Pros and cons of various dual boot and virtual options?

I have purchased a 500 GB hdd 8 GB RAM Macbook Air with the intent of being able to run a few PC programs (i.e., no Mac versions) a few times a week, both of which are radiology image viewing programs. I can cover other programs with Mac software versions.
Years ago I worked briefly with a computer that used Parallels. It seemed to be OK--in fact, there was a compatilbility mode that allowed me to run PC programs along with the native Mac programs, so it must have been a virtual setup.
With this new hardware, I can make my own choice about whether to do a frank dual boot or whether to run Windows 7 as a virtual machine, I guess, under Parallels or VMWare. I would appreciate any input from people who have experience with doing any of the combinations, including comments about how difficult the installation is/was and whether there is a noticeable slow-down because of use of resources, particularly with the virtual methods. My Air boots quite quickly--does the boot time into Win 7 with Boot Camp extend boot time significantly? What other questions should concern me? (one other question that I asked in a different part of the forum concerns the difference between PC and Mac keyboards and how that is handled with dual boot or virtual machines...)
Thanks
Ken K

There are some other options for running PC programs on your Mac besides installing Windows, which have the great advantage of not requiring Windows on your Mac, which is like putting a turd on your hamburger. Two options I have used are Wine winebottler.kronenberg.org and Crossover Run Windows on Mac and Linux, easily and affordably - CodeWeavers . Crossover is a bit easier to use, and Wine is free. Not every PC app will work on them, but many do.
Running a virtual machine will definitely be slower than boot camp. How slow will depend on the app and how much RAM it needs. MRIs and CTs with a lot of images can use a lot of disk space and memory.
If you have windows on your Mac you will need virus protection at least on the Windows part, which will slow your Mac down more.
I have used OsiriX for Mac, and it works well. OsiriX (Mac) - Download

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Can I install an earlier version of Bootcamp on my new Macbook Pro so that I can dual boot to XP rather than Windows 7??

I have a new MacBook Pro and would like to dual boot ot XP. Is this possible using the Bootcamp version that comes with it? I wonder whether Apple have XP drivers for the new MacBook or if they have only developed those for Windows 7? Thanks in advance!

Just install XP into a Virtual Machine. Like VMware Fusion, Parallels or Virtual Box.
Then you can run both OS X & XP at the same time. No need to dual boot with XP as it doesn't use that many rsources and runs fine in a VM.

How do I dual boot my 2012 baseline 13" MacBook Pro?, How do I dual boot my 2012 baseline 13" MacBook Pro?

I have the baseline 2012 13" MacBook Pro (2.5GHz Intel Core i5, 4GB Ram, OSx 10.8.2) and I have a copy of Windows 7 Professional 64 bit that I got from my school (burned iso to a disk) and I can get the registration code from them too. So will I be able to use this to dual boot with my mac? Thanks!

YES.
Follow this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM2495dmO0I
Also you can move liscense keys between computers.

Satellite Pro A200: How to create Dual boot; Vista & XP using Recovery CD

I have just purchased a Satellite Pro A200 lap-top, which was supplied with Product Recovery disks for both Vista and XP.
The Vista licence specifically also licences XP.
Can I set up a dual boot so that I can boot to either Vista or XP ? If so, how?
I would also like, as a third boot, Red Hat Linux 9.
Any comments ?

Hmmm. Usually its possible to use two or more operating systems on the computer but as far as I know the Toshiba Vista Recovery CD formats the whole HDD during the Vista installation and this will lead to losing of the installed OS's.
Im not 100% sure about the XP Recovery CD The newest CD called RECO doesnt include expert mode which allows choosing between different partitions.
So I presume every usage of the Recovery CD will format the HDD and will erase the installed data. But of course you could try to install both OS and to check if the XP recovery CD allows choosing second portion for the OS installation.
If it will not function it seems that you will need either an original Microsoft XP CD or the original Vista CD to use both OS.
Best regards

How to install redhat linux on my macbook pro marvericks osx as a dual boot

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Satellite Pro A200: XP + Vista installed/dual boot possible?

