Dual booting snow leopard and windows 7 in MacBook

[iamgenius]

Hello folks. I bought an apple MacBook for a friend and I want to install windows 7 for him so that he can dual boot. I used Parted magic to partition the 750GB drive into multiple partitions so that I can install 7. When I booted into the windows 64-bit ultimate cd;, things were okay except that when I select the partition to install windows in, it tells me windows can't be installed in this disk because it is of the GPT type. I did searched a little and found that windows has limited support for GPT but also found that windows 7 64-bit should be able to boot from a GPT disk if I have an EFI-based system.

Now, that's the thing. How do I know for sure that I have an EFI-based system? If EFI is a BIOS replacement, then I can say that I have no sign of it in this macbook. There is no POST, no sign of the usual message: press XX key to enter the setup menu. It should be an EFI-based system, right?

So, if that's true, how do I go about installing 7 and bypass the above error message?

Thanks.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Are you using Boot Camp?

 

[iamgenius]

>>>>Are you using Boot Camp?



I didn't know about it originally but when I tried to use it, it gave me this error message: Boot Camp assistance cannot be used. You must update your system software in order to be able to use it.

I went to apple.com to download updates but i wasn't really successful. Then, I found that I can do automatic updates just like windows updates. I'm now updating. It is about 1.5 GB worth of files, and will take a long time with my slow connection. The thing is that I saw many people say that even after they download the updates, boot camp refuses to work.

Is it just straight forward? will me partitioning the disk using Gparted magic affect anything?


Thanks.

 

[TheStu]

Don't take this the wrong way... but have you googled at all?

A: You should have used BootCamp Assistant (and you still can) to partition the drive.
B: Your googling would have also told you that EVERY intel Mac has EFI.

Ok, so I am going to assume that you can reboot the system into OS X if you hold ALT and select it from the boot menu.

IF that is the case, then in OS X, go to Applications/Utilities and then open Disk Utility.
Select the drive from the sidebar, and in this case you want the drive itself, not the partitions (they are in a hierarchy). Select the drive and then over on the right side of the window, there should be a tab labelled 'Partition'. In there, select the Windows partition that you created and then hit the minus sign under it. Then just drag the rest of the Snow Leopard partition down to fill the gap.

Let the system chew on that for a bit and then hit quit Disk Utility.

Now from the Utilities folder open up Boot Camp Assistant and go through its process.

Drop the Windows 7 disk into the drive and restart the system.

Then you will need to reformat the new partition before you can install 7 onto it. Also, is this a brand new MacBook or an older one?

 

[Pardus]

Mac's do not dual boot, waste of time. Install VMWare and run every window's os at the same time, share files and so much more.

I got win7 and winxp running at the same time on my mac. Works great.

 

[iamgenius]

Don't take this the wrong way... but have you googled at all?

A: You should have used BootCamp Assistant (and you still can) to partition the drive.
B: Your googling would have also told you that EVERY intel Mac has EFI.

Ok, so I am going to assume that you can reboot the system into OS X if you hold ALT and select it from the boot menu.

IF that is the case, then in OS X, go to Applications/Utilities and then open Disk Utility.
Select the drive from the sidebar, and in this case you want the drive itself, not the partitions (they are in a hierarchy). Select the drive and then over on the right side of the window, there should be a tab labelled 'Partition'. In there, select the Windows partition that you created and then hit the minus sign under it. Then just drag the rest of the Snow Leopard partition down to fill the gap.

Let the system chew on that for a bit and then hit quit Disk Utility.

Now from the Utilities folder open up Boot Camp Assistant and go through its process.

Drop the Windows 7 disk into the drive and restart the system.

Then you will need to reformat the new partition before you can install 7 onto it. Also, is this a brand new MacBook or an older one?

