Installing Windows XP via boot camp

Discussion in 'Windows, Linux & Others on the Mac' started by nateo200, Jan 29, 2011.

Most Liked Posts
  1. nateo200, Jan 29, 2011

    nateo200 macrumors 68030

    nateo200

    Joined:
    Feb 4, 2009
    Location:
    Northern District NY
    #1
    I'm interested in installing XP on my MBP so I can play PC games. I just have some questions

    1) It wants to partition but do I honestly need to back up my harddrive? I mean does it whipe the whole thing or is there just a small risk?

    2) The copy I have of XP I used on my old PC, I assume I can still use it?

    Thanks in advance.
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
  2. celticpride678, Jan 29, 2011

    celticpride678 Guest

    celticpride678

    Joined:
    Feb 15, 2009
    Location:
    Boston, MA
    #2
    1) Just a risk of losing data
    2) Should be fine
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
  3. vistadude, Jan 29, 2011

    vistadude macrumors 65816

    Joined:
    Jan 3, 2010
    #3
    You can't use XP if it came with the computer, you can if it's a retail disk and it's not currently being used on the old computer.


     
    share
    + Quote Reply
  4. balamw, Jan 29, 2011

    balamw Moderator

    balamw

    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Aug 16, 2005
    Location:
    New England
    #4
    More specifically, the license prohibits you from transferring an OEM license that shipped with the machine to another machine. Even though the license prohibits it, you can often get it to work after a call to Microsoft to get it to activate.

    That said, if the disc is labelled with the brand of your computer (i.e. Dell, HP, Toshiba, Lenovo, Gateway, ...) os says anything like "system restore disc", be really sure that you have a good backup of your OS X partition, because many of these discs will only restore the previous PC to factory conditions and may include customizations for the hardware they shipped with. Something you do not want on your Mac.

    Basically, by trying to reuse the copy from your previous PC you siginicantly increase the risk of wiping the drive.

    If the previous PC shipped with a pre XP OS and you upgraded it to XP using a retail upgrade, you will generally be able to use that on your Mac with a bit of extra work.

    B
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
(You must log in or sign up to post here.)

Share This Page