Hi,
I am not sure if I am right here at XP OS but I post it as it is OS related.
My Satellite Pro A200 (PSAE7) runs smoothly with XP but I want to create a sandbox (partition) for/with Vista.
Basically I know that it is possible to run XP and Vista on one system. *But*, Satellite Pro A200 notebooks are shipped with a BIOS for XP and one for Vista and with information that you have to install the correct one. For me this means that you have to install BIOS for XP when running XP and BIOS for Vista when running Vista.
Question:
Is it possible to install Vista on a Satellite Pro A200 with XP as main OS and having so XP BIOS installed?
Boot loader would be Acronis OSS as this loader already manage my two XP partitions.
Many thanks for any information!
Best regards,
Andreas

Hi
In my opinion there are no serious reasons why you shouldnt be able to use Xp and Vista on your Satellite Pro A200.
Ok there are different BIOS for Vista 64bit, 32bit and Win XP but your Vista should run also using the BIOS for Win XP.
Ive got other Satellite notebook series and Im able to use XP and Vista at the same time. I mean Ive got a choice to boot either the XP or Vista ;) and Im still using the old BIOS version.
Ok some functions are not available like FN keys but this is not very important for me.
Well, to cut this story I think you can use Vista and XP without changing the BIOS ;)

What's the biggest difference between Premiere Pro and other options?

Thanks!

"Other options" ... as in NLE's? You're not very specific there ... so all I can do is note that all other video processing programs are designed to realistically do one part of the task, with the need to pass-off to different programs typically by different makers to do the Whole Job. Adobe's pro video programs are designed to work together, and do so pretty well in all. PrPro for editing your footage into a viewable form/timeline, AfterEffects for any specific needs for Fx work, SpeedGrade for colorist/grading work (making it pretty or day-to-night or whatnot) and Audition for cleaning up, augmenting, or building your audio, then to Adobe Media Encoder for outputting to all sorts of codecs/formats for final use.
Neil

Acrobat 7 Pro and PDF Options

Acrobat 7 Pro works fine but the PDF Options of the PDF Printer doesn't.
It says that: This panel is not compatible with your computer.
I can still print to PDF but how do I set the PDF options such as High Quality, Small File Size, etc...

It sounds like you need a Universal Binary version of a preference pane. If there's none available now, you'll just have to wait until one becomes available.

Dual boot with Mavericks and Snow Leopard on Two different internal drives?

I have a late 2009 quad core Mac Pro running Snow Leopard- it has 4 internal HD's. I want to eventually upgrade to Mavericks. Before I do a clean install of Mavericks on my start up disk that has Snow Leopard OS, I was hoping I could download Mavericks and install it on another clean internal hard drive to test it out before I commit to erasing my main drive and doing a clean install. My Mac Pro meets the minium specs to run Mavericks.
If I install Mavericks on this second internal drive can I dual boot using the option key at start up and elect to either operate in Snow Leopard or Mavericks? What are the concerns or issues I might face if this is possible?
As I have Snow Leopard, I am also unable to produce a Mavericks bootable USB flash drive- the terminal commands don't work with Snow Leopard. With Mavericks installed on a second internal hard drive- will I be able to create a bootable Mavericks USB Flash drive?
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KT

1. Yes.
2. The Spotlight indexes may be rebuilt every time you switch OSes.
3. Yes.
(94046)

Dual Boot Linux

Hi everyone,
I know you'll think that this has been done to death, but I pray you read on first...
I am studying for my RHCSA/RHCE examinations and would like to dual boot REHL if at all possible on my Macbook Pro.
I understand that I can use various virtualization tools to do this however a significant part of the sylabus centres around KVM based virtualization and as such I am unable to achieve this through the existing emulations (VTx issues).
Can anyone provide any guidance on the above bearing in mind I am running Lion.
Best Regards,