Who wouldn't google in these kinda of situations? Anyways, I was told about boot camp and tried to use it but it didn't work like I said in my previous post. It told me it needs some software updates. And like I said above, some people in some websites said it didn't work even after they did the updates. It happened to be true!! I ran the the software updates program and selected the updates that will most likely affect the program. After almost 10 hours of downloading and installing with my current slow connection, I ran the boot camp again and it went one more step, but then gave the same error message. Although the second step had to do with downloading some software to make windows support boot camp I think, it still didn't work and said some software need to be updated.

So, I ran the update program again, and chose almost all updates and will try again and see.

 

[iamgenius]

Mac's do not dual boot, waste of time. Install VMWare and run every window's os at the same time, share files and so much more.

I got win7 and winxp running at the same time on my mac. Works great.

Why waste of time? Friend wants to try the beauty of macs, but till he gets familiar, he needs windows there.

 

[TheStu]

Why waste of time? Friend wants to try the beauty of macs, but till he gets familiar, he needs windows there.

In that case, VMWare is the better choice. It forces him to spend most of his time in OS X, but if he needs a piece of software from Windows he can just launch the VM without having to reboot.

Unless the software in question is games in which case, dual boot.

 

[Spicedaddy]

Who wouldn't google in these kinda of situations? Anyways, I was told about boot camp and tried to use it but it didn't work like I said in my previous post. It told me it needs some software updates. And like I said above, some people in some websites said it didn't work even after they did the updates. It happened to be true!! I ran the the software updates program and selected the updates that will most likely affect the program. After almost 10 hours of downloading and installing with my current slow connection, I ran the boot camp again and it went one more step, but then gave the same error message. Although the second step had to do with downloading some software to make windows support boot camp I think, it still didn't work and said some software need to be updated.

So, I ran the update program again, and chose almost all updates and will try again and see.

Probably because you messed with the HDD using Partition Magic before trying Bootcamp. I'd restore everything and use Bootcamp from the start if you need dual-boot. But unless you play games, just create a VM.

 

[iamgenius]

Okay.............Show me how to create a VM. Is there a guide? I have never done it. Also Can I just use disk utility to restore the disk to how it was?

Thanks.

 

[speg]

Yes, start from scratch. Disk utility should be able to help. Set up boot camp which will help you create a new partition for windows.

 

[iamgenius]

What should I download to run windows on this mac which already has OS X? VM player for windows?????????

 

[Paperlantern]

What should I download to run windows on this mac which already has OS X? VM player for windows?????????

www.virtualbox.org

Free, and will do anything you need. A FEW things that arent as good as VMWare, but for light windows use. It's the way to go. I use it on my Snow Leopard MacBook Air, it is very stable.

 

[TheStu]

What should I download to run windows on this mac which already has OS X? VM player for windows?????????

That's a lot of question marks there Dorothy.

VirtualBox like Paperlantern suggested works, I prefer VMWare, but you can't beat free. And then just use the Windows 7 disk that you were going to use already. In fact, you can even have (at least with VMWare Fusion and Parallels) Windows installed natively (via BootCamp), and still access that installation via VMWare. So if you just need Windows quickly most of the time, but also want a native install, you don't need 2 licenses.

 

[iamgenius]

I'm trying to avoid virtual as much as I can, but it is getting ridiculous. I spent so much on this. I'm getting really angry. After using the Mac OS disk to restore the disk to how it was, boot camp assistance now stops in the windows support software step. after hours of downloading, it gives me the options to either save the support software to cd/dvd or to an external disk. When I chose to burn to a cd/dvd, nothing happens! If I try to save the support software on external disk, it says an error occurred and the software can't be saved. If in the previous step, I chose "I already download the software and saved it" it will go to the partitioning step where I can choose the size of the windows partition. If I proceed, it will try to partition then after few minutes it will tell me partition failed because some files can't be moved!!!!!



I'm pissed of. I'm really frustrated. What on earth is wrong???

 

[wantedSpidy]

are you downloading the windows OS install files for doing the install? Have a DVD ready and then try bootcamp. I can absolutely no issues with bootcamp myself, painless process.

