Should I use Boot Camp?

Well, I'm new to the Mac family, so I'm being very cautious. I am currently waiting for the arrival of my MacBook Pro, and want to be prepared when it gets here.
I currently use my PC mainly for gaming, as well as general school usage. I want to know how safe and reliable is Boot Camp? Would I be safer using something like a parallel?
I'd basically be using the PC part of the MBP for gaming.
Is there currently any way to unpartition the section of the HDD that was portioned during the installation process using Boot Camp?
Thanks.

I'll have full access to things like my Video Card, RAM, CPU power, iSight and stuff like that right?
Yes, part of the process of running Boot Camp is that it will create a Windows formatted CD of all the hardware drivers Windows will need.
How's the transition from one OS to the other? Is it cumbersome, or is it just a simple click of a few hotkeys, and the switch is made?
It's a bit cumbersome after you're done setting up with Boot Camp. In order to use Windows, you have restart the Mac. Hold down the Option key immediately after the startup chime and double click your Windows partition to boot directly into Windows.
If you choose the OS X partition as your startup disk in the System Preferences, the Mac will always boot into OS X if you do nothing else on a cold start or restart. You'll only need to hold down the Option key to boot into Windows.

Similar Messages

Should I Use Boot Camp or Parallels for use of a Windows Desktop?

I am migrating from a PC to a Mac; I want to take advantage of having a Windows desktop to run some apps until i buy Mac equivalent software;
I have Tiger, but am installing Leopard this weekend;
Should I Use Boot Camp or Parallels for use of a Windows Desktop?
I am tempted by not having to reboot, but i don't want my mac to slow down?
I am a photographer and use Photoshop and other graphics intensive programs.

Hi,
to achieve full computing power while in Windows you have to use BootCamp and for Photoshop and other apps of that caliber in Windows its the best.
For apps less demanding using Parallels (VMWare Fusion) is sufficient enough and the slight downgrade in speed is negligible.
You should however (if not already done) max out the RAM of your Mac.
Regards
Stefan

I erased my windows partition using disk utility then realized I should have used boot camp, because now I can't resize the original partition and seem to be stuck with a ghost unusable space. Boot Camp now doesn't give me the option to install or re

I erased my windows partition using disk utility then realized I should have used boot camp, because now I can't resize the original partition and seem to be stuck with a ghost unusable space. Boot Camp now doesn't give me the option to install or remove windows partition.

Hi, Ralph,
The problem is that I did erase the partition, using disk utility, but I can't go back to my original disk size pre-partition, as disk utility won't let me do it and gives the message "Couldn’t modify partition map because file system verification failed." When I try to use Boot Camp Assistant it won't let me select the third option to remove windows.

I made a mistake. i installed windows using boot camp without os x lion dvd. what should i do? help pls

i made a mistake. i installed windows using boot camp without os x lion dvd. what should i do? help pls
Re: can i install windows for pc on my mac or do i need the windows for mac?

There is no Lion DVD. Start Boot Camp Assistant and select the menu item to download the Windows Support Software.
Read and follow the Boot Camp Installation Guide. http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/boot_camp_install-setup_10.7.pdf

Thinking about getting a MacBook, using Boot Camp, anything I should know?

I'm going into 8th Grade and my parents are thinking about getting a MacBook for me. Now, because my school uses PCs with Windows, I will need to use Boot Camp so I can save things from Microsoft Office on a flash drive and take it back and forth from home to school. Before I do this I need to know if there is anything I should be aware of because I've seen some weird things on sites about Boot Camp like something called Fat32. I also need to know what version of Windows should I use. XP or Vista? I've heard bad things about Vista like how there are back ways in for Hackers, but it's really eye-catching with it's futuristic look. So should I just wait for Windows 7 to come out and replace Vista in the summer or fall of 2010? (Yes, for people who may not know, Microsoft is developing a successor to Vista known as Windows 7. I read about it in my dad's latest issue of Consumer Reports.)

