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Is Bootcamp compatible with Windows 7?
- Thread starter PurpleCliff
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panzer06
Contributor
Are you daft? The average user doesn't know what a partition table is and certainly wouldn't reasonably expect changing drive letters in windows to wreck their os x environment.
Whether this is related to Window's handling of drive letters and partitions (supposed user error) or not, Apple should not introduce any feature or function that can cause a failure such as this without any warning. Further, if Apple's developers are unable to mitigate this issue in Windows, then the feature should be turned off by default and only activated once the user has read a screen addressing the risks to having your os x drive(s) available in Windows.
Just because some of us know better doesn't mean we should dismiss the potential harm others may inflict upon themselves through lack of knowledge or understanding. Not only is it Apple's responsibility to make sure our systems are reasonably safe from inadvertant harm but we in the user community need to have more thoughtful concern for the less knowledgable majority; rather than dismissing them (oh it's user error, buy disk warrior or reinstall ).
Cheers,
re: major problem
No, I maintain that this IS a major problem - in the sense that performing this one function causes irreparable damage to an entire drive partition!
There was no warning that the partition tables themselves would be modified by changing the drive letter references around. In fact, I was rather surprised that Windows wasn't keeping that information in its own registry someplace. (After all, the drive letters are relative, and are only used inside Windows itself. OS X doesn't refer to its drives by letter....)
I wound up basically doing exactly what you've suggested; using Windows 7 to read all the salvageable data from the OS X partitions it screwed up, to get it backed up. Then I had to reformat and replace everything.
Disk Warrior was worthless at correcting the problem. It did the same thing the OS X Disk Utility did; declared the drives were in an "unrecognized format" and didn't even allow them to be selected for a repair attempt!
I also tried TechTool Pro (latest version), and while it would perform the "SMART" testing on all of the drives in the system and would let me do a sector by sector disk read for bad sectors on them, it wouldn't allow me to do a disk repair on the partitions. So struck out with that one too.
Interestingly, I also borrowed a friend's copy of the latest version of Prosoft Drive Genius and booted it from the DVD. Unlike all the other disk repair tools I tried, it actually allowed me to work with the damaged partitions. Only thing is, it correctly saw them as HFS+ partitions and checked their integrity as though they were functioning normally. It declared them "OK" -- but they were still unusable by OS X! I guess it doesn't even look at whatever part of the partition table was modified by Windows 7?
No, I maintain that this IS a major problem - in the sense that performing this one function causes irreparable damage to an entire drive partition!
There was no warning that the partition tables themselves would be modified by changing the drive letter references around. In fact, I was rather surprised that Windows wasn't keeping that information in its own registry someplace. (After all, the drive letters are relative, and are only used inside Windows itself. OS X doesn't refer to its drives by letter....)
I wound up basically doing exactly what you've suggested; using Windows 7 to read all the salvageable data from the OS X partitions it screwed up, to get it backed up. Then I had to reformat and replace everything.
Disk Warrior was worthless at correcting the problem. It did the same thing the OS X Disk Utility did; declared the drives were in an "unrecognized format" and didn't even allow them to be selected for a repair attempt!
I also tried TechTool Pro (latest version), and while it would perform the "SMART" testing on all of the drives in the system and would let me do a sector by sector disk read for bad sectors on them, it wouldn't allow me to do a disk repair on the partitions. So struck out with that one too.
Interestingly, I also borrowed a friend's copy of the latest version of Prosoft Drive Genius and booted it from the DVD. Unlike all the other disk repair tools I tried, it actually allowed me to work with the damaged partitions. Only thing is, it correctly saw them as HFS+ partitions and checked their integrity as though they were functioning normally. It declared them "OK" -- but they were still unusable by OS X! I guess it doesn't even look at whatever part of the partition table was modified by Windows 7?
Stridder44
macrumors 68040
Someone didn't read the thread. 🙄
Because if you had you would have already seen that people have said this many times.
ayeying
macrumors 601
The fact the OP was able to change the drive letter means that he/she has intermediate computer skills and not an "average" user. I can ask any of "average" computer user and they won't even have the slightest clue on where to change the Drive Letters. If fact, even thinking off the top of my head, I can only think of one place that I can change it.
Apple could have not introduced HFS support. But if you have noticed, there's dozen's of threads of how to write into the OSX Partition or users wanting access to their OSX partition and complaints about it. Apple fixed this issue by allowing Read Only. This is also a safety feature to prevent the average joe to screw up by deleting stuff that they shouldn't have. Granted Apple should've said something in their manual but who really reads instruction guides.
The changing of the drive letters... well, Apple can't stop that without finding a way to work around the Windows side. Windows allows it, Apple can't be held responsible to rewrite that section of windows so people would stop changing drive letters.
panzer06
Contributor
You miss the point. Regardless of the level of experience required to the change the drive letters in Windows (it is quite simple -4 steps- and instructions easily found on the Internet), the fact remains it is possible to do and if you saw the drives in Windows you might be tempted to mess with them.
I'm certain this functionality didn't exist until bootcamp 3.0 drives were installed so Apple is quite aware of how to write a Windows driver.
Why are you so quick to blame the user when it would be simple for Apple to leave this feature disabled unless you affirmatively wish to activate it? At that point Apple could present a screen that warns the user about possible data loss if they change the drive letters while in Windows.
Do you really think this will only happen to the one user who happened to post here? Do you really care so little about how people are impacted by seemingly small changes with potentially severe consequences?
Owning an Apple is all about ease of use and not worrying about all the stuff that goes wrong when you have a Windows PC. I'm just saying Apple should be Apple and take that extra step to protect their customer, especially since it is mostly likely a very simple fix to help keep it from happening.
