Windows 7 on 2011 MBA

[b2051758]

Hello there,

Getting a 2011 13" MBA next week and have decided to install windows 7 on it.I need to use windows a lot for my college work as I'm studying computer networking so really cant be done without it.

I have a superdrive already so I understand the installation will be a piece of cake but just have some questions before I do.
What's the best version to install, 32 or 64 bit windows? I'm thinking 64 for performance reasons but does bootcamp provide all the right drivers for 64bit?
Also I've read that AHCI will be disabled in windows 7, is there a way to activate this instead of running in ide mode? Would TRIM be enabled in ide mode if can't do this? Also how easy would it be to backup and restore my windows 7 install in case it fails? Would I be able to restore a backup of windows using a cd booting from the superdrive ??

I think thats it for now, thanks for any help!

 

[Quad5Ny]

You want 64-bit Windows if you have >2GB of RAM and yes the Boot Camp driver package has 64-bit drivers.

If your using Windows default drivers, IDE mode will pass the TRIM commands down to your drive. But if you update to Intel's latest drivers, those will only pass the TRIM commands while in AHCI mode.

I'm not sure about backing up Windows on a Boot Camp partition. (If you were to erase the entire HD and run ONLY Windows, then you could just use the built in Windows Backup program)


Tip: Don't mess around with your partition layout on the Windows side, actually try not to mess around with your partition layout at all after running the Boot Camp assistant.

 

[b2051758]

Thanks for the reply. 64 bit windows it is then. I mainly wanted a mac just to learn about and have a go at mac os , but upon finding it can run windows also is a bonus, means I can chuck my old xp laptop out.

Ill find another way to backup and restore windows 7 on the mac. If it fails i can just reinstall windows again and perform a restore within windows it self when it is running.

I read somewhere that there is a way on macbook pros to enable AHCI by editing the mbr, do you think this will work on mba's aswell and safe to do so?

 

[Quad5Ny]

If I remember correctly, that worked but causes the computer to crash upon waking up from sleep.