Despite the fact that Macs are dominant in the graphic design and creative fields, Windows PCs still dominate most enterprises and Microsoft has its Office suite locked down for professional users. This is why if you or your company happen to use Macs, it is a good idea to install Windows 7 on them. This way you can get the best of both worlds.
It may be surprising coming from a Microsoft rival, but Apple will let you install a separate partition on your Mac with Windows 7 and Mac OS X/OS X Lion. All you have to do is own an Intel-based Mac, which should be any modern Mac, and have an up-to-date Mac operating system, like Snow Leopard or Lion, with Boot Camp on it. Boot Camp is assistant installation software that creates the Windows 7 partition for you.
Being able to use both a Mac OS and Windows on a single system is a great option for many reasons. You will be able to reap the full benefit of the creative software suits, from Adobe and Apple for instance, along with more traditional enterprise suites from Microsoft. You will be able to do this without having to take up more office room with multiple hosted systems.
Another benefit is that if you have multiple partitions, and one of them gets malware or goes haywire for some reason, you can still set up your system form the other partition and use it to fix the malfunctioning one.
Macs have many other benefits besides just being useful with creative software. The operating system offers a different experience, especially Lion OS X, which may make it more appealing to novice PC users or those not wanting to search through many file names on a constant basis. Here are the steps you will need to take to install Windows 7 on your Mac:
Step 1 :
Make sure you have either Mac OS X v10.7 Lion or Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard installed for any modern version of Boot Camp -- yes, support of previous Mac operating systems exists with previous Boot Camp versions, but this guide will focus on modern Mac operating systems and Boot Camp versions.
You can update Snow Leopard to Lion through the Mac App Store when you purchase Lion. Keep in mind that you need to be at OS X 10.6.6 as a Snow Leopard user before you can upgrade to Lion. If you are a Snow Leopard user and have been following standard software updates from the Apple menu, you should be at 10.6.8. You can read about this update here directly from Apple's website and update. Lion's latest update, as of this writing, is 10.7.4. You can head over here to read about it and update directly from Apple's website.
Step 2 :
Make sure your Boot Camp is up to date, which means version 4.0 for Lion and 3.2 for Snow Leopard. Boot Camp is an assistant application and you can read the manual on Apple's website. If you have Snow Leopard or Lion installed, Boot Camp should already be included, but make sure it is up to date.
If you have a Mac without an optical drive, like a Macbook Air, make sure you either have an external drive with a Windows 7 disc; or, if you want to update from an ISO image via a USB flash drive, make sure you update form Boot Camp 4.0 and OS X Lion.
Step 3 :
Have a Windows 7 Install disc ready. You can use either 32bit or 64bit, although 64bit is recommended for the best performance. Alternatively, Boot Camp Assistant helps you burn the ISO image to a USB flash drive if you have Lion installed. This is also mentioned in Apple's manual for Boot Camp 4.0 for Lion. Apple also lists the exact Mac models compatible with Windows 7 (64-bit). Apple also mentions the versions of Windows 7 you will need if you want to install a 64bit OS:
“Computers with Mac OS X v10.6 or later work with 32-bit versions of Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional, or Windows 7 Ultimate. The only 64-bit version of Windows supported on these computers is 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional, or Windows 7 Ultimate.”
Step 4 :
Go to the Boot Camp Assistant and start the installation process. In orderto do this from Snow Leopard, you need to click on applications from the Dock. Then click on utilities. It should be located toward the middle of the second row from the top. From Lion you can go to utilities directly from Launchpad. From here, go ahead and click on the Boot Camp Assistant.
Step 5 :
Follow the instructions and download the additional software necessary to support Windows on your Mac. Updates to drivers will allow your Apple peripherals like keyboards, mice and cameras to work on the Windows partition. Alternatively, you can insert your Mac installation disc to download these drivers (this may depend on if your Mac came with Lion or Snow Leopard and the type of Mac you have).
Step 6 :
After you installed the Windows compatibility driver software, go ahead and create a Windows partition. You will be asked if you want to create a Windows partition first. You want to do this. A Windows partition will allow you to choose how much of your hard drive space you want to devote to Windows vs. your Mac's operating system. You can choose to make it 50% for each instance, thus dividing the partitions. Alternatively, if you hardly plan on using Windows, choose a lower number for the Windows partition.
Step 7 :
Next, you want to start the installer. You will be asked to insert the Windows 7 disc or USB drive with the software and then the installation process will start. The menu will be similar to the one above in step 6. It will appear after you finish selecting the size of your Windows partition. You can also use a different drive if you have multiple hard drives or solid-state drives installed inside your Mac. Keep in mind, however, that external drives cannot be used to host the Windows partition, as Apple mentions here.
Step 8 :
Restart your Mac and boot it into Windows. Eventually your Mac will restart and you can start Windows 7 on it or your pre-installed Mac OS. If you own Snow Leopard, you can press the Option (Alt) key on your keyboard to go to a menu where Apple asks you which operating system you want to use. Alternatively, you can use the Startup Disk control panel to choose your default starting operating system.
When you boot into Windows, you will need to go through the process of updating drivers and making sure your Apple peripherals, like mice and keyboards, work correctly.
Conclusion
Macs are becoming more prevalent in the work place of MBS and even larger enterprises. However, despite Microsoft offering some of its software in the form of Office for Mac, there is a lot of software that is still exclusive to Windows that companies rely on. This is why being able to put both operating systems on a single system can be a life saver. Office for Mac includes Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and Word. However, what is missing from the Windows version that you may rely on is OneNote. If you want the best of both worlds, you can with this dual-booting guide.
