Hi guys, Im new to mac, and so far i am starting to love mac. However, I need some advice and help here on getting both windows 7 and mac osx onto my 2011 mbp. Right now i have 8gb of ram and running the 2.2ghz processor. I have a 160gb intel ssd drive and a 500gb 7200rpm drive in the optical bay. I installed mac osx into my ssd and with the 500gb i am planning to put whatever documents, songs or videos into it. The problem i have now is that I want to install windows 7 into my mac as well through bootcamp because I want to play games like black ops, brink and battlefield 2 on the windows steam. I am afraid that 160 gb would not be enough to install both platforms and allow both to run smoothly. I am not thinking of using any vmware or parallels cuz i know that bootcamp is better if i wanted to run windows games on it. so, any help and suggestions guys? Really would appreciate it a lot. Thanks!! Oh, and I also have a 1tb g-raid gtech hard disk. Just throwing it out in case it can come into good use as well. =)
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Need help and advice on getting both windows 7 and macosx onto mac.
- Thread starter Dragvinz
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+1 yea 160gb is more than enough for both OS's to run you can partition it 80/80 or since your going to game on windows do 40/120 osx/windows
just make sure the games get installed on the ssd as it will improve gameplay and load times.
just make sure the games get installed on the ssd as it will improve gameplay and load times.
thanks for the quick reply bozz. Basically, here is a simplier explanation. I was actually thinking of putting my windows onto the external 1tb hard drive because I use mac more often. however, I read that it is quite a complicated and painful process due to the base reason that bootcamp doesnt work on external hard drives. therefore I was thinking if my 160gb of ssd would be enough to run windows 7, and also enough to run the games that I specified-black ops, battlefield and brink. i would be using windows to mainly play games, and mac to do my designing and filming stuff.
if your gaming stay away from using windows on an external drive the games will play horridly. either install it on the ssd or the drive in the optibay.
Really just comes down to how much stuff you want to put on the SSD... if you just want the OS's and some games in windows a few apps in osx then store your media on the HDD, I'm sure it will be fine. Yeah 160gb is big enough for OSX and Win 7 plus the games you mention and some apps for osx...
the question is going to come down to how much other stuff you want to put on the ssd. You should leave about 30% of space free (~45-50gb)
the question is going to come down to how much other stuff you want to put on the ssd. You should leave about 30% of space free (~45-50gb)
That's just not true. A USB drive only needs a GUID partition to boot OS X. I've booted multiple thumb drives containing Live Linux installs and installed Windows 7 fom a USB stick with no problems whatsoever.
OP, a 40 GB partition should be plenty of space for Windows 7 and quite a few apps and games. Booting Windows from an external is more trouble than its worth. Also, running an OS from a USB drive will be quite a hit performance-wise. Partitioning your SSD is the way to go.
thanks guys for all the advice=) i will go ahead and put it in the ssd since it seems like the best option. is there a way to minimize space in the ssd by putting other folders into the 500gb internal optical bay drive? for example, like my own document folders there? Sorry if its a noob question haha...i just transitioned to mac not long ago=) I read that i cant just drag the documents folder and place it into the other hard drives, if I'm not wrong...
yea put only the OS's and apps on the ssd the rest goes on the hdd in the opti i.e. media docs etc.
Good to know. Everyone who installed the Data Doublers were complaining they could not install Windows via a USB DVD drive, like in this thread.
thanks guys. i have one question...probably sounds stupid but here goes, lets say i take the 160gb ssd and put both windows and macosx on it. lets say in the end, it takes up 100 gb and im left with 60 gb. Is that going to cause my system to run faster than say, it takes up 140gb and im left with 20gb of space, or will both situations cause the system to run the same way as it is because it is not due to the memory thats left in the ssd? thanks in advance!!=)
Many modern Steam games take huge space. I would also put the games folder off the SSD. It sort of depends on what you value more performance or battery life.
My planned setup is small Windows parition (60 GB) and big OSX (100GB).
I don't game often but restarting to windows is alot faster if at least the system and the most important stuff is on the SSD. Putting only the 2 games I own in Steam on the SSD too though would require at least 80 gigs for a Windows partition and it would be cramped. I don't game much thus the value of the game folder on the SSD is low.
If I can keep most or all the working data in OSX on the SSD I can shut down the HDD most of the time and save power. A small OSX parititon with documents and everything on the optibay drive would mean an almost constantly running HDD.
I want to move pictures libraies and movies on the HDD because they take much space and are less frequently used. Music is often used even though it needs space thus I try to keep it on the SSD if possible.
Same goes for the download folder that should always stay SSD und be kept as empty as possible.
You can decide a lot and if you are smart about it you can get your perfect setup. It is different for everybody. Some work with pictures all the time and would rather move the music and some choose games over all.
Also if you only use Standby you can save a lot by disabling hibernation in Windows. The hyberfil.sys file needs 4 or 8 GB depending on your RAM. Kill it and hibernation doesn't work but who cares. You either use normal standby or shutdown. Also shrinking the Swap is sometimes useful but disabling often leads to problems.
There are more things one can do. If you mainly use OSX some Windows features are a waste of space.
My planned setup is small Windows parition (60 GB) and big OSX (100GB).
I don't game often but restarting to windows is alot faster if at least the system and the most important stuff is on the SSD. Putting only the 2 games I own in Steam on the SSD too though would require at least 80 gigs for a Windows partition and it would be cramped. I don't game much thus the value of the game folder on the SSD is low.
If I can keep most or all the working data in OSX on the SSD I can shut down the HDD most of the time and save power. A small OSX parititon with documents and everything on the optibay drive would mean an almost constantly running HDD.
I want to move pictures libraies and movies on the HDD because they take much space and are less frequently used. Music is often used even though it needs space thus I try to keep it on the SSD if possible.
Same goes for the download folder that should always stay SSD und be kept as empty as possible.
You can decide a lot and if you are smart about it you can get your perfect setup. It is different for everybody. Some work with pictures all the time and would rather move the music and some choose games over all.
Also if you only use Standby you can save a lot by disabling hibernation in Windows. The hyberfil.sys file needs 4 or 8 GB depending on your RAM. Kill it and hibernation doesn't work but who cares. You either use normal standby or shutdown. Also shrinking the Swap is sometimes useful but disabling often leads to problems.
There are more things one can do. If you mainly use OSX some Windows features are a waste of space.