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MacBook pro 13 dual boot questions

T

Tinoiztino

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Hi guys, fairly new to the MacBook coming from windows 7 that crashed, anyways I'm kind of in need of windows for some stuff and wanted some opinions on dual booting windows from the MacBook,

- is it worth it?
- any issues?
- best version of windows for dual booting?
- needed software/hardware for a dual boot
- recommended upgrades for a better running dual boot?

Looking forward to your answers. Thanks in advanced.
 
I would not recommend dual-booting unless you have to - in other words if you need to run certain software that is not for OS X.
 
He clearly says that he will be needing Windows.

I have Windows through Bootcamp and it works perfectly. Also when doing it with Bootcamp, either you use Windows or Mac OS, not both at the same time. With Bootcamp you have the advantage of having full resources to run the applications you like. This is good for heavy workloads, gaming, and other software that needs lots of computing power!
 
Never did dual boot before, let alone I'm still new to the Mac, but what would I need? Virtual machines and windows OS? Can VM be purchased from amazon? I searched but there are a few different ones, also will the 500gb hdd be enough along with the stock 4gb ram? Or would it be better to buy upgrades as well?
 
Ok I'm reading from work that most MacBooks come with boot camp installed, I'll need to check when I get home but could someone guide me on the correct windows OS I need? 32/64 bit etc. I only want the most basic (cheapest) OS for windows 7.

What is a good size for the partition for both OS to work good?

Do I need anything for windows drivers?

Does the Mac hardware work well with windows? (ability to right click etc)
 
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Just looking at this on my 2012 MBP 13. At the moment I have dual boot and Parallels installed. This is to run some statistical software for a uni course. I think that using Parallels to run Windows 7 within OSX is better for me. Means I can run all my usual apps and then effectively have Windows as another app. To do either you will need a valid copy of Windows 7 which you can activate. To run Parallels, surprisingly, you will need a copy of parallels too. Found it very effective so far.
 
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I just received my MBP the other day and I'm a long time Windows user. The MAC OS is really easy to learn if you're coming from a PC.

I tried VM & Parallels and wasn't really happy with either one.
I am now dual booting my Win 7 Ultimate 64 OS in bootcamp. It works just as if you are working on a Windows machine. I have several applications that just don't work as well with the MAC version...Quickbooks Pro, MS Outlook and Quicken to name a few.

I would strongly recommend any version Win 7 OS as long as it's 64 bit. You will also need a USB thumb drive ( 4GB should do )

Bootcamp is really easy to set up. Go to Finder>Applications>bootcamp and open it up. Check off the options to download the Apple drivers and the option to set up a partition and proceed. You will then choose the size of your partition and format it. Make sure your install disk is in the optical drive and you have your USB thumb drive inserted.
From there on it's basically just a routine Windows install.
However, when your done, you will need to go into the drivers folder on your thumb drive and manually execute the Apple Windows drivers (which were downloaded during the install )as windows needs the apple windows drivers for everything to work.
That's essentially it. You will now have a dual purpose machine that can run either OS! As a long-time PC user who has just learned this, I don't know why anyone wouldn't buy a MAC as as it is really a dual purpose machine... 🙂
You just can't really do this as easily on a windows machine unless you want to Hackintosh it but that is a PITA.
FYI: When your MAC is booting and you hear the sound, just hold down the option key to chose which OS you want to boot into.
If you go into system preferences>Settings>Startup Disk you can also set the default OS that you MAC boots up to.
Hope that give you some help!
 
Tinoiztino said:
Sorry, by that I meant is it worth dual booting or better to just buy a windows based computer.
Click to expand...

That's okay, you don't have to apologize or anything - I was not trying to be rude I just misinterpreted your post. If that is the case, dual-booting is going to be much cheaper, you just have to account for whether or not your Mac meets the recommended specifications of the software you are going to be running in Windows.

I have installed bootcamp on my MacBook Pro twice with no hiccups whatsoever. As far as issues go, some have been reported of course but for the most part you should be alright as it's a fairly simple process. I don't know how owners of a newer Mac model will go about getting drivers, as I have a disc that contains them that came with the computer. I am assuming that it would not be too difficult to obtain them though. I also cannot speak for any other version of Windows besides Windows 7 in regards to dual-booting - again though, I have done it twice with no real problems.

Good luck. 🙂
 
I've got Windows 7 via bootcamp (and Parallels to see which I like) on my 2012 13" MBP. When you run the bootcamp assistant to setup you can download the drivers onto your install stick which makes it nice and easy if not always very quick. When booted into Windows it runs as a really nice laptop, very quick and most of the hot keys (keyboard light etc) still work perfectly.

Just don't do what I did with my wife's Macbook and try and do the same and abandon the partition partway through as it seemed to have hung. This destroyed the boot record and couldn't boot into anything! However being a Mac it started by itself into internet recovery, connected to the web and recovered the situation in about 20 minutes with no data loss at all. Try that on a PC with NO additional software. I was 'Mac' about twenty years ago before going to the dark side and returning earlier this year and I keep remembering why I loved the product then as I'm doing again now. Now the only product that isn't Apple is my ADSL modem!
 