When you get the computer you can run the Boot Camp Assistant program (Utilities folder) and print out the documentation (it's fairly long.) Read it carefully before proceeding. It should explain what you need to know about installing and using Windows on a Mac.
You can install any 32-bit version of Vista or XP with Service Pak 2.
Windows uses two disk formats - FAT32 or NTFS. Vista requires NTFS but XP can use either. OS X can read/write FAT32 formatted drives but NTFS is read-only to OS X. That means that unless the drive is formatted FAT32 you will not be able to transfer files between the Windows volume and the OS X volume. Neither Vista nor XP are any less secure. Both are vulnerable to viruses and malware unless you run anti-virus/malware software to protect the computer.
There are different ways to run Windows on a Mac. Boot Camp is only one:
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 Pak 2 or Vista. 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, or Vista Ultimate. Parallels is software virtualization that enables running Windows concurrently with OS X.
3. VM Fusionand Windows XP, Vista Business, or Vista Ultimate. 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 yet fully developed for the Mac - some features are not yet implemented - but it does work otherwise.
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 VirtualBox, 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.

I'm trying to install Windows XP on my Leopard 10.5.8 using Boot Camp Assistant but when it restarts it says I should insert a bootable disk even though I didn't remove the installer from the drive. What should I do?

More info: I'm using an external CD drive because the built-in one doesn't work for some reason.
Also I went back and deleted the partition (also using Boot Camp Assistant) and just gave up on installing XP, but now every time I turn on my macbook I have to press the Option key to mount the Mac HD. If I don't, it returns to the black screen that says I have to insert the bootable disk and press any key. How do I stop this problem? I've already verified the disk and permissions, plus repaired it. It's still the same.

Go into your system preferences and click the startup disk icon then select your Mac HD.

Can my MacBook Pro use boot camp with Windows 7 with BitLocker encryption?

I'm at wit's end with this, and I'm hoping I can get some advice here. I've read so many forum, posts and reviews that I'm not entirely sure what I can trust.
I have an early 2011 MacBook Pro (MacBookPro8,3). I need to run Windows encrypted for work purposes. It needs to be real windows with full-disk encryption (FDE). The business tools run in boot camp, but not in Parallels, because Parallels doesn't support DirectX 11. I would also benefit greatly from an SSD.
I do not want to do anything hacky like removing the Mac reocovery partition, because I've read that just loading Disk Utility in OS X might mess up your patrition boot tables as it tries to "fix" things. I don't want to have to manually reocover to fix stuff or chance losing data.
I have read (and tried) installing BitLocker on Windows 7 Ultimate under boot camp, but ran into the partition limit on my internal HDD. A maximum of 4 partitions are allowed, and between OS X, its recovery, boot camp, and the Windows partition, all 4 are used.
I have considered one of the following, which may work:
Install OWC's Data Doubler Kit with an additional 240GB SSD (http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DDMBS6E240/). I would replace the internal SuperDrive with the HDD, and install the new SSD on the faster SATA 6G port. Windows would be installed on the SSD and OS X would stay on the HDD.
Replace the internal HDD with a new SSD (keeping the SuperDrive). I would lose OS X altogether and just have Windows installed.
Forget the entire thing and just buy a PC for work.
My thoughts are that with option both options #1 and #2, I don't even know if these setups will allow BitLocker. In both cases, Windows will be the only partition on the drive, so I'm assuming that when BitLocker is installed, there will be room for the new partition it creates. With option #1, I'm pretty sure I'd still be using Boot Camp, but how would that would for option #2? Is boot camp used even though there is no Mac partition? Would I still need to keey the Mac Recovery partition for this to work? I'd probably need to use Boot Camp drivers under Windows, I think.
I'd certainly be interested in using a self-encrypting drive (SED), especially a SSD, but I'm concerned that most of them appear to require TPM or BIOS functions that Mac's EFI does not provide. Such a drive would allow me to drop BitLocker, but I would need to be use the self-encryption actually works on this setup. From what I've read, most of the SED drives will work just fine under EFI, but you won't be able to set or access the encryption password, which pretty much makes these drives unencrypted.
I've read that BitLocker can be configured to use a flash drive as a decryption key, but I haven't been able to test that yet. I'm tried creating bootable flash drives under Windows and OS X, and none of them seem to appear when I access the boot menu (hold option during boot chime). I don't even know if this system supports bootable USB flash drives, or whether they can be used as a BitLocker key under boot camp.
For the record, I have attempted to use an external thunderbolt drive as my Windows partition, but Windows doesn't want to be installed on removable media, and even if it worked, I believe you can only boot OS X from thunderbolt. I do have a second OS X install booting from the thunderbolt drive, so I know that works. Also, FileVault 2 is installed on my OS X partition, and I read something about FV2 using the Recovery partition somehow so you can't remove the recovery partition to make room for BitLocker.
So ... does anyone have any suggestions preferably based on personal experience as to whether options #1 or #2 should work for my needs?
At this point, I'm really thinking I should just bite the bullet and purchase a PC that I will forever look down upon.

