Windows 7 on a Mac

[tagnut]

So, I'm thinking of running Windows 7 on my Imac to hopefully make life a bit easier. Anyone got any recommendations on the best approach? I'm thinking VM and have done a trial run with a free program called VirtualBox which seems to work ok. Any other recommendations? I'd like to be able to easily switch between the two operating systems rather than re-boot

I know that I need AV and internet security for the windows machine. Anything else I need to consider? Disk partitions? additional logical drives?

Windows use will primarily be MS office and accounting package (Sage)

I'm running a 24" Imac, 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 3GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM with Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.6. 250Gb hard drive with 120Gb free space

Cheers,

 

[Funnyjeff]

Hi Tagnut......try bootcamp.

 

[Swozza]

bootcamp +1

All my Apple machines run windows 7 perfectly using bootcamp. I use windows for gaming.

 

[Spinal]

If you need the full power of the machine, dual-boot is the way forwards....

That said, it looks like you're a reasonably light user... in which case VirtualBox (or any of the VM suites, like vmware) will do the trick quite well...

Only think I would do is set up a folder in OsX as a "shared" folder (mounts into your VM) so you can copy files in and out easily... Next, I would get OsX to backup that folder (time machine?) and keep everything you cannot re-install in that folder.

Finally, take a snapshot of the machine... and put that on a HD somewhere. That way if anything happens, reverting to your snapshot is a matter of copying the file back over and running it...

M.

 

[tagnut]

Thanks for the replies guys. Yes I'm a fairly light user and would prefer to be able to switch between operating systems easily so a VM is probably the best bet. I'll go with Virtual Box to start with and see how I get on.

Good comments on the backup procedures Spinal. I was planning to get Time Capsule and start using Time Machine as my backups have all been pretty ad hoc to date. I haven't been too worried as I have a separate laptop and tend to copy stuff across all the time but if all latest versions of everything will be done on one machine then it makes sense to have a proper backup system in place.

 

[Spinal]

Oh, and if you're looking for a better backup method (than time machine - which isn't really a backup as if your house burns down... or is indeed burgled, you lose both your laptop and your "backup") have a look at Mozy.

Online backups, reasonably cheap, and works with OsX/Win... I would actually use them in addition to time machine, but that's paranoid me

M

 

[proser]

I currently have this setup on my MBP.

I run parallels for the VM side of things.

firstly I done a clean install of Win7 on my old windows machine, installed the apps I needed (at the time) Office and Sage. Installed Parallels on the mac and the connection agent on the PC. connected both together with a crossover network cable and started up Parallels and follwed the instructions to image the PC over.

Took just over a couple of hours to do.

Parallels with automatically mount your 'home' area on the mac side, as a network drive. This is where all my Sage backups are saved to, as then they get backed up with Timemachine.

Also on the dock I have a Win7 Apps tab that is the same as the start menu with in Win7. This means that clicking on Sage, it starts win7 and then launches sage all in one.

Printers on the mac will also be visible to print from the win7.

Regarding backups - I use time machine with a 1TB external portable drive

 

[crockers]

bootcamp +1

All my Apple machines run windows 7 perfectly using bootcamp. I use windows for gambling.

Thought I would correct that for you..

 

[spinaltap]

I use VirtualBox - and CrossOverMac Pro - but over at MacUpdate there's a bundle offer including Parallels for around £30.

Even if you don't want the rest of it, the asking price is worth it for TechToolPro 5 alone...

https://www.mupromo.com/?ref=9437

 

[tagnut]

Thanks for the tips guys, I am using VirtualBox at the moment and it works fine although a tad slow. I have 3GB of RAM in my Imac and have only allocated 1GB to the VM so I'll up that a bit and see how I get on.

Thanks for the link spinaltap. Looks like a very good offer

 

[brucemillar]

I run Virtual Box on my MacBook. One issue. VB does not let you use bluetooth as the MAC grabs the port. So if you want to use any windows bluetooth apps you may well have an issue.

Bruce

 

[tagnut]

I run Virtual Box on my MacBook. One issue. VB does not let you use bluetooth as the MAC grabs the port. So if you want to use any windows bluetooth apps you may well have an issue.

Bruce

Cheers Bruce,

Not an issue at the moment but will bear it in mind

 

[spinaltap]

I run Virtual Box on my MacBook. One issue. VB does not let you use bluetooth as the MAC grabs the port. So if you want to use any windows bluetooth apps you may well have an issue.

That's not my experience. I use an Apple Magic Trackpad (bluetooth), and any of the Windows apps I use within VirtualBox do not have any problem in my using bluetooth.

 

[removed]

VirtualBox is certainly an excellent choice. I've been using it for a few years in Linux to run WinXP, then when I [gradually] switched from Linux to Mac, I just took the virtual machines from Ubuntu and Fedora to OSX and was up and running in a couple of minutes. However, I never allowed WinXP any internet connection, as it was only running Photoshop, Acrobat Pro and CorelDRAW in Linux and down to just CorelDRAW now, that I have CS5 in OSX, so can't comment on antivirus etc side of things. VirtualBox will also quite happily run you multiple VMs at the same time - I often have couple of Linuxes and Windows.. OT: miss the cube in Mac

As far as backups are concerned - good advice been given above, plus I use rsync to make sure my MBAir11 stays in perfect sync with my main MBP17, that includes VMs. I also use Carbon Copy Cloner to keep on- and off-site backups AND clones of my main drives.

 

[brucemillar]

Spinaltap

I checked and you are absolutely correct. Bluetooth is now fully functional in Sun/Oracle Virtual Box. I gave up attempting to use it when I could not get it working on earlier versions. Upgraded last night and it is fixed. Apologies for causing any confusion.

Bruce

 

[spinaltap]

For the record, I recently trialled Fusion and Parallels alongside my existing copy of VirtualBox. My conclusion was that no discernible feature of either Fusion or Parallels was worth switching from VirtualBox.