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wayne905

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 9, 2012
145
93
Maple, Ontario, Canada
Forgive me if this question has already been asked...but I'm kind of a newbie to to Mac running Windows arena. I'm doing some homework at work in preparation of installing Bootcamp and Parallels when I get home tonight, and want to make sure I install it correctly. I'm installing Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit on my new i7 2012 imac. I want to be able to run Win 7 in Bootcamp when I play games, and run Parallels when I just want to jump over to Win 7 while in OS X and not reboot into Bootcamp (say for example to run Quicken).

So if I understand this correctly, I should install Bootcamp first, then once Win 7 is installed on Bootcamp I then install Parallels...is that right?

If the above is correct, I see from Parallels website that I will be faced with 2 options for install: Option A: Set parallels desktop to run windows from the Bootcamp partition or Option B: Import Windows and your data from BC into parallels desktop. I assume I want Option A...is that correct?

Thanks for any assistance you can provide :)
 

designs216

macrumors 65816
Oct 26, 2009
1,046
21
Down the rabbit hole
The configuration that made the most sense to me was to tell Parallels to run Windows from the Bootcamp partition. That's how I set mine up. My thinking was that if I decide to get rid of Parallels in the future, my Bootcamp partition will still be intact.
 

takeshi74

macrumors 601
Feb 9, 2011
4,974
68
So if I understand this correctly, I should install Bootcamp first, then once Win 7 is installed on Bootcamp I then install Parallels...is that right?
Yup.

If the above is correct, I see from Parallels website that I will be faced with 2 options for install: Option A: Set parallels desktop to run windows from the Bootcamp partition or Option B: Import Windows and your data from BC into parallels desktop. I assume I want Option A...is that correct?
Yup. Otherwise the imported VM will diverge from your Bootcamp install.

My thinking was that if I decide to get rid of Parallels in the future, my Bootcamp partition will still be intact.
That would be true for option B as well.
 

wayne905

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 9, 2012
145
93
Maple, Ontario, Canada
Yup.


Yup. Otherwise the imported VM will diverge from your Bootcamp install.


That would be true for option B as well.




Thanks to you both. I installed it last night without any problem. I was worried that the Option B might possibly require a second Windows 7 license, which i wasn't keen on buying a new one (if it was indeed required)...so I chose Option A...this way I knew I'd be saife with 1 license and besides any change I make on the bootcamp side would be reflected on the Parallels side - which is great. Thanks again for your help.
 
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