Right on guys, thanks for the help an support. Not planning on using any major programs, mainly some for my Xbox and stuff. So does it matter if it's a 32 bit version or 64 bit version? And what is the difference between the two softwares I posted above? It's a $100 difference so if I can save the money I would like to. Or possibly spend it on VM or parallels etc.

I have a late 2011 btw if it matters
 
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Tinoiztino said:
Right on guys, thanks for the help an support. Not planning on using any major programs, mainly some for my Xbox and stuff. So does it matter if it's a 32 bit version or 64 bit version? And what is the difference between the two softwares I posted above? It's a $100 difference so if I can save the money I would like to. Or possibly spend it on VM or parallels etc.

I have a late 2011 btw if it matters
Click to expand...

when you buy windows, you buy the 32 and the 64 bit versions. I would also check other sellers as well.

The basic difference is that the OEM (system builder) version is only going to serve for one machine, while the standard one will serve for more than 1, which doesnt mean that you can install it on 3 machines at the same time, but you can install on your mac, uninstall it, install on your next machines and so forth.

Though I dont really know if MS is patrolling the use regarding the OEM version.
 
This is great. OP if you dual boot I think you are making the right decision.

I have an early 2011 13" MBP and run Win7 Pro 64bit and Ubuntu Linux 64bit through Fusion VMs. No boot camp, although I did try it initially with Win7. Now I can copy both of my VMs to any fresh OS install with Fusion and they work immediately on the new OS.

On Windows I can run Visual Studio, SQL Server and HL7spy, and I can still switch desktops back to Mac OS X and use Omnigraffle, Firefox, etc. at the same time. I've never seen the Mac use more than 4 GB of my 8GB RAM.

Good luck and I'm sure you will be impressed.
 
great to hear. thank you guys. i will be updating how it goes soon when i actually buy a copy of windows. just doing some research and hearing opinions from other personal experience. so far it sounds good. thanks.
 
duggram said:
This is great. OP if you dual boot I think you are making the right decision.

I have an early 2011 13" MBP and run Win7 Pro 64bit and Ubuntu Linux 64bit through Fusion VMs. No boot camp, although I did try it initially with Win7. Now I can copy both of my VMs to any fresh OS install with Fusion and they work immediately on the new OS.

On Windows I can run Visual Studio, SQL Server and HL7spy, and I can still switch desktops back to Mac OS X and use Omnigraffle, Firefox, etc. at the same time. I've never seen the Mac use more than 4 GB of my 8GB RAM.

Good luck and I'm sure you will be impressed.
Click to expand...


Just so it's clear to me. You run win7 under vm fusion5 all with only 8 gig? And all runs well?
Or do you have 16gig. I assume it's a 2.6 pro retina or cMBP.
Can you tell us what windows programs you use?
 
zipur said:
Just so it's clear to me. You run win7 under vm fusion5 all with only 8 gig? And all runs well?
Or do you have 16gig. I assume it's a 2.6 pro retina or cMBP.
Can you tell us what windows programs you use?
Click to expand...

Wrong. Fusion 4. I allocate 1 GB to each VM, Win7 and Unbuntu. I only have 8 GB of RAM. I check Activity Monitor periodically for RAM usage. I've never seen it go over 4 GB when using a VM. My Win7 kicks ass on my wife's Win7 on a new HP laptop.

Like I said before, I routinely use Visual Studio (for C# & C++), SQL Server (the database program) and HL7Spy (HL7 messaging manager/editor), but at the same time I run Mirth (Java integration engine). I also use Netbeans and PostgreSQL on Win7 sometimes.

The laptop is a Macbook Pro 2.7 GHz i7, with 8 GB 1333 DDR3 RAM. The initial Fusion VM was setup by a Seth at the Albuquerque Genius bar.

Last year I had a maxed out MBA and Seth set it up the same way, but it had only 4 GB of RAM. That laptop performed the same way, until it was stolen.

BTW, I'm a consultant and use this laptop a lot for my work.

Also, BTW, my wife came home last night with a $7,000 sewing machine. Today I'm going down to the Apple store and getting one of those $3,249.00 rMBPs with 2.7 i7 and 16 GB RAM.

Yeeha!
 
I installed windows 8 (free temporary pre release) with bootcamp and also use newest version of VM Ware.
I will buy Win8 when it's available. I was trying to avoid spending $ on Win7 when it's soon replaced.

I am new to Mac and found this rather easy to do with the help of You Tube.
I try to store all docs on my Mac partition so it's in one place - leaving only settings on the windows side. I use Windows for some apps that only run Windows. I also use it for some potable drives that won't let me write from mac. It also helped me get things done while I earned the mac.

When I run into a program issue with VMware, I boot under windows - but that's rare. I do like the option.
 
What's the difference between the old version parallels and the parallels 8 version? I have a late 2011 MacBook pro 13, and planning to run windows 7, which would I need?
 
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