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Windows 7 standalone on macbook with intel ssd

L

Lior.Amsalem

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 30, 2009
17
1
Hi all,
I own an aluminum macbook 2.0 / 4GB / WD 250GB 7200 (black series).
Till now worked with snow leopard.
I gave the laptop to my girlfriend and she doesn't like Os X (specially because of the no Hebrew support on Office for Mac, she's a student) so I've installed Windows 7 using boot camp for her.

and... She loves it! well, she always loved the aluminum macbook but windows is what she likes.
Everything is working great with the SL disk installing boot camp on windows (sound, video, power issues, bt, wifi, ir, multitouch trackpad,...)

I want to get an intel X25-M G2 ssd for the computer for 2 reasons:
1. hopefully to get ~30 more minutes out of the battery in windows 7
2. enjoy a snapier computer

Well, that was the story.. now the questions..
1. Will this SSD work with my unibody alloy macbook?
2. Can i install windows 7 only? with no OS X on the drive?
3. I know that the G2 drive supports windows's trim option, will it be working on the macbook running windows 7?

Thanks!
Lior
 
Lior.Amsalem said:
Hi all,
I own an aluminum macbook 2.0 / 4GB / WD 250GB 7200 (black series).
Till now worked with snow leopard.
I gave the laptop to my girlfriend and she doesn't like Os X (specially because of the no Hebrew support on Office for Mac, she's a student) so I've installed Windows 7 using boot camp for her.

and... She loves it! well, she always loved the aluminum macbook but windows is what she likes.
Everything is working great with the SL disk installing boot camp on windows (sound, video, power issues, bt, wifi, ir, multitouch trackpad,...)

I want to get an intel X25-M G2 ssd for the computer for 2 reasons:
1. hopefully to get ~30 more minutes out of the battery in windows 7
2. enjoy a snapier computer

Well, that was the story.. now the questions..
1. Will this SSD work with my unibody alloy macbook?
2. Can i install windows 7 only? with no OS X on the drive?
3. I know that the G2 drive supports windows's trim option, will it be working on the macbook running windows 7?

Thanks!
Lior
Click to expand...

It's strange how so many people are buying Macs and wanting to solely have Windows running on them :rolleyes: but.... Anyways the answer to your questing is yes, you can solely have windows 7 running. I have a dedicated Intel SSD for Win7 on my Mac Pro and it runs great. I strongly advise you get one and it will work and fit fine in your Macbook. You won't need to use bootcamp to install Win7 though. You just install the SSD, place the Win7 CD in the laptop boot up from it and then you can install windows as though you would install it on a PC. However, you should buy a USB key and install SL on it since you should always have a SL partition available to install any firmware updates for hardware your computer may require. It's completely doable. Good Luck! :D
 
ildondeigiocchi said:
It's strange how so many people are buying Macs and wanting to solely have Windows running on them :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Apple makes the best computers!!!
Thanks, I'll get the SSD tomorrow but still needs to wait for the Windows 7 to arrive... (my legit copy)
Really looking forward to get rid of the WD 7200 vibrations finally :)
I'll update.
 
Lior.Amsalem said:
Apple makes the best computers!!!
Thanks, I'll get the SSD tomorrow but still needs to wait for the Windows 7 to arrive... (my legit copy)
Really looking forward to get rid of the WD 7200 vibrations finally :)
I'll update.
Click to expand...

You'll lose the noise but you won't be able to make full use of the SSD because because of Apple's EFI BIOS you're stuck on ATA/133 and not AHCI. Currently only Intel chipset MB/MBP can work via AHCI until someone manages to figure out how to enable it on the unibodies which use the Nvidia MCP79 chipset.

The latter part of this monster thread explains why..

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=126089
 
Gav Mack said:
You'll lose the noise but you won't be able to make full use of the SSD because because of Apple's EFI BIOS you're stuck on ATA/133 and not AHCI. Currently only Intel chipset MB/MBP can work via AHCI until someone manages to figure out how to enable it on the unibodies which use the Nvidia MCP79 chipset.