Cheers,
flopticalcube
macrumors G4
flopticalcube
macrumors G4
Almost everything should work out-of-the-box. You can manually install the Vista x64 drivers from the Snow Leopard disk. Good luck.
Okay everyone, it's been an epic journey! 😀
I've installed Windows 7, 64 bit, and it seemed to go fine. I've only got the Bootcamp 2.1 drivers (from the Leopard disc) but will update that as soon as I get my Snow Leopard disc back.
Seems great! Thanks so much for all the help everyone!!!
I've installed Windows 7, 64 bit, and it seemed to go fine. I've only got the Bootcamp 2.1 drivers (from the Leopard disc) but will update that as soon as I get my Snow Leopard disc back.
Seems great! Thanks so much for all the help everyone!!!
flopticalcube
macrumors G4
Lol yeah, I think I might be way too cautious with computer stuff ... bad experiences 😛 Thanks!
Stridder44
macrumors 68040
from what i'm reading as well yes.. but make sure you back up EVERYTHING onto an external drive or something (just in case)..
help - bluetooth kb and mighty mouse
Please help.
I just installed W 7 x64 on my Imac i5. I did get black screen and have to follow one of the instruction to delete ati driver. So far everything seems working (wireless network audio) but my bluetooth wireless keyboard and mighty mouse. I remembered seeing the instructionin in this forum to make them works but could not locate them now.
Please help.
I just installed W 7 x64 on my Imac i5. I did get black screen and have to follow one of the instruction to delete ati driver. So far everything seems working (wireless network audio) but my bluetooth wireless keyboard and mighty mouse. I remembered seeing the instructionin in this forum to make them works but could not locate them now.
DonCarlos
macrumors regular
I too have installed W7 with really no problems on my mac mini (OSX SL 10.6.2). Used Bootcamp 3.0. Added drivers automatically by reinserting SL disc while in Windows 7.
I did have to resolve problems with my MM wireless keyboard and mouse. Hope this suggestion help those that ran into the same problem....pretty simple fix.
Follow these tips while you are in Windows 7 :
1) Switch off the device you want to pair
2) Select "add a device" in the Bluetooth menu
3) Switch on the device (after few second it should get detected by Windows)
4) Now, right click on the device and select properties. You should now get a window with the different services.
5) select the HID drivers for keyboard and mice and click OK (this is the important part)
6a) In windows 7 it should setup mouse and keyboard without any additional input
I found that tip posted by S_ Eye at http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2057008&start=0&tstart=0
Good Luck.
I did have to resolve problems with my MM wireless keyboard and mouse. Hope this suggestion help those that ran into the same problem....pretty simple fix.
Follow these tips while you are in Windows 7 :
1) Switch off the device you want to pair
2) Select "add a device" in the Bluetooth menu
3) Switch on the device (after few second it should get detected by Windows)
4) Now, right click on the device and select properties. You should now get a window with the different services.
5) select the HID drivers for keyboard and mice and click OK (this is the important part)
6a) In windows 7 it should setup mouse and keyboard without any additional input
I found that tip posted by S_ Eye at http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2057008&start=0&tstart=0
Good Luck.
Thanks, I will keep trying. Apparently, it takes a while to find the device
12-16-2009 Finally everything works fine. Vertical scrolling is fine too. Switch between two Op is also working fine. When you are in Mac X using "system preference", "startup disk" and click "Boot Camp" to restart in W7. When you are in W7, click "other options" on right lower corner of the task bar. Then click "MAC O? restart". The Imac will reboot back to Mac X.
update to bootcamp
I know lots of you have successfully installed w7 already but do you think the promised official support is actually going to come by the end of the year, it's getting close now!
I know lots of you have successfully installed w7 already but do you think the promised official support is actually going to come by the end of the year, it's getting close now!
CylonGlitch
macrumors 68030
I have had nothing but problems trying to install Windows 7x64 bit on my 24" mid 2008 imac.
I actually still can't get it to work in 64 bit mode. It doesn't read any of the graphic cards and when i try installing the old vista 64 bit drivers it says my computer isnt capable of 64 bit. Also the Snow leapord install disc doesnt do anything when i try installing the drivers. The resolution is still crap, it is slow as hell and very frustrating, Like most PC's.
I am about to give up this is my first time trying windows on a mac, and it has been a horrible experience. I have googled and tried just about everything I can think of...any help would be great.
I actually still can't get it to work in 64 bit mode. It doesn't read any of the graphic cards and when i try installing the old vista 64 bit drivers it says my computer isnt capable of 64 bit. Also the Snow leapord install disc doesnt do anything when i try installing the drivers. The resolution is still crap, it is slow as hell and very frustrating, Like most PC's.
I am about to give up this is my first time trying windows on a mac, and it has been a horrible experience. I have googled and tried just about everything I can think of...any help would be great.
skeewiff
macrumors newbie
This has Just happened to me too. I transferred data from my old NTFS drives onto a new HFS+ formatted drive, rebooted into Windows 7X64 HP, changed the drive letter and restarted the machine.
Now windows can read the disk and describes it as HFS, but OSX cannot describing it as MSDOS-FAT. Repair disk returns the error:
invalid bs_jmpboot in boot block:000000
Is there a fix? And more importantly is there a way to prevent this? I clearly wont be chaning drive letters again - but surely it shouldnt be allowed in the first place?
Thanks in advance. This forum has been a great resource for the switchover!
xi mezmerize ix
macrumors 6502a
panzer06
Contributor
It's a serious thread. The title is misleading but the problem described herein is quite real. It should not work this way but it does. 😡 Nothing to be done about it other than avoid changing drive letters when booted to Windows.
Cheers,