View Full Version : Is Bootcamp good?
nextgenxbox
10-02-2006, 07:31 AM
Eventually I will buy a laptop... probably next year... but since I saw that Macs can run XP also.... I was thinking I'd get a Macbook that way I'd have both OS running.
Is that a good idea? Is it stable? Is it like running a normal XP machine?
Details por favor! :)
nextgenxbox
10-02-2006, 07:33 AM
Argh, sorry didn't see that other thread. :) Feel free to close heh.
unimatrixZxero
10-02-2006, 11:30 AM
I think it works pretty good. It was very easy to install. I installed it for my sister on her black MacBook. She could have done it herself though. Its very user friendly. Works fine as far as I can tell the only thing that is strange is right clicking. I had to read the manual for that one.
Just installed over the weekend and worked perfectly.. May want to actually read the installation notes first instead of just diving right in.
Casework
10-02-2006, 05:34 PM
Definitely want to make sure you read everything carefully, but it's extremely simple. The worst part of the process is just installing XP... not because of Boot Camp, just because the installation of XP is a hassle to begin with. But everything worked flawlessly when I had it installed, but honestly I'd just rather use OS X.
wastern
10-02-2006, 06:34 PM
A note to those with laptops:
Do NOT have an external mouse plugged in during the XP install. It will get confused and stop recognizing your keyboard, mouse and everything. Needless to say it makes the install impossible.
I had to figure that out the hard way.....what a pain
Casework
10-02-2006, 06:57 PM
Yeah, now that you mention it, that is one issue I had. Other than that though, the whole process is pretty smooth.
nextgenxbox
10-02-2006, 09:20 PM
A note to those with laptops:
Do NOT have an external mouse plugged in during the XP install. It will get confused and stop recognizing your keyboard, mouse and everything. Needless to say it makes the install impossible.
I had to figure that out the hard way.....what a pain
Ouch, I can only imagine what a hastle that was! Had to start all over?
wastern
10-02-2006, 09:59 PM
Ouch, I can only imagine what a hastle that was! Had to start all over?
ALMOST!!
here was what happened.
in the past to force the system to boot into OS X you'd hold down the "X" on boot. So i was trying that to get back into OS X, because the system was set to auto boot into windows, and of course I couldn't do anything there, windows wasn't installed
I had tried almost everything and nothing was working, I was about to throw in my OS X disk and clean house.
Then I though I'd read the whole paper that came with BootCamp (or i looked on apple's website). Post Boot Camp to select your boot device you hold down the Option key. Makes sense. So then I was able to get into OS X, do some trouble shooting, not be so scared about losing it all and eventually I pulled out my mouse in a fit of rage and it all worked flawlessly :)
g33k0ft3ch
10-02-2006, 10:28 PM
Well boot camp runs smoothly, it is basically what apple told us it would be. Its windows on a Mac. But it takes XP or any other operating system to the next level. I've never gotten a Error window using it. But if you want it its a pretty huge download, unless you have 2 or more hard drives in your computer, then its ok. But I would say if you want to test it, but Leopard will have it pre-installed so.
My rating of it is a 4 1/2 out of 5
wastern
10-02-2006, 11:42 PM
I should also warn of this. Do not use FAT as your filesystem use NTFS. I had always used NTFS as FAT is crap, but I wanted to be able to write to and from the XP partition while in OS X, that requires FAT...well, here is what happened
Windows is great for gaming indeed :p
http://static.flickr.com/46/135701781_b5631f89e8_o.jpg
after some work It played for a little while though
http://static.flickr.com/45/135701786_482a4ee95f_o.jpg
however due to it being FAT the system crashed all the time it wasn't usable. I never even took it on the internet, Windows just corrupted and killed itself. After about a week or 2 I did this
http://static.flickr.com/45/140264763_92b256c820_o.jpg
I"ve never seen Finder with a bigger smile
Pamich
10-03-2006, 02:33 AM
Use Parallels. You can switch desktops and swap files on the fly, far more convenient than rebooting.
jayeveryday
10-03-2006, 03:09 AM
Use Parallels. You can switch desktops and swap files on the fly, far more convenient than rebooting.
I loved parallels but most Os x users want to game and for that they need to use boot camp
Jonny Trombone
10-04-2006, 02:58 AM
After using both Parallels and Bootcamp, I'd have to say that Bootcamp is far superior. The only reason to use parallels is to show off (swithing desktops between OSX and Windows). It runs poorly and can't handle games- even Baulder's Gate runs poorly in Parallels- and that's for Windows 95!
Honestly, the longer I have a Mac, the less I miss Windows. Even though I have Bootcamp, I rarely use it anymore.