The latter part of this monster thread explains why..

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=126089
Click to expand...

i have mine using AHCI by patching Win7 MBR with gugucom's method. He has a thread on how to do so. People have been successful in installing AHCI on their MBP. Even if he is unable to install AHCI which for a macbook is not a must... the ssd runs great even in ATA 133. Bootup will be 15 seconds or less. To the OP, get the SSD, trust me you'll love it. ;)
 
ok, got the ssd...
I still got few more questions
what drivers will i use? still use the OS X cd and install bootcamp?
and another one, will the trim option will be supported? the X25-m g2 supports it. but will the windows be able to identify and use it?
 
Lior.Amsalem said:
ok, got the ssd...
I still got few more questions
what drivers will i use? still use the OS X cd and install bootcamp?
and another one, will the trim option will be supported? the X25-m g2 supports it. but will the windows be able to identify and use it?
Click to expand...

No need to install bootcamp. The following are the steps you must take.

1. Remove old HDD from laptop and replace it with the SSD inside.

2. Start up the laptop with the Win7 CD inserted. (By holding down the C key on the keyboard you will allow the system to boot from the Win7 CD)

3. Install Windows 7. Select the write partition to install it on and make sure to partition it during windows installer. Just hit FORMAT after having selected a drive to install it on.

4. Once the install of 7 completes, eject the Win7 CD manually via my computer. Right click on the optical drive and hit eject.

5. Load your SL disk. It will install the Bootcamp drivers even though you aren't using Bootcamp. These are the only drivers you'll need. Of course you can later update the NVIDIA drivers of your laptop from their website.

6. Enjoy Win7.

7. You should later install the latest firmware update of your SSD which will improve performance. I'll upload the link for how to do it. Link: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/829726/


Windows will recognize the drive immediately during the installation process. You'll simply have to format it during install. Good luck. :D
 
I think I'll do the SSD update before installing windows 7 into it..
I understand the issue with using the SL cd for drivers.
my question was about the TRIM option and whether windows 7 will be able to use it even if the SATA controller is running in IDE compatibility mode and not AHCI.
 
Yes, the Intel SSD should autmotically trim as long as you have the Microsoft Win 7 drivers installed (which should install along with Win 7). You can also run the Intel SSD Toolbox optimizer to manually trim, but you don't really need to. (I have Intel drivers installed on my PC with Intel SSD and so I need to manually trim using the toolbox). Although, in the beginning sometimes the Intel SSD may not start automatically trimming until a large file gets deleted. If this is the case, you can help kickstart this process by simply deleting a large file (5-10 GB). The other nice thing of having the Intel SSD toolbox is you can run analyzers that tell you more information about what's happening with your SSD (e.g. how much as been written to it in its life).

As for IDE, your Intel SSD will run fine in this mode, just not quite as fast as with AHCI enabled. There's maybe a performance difference of between 5-10 %. Still faster than any mechanical HDD.
 
It's great!
First post from my "WinMac"
I love it!
I'm not going to fight for the AHCI mode for 10% performance as long as trim works in IDE mode...
Battery shows almost 3 hours in full charge so it's not an issue also.
Thanks for the help!
 
Lior.Amsalem said:
It's great!
First post from my "WinMac"
I love it!
I'm not going to fight for the AHCI mode for 10% performance as long as trim works in IDE mode...
Battery shows almost 3 hours in full charge so it's not an issue also.
Thanks for the help!
Click to expand...

Congrats on your reverse Hackintosh. :)
 
Hi all,
Few updates on my Windows On MacBook unibody.
Had a problem with external monitor, when windows turns off the monitor (after the period you select under power plan options) you can't turn it on again no matter if you're pressing the keyboard/moving the mouse and even the laptop's screen can't be turned on. (but MacBook is still on)
The laptop's screen was not turning off when I slide the brightness all the way down.
Both fixed when updating to Nvidia's newest drivers.

Hope it helps anyone.
 
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