Are you using a MacBook Pro? Is everything installed on the same drive?
I would love to know how that install was performed. When I install Windows under boot camp, my MacBook Pro drive ends up with 4 partitions: Mac, Mac Recovery, Windows, and a small partition that I believe is used by boot camp.
Installing BitLocker on Windows requires the creation of a new small partition that Windows will boot off. The small partition is unencrypted, while the primary Windows partition will get encrypted. The following post discusses the maximum partition issue: https://discussions.apple.com/message/22753791#22753791
Has anyone installed Windows through boot camp on it's own drive, and if so, can BitLocker be installed on that without reaching any partition limit? I'm assuming that's possible, but would like to know before I spend hundreds on new hardware.

Cannot install Windows 7 32-bit using Boot Camp

I have one of the new iMacs (late 2012) and I can't install Windows 7 32-bit using Boot Camp. Whenever I try to being the installation using the Boot Camp Assistant, I always get the following message: "Need 64-bit Windows installation USB drive or DVD. Boot Camp only supports 64-bit Windows installation on this platform. Please use an USB drive or DVD which contains 64-bit Windows". I have successfully installed 32-bit Windows on my Macbook Pro that is running the same version of Mac OS X and Boot Camp, but I don't know why on this new iMac it doesn't allow me to. Apple's documentation states that I should be able to install either 32-bit and 64-bit without any problem, but this is not the case here. I can't find anything about this problem/error on the Internet either. HELP!!!

AidenT wrote:
Yes, circumstances do change but if Apple is, as they claim to be, serious about seamlessly migrating what is still a large and dominant market share of users from Windows, supporting 32 bit versions is not a nice to have, but a must have.
I don't see why users have to make excuses when there is a clear shortfall of what is promised.
In other discussions, there is talk of an opportunity for Apple to make a significant impact, as Windows 8 has deviated so much from the comfort zone of traditional Windows users. But to make that change, Macs have to support what is still a primarily 32 bit environment in the installed base.
As for the use of VMs, I had a tough time migrating out of Parallels 6 after an upgrade to Mountain Lion broke compatibility so IMHO it is not a long term solution unless you are happy to hand out $50 every 2-3 years just to support the same functionality.
Use Virtual Box, it's free.
32 bit may have a reasonable user base but it's going away fast, if you must use 32 bit Windows and won't use a VM your choice is limited.
Buy a PC, or buy an older Mac.
The rest of your post is speculative and I won't go there.

Friends, MacBook Pro 8,1 – Intel Core i5 – 2.23 GHz (early 2011) New MB Pro with OSX 10.6 – current on all updates. I successfully installed rEFit. I used Boot Camp to install Win 7. All was great. Then installed debian 6. Somehow after the debian i

MacBook Pro 8,1 – Intel Core i5 – 2.23 GHz (early 2011) New with OSX 10.6 – current on all updates.
I successfully installed rEFit. I used Boot Camp to install Win 7. All was great.
Then installed debian 6. Somehow after the debian install and restart (I know this sounds crazy) but I am now reduced to Win 7 only. rEFit is not present when rebooting nor is OSX or debian. Further, I am unable to force the install DVD to launch when rebooting, by holding C, D or F8. The Option key brings me to the grey screen with a padlock. I have attempted the root and local pw- no go. Restart holding D takes me to the windows boot manager. I have attempted several options within the Advanced Options; including – Repair Your computer, safe mode and “last known good config,” All of which did nothing.
I can see all my OSX files within win7. I tried to install the OSX within windows. Ya right, that did nothing..
I only desire to get back to OSX...
What are my options??

