If you’ve recently purchased a Mac, you may
be surprised to know that Apple will actually let you install a separate
partition on your system with Windows 7 as long as your computers is
Intel-based (which should be the majority of you). This means that you can
choose the way you want to boot up your Mac and can switch between Mac OS X
Snow Leopard/OS X Lion and Windows 7. It is a great option for those of you who
need to use certain Windows applications or are PC gamers as you can get that
fix while still keeping your Mac OS for your daily activities.
Step 1
OS
X Lion - Mac OS X 10.6
Make sure you have either Mac OS X v10.7
Lion or Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard installed. You can update Snow Leopard to
Lion through the Mac App Store when you purchase Lion, which currently costs $
29.99.
Keep in mind that you need to be at OS X
10.6.6 as Snow Leopard user before you can upgrade to Lion. If you are a Snow
Leopard user and have been following standard software updates from the Apple
menu, you should be at 10.6.8. You can read about this update here. Lion’s
latest update, as of this writing, is 10.7.4. You can head over here to read
about it and update directly from Apple’s website.
Step 2
Make sure your Boot Camp is up to date,
which means version 4.0 for Lion and 3.2 for Snow Leopard. Boot Camp is an
assistant application, and you can read its manual here on Apple’s website. If
you have Snow Leopard or Lion installed, Boot camp should already be included,
Boot Camp should already be included, but make sure it is up to date. Otherwise
head to Apple’s website to download an update. This is the Boot Camp icon:
Apple lists the features here that make the
latest version of Boot Camp (version 4.0) different from previous versions:
Download
Bootcamp 4.0 Drivers, here's a link on some Apple
Electronic Software Distribution use the
Boot Camp Assistant to create a CD or USB media to install the latest Boot Camp
drivers for your computer. You should get the newest drivers available any time
you install Boot Camp.
Support for the Windows 7 ISO installer
install Windows with an installation disc you provide or, on Mac computers that
do not have an optical drive, with a USB flash drive that contains a Windows 7
ISO image downloaded from Microsoft. The Boot Camp Assistant will offer to
create this image on supported computers.
Upgrade or “clean” install Windows without
using the Boot Camp Assistant If you want only to upgrade the version of Boot
Camp or Windows on your Windows partition, you don’t need to use Boot Camp
Assistant. Instead, choose Help > Help Center in Finder and search for
“upgrade Boot Camp” or “upgrade Windows.”
As you can see, it is a good idea to update
from version 4.0 to take advantage of the great features offered in the latest
version. This is especially true if you have a Mac without an optical drive,
like a Macbook Air, as previous Boot Camp versions support updating from USB
flash drive. You may need to first upgrade to Lion if you have a Mac with an earlier
OS or use an external drive.
Step 3
Find
Boot Camp Assistant under the Finder windows and click on it
Have a Windows 7 Install disc ready. You
can use either 32bit or 64bit, although 64bit is recommended for the best
performance. Alternatively, Boot Camp Assistant helps you burn the ISO image to
a USB flash drive if you have Lion installed. You can find not which Macs are
compatible with the 64 bit version of Windows 7 from Apple here. Apple also
mentions the versions of Windows 7 you will need if you want to install a 64bit
OS:
“computers with Mac OS X v10.6 or later
work with 32-bit versions of Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7
Professional, or Windows 7 Ultimate. The only 64 bit version of Windows
supported on these computers is 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7
Professional, or Windows 7 Ultimate.”
Step 4
Boot
Camp Assistant
Go to the Boot Camp Assistant and start the
installation process. To do this from Snow Leopard, click on applications from
de Dock. Then click on utilities, it should be located toward the middle of the
second row from the top. From Lion you can go to utilities directly from
Launchpad. From here, go ahead and click on the Boot Camp Assistant.
This is the screen you should see when you
first click on Boot Camp Assistant from the applications – utilities menus:
Step 5
Boot
Camp Assistant
Follow the instructions and download
additional software necessary to support Windows on your Mac. Driver updates
will allow for your Apple peripherals like keyboards, mice and cameras to work
on the Windows partition. Alternatively, you can insert your Mac installation
disc to download these drivers (this may depend on If your Mac came with Lion
or Snow Leopard and the type of Mac you have). Here is how this next screen
should look like:
Step 6
Boot
Camp Assistant
After you’re installed the Windows
compatibility driver software, go ahead and create a Windows partition. You
will be asked if you want to create a Windows partition first. A Windows
partition will allow you choose how much of your hard drive space you want to
devote to Windows vs your Mac’s operating system. You can choose to make it 50%
for each instance, thus divide the partitions. Alternatively, if you don’t plan
on using Windows that frequently, choose a lower number for the Windows
partition. Here is how the Boot Camp Assistant will prompt you to start the
process:
Step 7
Next, you will want to start the installer.
You will be asked to insert the Windows 7 disc or USB drive with the software
and the installation process will start. The menu will be similar to the one
above in step 6. It will appear after you finish selecting the size of your
Windows partition. You can also use a different drive if you have multiple hard
drives or solid-state drives installed inside your Mac. Keep in mind, however,
that external drives cannot be used to host the Windows partition.
Step 8
Restart your Mac and boot it into Windows.
Eventually your Mac will restart and you can start Windows 7 or your
pre-installed Mac OS. If you own Snow Leopard, you can press the Option (Alt)
key on your keyboard to go to a menu where Apple asks which operating system
you want to use. Alternatively, you can use the Startup Disk control panel to
choose your default starting operating system.
When you boot into Windows, you will need
to go through the process of updating drivers and making sure your Apple
peripherals, like mice and keyboard, work correctly.
Conclusion
Being able to choose whether you want to
use Windows or Mac OS X/OS X Lion is what really makes purchasing a Mac such a
great option for anyone looking for a new computer. Apple is said to have
included Boot Camp, along with working closely with Microsoft, just to
demonstrate to how confident the company is in its own operating system and to
show its user base that it is not threatened by Windows. Do not expect
Microsoft to allow users the option of installing a Mac operating system on a
Windows PC, however.
