I am considering buying parallels 7 for my mac air and want to make sure that my install plan will work. I would use remote disk from my wife's mac pro to get parallels on. Windows 7 would be downloaded from the Universities website that I work for. I am new to mac and have never used or installed parallels. Is this a realistic plan?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
How to install parallels and win 7 on my air
- Thread starter dread
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I think that should work, although an easier option might be to get a USB Flash drive, burn the Windows ISO to it, and then install it from that. That's how I did it, and it worked pretty well.
Do your research first and plan it all out. Look for recent articles/writeups and youtube ( maybe ) demo's.
One question at the beginning of your planning is do you want a full bootcamp installation of win 7 or not? Using bootcamp let's you run win 7 native on the macbook air ( just a windows machine ) ... and believe me the mba's make some of the nicest windows laptops around.
Or are you going to just run windows under mac os x? Windows within the mac operating system ... as a guest.
Do you want both options so that you can run bootcamp native but you can also if you want run windows under mac os x?
So figure out what your goals are at the beginning before getting down into the setup details. Once you know what your goal is then start planning the details.
If all you want to do is to sometimes run a couple of windows programs under mac os x then sure parallels will work but there are also free options such as virtual box.
It'll work fine.
The bootcamp installer gives you an option to burn the Windows ISO to a flash drive. All you really need to do is sit there, it'll take care of everything else.
This!!! I did it on my mini. It was awesome. Use BootCamp to create the Windows USB installer drive, then install Parallels like normal over disc sharing or USB drive or digital download.
So I use bootcamp to install parallels? Is it possible to to run win 7 in both bootcamp and parallels with only one copy of windows 7. Obviously I want to save as much space as possible, while having the greatest versatility. I don't plan on using windows programs very often, but I will need to occasionally.
No. Parallels is a Mac application, so you install it while running OS X.
Bootcamp allows you to install and boot into Windows natively. Meaning Windows runs on its own. In order to go back to OS X, you restart your Mac. You are presented with the option on what operating system to boot.
Parallels allows you to run Windows while running OS X. So you can switch between the 2 operating systems easily.
You can have both, and you can use the Bootcamp partition in Parallels.
The choice is up to you.
It's simple. When you install Parallels, it asks you if you want to use a new installation of Windows, or the one you've already installed via Boot Camp.
Pick the Boot Camp one, and hey presto -- Windows.
If you create and install Windows through Bootcamp, you can also tell Parallels to use that installation, instead of creating another installation of Windows for Parallels.
If you don't want to partition your drive, then go with the Parallels-only option. You don't need to partition when you install Windows through Parallels. The entire Windows installation is contained in one huge file. And this file expands as needed, so a basic Windows installation won't occupy too much space.
Do you mean that windows could reside entirely on a USB flash drive (plus all subsequent files, .doc, .xls etc) and be accessed by only installing Parallels on the Mac? That would be sweet
Also...if you do install a BC partition and decide to run Parallels through it do you still have to assign Ram and CPU elements?
If going Parallels only which do you install first?
I am struggling with the same thing as the OP...I cant seem to decide if I want to run Windows natively or not...
Do you mean that windows could reside entirely on a USB flash drive (plus all subsequent files, .doc, .xls etc) and be accessed by only installing Parallels on the Mac? That would be sweet
Also...if you do install a BC partition and decide to run Parallels through it do you still have to assign Ram and CPU elements?
If going Parallels only which do you install first?
I am struggling with the same thing as the OP...I cant seem to decide if I want to run Windows natively or not...
If you have a large enough USB, you could. I just posted a video on it and Windows 7, MS Office, MS Project, and Visio... along with all the windows updates take up about 28GB. I'm running on an USB 3.0 external hard drive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KrFZTpmi80