Turn Imac into dedicated Windows machine

[guynorton]

Hi,

After 2 years using Windows via Parallels on a 27 inch Imac with Snow Leopard and finding the whole experience not as seemless as I would like it to be , I have decided to turn my Imac into a dedicated Windows 7 machine. In other words, no parallels, no bootcamp solution, no osx at all.

The problem is, the optiarc drive refuses to read discs. I think an accrual of cd dust (from the infamous scratching caused by the chassis) may have built up on the lens.

Any attempt to get an install of Windows 7 up and running via bootcamp, or on startup, fails.

Does anyone know of a safe way to clean the lense? I can try this and see if it solves the problem. This will make a clean install of Windows 7 a cinch. However, if this fails and I buy an external usb drive, will I be able to install windows when the system starts? Will the drive be found.....?

regards, Guy

 

[nguinn97]

A usb drive should work

If you make the usb drive bootable it should be able to install.

 

[MJL]

Does anyone know of a safe way to clean the lense?

Guy, apparently this was a common problem with the earlier Mac mini's (and perhaps with all slot loading CD/DVD drives). I've read somewhere that wrapping on of the spectacles cleaning cloths dampened with the fluid for cleaning lenses and then wrapping that around a credit card (or something like that) and then carefully moving it in and out of the slot can clean the lens. Don't remember which side of the slot though....

You'll need the OSX install DVD under windows to install the drivers - it is another part of bootcamp. It will also install thw windows side of bootcamp which is necessary to get the function keys etc working properly under windows.

If you are on Lion then I suggest first to make a CD with the Bootcamp stuff (has to be downloaded) before wiping OS X. Afterwards you can use the build in windows backup and restore to make a backup and do recovery with, no crazy hoops to jump through to get your backup working again.