It's doable. Best help resource is the Ubuntu forum since that version is the most widely installed version on Macs. And, check out the Red Hat forum to see if they provide any discussions on doing this.
Basically it's a problem of getting grub to recognize the two OSes and also not destroy the OS X boot loader.
An alternate solution is to download and install rEFIt - CNet Downloads or MacUpdate. Essentially you partition the drive and install OS X on the first partition. Then boot the liveCD of Red Hat and install on the other partition. Then install rEFIt which will provide a boot loader that lets you easily dual boot via the OPTION boot manager.

Problem with dual boot after upgrade to Mountain lion

Hello Every One,
I have a Macbook pro from 2009 which had dual boot option Windows 7 + Snow Leopard.
The windows 7 had 2 partitions (C; and D: an extended partition).
I upgraded the OS X to Mountain lion. after upgrade the system showed 3 options at boot time. Mac, Windows and a recovery partition.
when i boot to windows the D: drive is gone...I mean even though i can see the partition in partition software, windows 7 stopped showing D: in "My computer".
So i used testdisk utility to get the D: drive back and now when i boot to mountain Lion i am able to access both C:(BOOTCAMP) and D: drives.
but now the problem is during boot time my Mac Book pro doesn't show the windows option.
Can some suggest a means to boot into windows 7? Also what is the purpose of recovery partition that Mountain lion adds to the system? I mean is it going to hurt if i get rid of it so that i can go back to my old configuration of 3 primary partitions (1 for windows 7 ...C: bootcamp + MountainLion) + 1 extended partition for D:
any help would be appreciated?
Regards

Ragu79 wrote:
Also what is the purpose of recovery partition that Mountain lion adds to the system? I mean is it going to hurt if i get rid of it
Leave it: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718

Running Dual boot windows 8 and win 7 pro with xp mode installed!! I love it!!

It took over 2 days to figure out how to adjust the bios to get my win 7 pro DVD to boot and install dual boot on this GREAT MACHINE!!
Step 1: using diskmgmt.msc you have to shring the C partition. I shrunk it so I had 80GB remaining as unallocated space.
Step 2: You have to enter the machine Bios adn set the BIOS to Both and UEFI as first
Step 3: Connect your usb dvd
Step 4: Put your win 7 pro dvd in the usb dvd drive
Step 5: Reboot your machine and when it starts press F12 to get the boot menu and select the usb dvd drive then press enter
The machine restarts
Message on screen says press a key to boot from cd/dvd
Press space and it boots up the win 7 pro DVD
After files copy and load the setup screen asks to accept the agreement and where to install win 7
BE SURE TO SELECT THE 80GB location
Then follow thru the win 7 prompts to load it.
When the machine restarts you will see a dual boot screen with Windows 7 on top as first selection and Windows 8 below it as 2nd selection.
Make sure to hit enter with windows 7 selected
The win 7 installation completes.
You will see many items with drivers not installed dont fret.
You can load most of the drivers by highlighting the device in control panel/device manager and pick update driver then select BROWSE for DRIVER and be sure to put in drive D:\ which is now the windows 8 drive and hit search.
Many of the windows 8 drivers installed with no issue.
The Realtek driver was an exception .. goto to the lenovo site and pick the x100e tablet and download the LAN driver from there about (4MB). Copy it to flash drive and install it in win 7 from the .exe file. The driver for LAN will install sucessfully. The version of the driver is 7.46 something the 7.11 versions do not workl.
I have only 3 drivers that I could not find - 2 list as unknown and are related to ACPI or power management and 1 lists as USB controller but all the USB stuff works without it.
Be sure to either shutdown the system or sign out of win 8 when your done so you get the dual boot menu. If you shutdown while logged into win 8 the next time you start up it will go right to win 8 until you signout and restart.
Just to let you know an easy way to shutdown is go to the desktop and press ALT + FN + F4 and a shutdown menu comes up on the desktop.
Once win 7 pro is installed you can download the XP mode free from Microsoft and install it.
This is of course AFTER you have ACTIVATED WINDOWS 7 ONLINE with YOUR ACTIVATION KEY(you supply).
ENJOY! This is the BEST machine I ever had!

