I just got a Mac Book Pro at work. A coworker and I are evaluating and comparing virtual machines versus native installs of Windows. Beside the utter feeling of shame for jamming Windows on to my nice new pristine Mac, here are my findings from making Boot Camp work.
At the time of this documentation, Boot Camp is in Beta at version 1.3, is freely available for download, and is targeted to be released with the next version of OSX. Though the installation and use of Boot Camp is fairly straight forward, this technique would only be recommended for users requiring the use of a windows operating system running natively for use in
such tasks as video editing, heavy data analysis and computation tasks.
Overview of Process
What Boot Camp Does.
Boot Camp allows a user to easily, and non-destructively repartition their hard drive to make space to install additional operating systems such as windows, or Linux. It also provides drivers to be burned to disk, or written to a folder on a hard drive to be installed in your Windows Operating system so it can recognize the Mac hardware properly.
Installing Boot Camp
After downloading Boot Camp from the Apple site, you install it by running the install Boot Camp Assistant package. This setup will prepare your Mac for use with Boot Camp. After installation you will need to run the Boot Camp Assistant that is installed under applications\utilities.
Boot Camp Assistant
The Boot Camp assistant serves several purposes. The first time you run it, it will remind the user that the software is in Beta and is for temporary use. It will also provide you with the opportunity to print the Boot Camp Installation Manual, which is highly recommended.
The assistant will also prompt the user to burn a CD of drivers which will be used in the Windows operating system. This step can be skipped if you already have the drivers burned to CD, or if you do not have blank media at the time.
The user then is presented with a screen with which they decide how much space on the hard drive to make available to your secondary operating system. The default setting is 5gigs. There are options for predefined amounts such as 32 gigs, or an even split of available free space between Mac and Other. The user can also specify a custom amount of drive space to use.
Once your selection is made, the assistant non-destructively reparations the space, or in Boot Camp terms, resizes the Mac’s drive size to make room for another operating system.
When done, the assistant prompts for the install CD/DVD for the new OS to be inserted, or to return to the finder.
If the user chooses to install another OS at that time, the machine reboots and installation of the operating system (Windows XP, Vista, etc) takes place the same as installing the operating system on any PC.
Other uses for the Boot Camp Assistant
Once you have run the assistant, you can return to it to burn a copy of the driver CD if you did not do so earlier, or if you misplaced your driver CD. You can also start the windows installer, if you chose not to start it when initially running the assistant. Or you can use the assistant to return your hard drive to it’s original state, erasing the secondary partition.
Dual Booting
Choosing the next OS to run
Once you have run the assistant and installed your desired operating system, it is best to install the drivers that you burned. Beside installing drivers for the hardware in your mac, they will also provide a control panel option that will allow you to choose which operating system will boot the next time you start the machine. This also seems to set the default operating system to run when turning on the computer.
Choosing the OS at start up
When you turn on the machine, you can also choose the desired OS by holding the option key. The user will be presented with graphical representations of available operating systems. Simply click on the icon of the drive representing the desired OS and click the arrow that appears bellow it.
Analysis
Boot Camp is free for Operating systems and Macs that meet the requirements making it an attractive option for users to run multiple operating systems on their Mac.
The install process is simple, if you follow the directions.
I attempted many different scenarios for installing both Vista Business and XP Pro. Using XP partition tools, may result in an inability to boot the computer to any operating system. The OSX setup disks were able to repair this issue, but it is not a guarantee that they would be able to overcome this mistake in every iteration.
Installing XP, then Vista as a dual boot in the windows environment (in reality triple boot) appeared to work until trying to boot Windows XP. With my experience with dual booting PCs with Windows OS, I believe that to be an issue with the Vista installer, but I did not spend time diagnosing the problem.
The simple solution was to go back into Mac OSX and restore the drive to original state and install Vista on it’s own. Then using VirtualPC 2007, which is freely available from Microsoft, I installed Windows XP Pro as a virtual machine in Vista.
Using Boot Camp differs from virtualization using Parallels or VMware Fusion, in that if you want to use the other operating system, you need to restart the computer.
In Mac OSX, the partition in which Windows is installed appears as a second hard drive. In Windows, the Mac drive can be found using Disk Management tools, but it did not appear that I would be able to mount it without causing damage to the Mac partition. I did not attempt connect to the drive out of fear of needing to rebuild the Mac.
Viability
Dual booting the Mac using Boot Camp is a viable solution to running multiple operating systems. It provides you the full power of the hardware to your operating system, and is relatively simple to set up.
Efficiency
Clearly, needing to reboot your machine to complete a simple task in Windows is not very efficient, unless you need the full power of your hardware.