Yes, you royally hosed up your machine.
You should first try to get your files off, any way you can to a external drive.
Your going to need to hold c and boot from the disk that came with your computer and a couple of screens in under the menu is a option for Disk Utility.
Select your drive and Erase with Security Option Zero, format the drive HFS+ Journaled and when that's finished (about a hour or so) then quit and install OS X from the installer.
I hope this works, but I suspect it won't. Others have hosed their machines trying to use a Linux disk without proper partition formatting too.
Another option might be to use another Mac to c boot off the Snow Leopard disk and install OS X onto a external drive, take that to the problem Mac and try holding option and booting off of it to erase your internal drive.
You could replace the drive.
frederick s wrote:
The Option key brings me to the grey screen with a padlock.
Is this holding option while booting?
There was someone else around here who hosed their Mac with a Linux disk too. Try to find it.

Cannot get Magic Mouse to work in Windows 7 64-bit using Boot Camp

I recently purchased a Magic Mouse and installed it on the Mac OS X partition of my MacBook Pro. After successfully installing on the Mac side, I switched to Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit using Boot Camp to install on the Windows partition. When I try to "Discover" a new Bluetooth device, the Magic Mouse does not show up in the list of devices (the mouse is powered on and next to the computer).
I am using the most recent version of Boot Camp (3.0.2) and have updated Windows 7. Has anyone else experienced this problem? If so, is there a fix for it?
I appreciate any help!

OK, that is a Bluetooth mouse so open Windows Devices and Printers>Add a Device Toggle the power (on the mouse) off and then on. he mouse should appear in the window, follow instructions to add it.

Unable to open windows using boot camp. Get message "The bless tool was unable to set the current boot disk." Any thoughts, Thank you.

Unable to open windows using boot camp. Get message "The bless tool was unable to set the current boot disk." I am using an Imac , Lion operating system, and Windows 7. It worked a few days ago. Any thoughts, Thank you.

Note that nowhere in the Boot Camp instructions does it tell you to use Disk Utility to format the Windows partition. The Boot Camp Assistant program creates the partition & sets the +partition scheme info+ of the disk as appropriate for the Windows installer but the Windows installer itself is responsible for formatting the new partition with the appropriate +file system scheme+ (NTFS for Windows 7).
If you follow the instructions in the Boot Camp Installation & Setup Guide to the letter you should have no problems installing Windows.

I want to use Boot Camp to play PC games on my PowerMac G5. Any Advice?

I'm about to install Leopard & use Boot Camp for the first time to make a PC partition which will be used almost exclusively for PC gaming (mostly WWII shooters). I need some advice about how to go about maximizing my gaming experience. First, how big should the partition be? 25GB? 50GB? My home drive has a capacity of about 230 GB. What PC OS should I use? Vista or XP? What kind of video card should I have?
I've got a Power Mac G5 with 2 x 3 Ghz quad core Intel Xeon, 4GB 667 Mhz DDR2 F8-DIMM and a ATY Radeon X1900 XT 512MB video card.
Thanks

First, how big should the partition be? 25GB? 50GB? My home drive has a capacity of about 230 GB.
You mentioned that you will use your computer exclusively for Windows gaming and therefor I would recommend a partition at least to be at 70GB and 100GB if you can afford the space. Depending on the amount of games and disk space they use, you will need make your call.
What PC OS should I use? Vista or XP?
I am assuming that you would to use ALL of your 4GB Ram. If you use XP then you will only be able to use 2GB - 3GB RAM. You will need Windows Vista 64BIT Home Premium installed on your Mac Pro to take advantage of all 4GB.
What kind of video card should I have?
You already have the ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB Video Card installed and that should work well.
I've got a Power Mac G5 with 2 x 3 Ghz quad core Intel Xeon
Are you sure you have a Power Mac G5 as you wrote in your post? I think you meant *Mac Pro*. At least I hope that is what you meant since if you meant the former then Windows will not run on your G5.
Axel F.

Install windows 7 using Boot Camp

I have a 1st 13" MBA and would like to install Windows 7 as 2nd OS using Boot Camp. Can someone share some light on to me if it is pratical way to use Windows 7. I have tried VMware Fusion to install Windows XP and found the performance is far below expectation. The hard disk is just 80 GB and have 40 GB left. How much space I should allocate for Windows partition? Can I obtain any guidance to install it properly? Thanks!

