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Has anyone successfully install Windows on the first try?

tenebrism

tenebrism

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 30, 2010
9
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CA
That was supposed to say "Has anyone successfully installed Windows on the first try?", but you get the picture.

I only have one reason to install Windows on my Mac, and if it's too complicated to get running, I probably will avoid it, but I was wondering if anyone has successfully install Windows (specifically Windows Vista Home Basic) on a Mac (specifically iMac with i7) on a first try?

The Boot Camp PDF instructions seem simple enough, but from browsing the web and multiple forums, I've noticed that not one person said anything good about installing Windows via Boot Camp. Has anyone not encountered problems? And is it safe to install without erasing anything on the Mac side? I can't afford to buy a backup drive and a Windows copy, so unintentionally erasing my Mac items would be devastating!

PS: I am by no means Windows savvy. It seems ridiculous that it's this complicated to do!

Any information would be helpful.

Thanks.
 
tenebrism said:
. . . but from browsing the web and multiple forums, I've noticed that not one person said anything good about installing Windows via Boot Camp. Has anyone not encountered problems?
Click to expand...
Of course forums are filled with horror stories. People generally don't post about a success because it is uneventful and they don't need any help. Its a very easy process. Generally things don't go wrong and its bullet proof. Every once and a while, things to crazy but not really to the point where isn't not recoverable and you can't start over.
 
grapes911 said:
Of course forums are filled with horror stories. People generally don't post about a success because it is uneventful and they don't need any help. Its a very easy process. Generally things don't go wrong and its bullet proof. Every once and a while, things to crazy but not really to the point where isn't not recoverable and you can't start over.
Click to expand...

What you're saying is generally true, though the i7 iMacs are a bit different, since I think everyone who installs Windows on them has to deal with the outdated graphic driver problem.
 
I've installed Boot Camp on a Core Duo MacBook Pro, Core 2 Duo MacBook, Aluminum MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro (Later models) and Unibody MacBook Pros, iMac, Mac Pro, Mac Mini.

All successful on the first try.
 
grapes911 said:
People generally don't post about a success because it is uneventful and they don't need any help. Its a very easy process. Generally things don't go wrong and its bullet proof. Every once and a while, things to crazy but not really to the point where isn't not recoverable and you can't start over.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know that 99% actually only write something about problems, but with this growing world of "how-to" articles on the web, I figured at least one person would say that they just "got their mac and successfully installed Windows", but you're absolutely right, most people won't even think to comment if everything went well. But it's good to know that "generally things don't go wrong". Thanks.
 
ayeying said:
I've installed Boot Camp on a Core Duo MacBook Pro, Core 2 Duo MacBook, Aluminum MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro (Later models) and Unibody MacBook Pros, iMac, Mac Pro, Mac Mini.

All successful on the first try.
Click to expand...

That's great to know. So it's not as problematic as it seems. Thanks! But as Zortrium pointed out...

Zortrium said:
What you're saying is generally true, though the i7 iMacs are a bit different, since I think everyone who installs Windows on them has to deal with the outdated graphic driver problem.
Click to expand...

ayeying, have you install onto the new i5 and i7 chips? I don't have the duo or quad, just the plain old i7.
 
On my first mac, the windows install went fine, even though i followed a different method than apple recommends.

The windows install through bootcamp is definitely a lot more cryptic and cumbersome than a regular install of windows on a pc. They gotta do something to make it easier.
 
Well the instal went fine, but on my new iMac 27" i7 quad i still have a display driver issue(yellow dots and constant ati driver recovery message). I have posted lots of topics and have yet to have anyone help me solve it. It has made windows 7 virtually useless.
 
Blathian said:
Well the instal went fine, but on my new iMac 27" i7 quad i still have a display driver issue(yellow dots and constant ati driver recovery message). I have posted lots of topics and have yet to have anyone help me solve it. It has made windows 7 virtually useless.
Click to expand...

Sorry to here that Blathian. I hope you eventually figure it out. I'd help if I could.