Recommendation
From my experiences, and the results from my coworker experimenting with Parallels, Boot Camp is not recommended for the general computer user. If you need to share files between the operating systems, and need access to a few tools in Windows, while working in OSX, Parallels, or another virtualization tool is by far the better solution.
If you have need for Windows to run natively, for full power, Boot Camp will work well for you.
Other Options
VMware is developing a virtualization tool to run in Mac OS called Fusion. At this time, it can be preordered for $40, and when released will be similarly priced as Parallels.
A third option to virtualization I discovered in this process is a product called Q (http://www.kju-app.org/kju/) which offers a free virtualization environment, which is currently in Beta. I have not yet personally evaluated either of these solutions, but will look forward to working with Q at some point to see if it will work.
UPDATE: IT appears that because Windows and Mac handle time differently, my Mac is unable to keep the correct time. From what I have found the solutions are varied, the best sounding though is to get rid of windows. ;-P I found a lot of info here. That confirmed that the reason my clock was reseting to show an AM hour and correct minutes was due to Boot Camp and Windows use.
4 Comments
Ahh, a post I can really comment on. I definitely agree with your assessment of Boot Camp, but what makes it really shine is when it is coupled with Parallels. Parallels has the ability to run directly off of your Boot Camp partition. This means a single installation of Windows rather than 2 which also means you can work on the same files and programs without having to maintain two Windows operating systems. Hell, maintaining one was why I switched to the Mac as my primary machine.
While I prefer virtuallization for 99% of my Windows needs on the Mac, the 1% I need it for is gaming and other infrequently used, but critical, applications that do not lend themselves as well to virtualization. Although the latest version of Parallels does have the ability to access the video card for 3D rendering. I haven’t upgraded because I rarely game on the PC anymore and when I do it will be for an extended period and I don’t mind the dual boot.
However Apple has said all along that Boot Camp is a beta release and will be much more integrated into Leopard so a lot of the technical difficulties for the everyday user may be eliminated.
Virtualization and dual-booting are two distinct solutions aimed at two markets. Apple has positioned Boot Camp as a safety net for the everyday consumer who would like to buy a Mac but are wary of leaving their familiar Windows environment. Assuming they are mostly an Internet and Email user they should like the Mac a lot more as it has more “fun” features and will stay in the Mac OS more often especially since rebooting can be a pain.
Virtualization serves the more technology savvy. The person who would love to buy a Mac but needs a full version of Outlook (Entourage is terrible but we’ll see what 2008 brings) or in my case needs to be able to test on multiple platforms. This is the group of people who will never give up Microsoft because its critical to their jobs in some way. Their current computer might be a Mac, but they could just as see them purchasing a Lenovo Thinkpad as their next machine. They are not as valuable to Apple as locking in a new rabid Mac fan, but are still valuable and they see a big boost with the virtualization software. They have wisely kept out of the virtualization market and left that up to outside developers.
With products like Parallels and VM Ware I can use the Mac OS as my main machine. A nice GUI interface and a BASH shell to fire up whenever I need; but be able to boot up XP, Linux, or Vista as needed without a reboot is absolutely wonderful.
If someone is not already sold on Virtualization, I recommend Boot Camp first. Its free and it gets the job done. You can add Parallels on later and have it really shine.
The one big drawback to this is the issue with XP’s activation. Loading Windows XP and installing Parallels prompted me to reactivate Windows XP via telephone. Given that I own Windows XP this wasn’t an issue, but the Indian gentleman I spoke to was unfamiliar with Parallels and Boot Camp, but after some explaining gave me the activation code to get rid of the “Genuine Microsoft Advantage” prompt. The next time I booted up, in Boot Camp, it tripped it again. DRM getting in the way of the consumer again. Fortuntately 2 seconds on Google found out how to deactivate it permanently, something I should have done in the first place but wanted to “do the right thing” if at all possible.
Dave, thanks for the great insight! I agree, for the most part virtual machines are the ideal solution. I think if the Mac were my personal mac, I would run Boot Camp for games and maybe video editing. But realistically I think I would find software that does what I need in OSX, as it seems to be such a great environment to work in.
Thanks, you posted while I’ve been on a technology kick again. And I think I set a record for the longest comment on your blog. I picked up the Elgato 250 which has turned my iMac into my own PVR that syncs all my shows to my iPod automatically. I watched the Daily Show, Robot Chicken, and part of Jericho on my way to work today. Star Trek Voyager is on deck for the trip home. This makes the train very much enjoyable now.
Video editing is best on a Mac anyway. There is iMovie or Quicktime Pro for simple edits, Final Cut Express for mid range, and Final Cut Pro for the real high end stuff.
It’s certainly the longest comment to date. But it was great info. Further proof that these investigations we do should be made publicly available.
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