Windows 7 suppperrrr slooow startup?

[Haruhi]

It takes about 5-20 minutes to startup. I have no other programs installed on the OS. Using VMWARE FUSION 3. 2 CPU, 1.5gig ram, only 20 gig left on the hd though. 2.1GHz.
667MHz DDR2 SDRAM memory.

Any help? It's seriously bugging me.

 

[Haruhi]

Cleared another 2 gigs, somehow accidently deleting win 7. Clever me.
Am reinstalling.

 

[balamw]

What are the specs on your Mac, and what are the specs on the VM? If you are giving the VM 2 cores and you only have 2 cores it will not be all that happy.

1.5 GB or RAM (assuming in the VM) is a bit limiting for Windows 7. 2 GB the minimum recommended for 64 bit and ideal recommended for 32 bit.

B

 

[Haruhi]

I understand that ram is a little low, but surely it's not enough to cause that length of time starting up?
The OS itself is very slightly on the slow side (I turned Aero off) but not too bad IMO.
I do not use MAC OS X at the same time. Would giving 1 core actually make it faster than two cores?

I run VMWARE simply cause I know how to use it and like the interface. I run win 7 full screen with no interruption.
That brings me to the question... Would changing VM software do it any good?The last time tried boot camp it just would not partition (not keen on bootcamp either). Parallels might be a bit too integrated for me. Any other choices, and would switching be a good option!

 

[Haruhi]

Update!
I disovered VirtualBox. It seems like a major
possibility; anything will be better than an
10 min startup time.
So I guess I'll go ahead and give it a go
tomorrow!

Meanwhile, any solutions for the VMware trouble? There must be a reason behind it 😀

 

[balamw]

You still didn't answer the question. How much RAM does you Mac have and how much are you allocating to the VM.

For example: If you only have 2 GB of RAM and are allocating 1.5 GB to W7, your startup time is due to OS X being starved of RAM and paging out to the HDD.

B

 

[Haruhi]

^ I have 1.5gig. Suppose it was a bad idea to give ALL my ram to VMWare, but I thought the more the better.

I'm now running Windows 7 on vmware at 832mb ram - it's all going fine.
I tried VirtualBox, but it wasn't quite up to VMware standards, not that I'd expect it to be, but still. I installed it on my parents' xp pc, anyway.

Thanks for telling me!

 

[balamw]

Suppose it was a bad idea to give ALL my ram to VMWare, but I thought the more the better.

😉

Not a bad idea to pick up some more RAM if/when you get a chance if you are going to be using the VM very much. It would be money well spent. You could probably double your RAM by swapping the 0.5GB for a 2GB for ~US$60.

B

 

[Haruhi]

Thinking of doing that in the next six months or so, and perhaps upgrading my HD too. Don't really want a new laptop altogether.

 

[balamw]

Thinking of doing that in the next six months or so, and perhaps upgrading my HD too.

That's another easy and relatively cheap way to extend the life of your Mac!

B