart to continue the install, I get a message "disk error, press any key to restart".  Pressing any key does not get me anywhere.  I went through the Win 7 repair process and again tried to load the drivers with no luck. 
    Any thoughts would be appreciated.
    Thank you,

    That article was also my starting point and I have followed those steps again and again and again. I haven't slept, I haven't done anything other then try to make it work for more hours than I can count. I came here for help because that solution is not working for me.
    The region and keyboard type settings simply don't have the Apple keyboard layout listed. As I said, someone on the Fusion forum tried to follow the article's instructions too and he managed to get it working because he COULD run setup.exe (Boot Camp Drivers) on his machine, and I CAN'T. Yes, it is all explained in that article... but the drivers WON'T INSTALL, I get an error message saying "This version of Boot Camp is not intended for this computer model".
    First you said it wasn't physically possible for me to install the drivers, then you said I should just follow the article. Well, the article clearly says "Install the Boot Camp Windows device drivers in the virtual machine" which you just said couldn't be done! I want to cry. I should have just bought a second laptop, this is too painful.

  • Can't get Boot Camp to run since updates

    I did all the updates as a good Apple user now I find I cannot boot up my Windows disc. When I restart computer holding option key the screen goes white and nothing happens. What should I do?

    Something appears to have not installed correctly when the "updates" were installed. Can you tell me which updates did you installed before the issues began? Was Windows already working normally prior to the updates? By the way, which version of windows did you install?
    Meanwhile see if you can do the following:
    right after you hear the startup sound press and hold the ALT (Option) key until a menu appears on the screen.
    It should let you choose between Mac OS and Windows.
    Choose Mac OS and press Enter or click the little arrow below it to start into Mac OS.
    Once you are in Mac OS choose System Preferences from the Apple Menu and go to Startup Disk. Choose your Mac OS volume there to make your computer auto start from that volume next time.
    Close the menu again and you are done.
    You can use the Boot Camp assistant to delete your Windows partition, recreate it and reinstall Windows afterwards if the windows installation never worked right in the first place.
    Axel F.

Maybe you are looking for