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How-to bootcamp Windows 7 Pro 64bit on MM 2011 dualcore i7?

AT0MAC

AT0MAC

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 4, 2011
135
0
Copenhagen, Denmark
I have the dual core 2011 i7 mac as you can read a whole lot more about over in my other thread.

Decided this was a whole new chapter so it needed a new thread.

I have two SSDs in the belly of my machine, first thought was to RAID0 them because of the most amazing speeds - but after looking around and wishing to run Windows 7 also I learned RAID is not possible.

Therefor I have dedicated one SSD to OS X and the other will eventually end up as Windows.


Questions:

1) What partition should I use for the Windows 7 drive?

2) Anything I need to change in the BootCamp setup to get the best performance?

3) Can BootCamp run Windows 7 Professional 64bit?

4) Anything I need to know before I start?


I had a copy of Parallels 6 from a MacUpdate bundle some time back I never used, got an email from them the other day with a offer I couldn't say no to - upgrade to version 7 for half it's normal price!
So now I also have that possibility.

Question 5) Any special settings I have to make to utilize Windows 7 Professional 64bit the best possible way under Parallels 7?
 
Use bootcamp to format the non OSX drive, then follow the instructions. After Windows 7 x64 is installed, you will have to install the bootcamp drivers which should have been downloaded in OSX. Next is tweaking.

First enable AHCI. This is technically the most difficult tweak.

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/f...ing-AHCI-for-Windows-on-MBP-2011-now-possible

Follow the instructions in the thread above all the way through to installing the Intel Rapid Storage drivers.

Next, install the latest AMD drivers for the 6630M. You will have to google for the latest gold master release. The official release have restriction on manufacturer, so they will not install.

Last install new drivers for the Broadcom Ethernet and Wireless. For Ethernet, go into the driver settings as disable all the options that say "Offload". Then disable 802.3az EEE and set EEE power settings to maximum performance. Last to maximize ping times disable interrupt modulation.

Double check that readyboost, indexing, superfetch and defragment are disabled on your SSDs.
 
Last edited:
shortcut3d said:
Use bootcamp to format the non OSX drive, then follow the instructions. After Windows 7 x64 is installed, you will have to install the bootcamp drivers which should have been downloaded in OSX.
Click to expand...

shortcut, you are always helpfull :)

Right now the SSD is just formated as free space, what type of format do I need to start off with before I go to BootCamp setup (or can the setup itself format from nothing to a working win partition?)?
 
The bootcamp utility will format the drive as FAT32. Windows 7 requires a standard NTFS partition which you have to reformat through the windows 7 installer.
 
Just a thing I thought about... What about antivirus software? I would properly need that for my windows, but how is it with that and ssds - they do a lot of background stuff or only access the drive when there is work to be done?
 
AT0MAC said:
Just a thing I thought about... What about antivirus software? I would properly need that for my windows, but how is it with that and ssds - they do a lot of background stuff or only access the drive when there is work to be done?
Click to expand...

Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) is very good and tightly integrated with Windows 7. MSE is free. Virus protection software is typically a read action and much faster on a SSD, so no issues with SSD life.
 
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