Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Bought a Mac: What a mistake
- Thread starter dmurray14
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
- Status
Recognize, then, that you are in a Beta environment which is non-supported and bad doo-doo can happen.dmurray14 said:
Keep your modifications to an absolute minimum, and I would not permit any windows app to try and control data on any other partition.
If you want to be totally safe, try an external FAT32 formatted device (hard drive or flash drive) as your common file sharing area between the two environments.
Have you considered Parallels instead of Boot Camp+MacDrive?dmurray14 said:
Unless the things you need Windows for are extremely GPU intensive it should fit the bill...
FWIW As C-RAM suggests I have a 300GB FAT32 formatted external on my iMac as "swap" space between OS X and Windows. No need for MacDrive.
B
Guys,
I've considered parallels, but I do want to run native.
As an update, I no longer believe it was MacDrive causing the problem. I've gone through the process of reinstalling windows and macdrive, using the disk utility to check between each change. So far, all looks good. I've even juggled files between the FAT32 partition and HFS+ with macdrive and got no errors. I'm now reinstalling windows with NTFS and doing macdrive again. I figure if I can reproduce this and figure out which exact steps cause the issue, it will benefit everyone trying to do this. One thing I did change though - I used the newest MacDrive, 6.1.3, which is what MediaFour reccomends for use with BootCamp. It's possible that made a difference...
Dan
I've considered parallels, but I do want to run native.
As an update, I no longer believe it was MacDrive causing the problem. I've gone through the process of reinstalling windows and macdrive, using the disk utility to check between each change. So far, all looks good. I've even juggled files between the FAT32 partition and HFS+ with macdrive and got no errors. I'm now reinstalling windows with NTFS and doing macdrive again. I figure if I can reproduce this and figure out which exact steps cause the issue, it will benefit everyone trying to do this. One thing I did change though - I used the newest MacDrive, 6.1.3, which is what MediaFour reccomends for use with BootCamp. It's possible that made a difference...
Dan
Yaaaaah? Maybe you think?dmurray14 said:
You are a braver man than I, dmurray. Good luck with the testing.
Just as an aside... when you say it totally freezes and you hold down the power button, are you at all trying command+option+escape? This is the equivelant of ctrl-alt-del on a PC, a little window appears and unresponsive programs are listed for you to force quit.
Well, it happened again. Keys out of order. This time, I didn't even use macdrive. Here's what happened:
Plugged in iPod. Nothing comes up. Not mounting it or finding it. I think OK, maybe something's fishy, I'll just restard. Unplug iPod, restart MBP. Gets to gray screen with apple logo and spinning dial. Keeps spinning. And spinning. And spinning. Oh ****, I think. I power it off after it becomes clear it is not doing anything, boot OSX install disk and - yup, you guessed it - "Keys out of order"..."repairing Catalog-b"...Failed, disk unrepairable. Pain in my arse.
So I took it to the apple store and they tell me they don't have an opening for four hours. So now I get to wait, hopefully they'll just replace this thing. I really don't think I'm going to be cool with them replacing parts on a 5 day old laptop that's had problems from day one...
Dan
Plugged in iPod. Nothing comes up. Not mounting it or finding it. I think OK, maybe something's fishy, I'll just restard. Unplug iPod, restart MBP. Gets to gray screen with apple logo and spinning dial. Keeps spinning. And spinning. And spinning. Oh ****, I think. I power it off after it becomes clear it is not doing anything, boot OSX install disk and - yup, you guessed it - "Keys out of order"..."repairing Catalog-b"...Failed, disk unrepairable. Pain in my arse.
So I took it to the apple store and they tell me they don't have an opening for four hours. So now I get to wait, hopefully they'll just replace this thing. I really don't think I'm going to be cool with them replacing parts on a 5 day old laptop that's had problems from day one...
Dan
dmurray14 said:
Native, as opposed to...(?)
dmurray14 said:
dmurray14 said:
Make up your mind!!??!!
Why don't you just stop doing this alltogether it clearly isn't working out for you. Try running the machine for a few days without Boot Camp. You know, it is not supported by Apple. If you bring it into the Apple Store and complain about how it keeps screwing up when you install Boot Camp, there isn't much they are going to do about it, except give you a new hard drive.
dpaanlka said:
I don't understand what the problem is.
First of all, I need the computer to be able to run Windows. It's part of the reason I got it. I KNOW it can run Windows fine, as I have plenty of friends using it with Windows without a problem. Hell, they even advertise the ability to run Windows on their commercials now. I am 99.999999999% sure that Windows has nothing to do with this. Read my last post, you'll see that there was no interaction with Windows OR macdrive leading up to this. I really honestly think that this is either a RAM or HD problem now. It happens randomly.
It's not worth my time to argue why I want Windows on there, so if it's your intention to argue this, then you might as well save your breath. I know many of you Mac guys are strongly against Windows on the mac, which I understand. But you also have to realize that for some people (like myself), the ability to run Windows is the only reason we're able to have Macs and enjoy OSX, otherwise I'd need to get another Dell.
