Windows On a MBP Solution for A Research Student, Please Help Me!

[skyrider007]

Hi

I've been forced by university to use several statistics softwares which are not available on the Mac platform. So I have no choice but to install Windows on my MBP. The questions are as follow:

1.Will the following version of Vista work on my MBP (specs in sig):
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium OEM/OEI DSP - 32-bit Edition (PC DVD)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000MFDJ1A

2. Does the 64-bit version work with BootCamp? Which version should I buy?

3. Is it okay to buy the OEM version and not the full super expensive version?

4. Is Amazon.co.uk the cheapest place to buy Vista in the UK?

5. Do I need Pararell or VMware Fusion?

6. Does using BootCamp slow down Mac OS X and Boot up/shut-down time etc.?

7. How many GIGs do I need to allocate to Windows partition? I only have 95GB left on my MBP.

Any other recommendation or suggestion is highly welcomed and will be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

xx

 

[KingYaba]

Whether you Bootcamp or virtualize is merely preference. Your Macbook Pro can handle both. Should you decide to partition the hard drive, you can always open the Bootcamp utility and merge in case you need to re do it. I would suggest a 10-15GB partition.

Bootcamp comes with Leopard so your only cost is the operating system + specific software. I like Vmware Fusion and hate having to restart every time I need to access a certain XP application so I use the virtualization method.

 

[bigandy]

Note, I'm using your numbering

1. Yes.
2. OEM = Grey area/depends on who you talk to/etc. Make up your own mind.
2. Yeah, but no point.
3. No, but legally, probably yes.
4. Technically no, but if you have one (I'd recommend VMWare - less bells and whistles, far faster imo), you can run windows while in MacOS too.
5. It seems to for some people, but not much.

I'd highly recommend staying with XP. Vista is just, in my experience of it (and I have to use it daily), crap.

The ideal solution in your situation is Bootcamp + XP, with VMWare for playing about with Windows when you need it for 2secs whilst in Mac OS - meaning you don't have to keep rebooting all the frikkin time.

Maybe even try VMWare + XP without the bootcamp start too - you may not even need to go all the way to dual booting if you're not playing games...

 

[MacBookJoePro]

I'll also agree to just use bootcamp with XP. Vista just takes up too much memory and CPU. I run matlab in xp under parallels and it seems to hold up just fine... I do have 4GB of RAM which I do highly recommend. I also run other Engineering software that are sadly only available one XP and not OSX.

-JoE

 

[nikhsub1]

I'd highly recommend staying with XP. Vista is just, in my experience of it (and I have to use it daily), crap.

The ideal solution in your situation is Bootcamp + XP, with VMWare for playing about with Windows when you need it for 2secs whilst in Mac OS - meaning you don't have to keep rebooting all the frikkin time.

Maybe even try VMWare + XP without the bootcamp start too - you may not even need to go all the way to dual booting if you're not playing games...

Totally agree. I had vista on my MBP and wiped it in favor of XP... I use bootcamp with XP, it only needs a 6GB partition if you are not installing much... I also have VMware so that I can run XP and OS X at the same time or I can boot to XP for games Works like a charm.

 

[quixotic]

I'll also agree to just use bootcamp with XP. Vista just takes up too much memory and CPU. I run matlab in xp under parallels and it seems to hold up just fine... I do have 4GB of RAM which I do highly recommend. I also run other Engineering software that are sadly only available one XP and not OSX.

-JoE

I third that. XP is the way to go. I still occasionally do some engineering work, and I'd be willing to bet that none of your software lists Vista as a requirement.

 

[philgilder]

1.Will the following version of Vista work on my MBP (specs in sig):
yes, fine

2. not sure, only on mac pros - im sure 32 bit will be fine

3. i did works fine

4. erm they change, i use amazon.co.uk, dabs.com, ebuyer.com or scan.co.uk

5. unless you want to run windows and osx at the same time, no

6. yes and no - it will if loading windows as you have to hold the option key until the list of boot sources appears, but with osx you wont notice a difference

7. 95gb is plenty, i used 15gb with vista and office 2007

 

[skyrider007]

Thank you all for your inputs.

One more question, will Vista 32-bit recognise 4GB of RAM when running under BootCamp?