But in light of ayeying's success in installing Windows on multiple Macs (thanks!), I decided to go ahead and try it, but I changed my mind about installing it on my iMac. I ended up installing Windows 7 Home Premium (64) on my recently acquired 15" MacBook Pro (2.66 GHz Intel Core i7, 8 GB RAM, 512 MB GeForce GT 330M, 500 GB HD, OS X 10.6.3).

I followed the instructions perfectly and had no problem installing Windows via Boot Camp. I was so happy! I first updated Mac OS X, then partitioned the Windows drive with Boot Camp, installed Windows, and installed Mac drivers via the Mac Install disc. Once working, I updated Boot Camp in Windows and updated any Windows requirements. Perfect. No problem.

However, there was a scare when I decided to reinstall Mac OS X on the Mac partition (because I wanted to transfer my system via Migration Assistant from my other laptop). I figured it would somehow screw up the Windows partition, but nothing happened… it still works!

So, it looks like success… but I'm not sure if it would have been as successful on the iMac, like as with Blathian's problem.

vistadude said:
The windows install through bootcamp is definitely a lot more cryptic and cumbersome than a regular install of windows on a pc. They gotta do something to make it easier.
Click to expand...

You're right vistadude, but all in all, it was actually less of a pain than I was imagining.

And just one note, an FYI: Flash does not work on the Internet Explorer 64-Bit version. So, if you install the 64-Bit version of Windows, you can't use it. But you can still use the 32-Bit version of IE while in 64-Bit Windows. At least until Adobe creates a fix for this. Won't be long probably.

Thanks everyone for your replies!
 
I have had no problems at all installing Windows in the past, either via Parallels or Boot Camp, on my C2D iMac. Works perfectly the first time, with the exception of some activation hassles. :(
 
I had no problem installing XP around 2 years ago. Then I had no problem upgrading to Vista shortly thereafter. Then I had no problems upgrading to Windows 7 when it came out. And I had no problem reinstalling Windows a few times due to other reasons (reformatted HDD for Snow Leopard, got a new HDD, etc.).
 
This question has positive answer from me because I have done the installation at the first shot and that was 100% successful because I have follow the instruction displayed in the screen of the installation window. Actually it was not easy but still I have done it.
 
tenebrism said:
I only have one reason to install Windows on my Mac, and if it's too complicated to get running, I probably will avoid it, but I was wondering if anyone has successfully install Windows (specifically Windows Vista Home Basic) on a Mac (specifically iMac with i7) on a first try?
Click to expand...

Great that you got it working, but I feel it's my civic duty to point out that you are ****ing insane for working without a backup. Just in general. Because your drive will go bad, and you will lose data. It just happened to me yesterday...

Add to that the potential risk of partitioning your drive... *shudder*

Get a backup drive. Make it your next purchase. They are cheap.
 
My first installation experience was a horror story for sure. I tried installing Windows XP with the disc I had lying around. Turns out Boot Camp didn't support the original XP, but only XP SP2 and up. Man, my whole hard drive was wiped. That's when I realized how lucky I was that I actually do regular back-ups. I was up and running in under an hour again.
 
vistadude said:
On my first mac, the windows install went fine, even though i followed a different method than apple recommends.

The windows install through bootcamp is definitely a lot more cryptic and cumbersome than a regular install of windows on a pc. They gotta do something to make it easier.
Click to expand...

Why? The whole idea is to make it cumbersome so that people associate windows with confusion. That's why Apple's windows drivers are so horrible too - because they don't want you to like Windows.
 
Just installed Win7 64-bit this morning. The only bit of drama was installing drivers, because I didn't know where they were held (the OSX install disk--pop it in after you boot up to Windows and run it). Other than that it's been just peachy.

Just remember that you need to hold down option when you restart your computer to pick which OS you want to run.
 
I have never had an issue installing Windows on my macs via boot camp until I got my new iMac i7 27". I had to use the workaround with the flash drive in order to get it to install past the black screen. I got that accomplished but have yet been able to get any sound, even after downloading the new realtek drivers and everything off of the snow leopard disc. still no sound :(
 
First try on new 2010 15" MBP: it completely froze after loading XP SP3 in Bootcamp. Every time. So I re-installed. Now it works perfectly. Rather bizarre, but meh, I chalk it up to the 2010 MacBook Pros being pieces of crap.
 
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