Many individuals have bought an Apple computer, yet still want to use the Windows periodically for the software that isn’t yet available on a mac. Boot Camp is the software that Apple includes with each new Mac that allows you to set up Windows on a Mac computer, provided that you have your own Windows installation disc which is sold separately.
Snow Leopard and Leopard before it include Boot Camp as an option for users that allows them to boot into Windows natively on their Mac computer. Boot Camp is designed to assist users through partitioning their hard disk safely so that it can include both the OS X and Windows operating systems. After a partition is created for Windows, Boot camp will walk a user through the Windows installation process on the Mac. The Snow Leopard DVD includes drivers for Windows so that your Mac hardware runs as expected. It also includes the functionality needed to allow you to quickly boot back into your OS X partition.
Boot Camp divides your current hard disk up between OS X and Windows but the latest versions of Boot Camp make it easy to access the files on both partitions from either Operating system.
The steps below will guide you through quickly setting up Windows on your Mac through Boot Camp:
1. Run Boot Camp in OS X. This application will guide you through the rest of the process.
2. Once you are on Boot Camp, it will ask you how much disk space you going to give to your Windows system. You can use the remaining disk space; you can divide it equally or may choose a particular size depending on your need.
3. Click “Partition.” This will divide your current hard disk to the size you set earlier. All of the files you have on your Mac remain safe and unharmed.
4. Wait until the partition progress is finished. Remember that you can remove the newly added partition in Boot Camp later on as easily as you have added this.
5. Insert the Windows installation disk and restart your Mac. Follow the Windows installation process until you’re booting into Windows natively on your mac.
Installing Windows 7 On a Mac With Boot Camp
If you want to install Windows Vista or Windows 7 then you’ll just need to follow the same steps as above but there are a few additional steps to follow before you get started. . To use Windows 7,you’ll need the Boot camp 3.1 update for windows and v10.6 Snow Leopard of OS X. Window 7 installations are supported by either a new install or an upgrade install. For you to be able to install Window 7, you need to update first your computer’s Mac OS X operating system, Boot ROM, other firmware and software by using Software Update.
If you’re going to install Windows 7 in your computer, you may encounter problems such as a black screen being displayed. You must be aware that the Windows 7 installer does not take into account of necessary graphics or Bluetooth. When a blue screen appears on your iMac computer with NVIDIA GeForce 7300 or 7600 GT, or Mac Pro with NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT or Quadro FX 4500 graphics cards, all you need to do is to improve your graphics card software. The updates included in Boot Camp 3.1 should help with this problem but you may need to boot into Safe Mode and remove the default Windows 7 drivers to install the Boot Camp update.
Once everything is installed and configured you can easily switch between Windows and Mac OS X as you need to. Holding the Option Key while booting will allow you to select which Operating System you’d like to boot into. Enjoy the best of both worlds with a Mac!