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Before we start, just take a look @ the OSX86 Project. Here you can find all the information about what we are going to and other important information.
STEPS
1. Download OSx86 10.5.x
Download OSx86 10.5.7 0r OSx86 10.5.6 from your favorite Torrent site. Burn the downloaded “.ISO” file to DVD using any CD/DVD burning tool as a Bootable DVD (I prefer 10.5.6, because it’s work for me)
2. Create a Partition for Mac
Go to Select “command-line” and type . . .
DISKPART> list disk // displays the available HDD
DISKPART> select disk n // select the disk which has windows installation, [where n = the disk number]
DISKPART> list partition // list partitions on the selected disk [you can see available patitions in your hard disk]
DISKPART> create partition primary size=15000 id=af // create a partition as primary with size of 15,000 MB (15 GB)
DISKPART> select disk n // select the disk which has windows installation, [where n = the disk number]
DISKPART> list partition // list partitions on the selected disk [you can see available patitions in your hard disk]
DISKPART> create partition primary size=15000 id=af // create a partition as primary with size of 15,000 MB (15 GB)
DISKPART> list partition // then you can see newly created partition is also here
DISKPART> select partition n // where n is the newly created partition to install MAC OS
DISKPART> active //sets partition active
DISKPART> exit
DISKPART> active //sets partition active
DISKPART> exit
minimum partition size should be more than 8GB
3. Reboot the machine and insert prepared bootable DVD
press any key to boot from DVD
4. Starting Installation
If your system support for the macOS X installation, it should boot from the DVD and it will show the Apple LOGO.
Then be patient to boot from the DVD. BUT, if your system freezes for more than 20 minutes with that Apple LOGO, Reboot and try the following.
Note: You can see count down timer is starting when starting to boot from DVD, before its over, press F8 key and you will be able to have some more option’s. Now type -v and press enter. This will enable you to see any errors if they occur. In case your screen freezes for more than 10 – 15 minutes :( google to find out a solution for your problem.
5. Configuring the Installation
After boot, you will see a Graphical interface. Here you can see a Top Menu Bar, from the menu Click Utilities > Disk Utility.Then, select the destination drive where you want to install Mac OSX which is the partition we have created earlier in step 2.Then click on ERASEon right hand side menu paneThen, for the format option select “MAC OSX Journaled Extended” and click Erase. So, the disk will be erased and mounted.
After boot, you will see a Graphical interface. Here you can see a Top Menu Bar, from the menu Click Utilities > Disk Utility.Then, select the destination drive where you want to install Mac OSX which is the partition we have created earlier in step 2.Then click on ERASEon right hand side menu paneThen, for the format option select “MAC OSX Journaled Extended” and click Erase. So, the disk will be erased and mounted.
Then, Close the disk utility and agree to the terms and conditions
Then select the partition which you erased recently.
6. Customize the Install
The most important part. Here you have to choose the components/patches which support your hardware. So, its better to refer again http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Main. Here you can find the sample hardware examples and compatibilities. If you want, you can use If you have doubts Insanelymac.com also.
Tip: For most of the INTEL based systems Default selected Kernel works very smoothly(do not want to change the Kernel) & for AMD system try Voodoo kernel. Dont add extra Drivers (.KEXTS) which might cause conflicts. It’s better to select only the important thins such as sound drivers, Graphics drivers, USB patches . . . others keep leave.
That means, if You have NVIDIA geforce VGA on your laptop, you should select exactly compatible Driver from the “Graphics” section, DO NOT select all. (if you select all, it might give problems)
After you selected all the relevant patches press Ok.
7. Checking the disk and Installation of System files
Now we are almost done
Now your DVD will be checking for consistency (if you want, just skip it, its not be a problem)
Then, installation begins. It will take more than 20 minutes, according to your machine. After the installation is over, machine will Reboot. Remove the DVD after it has rebooted.
You should be able to automatically boot into OS X at this time.
When you want to boot in to Windows, when the machine boot, press any key, you will see options for selecting the boot disk (if you have windows 7, there will have a partition called System Reseved) that is the partition you should select to boot in to windows.
If you have problems boot in to windows, please try the following step.
8. Setting the Boot Loader
To boot in to Windows 7 or Vista, put in your windows 7 or Vista disk, and boot from it. When installation starts, it will ask for “Start up Recovery”. Do it. Then you can boot in to windows. Then do go to CMD and type
DISKPART> list disk // displays the available HDD
DISKPART> select disk n // select the disk which has windows installation
DISKPART> list partition // list partitions on the selected disk
DISKPART> select partition n // select the partition number where windows was previously installed.
DISKPART> active //sets partition active
DISKPART> exit
REBOOT.
Now your vista /windows 7 should boot, If it doesn’t try this:
Boot with installation disk into windows setup, choose recovery again, and select automated recovery of boot area. Windows should fix the boot automatically, then click Fix and reboot button.
9. Add MAC OS in to the Boot menu
Boot into windows and download EasyBCD (google it).
Open it, click “Add/Remove entries” navigate to “Mac”.
Select Type in the dropdown to “Generic x86 Pc” and give some name in the text box below. This name will appear in your boot screen. Click “SAVE”
REBOOT.
Yeahhh :) :) :) that’s it, enjoy MAC . . .