 

[TheStu]

I'm trying to avoid virtual as much as I can, but it is getting ridiculous. I spent so much on this. I'm getting really angry. After using the Mac OS disk to restore the disk to how it was, boot camp assistance now stops in the windows support software step. after hours of downloading, it gives me the options to either save the support software to cd/dvd or to an external disk. When I chose to burn to a cd/dvd, nothing happens! If I try to save the support software on external disk, it says an error occurred and the software can't be saved. If in the previous step, I chose "I already download the software and saved it" it will go to the partitioning step where I can choose the size of the windows partition. If I proceed, it will try to partition then after few minutes it will tell me partition failed because some files can't be moved!!!!!



I'm pissed of. I'm really frustrated. What on earth is wrong???

You said this was a brand new system?

Also, you can partition the drive with Disk utility, but have you tried a 32bit installation disk yet?

 

[iamgenius]

are you downloading the windows OS install files for doing the install? Have a DVD ready and then try bootcamp. I can absolutely no issues with bootcamp myself, painless process.

Windows OS install files? Those are in my windows DVD. What boot camp tries to download is windows support software and after it finishes it doesn't let me save it neither to a CD/DVD nor to an external disk.

Somethings is f**ked up in this machine.

 

[iamgenius]

I tried virtual box and I have some questions. I tried installing Windows xp and the keyboard is supposed to be captured and as you might remember windows need you to press F8 at some point. I pressed but it didn't work, sounds like F keys are not captured?

Also, I installed windows and it was successful, but when I enter my flash drive it is not recognized there. And can I change the settings of the OS? Like increase disk size and RAM and video memory? Lastly, can windows be used in full screen mode? I don't seem to be able to maximize windows in this macbook.

 

[Emulex]

yes;yes;yes;yes you can do everything with parallels and vmware fusion - but play games. it is really poor at that. you need bootcamp to do gaming period.

you can run xp/win7 and osx on your Q6600 there with vmware workstation - you should know the limitations of doing so.

F'keys on the mac are not the default like a pc. they control other things.

btw stick to win7 (32bit) for bootcamp - it works best. make sure you have 10.6.6 latest upgrade. you cannot use anything but a retail win7/technet win7 install. OEM restore dvd's are never going to work in bootcamp. if you can get an oem slic into bootcamp let me know i'll give you $5 lol.

 

[Tyranicus]

I tried virtual box and I have some questions. I tried installing Windows xp and the keyboard is supposed to be captured and as you might remember windows need you to press F8 at some point. I pressed but it didn't work, sounds like F keys are not captured?

Try fn+F8. On a Mac, the function keys default to their special functions. You can get normal functions by holding the fn key.

 

[Paperlantern]

I tried virtual box and I have some questions. I tried installing Windows xp and the keyboard is supposed to be captured and as you might remember windows need you to press F8 at some point. I pressed but it didn't work, sounds like F keys are not captured?

Also, I installed windows and it was successful, but when I enter my flash drive it is not recognized there. And can I change the settings of the OS? Like increase disk size and RAM and video memory? Lastly, can windows be used in full screen mode? I don't seem to be able to maximize windows in this macbook.

Emulex is correct, you need to use basically the Fn key to make the F keys work on a mac. You need to install the virtual box guest additions (similar to VMWare tools) so that you dont need to capture and release the mouse all the time (the mouse will integrate accross both platforms). As far as recognizing USB devices, I believe you need to have the closed source version of VirtualBox in order to enable USB device recognition in guest operating systems.

What i do is mapping drives, OR, if i'm desperate, say the OS im trying to put files into doesnt have an easily usable network connection, like say DOS for example, use a disk browser... the one that comes to mind first is WinMount... there may be a similar program for Mac OS, where you can just mount the VDI image from Virtual box, and browse it like a regular drive, and copy things into and out of it... you could then put whatever files are on the USB disk that wont work, into it that way.