Remove OSX, install Windows 7

[seniorgeek]

I like my new iMac hardware, but have decided that I prefer Windows OS over OSX, is it possible to start over, format, remove OSX and install Windows 7 only on the iMac?

Thank you, please no rants and raves, just info would be appreciated.

 

[johnhurley]

I like my new iMac hardware, but have decided that I prefer Windows OS over OSX, is it possible to start over, format, remove OSX and install Windows 7 only on the iMac?

Thank you, please no rants and raves, just info would be appreciated.

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.

 

[cluthz]

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.

 

[skysmx]

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.

 

[seniorgeek]

Thanks everyone for all the good ideas, I just had a revaluation, I was having so much trouble with OSX Lion crashing that I booted into the recovery partition, downloaded OSX and reinstalled it and behold, all my applications and data was still there, this is totally amazing to me. I was prepared to reinstall all the applications. It took about 3 and a half hours to do this which I think is reasonable, thankfully I just upgraded my DSL to the next level of speed. I think I may stick with OSX for now, I also have VMware and Vista installed to run Visual Web Developer, it runs quite slow so I have ordered 8 more GB's or Ram hopefully this will help some.

 

[johnhurley]

Thanks everyone for all the good ideas, I just had a revaluation, I was having so much trouble with OSX Lion crashing that I booted into the recovery partition, downloaded OSX and reinstalled it and behold, all my applications and data was still there, this is totally amazing to me. I was prepared to reinstall all the applications.

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".

 

[Paul B]

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).

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.

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

 

[thomaskc]

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