Need someone patient to answer some bootcamp/Win7 questions.

[Scylax]

I need to install Windows 7 on my 13" MacBook Pro, which is a few months old. I bought a full copy of Windows 7 Home Premium, and I have my Snow Leopard Installation disks to hand. But I have never done anything like this and I have some questions and worries, so please give me patience and help!

1) Will Windows 7 work with bootcamp yet? I know there is supposed to be an update soon, but loads of you seem to have managed already, so would I be ok?

2) 32 or 64 bit? The copy of Windows 7 comes with discs for both, so which should I use? Will I have driver issues if I load 64 bit?

3) If I loaded the 32 bit version now, would I be able to use the 64 bit disk to upgrade later (on the same computer obviously), or can I only use one and be stuck with it?

4) I bought Paralells Desktop 5 to use. If I install to bootcamp how do I use the same copy of Win7 in this after? Also, it says it works with Win7, so if there is a problem with Win7 in bootcamp can I install it directly into parallels?

I hope the above questions make sense, and thank you for your patience in reading all this. I really value all help but please keep it as simple as possible for me! Cheers.

My computer specs: 13" 2009 MBP, 2.53GHz, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD.

 

[flopticalcube]

1) yes but not all bootcamp features will be present.

2) 64 to take advantage of 4GB of memory. No driver issues anymore.

3) No. You will have to do a reinstall.

4) You can use the installed bootcamp partition under Parallels. No need to reinstall or activate.

 

[balamw]

3) No. You will have to do a reinstall.

Just to clarify. You can't upgrade, but you CAN switch. You can switch from 32 bit to 64 bit by reinstalling. Activation should be fine as it is seen as the same product key and hardware.

B