It's been many, many years since I don't do dual boot anymore. Don't find the reason to do it, either. Different kinds of virtualization should be enough. Anyway...
dfw1417 wrote:
It took over 2 days to figure out how to adjust the bios to get my win 7 pro DVD to boot and install dual boot on this GREAT MACHINE!!
ENJOY! This is the BEST machine I ever had!
WHICH machine?
Cheers.
If I helped you, please give me some kudos! ^^

Dual Booting with Windows 8 and 7 Pro in a G6 - 2235us Notebook

I have a G6 - 2235us Notebook 64 bit that came with Windows 8.0 installed.
I would like to install Windows 7 Pro and make it dual book with Windows 8.0 with 7 as the default to start.
Would you please give me steps as to how to proceed and also the drivers, etc I would need to download.
Thank you.
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Thank you Paul. I understad I just have one more question:
I found this page that gives info about dual booting:
http://www.pagestart.com/win8dbwin701181301.html
From your expertise, would you say the steps suggested on that
page could succeed for making Win 8 and 7 dual boot in this particular machine?

Can my Macbook Pro support dual boot and Secret World

Hi
My MacBook Pro has the following specs
Processor 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics Intel HD Graphics 3000 384 MB
Software Mac OS X Lion 10.7.4 (11E53)
I was wondering if it can first of all, support dual boot, because I would like to play a Windows based MMORPG. And I was wondering if there are risks involved? I'm also worried because I like Mac's secure delete trash function and won't having a Windows platform affect that?
Furthermore, can it support playing Secret World with such specs?
Secret World is an MMORPG I'm not sure what the minimum requirements are.. It doesn't say, but anyone has a guess?
-EDIT
OS:      Windows XP (SP 1)/Vista (SP 1)/Windows 7 (SP 1)
PROCESSOR:      2.6 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent AMD CPU
MEMORY: At least 2GB RAM for Windows XP / 3GB RAM for Windows Vista and Windows 7 *
VIDEO CARD:     nVidia 8800 series 512 VRAM or better/Radeon HD3850 512MB or better
DIRECTX: DirectX 9.0c Compatible

If you have an MBP with a Core 2 Duo processor and a clock speed of 2.16 or 2.33 GHz, your max is 3 GB. If you have a 2.2, 2.4, 2.5 or 2.6 GHz clock speed your max is 4 GB.
Check Apple menu > About this Mac for processor type and speed.
I can tell you what you should see - C2D at 2.16 or 2.33 GHz. Those machines have a 3 GB max stated by Apple, but will actually use ~3.2 GB if you have 2 x 2 GB installed, and you get the (marginal) benefit of having a matched pair. In that case, it's also 'normal' for About this Mac to show 4 GB even though the memory controller can only access a little over 3 GB.

Just loaded windows 7 on a macbook pro - how do you dual boot OS X and windows 7

Hi successfully loaded windows 7 and partitioned drive (I need windows for work Microsoft crm system)
All ok but a pain to have to keep logging off and on between OS X & Windows
I understand that there is a way to dual boot - I am running Snow Leopard on a macbook pro lap top OS x 10.6.7
Can anyone help please
Ian

You can install Parallels or Fusion, either will work. When you setup either Parallels or fusion you can tell it to use your already installed Boot Camp installation of Windows as its target guest operating system.
You would then just boot into OSx, start your VM (Parallels or Fusion), then you'll have access to both OSx and Windows without having to reboot.
I have this setup and two monitors. I have my Windows running on my external monitor and OSx running on my Macbook Pro monitor at the same time.
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Pros and cons of various dual boot and virtual options?

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