My First Macbook Pro, Right Choice?

[MikeM87]

Hi,

My names Mike currently working as an IT analyst but am also going back to University in september to finished my degree in Multimedia and Internet Technology.

I got my 13" Macbook Pro in April maybe just before for my birthday with the intension of taking it to Uni with me as it is portable etc and will do everything i require it to do. Anyway needless to say i am extremely happy with the Mac although i do not feel i am getting the most from this (let me explain).

At the moment i just use the mac for web browsing and chatting to friends facebook etc but i feel like this was too much money to spend on a laptop to do this although i do use the laptop for some photoshop work i also feel i have spent too much and want to get more from the Mac in order for the purchase of it to feel worthwhile if this makes sense.

i'd always wanted one and am pleased i got it but theres a few things i want to do. Firstly i would like to put Windows 7 on this using boot camp i dont know if any of you guys here have done this but if you have i would be extreamley happy if you could give me some guidance.

Also one of the things i am having difficulty with is saving a word file to an external drive every time i do this it says that the disc is full or write protected which it is not, does it have to be formatted to a certain format?

Also one quick last question is it best to shut down the Mac all the time or just close the lid so it goes into sleep.

Also if you guys want to recommend doing anything with the Mac then please feel free to do so i just dont feel like i am getting my use from it at the moment and would like to get more from it. I am an apple lover i have this Macbook Pro as well as an iPad 32gb 3G and an iPhone 4 all of which i enjoy being a gadget geek

Anyway thanks for your input guys!

 

[alphaod]

It's an excellent computer to have for school.

Although I shutdown every time for security reasons, you can just sleep it for most cases.

 

[alust2013]

Installing windows with bootcamp is a breeze, just use a 64-bit copy if you want to be able to use all of your RAM. Go to boot camp assistant in utilities, and it will tell you how to do the rest.

Your external drive is likely formatted in NTFS, which Macs don't like very well. There is software to get around it, but it would be easier to format it to FAT32 or HFS+ (Mac's favorite).

As far as sleep goes, most people use that much more than shutting down. It's fast and doesn't hurt (although your battery will drain a bit if you are using battery power). I usually shut down at night, but that's just me, plus my battery drains quite a bit when it's sleeping for whatever reason.

 

[MikeM87]

Thanks for your input on this guys greatly appreciated.

 

[Jaro65]

You may also consider running Win 7 using VMware Fusion or Parallels. That's what I do and it works great.

 

[Opstech]

Welcome to the mac platform. I love my mac simply for the no bloatware add-ons most computer companies saturate their computers with. Mac is simple to use and really it has everything you need to get started as a casual user. The first thing I got for my mac was iWork. You can use it just like MS office. The main reason I switched from PC to Mac was for iPhoto and iMovie. They're the basic user friendly software company. To answer one of your questions about the mac, yes I close the lid for it to sleep all the time. If I know i'm not going to use the MBP for a couple days, i shut her down.
For windows 7 install,,,,, try this link out. It helps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYPSwNp3sU0

 

[puma1552]

I shut down all the time because I've seen too many instances where something woke up the computer while in it's sleeve and opened it up to be burning hot.