In addition, the MBA does not have dvd player, how can I install Windows on DVD disc?

How can I install windows 7 using boot camp, if the partition will not format correctly?

Hi All,
I'm new to this forum and have had a chance to look around a little bit, but haven't really found an answer to the problem that I'm having.
I have an imac and I'm attempting to use boot camp. I have used it in the past, with prior versions of mac os x, but this is the first time that I have tried it with 10.6.8. The first thing I found out is that I can't use Windows XP, even with service pack 2 installed, because it doesn't find the "boot camp" partition. So, I recently obtained a full retail copy of Windows 7 and have been trying to install it. I have no problem with the boot camp assistant creating the new partition, 200 GB. However, when I insert the Windows 7 DVD and the computer restarts in the Win 7 install screen it tells me that I cannot install Windows on the selected partition (which I expected to see.) So I choose "format" the further format the partition. It doesn't ask me how I would like to partition this, but just seems to start. All seems to go fine until it finishes and i see the same message of "Windows cannot be installed in the selected partition." I can click on the format tab endlessly but it still doesn't seem to work. Does anyone have any ideas? I've called Apple and their technicians keep telling me that I need to reinstall the Mac OS again, which I've tried. It doesn't seem to help either.
Thanks in advance for your help,
DTK

David Kaff wrote:
Yes, I choose "Format" under the advanced options screen. It seems like it formats, but then I get the same message of "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style." I can continue to click "format" but i keep getting the same error.
There is the answer, right in front of us ....
Delete the bootcamp partition and start again the correct partition type is GUID but BootCamp should take care of that automatically so try again.

How to install Windows 7 on MacBook with Tiger + Leopard upgrade using Boot Camp

Hi,
I've had Vista installed on a separate partition on my MacBook for a while, but wanted to upgrade to Windows 7. I've completely wiped the HDD, re-installed Tiger, upgraded to Leopard and installed Windows 7 using boot camp from within OSX. However, I now can't boot back into OSX - I believe it's because I don't have the latest version of Boot Camp within Windows 7 (it doesn't appear on the task bar), but I also don't have a full copy of Leopard, only the upgrade disk.
Is there any way to (a) boot back into OSX (I've tried holding down the option key and this doesn't work) and (b) installing a version of Boot Camp that will enable me to switch between both operating systems as I was when Vista was installed & without having to purchase the full copy of Leopard?
Any assistance would be much appreciated.
Many thanks,
Elliot.

Try to boot from the 10.4 disk then and "Repair Disk". If you can, then try booting from the 10.5 disk and do the same.
Have you tried holding down the C key also when trying to boot from the Install disks? It could take 30 seconds to a minute or more for the C key/Option key reboots. The Mac DVD HAS to be the OS installer disk not the applications installer, etc,. Sorry if I keep bringing this up.
You have to keep holding it down the whole time it boots, either it will bypass it and reboot into Windows or it should get to the boot loader window with at least Windows showing up.
If you can still boot into Windows with no problems then Windows SHOULD show up in the boot loader window. (C key/Option key) It's hardware related, it's the computers manual way of looking for a bootable OS if there's no OS installed yet.
Don't forget to disconnect any USB devices until you get it fixed.
Also try to boot from the Windows installer disk and "Repair Windows" and see what happens.
Other then your DVD drive may be on it's last legs, I can't really think of any reason you can't boot from the Mac DVD's. All the other post's I searched for eventually got the DVD boot working, even 10.6 and 10.7 are having that issue, tho rarely.
elliotfromnewark wrote:
Hi, ...........inserting the Leopard disk once in Windows to install boot camp and it says that the version on the DVD is only compatible with XP SP2 or Vista.................
Don't run the installer this time, if a window pops up to "Run" or "Open", just open it. If it doesn't open the DVD and look for the BootCamp.exe. Right click on the .exe (or whatever it's called) and select the trouble shoot compatibility mode and select Vista. Yes, I know you have W7. See if that works.
It may have buggered the Mac OS side so you may have to get DiskWarrior (worked for some) or the like in order to fix it. It would definitely be useful in the future.

Should I use Boot Camp?

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