Quick question

[aduteau]

Hi guys, here are a couple of quick questions for you and your experience:

1- I want to install Windows on a Mac ... I am thinking of maybe buying a Mac Pro somtime next year ... or mayber just install Windows on my current iMac. If I do install windows on my current iMac and get a virus ... will it spread to all my HDD ... or will I be able to just format the Windows part of my HDD and not my Mac OS part if things go bad ?

2- I am thinking of using my current iMac (1 year old) for doing 3D CAD (Computer Aided Design) Will it be enough ? Or will I be going for a Mac Pro after testing it ? (a have 2 gig of RAM right now)

3- Will my current iMac be able to handle Windows 64 bit ? if so ... Vista or XP do you recommend ? (again my iMac is a year old).

I am not into gaming, just doing CAD into Windows.

Thanks again guys !

 

[kornyboy]

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If you get a virus there is a chance that it could affect both partitions of the hard drive. You would most likely just get something that you could take care of on the windows partition.

As far as 3D CAD goes, this is very resource intensive and you will most likely need a bit more RAM. I would also recommend that you use Boot Camp and boot to windows directly instead of a virtualized like Parallels or VM Fusion. This will allow you to dedicate all system resources to the work you are doing on the Windows side.

You should be fine run ing the 64 Bit version of either Vista or XP, but this is just a guess on my part since I haven't installed a 64 Bit version on my Macs.

 

[aduteau]

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If you get a virus there is a chance that it could affect both partitions of the hard drive. You would most likely just get something that you could take care of on the windows partition.

As far as 3D CAD goes, this is very resource intensive and you will most likely need a bit more RAM. I would also recommend that you use Boot Camp and boot to windows directly instead of a virtualized like Parallels or VM Fusion. This will allow you to dedicate all system resources to the work you are doing on the Windows side.

You should be fine run ing the 64 Bit version of either Vista or XP, but this is just a guess on my part since I haven't installed a 64 Bit version on my Macs.

thx for the quick respond
I was thinking of only booting in windows and not using Parallel or Fusion to run my 3D CAD systems

And does installing Windows using BootCamp partition the HDD ? If so ... doesn't Partition make the HDD safe from viruses of Windows ? Just asking !

 

[kfordham281]

And does installing Windows using BootCamp partition the HDD ? If so ... doesn't Partition make the HDD safe from viruses of Windows ? Just asking !

Yes, Boot Camp will help partition your HDD to install Windows. Not 100% sure on your other question.

 

[drichards]

Autocad 2008 had boot camp issues, it wouldn't hold on to its registration due to the system clock changing and some other things like that. It had worse issues in VMware and Parallels... I don't know what software you'd want to use, but my experience with Autocad was less than stellar and I would up moving to archicad and some other software for my work.

As far as 64 bit windows goes, I'm fairly sure that bootcamp still only supports vista 64. You're probably best off using vista anyway if you want to bootcamp.

If you're worried about viruses, install good protection and don't worry so much. Clamwin, AVG, Avast, whatever you like but those three are free and solid. On the mac side, clamxav and iantivirus. But if you're just doing work and maybe playing games, there's not much of a threat to you even in windows.

 

[aduteau]

Autocad 2008 had boot camp issues, it wouldn't hold on to its registration due to the system clock changing and some other things like that. It had worse issues in VMware and Parallels... I don't know what software you'd want to use, but my experience with Autocad was less than stellar and I would up moving to archicad and some other software for my work.

As far as 64 bit windows goes, I'm fairly sure that bootcamp still only supports vista 64. You're probably best off using vista anyway if you want to bootcamp.

If you're worried about viruses, install good protection and don't worry so much. Clamwin, AVG, Avast, whatever you like but those three are free and solid. On the mac side, clamxav and iantivirus. But if you're just doing work and maybe playing games, there's not much of a threat to you even in windows.

thx,
I am planning on using Autodesk Inventor 2008 and up, plus Solidworks 2008 and up ... maybe some Catia ... ( maybe not since its craptacular !) lol

So ... AutoCAD has some issuses on boot camp ????... hummmm

 

[sickmacdoc]

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You should be fine run ing the 64 Bit version of either Vista or XP, but this is just a guess on my part since I haven't installed a 64 Bit version on my Macs.

Just to clarify, drichards was correct in the post above- 64 bit XP is not supported but 64 bit Vista is.

 

[aduteau]

Just to clarify, drichards was correct in the post above- 64 bit XP is not supported but 64 bit Vista is.

ok thx,
Anyone knows if Vista 64 bit has problems with CAD software on the iMac ?

 

[Neil321]

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If you get a virus there is a chance that it could affect both partitions of the hard drive. You would most likely just get something that you could take care of on the windows partition.
.

Err could you please explain how a windows virus would effect OS X, thanks

 

[Wolfpup]

It's not impossible at all. It's just unlikely as the "market" so to speak for malware that's both Windows and OS X "aware" is pretty small right now.

The more likely issue would be spreading macro viruses from Office documents on one OS to the other...but even there, your antivirus should pick up on that, and any modern version of Office will warn you about macros anyway (and obviously you don't run them if you don't know why the document would have macros).

 

[cg165]

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If you get a virus there is a chance that it could affect both partitions of the hard drive. You would most likely just get something that you could take care of on the windows partition.
.

Err could you please explain how a windows virus would effect OS X, thanks

Well, the virus could destroy the actual hard drive. You aren't likely to see that unless you're looking for it or just downloading anything from any site with no virus protection. OSX has viruses too.

 

[Neil321]

It's not impossible at all. It's just unlikely as the "market" so to speak for malware that's both Windows and OS X "aware" is pretty small right now.

