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New to BootCamp, need advice

crjackson2134

crjackson2134

macrumors 601
Original poster
Mar 6, 2013
4,848
1,958
Charlotte, NC
I just installed Win8 on my MP (see signature). Everything went okay, but the finished result needs tweaking.

Here's my issue. I have OS X on a PCIe SSD and Windows on a regular HD in Bay 2. When in windows, and I want to go back to OS X Yosemite, I click the bootcamp icon in the windows task drawar (whatever you call that area in the bottom right). It gives me a couple of options including restart/boot to OS X. The problem is that it doesn't let me specifty the startup drive like OS X does and it ends up booting my TimeMachine drive instead of my regular startup drive.

Is there a way to tell windows 8 to boot to a specific OS X drive? I'm being forced to use the option key to restart into OS X.

Any advices on this appreciated...
 
If you open up the Boot Camp control panel, there should be a tab that lets you select the startup disk, just like the preference pane in OS X. If it's not there, boot into OS X and use the preference pane to pick the disk you want.
 
Okay, not that familiar with Win 8, where do I find the BootCamp control Panel?

Booting into OS X and selecting the boot drive solves nothing. I have no issues selecting once in OS X. The problem is that if I boot into Win8, finish my task then try to boot BACK to OS X, the Windows BC menu item sends me to TimeMachine instead of my OS X SSD.

I'll look for the boot drive selector in Win. Is it in the settings menu of windows? I did look there but didn't see it.
 
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Altemose said:
The Boot Camp software can be opened from the Boot Camp pane in the task bar by the clock.
Click to expand...
Okay, I'll try again. When I clicked on it before it only gave me a contextual menu that said reboot to OS X, it offered no option to select a boot drive. I may have right clicked it when I should have double clicked instead.
 
Okay, so I've figured out a couple of things.

In the BootCamp control panel, I can re-select OS X boot drive and apply. After doing so, if I select the contextual menu option to boot to OS X, my selection will be ignored and it will once again boot to the TimeMachine drive.

However, if I select my OS X boot drive from the BootCamp control panel, and then just use the windows power menu to restart, it quickly boots to the correct OS X partition.

So, I guess the contextual menu item "Boot to OS X" does not adhere to the startup drive settings from the BootCamp control panel, and simply selects the first OS X drive it can find. Not a very intuitive system, but at least I know I can use the windows power off menu and I will adhere tho the control panel settings.

Thanks for all of your help.
 
Yeah ... unfortunately the BootCamp Control Panel selection is not "sticky" and does not remember the selection for the next time to simply select "Boot into OS X". Very awkward!
 
hfg said:
Yeah ... unfortunately the BootCamp Control Panel selection is not "sticky" and does not remember the selection for the next time to simply select "Boot into OS X". Very awkward!
Click to expand...

It's a stupid design that leave this out. I don't anticipate booting to windows more that 3-5 times a year, so I'll live ... :)

Most windows use needs are because of the University's (where my wife works) software choices. A vm works well for that and has been for a long time. I just wanted to do a BC install since I've never used BC before. If my "Old *ss" self wakes up one day and suddenly becomes a gamer, I'll be all set.

Thanks for all the help everyone...
 
crjackson2134 said:
It's a stupid design that leave this out. I don't anticipate booting to windows more that 3-5 times a year, so I'll live ... :)

Most windows use needs are because of the University's (where my wife works) software choices. A vm works well for that and has been for a long time. I just wanted to do a BC install since I've never used BC before. If my "Old *ss" self wakes up one day and suddenly becomes a gamer, I'll be all set.

Thanks for all the help everyone...
Click to expand...

In order to save on disk storage space, and to have the best of both environments, I install BootCamp Windows and then also run the same image as a VirtualMachine using VMware "Fusion". One installation serves both and any changes/additions I make from one environment is, of course, also available from the other environment.

My Windows usage is pretty much limited to Quicken financial manager and some games.
 
hfg said:
In order to save on disk storage space, and to have the best of both environments, I install BootCamp Windows and then also run the same image as a VirtualMachine using VMware "Fusion". One installation serves both and any changes/additions I make from one environment is, of course, also available from the other environment.

My Windows usage is pretty much limited to Quicken financial manager and some games.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm planning on doing that too. Right now MS won't let me activate it since it's installed and activated in my VM already. It's going to take a phone call I guess.
 
crjackson2134 said:
Yeah, I'm planning on doing that too. Right now MS won't let me activate it since it's installed and activated in my VM already. It's going to take a phone call I guess.
Click to expand...
Yeah ... that should be no problem as the phone call is automated. Just answer that it is installed on "one" computer and you should be good to go.

Recent VMware updates seem to have solved the "dual activation" issue for me. Once activated initially with BootCamp, the VMware attachment seems to not trip the re-activation required state.

Good luck ...
 
hfg said:
Recent VMware updates seem to have solved the "dual activation" issue for me. Once activated initially with BootCamp, the VMware attachment seems to not trip the re-activation required state.

Good luck ...
Click to expand...

That's how it was for me, too. Just had to enter my admin password on OS X when launching VMWare.
 
saturnotaku said:
That's how it was for me, too. Just had to enter my admin password on OS X when launching VMWare.
Click to expand...
Somewhere I was also able to disable the admin password requirement at launch.

It may have been under the Settings button, Advanced, "Administrative privileges for Boot Camp Disks"="Never Ask". If that wasn't it, look around, somewhere you can disable that if you want.
 
hfg said:
Somewhere I was also able to disable the admin password requirement at launch.

It may have been under the Settings button, Advanced, "Administrative privileges for Boot Camp Disks"="Never Ask". If that wasn't it, look around, somewhere you can disable that if you want.
Click to expand...

No longer necessary as I transferred my retail Windows 8.1 license to my new Zotac micro PC. My Mac is now rolling OS X exclusively.
 
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