Remove OSX, install Windows 7

Yup it is quite possible. Nothing runs windows 7 like some apple hardware.

I "think" a lot of the people going all win 7 are using rEFIt as the boot manager.

I "think" that you still want to use GUID Partition table as the disk partition schema.

You probably want to run bootcamp assistant first to make sure that you have a good set of win 7 drivers for your machine.

So you certainly can abandon mac os x entirely. Your choice.

I would recommend though that you think about going for dual boot setup. Partition your system so that the mac os x size is small ( 50 gb maybe ) and all your other space is bootcamp ( win 7 ) partition.

Then you give yourself the option ( if you ever want ) to boot back into mac os x ( plus do firmware upgrades etc ) but normally thru bootcamp just run win 7 native all the time. You setup a default boot operating system so that it always comes up like that.

 

You really should have a OSX partition and use bootcamp to install.
The reason for this is that all firmware updates have to be done in OSX.

Your iMac probably have a 1 or 2TB drive, so putting aside like 50-60GB for MacOSX shouldn't be an issue.

You will also need OSX to make a CD or USB stick for bootcamp drivers too.

 

There is a commercial software that can be useful for you, Paragon CampTune 9.5. You can resize an existing BootCamp partition (if you need more space under OS X or Windows, no need to reinstall), or install Windows over OS X.

As cluthz said firmware updates are only possibile under OS X.

 

Well one way to avoid so much download time is this which gives you a complete install package ( usb flash disk or DVD ): macworld hints

Get some kind of backup strategy in place "right now" ... I am using the windows 7 system image ( maintenance submenu ) utility to backup my bootcamp partition.

If you are just doing a vm setup then make sure you periodically shutdown your vm and get a good backup of it "somehow".

 

I'm looking to do the same as OP (due to work-related Win7 software being superior to the OS X counterpart, and dual-booting wastes valuable space on an SSD).

Can someone outline the steps to doing this? Run Boot Camp Assistant first, then use rEFIt to delete the OS X partition?

 

Sorry for interrupting this thread a bit but I am about to reinstall my windows partition, i have dual boot osx / win at the moment.

How do you guys go about reinstalling win? do you just reinstall like normally, DVD, clear / reuse the win partition etc like on a PC? Or do you go back into OSX, clear the partition through bootcamp, then reinstall win through bootcamp?

I have the driver disc from bootcamp already.

thanks