The more likely issue would be spreading macro viruses from Office documents on one OS to the other...but even there, your antivirus should pick up on that, and any modern version of Office will warn you about macros anyway (and obviously you don't run them if you don't know why the document would have macros).

Ok granted about the macros, but what I'm saying is how would a windows virus effect OS X as it wouldn't understand it

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Well, the virus could destroy the actual hard drive. You aren't likely to see that unless you're looking for it or just downloading anything from any site with no virus protection. OSX has viruses too.

Please can you provide documented proof of one virus (not Trojans) in the wild right now that'll affect OS X

 

[Wolfpup]

Ok granted about the macros, but what I'm saying is how would a windows virus effect OS X as it wouldn't understand it

Like I said, there's no technical reason this couldn't be done. It's only obscurity that prevents it. There'll be a lot more OS X only malware before there's malware that infects both, but it's certainly technologically possible.

Please can you provide documented proof of one virus (not Trojans) in the wild right now that'll affect OS X

There's OS X malware, and there will be more and more now that the OS has a lot more market penetration. I'm not going to hunt down links, but it pops up in the tech sites news feeds from time to time.

 

[Neil321]

Like I said, there's no technical reason this couldn't be done. It's only obscurity that prevents it. There'll be a lot more OS X only malware before there's malware that infects both, but it's certainly technologically possible.



There's OS X malware, and there will be more and more now that the OS has a lot more market penetration. I'm not going to hunt down links, but it pops up in the tech sites news feeds from time to time.

Fine but you keep going on about Macs becoming more popular but Macs don't have that sh*tty thing called a BIOS

 

[Wolfpup]

Fine but you keep going on about Macs becoming more popular but Macs don't have that sh*tty thing called a BIOS

1) There's nothing "******" about the BIOS. It's sparse looking, but serves its purpose fine.

2) What does the BIOS have to do with anything regarding malware that this thread is about?

 

[drichards]

thx,
I am planning on using Autodesk Inventor 2008 and up, plus Solidworks 2008 and up ... maybe some Catia ... ( maybe not since its craptacular !) lol

So ... AutoCAD has some issuses on boot camp ????... hummmm

You should probably have a look on the autodesk forums about bootcamp. There were support articles up well before leopard came out about various products having problems in boot camp.

And seriously, don't worry so much about viruses. Just use protection.

 

[aduteau]

You should probably have a look on the autodesk forums about bootcamp. There were support articles up well before leopard came out about various products having problems in boot camp.

And seriously, don't worry so much about viruses. Just use protection.

ok so my MAC OSX performances should not be affected at all whatever appends in Windows Vista virus ???

 

[Neil321]

1) There's nothing "******" about the BIOS. It's sparse looking, but serves its purpose fine.

2) What does the BIOS have to do with anything regarding malware that this thread is about?

Ok bit misleading but Macs have EFI ( UNIX ) windows is allot more prone to viruses & not just because of popularity

 

[Wolfpup]

ok so my MAC OSX performances should not be affected at all whatever appends in Windows Vista virus ???

You need antivirus and anti-malware software on Windows (Avira from download.com is free for viruses, and Windows Defender from Microsoft.com is free for Malware). There's no reason you should get malware on Windows. If you didn't take basic precautions and somehow did, there's currently (probably) no malware that can infect your OS X installation from within Windows.

Macro viruses in Office documents are probably your most serious threat.

Ok bit misleading but Macs have EFI ( UNIX ) windows is allot more prone to viruses & not just because of popularity

Okay, again, why are you bringing up the BIOS? EFI has nothing to do with Unix, there's nothing terribly wrong with the BIOS (which is why other than Apple it hasn't really been adopted), it's just a new name for a different way of handling BIOS features, and BIOS/EFI have nothing to do with malware/viruses.

And the ONLY reason Windows is more prone to malware is because there's a lot more malware out there for it, because it's more popular. There's nothing magical about OS X that makes it immune to malware or prevents it from having security flaws...there just isn't as much stuff exploiting it (though unfortunately that's picking up).

 

[aduteau]

thx guys !
So IF something goes wrong with the Windows Partition ... I could Format only the Windows Part and not all my HDD that contains Mac OS X ?
Beacause I really dont want to have and re-install my Mac OS X and get all of my programs again ( I know its a good practice to have time machine going ... but lately I've been having problems doing my Backup with Time machine).

 

[Wolfpup]

Yeah, it should be fine-but backup regularly! Never know when a hard drive failure will hit, or you accidentally delete something, or who knows what else.

 

[aduteau]

Also, I hear that after I install windows with bootcamp ... I need to put in the drivers of the Mac for windows with the Leopard DVD ...
I have a Upgrade DVD for Tiger (to upgrade Tiger to Leopard), will that work also ?
Or am I completly wrong about this driver install thing ?

 

[Wolfpup]

Also, I hear that after I install windows with bootcamp ... I need to put in the drivers of the Mac for windows with the Leopard DVD ...
I have a Upgrade DVD for Tiger (to upgrade Tiger to Leopard), will that work also ?
Or am I completly wrong about this driver install thing ?

I'd assume that DVD would also have the necessary drivers. After installing those, you'd want to download the Bootcamp updates from Apple and install those too. (There are specific versions for XP, 32-bit Vista, and 64-bit Vista, so you'd want to grab the version for the OS you have installed.)

 

[aduteau]

I'd assume that DVD would also have the necessary drivers. After installing those, you'd want to download the Bootcamp updates from Apple and install those too. (There are specific versions for XP, 32-bit Vista, and 64-bit Vista, so you'd want to grab the version for the OS you have installed.)

and these updates are done thru Windows or Mac OSX ?

 

[Wolfpup]

Either, probably. I think they're just files you grab from Apple's site. Someone correct me if I'm wrong! (You used to have to burn a CD in OS X that you used in Windows, but that's changed now.)