 

[bigandy]

One more question, will Vista 32-bit recognise 4GB of RAM when running under BootCamp?

unsure. XP won't, it can only address 3gb anyway. i'd have thought vista would, but i haven't heard anything saying yes or no to that matter.

do you really need all that ram visible in windows anyway, or do you just want all of it to be visible?

 

[skyrider007]

unsure. XP won't, it can only address 3gb anyway. i'd have thought vista would, but i haven't heard anything saying yes or no to that matter.

do you really need all that ram visible in windows anyway, or do you just want all of it to be visible?

i'm just being geeky, lol. the apps i'll run under vista probably won't even need more than 2GB. could you please just tell me if doing the following will be okay for my MBP:

1. Install Vista 32-bit via BootCamp
2. NTFS format (20 GB) I currently have 95GB available on Macintosh HD
3. Install VMWare Fusion on Leopard

Cheers

 

[nikhsub1]

One more question, will Vista 32-bit recognise 4GB of RAM when running under BootCamp?

Nope... 32bit OSes can only address a maximum of 4GB INCLUDING video RAM etc etc. At most you will see 3.5Ghz.

 

[skyrider007]

Nope... 32bit OSes can only address a maximum of 4GB INCLUDING video RAM etc etc. At most you will see 3.5Ghz.

Thanks. Do you use VMWare or Parallels?

 

[nikhsub1]

Thanks. Do you use VMWare or Parallels?

I use bootcamp and vmware... vmware works very well IMO but I have not used parallels so I can not say how they compare...

 

[skyrider007]

I use bootcamp and vmware... vmware works very well IMO but I have not used parallels so I can not say how they compare...

Since we have a similar MBP spec, may I ask does installing Windows slow your MBP down at all? How many gigs did u partition for windows?

 

[nikhsub1]

Since we have a similar MBP spec, may I ask does installing Windows slow your MBP down at all? How many gigs did u partition for windows?

No. It can't, it is a separate partition... has nothing to do with speed of the machine. This time I gave it 30GB but I have done it with as few as 6GB depending on what you need to install into windows.

 

[jahala]

Engineering with a Macbook

I had the same problem as the OP. I had to run windows for certain engineering programs. My solution was to use only VMWare Fusion and Windows XP. 8 GB virtual for windows and allocate 512 MB RAM for XP. If your programs require a lot of RAM, you can allocate more, but bootcamp might be more appropriate depending on how much RAM they need.

I enabled shared folders in VMware and stored all data on the OS X partition. I never had to reboot to access anything and I did not even have to fire up Windows if I wanted to send files to someone. I found this setup to be hugely convenient because I personally am far more productive using Apple's programs for communication and planning. I also liked being able to drag and drop, copy and paste between OS.

I hope this helps.

 

[MacBookJoePro]

I enabled shared folders in VMware and stored all data on the OS X partition. I never had to reboot to access anything and I did not even have to fire up Windows if I wanted to send files to someone. I found this setup to be hugely convenient because I personally am far more productive using Apple's programs for communication and planning. I also liked being able to drag and drop, copy and paste between OS.

I hope this helps.

How does VMware handle running things directly off the OS X partition. When I use parallels and open or run files off the OS X partition it slows down exponentially. I usually just save everything in windows and then drag and drop to OS X when I have finished whatever I was doing. Just curious if there was a decrease in file access in your windows program.

-JoE

 

[aiterum]

Since we have a similar MBP spec, may I ask does installing Windows slow your MBP down at all? How many gigs did u partition for windows?

I've heard that XP needs about 5GB of free space to run efficiently (although I am not sure whether this is in fact truth or not. I would assume it's something around this, give or take a gigabyte or two). If don't need it for more than a few programs, and don't plan on having any files that are over 4GB (such as .isos and such) you should be fine with making it something small like 20 or so, and then you can format the drive to FAT32. If you are going over 32gb for your partition, then you absolutely should do it NTFS.

No. It can't, it is a separate partition... has nothing to do with speed of the machine. This time I gave it 30GB but I have done it with as few as 6GB depending on what you need to install into windows.

Yeah this. Your computer will only read the partition that the operating system is on. Items located on another partition will not affect the performance of anything this running on the curernt partition (processes from the windows side will not effect your OSX install, and vice versa)