Computer Chat Does anyone run Windows exclusively on Apple hardware?

[Quillz]

I was considering doing this on my MacBook. As good as Leopard is, I think that I may prefer Vista overall, I just seem to be more productive on it.

I'm asking this because I want to know the risks. If I deleted all the partitions other than Vista, including the EFI, is it possible to re-install Leopard in the future, including restoring all necessary EFI and partitions?

And this thread is not for debating which OS is better.

[ehjay]

this should help you out a little if you choose to pursue this:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=441108

the short answer is, yes it is possible - but it can get messy down the road. especially concerning firmware updates, etc.

[Quillz]

Hmm... But wouldn't I only need a firmware update if I run Mac OS X?

[Floris]

I would just check how much you can get max for windows, and just dual boot. You can set it to boot into either of the 2 os automatically. If anything goes wrong, you can just go into osx and update firmware and get new drivers, or help upgrade to new OS, etc.

I haven't checked in a while, but since Macs are fully 64bit - does bootcamp support 64bit vista yet? or is the win os still limited to 32bit?

[Casco]

Well vista is compatible with almost every program made thus more options to go with.


but the main reason I would buy a Mac is for Mac OS X, and its stability

both OS's are great but you do have a few more programs you can get with Vista, not to mention almost all PC games are made for... well PC's with Microsoft operating systems.

It all depends on what you want to use it for.

[Floris]

I only run XP in dualboot, to play cs:s, every other game i play in osx or on x360.
And I run xp/vista in parallels and vmware to test various setups without having to constantly reboot.

I am basically switched to osx since a few years now.. and unless osx starts to suck big time, I have no reason to switch back to ubuntu or xp.

[Quillz]

I would just check how much you can get max for windows, and just dual boot. You can set it to boot into either of the 2 os automatically. If anything goes wrong, you can just go into osx and update firmware and get new drivers, or help upgrade to new OS, etc.

I haven't checked in a while, but since Macs are fully 64bit - does bootcamp support 64bit vista yet? or is the win os still limited to 32bit?

Windows XP has had a 64-bit version for several years now. And yes, I believe the Boot Camp 2.0 update provided support for 64-bit installations.

But anyway, I'm still wondering about the firmware updates. Every time they appear, it only seems to be because I use Mac OS X. So it doesn't seem like a big deal, especially as firmware updates have to be downloaded through OS X, anyway.

[Casco]

Vista 64bit runs great. have it running right now

[Floris]

Yes, but those updates could include drivers that are specifically for bootcamp, to help your hardware to perform better, fix a bug, or close a security issue related to it. If you remove the ability to osx and dont do the upgrades/updates, you run the risk of .. keeping those issues. And missing the option in the future to fix it.

At any point you can just replace the HDD and re-install osx completely. So if you can't do it on this hdd, you can just replace the hdd. But you will require bootcamp, since it's not really a windows compliant BIOS, so you will get hardware failure when you try to book a vista dvd and can't run setup.

[Floris]

Vista 64bit runs great. have it running right now

Thank you for confirming this. Maybe it's interesting for me to re-install it with 64bit Vista, so I can use my 5gb ram and get better performance in my games.

[Casco]

Thank you for confirming this. Maybe it's interesting for me to re-install it with 64bit Vista, so I can use my 5gb ram and get better performance in my games.

I have service pack 1 installed with it. I think that fixed it up a bit. But ya its nice to have 4+ GB of ram now. Plus I think there a bunch more drivers with now. the nvidia drivers work quite nice right now for 64bit Vista

[Quillz]

Yes, but those updates could include drivers that are specifically for bootcamp, to help your hardware to perform better, fix a bug, or close a security issue related to it. If you remove the ability to osx and dont do the upgrades/updates, you run the risk of .. keeping those issues. And missing the option in the future to fix it.

At any point you can just replace the HDD and re-install osx completely. So if you can't do it on this hdd, you can just replace the hdd. But you will require bootcamp, since it's not really a windows compliant BIOS, so you will get hardware failure when you try to book a vista dvd and can't run setup.

See, this is what I'm getting confused over. I'm getting conflicting reports. A blog I was reading said that you could totally get rid of the OS X partitions completely and literally only use Windows. And then in the future, if you did want OS X back, you'd just pop in the DVD and it'd recreate the EFI, OS X partitions, etc. Apparently, Vista can work well enough with EFI that you could do a exclusive run of it.

But then there's what you're saying, about it not working properly.

Hmm... I guess I'll probably just make the OS X install as small as possible, then. Just enough for the OS to run and maybe a few extra gigs for apps and what not.

Thanks for the advice, all.

[Floris]

I put the disk in during boot to osx, but I was too quick, and it still booted from the dvd, and it could not continue. I had to hold left mouse button on usb mouse for 12 seconds to make it pop out the dvd so I could go into restore. I am guessing if they say it is possible, that it required trickery to get it to boot properly.