Dan
Ummm actually my confusion was because you just said you tried it with MacDrive, and said you "even juggled files" using MacDrive, then jumped and said you didn't use MacDrive so it must be the Mac's fault. It has nothing to do with whether or not you want to run Windows, however wretched or disgusting I may find that (which I do).
That is why I included the quotes of what you said. It's a very nice feature.
EDIT: It is pretty easy to botch up your computer using Boot Camp. Just look at how many Boot Camp problem related threads there are.
That is why I included the quotes of what you said. It's a very nice feature.
EDIT: It is pretty easy to botch up your computer using Boot Camp. Just look at how many Boot Camp problem related threads there are.
dpaanlka said:
What I should have said was that I didn't use macdrive preceding the crash, as I had before. If you had read that whole post, you would have seen that I installed MacDrive to try and isolate the problem. Let me elaborate on that...everything I did during the install of OSX, Windows, and even macdrive, I checked with Disk Utility afterwards to try and isolate the culprit. Early on in this install (a few days ago) I decided to install MacDrive. I rebooted, checked Disk Utility - fine. Went back into Windows, juggled some files around between the Mac disk and the windows disk, ran Disk Utility again - fine. Gave it a day or two, ran Disk Utility - fine. Now, to me, this is a pretty clear indicator that neither Windows NOR Macdrive are the culprit.
Again, this most recent hard drive issue happened after a crash in OSX. After it crashed, I ran Disk Utility again and as I expected, the disk was no longer in good shape. This is also a pretty compelling suggestion that the crash caused the corruption, or at least that they were connected to each other, as it happened at the same time.
Now I'm not sitting here trying to defend Windows, but I have no real evidence that it or macdrive caused these events. It really seems like more of a hardware issue as it happens randomly and causes the system to crash...
Dan
Seems like your problem occurred once you reformatted to NTFS...
Why don't you just leave it with FAT32, then you can access your shared files from OS X...
Boot camp is beta, so there are some things not completely worked out.
Parallels is running basically native, even though its in a window, if you don't need games or 3D software them you don't really need boot camp, as windows can just "sit on" one of the two CPU's in your laptop.
Why don't you just leave it with FAT32, then you can access your shared files from OS X...
Boot camp is beta, so there are some things not completely worked out.
Parallels is running basically native, even though its in a window, if you don't need games or 3D software them you don't really need boot camp, as windows can just "sit on" one of the two CPU's in your laptop.
So what's your next step?
Sounds like if you think it's the HD, time to go back to the store or send it in for repairs. Based on the things you're trying, I'd guess those are the culprits (e.g., Macdrive), but it's absolutely possible you got bad hardware. I'm not sure what other advice folks could give you.
Sounds like if you think it's the HD, time to go back to the store or send it in for repairs. Based on the things you're trying, I'd guess those are the culprits (e.g., Macdrive), but it's absolutely possible you got bad hardware. I'm not sure what other advice folks could give you.
Fukui said:
Parallels is not native or any where close to navtive. It is a simulated computer. So it has the draw backs of a simulated computer. A simulated computer is NOT NATIVE. He wants it natives that means there no simulationg of a 2nd comptuer inside the orginal for the 2nd OS to run on.
Also Fat32 would not solve the problem. It more likely to cause more problems. Short run fat32 might work but in the long run it has a lot of issues. NTFS you dont have to defrag it. There is not a real noticible differnce bettween a 50-60% frag NTFS drive to a 0% fragments NTFS drive. On fat32 that is a huge noticible differnce. Plus other problems start coming up in fat32 that do not show up in NTFS.
As he said it does sound like a hardware issue because the problem is random and happen in both OS at random. Leads to believe it is a hardware issue. no mater how you formate it or how good the software is. A comptuer is only as good as it hardware and it goes down from there.
Timepass said:
You're misinformed about the meaning of these terms.
Simulated is not the opposite of native. Both Parallels and BootCamp are native.
Native is the opposite of emulated. When you say Boot Camp is native and Parallels is not, you're implying that Parallels is emulated, which it isn't. VirtualPC running on a G5 is emulated. Parallels is fully native running on the Intel processors.
The opposite of simulated is real. You want to run Windows as a real MacBook environment, not a simulated PC environment.
Hahaha, man this sounds like it totally blows ass!
I feel sorry for ya DMurray. I really do. Cause my Macs have never had any serious problems (I've had about 7 over 20 years). But this sounds like you got a lemon.
I'd be thinking the same thing as you if I was having as much trouble and don't blame you on thinking Macs are unreliable POS.
Good luck with the problems and I hope you get a replacement cause you won't have peace of mind until that happens.
I feel sorry for ya DMurray. I really do. Cause my Macs have never had any serious problems (I've had about 7 over 20 years). But this sounds like you got a lemon.
I'd be thinking the same thing as you if I was having as much trouble and don't blame you on thinking Macs are unreliable POS.
Good luck with the problems and I hope you get a replacement cause you won't have peace of mind until that happens.
Well, you sorta got to where we wanted to be, that it, experiencing a hard drive type failure in OSX.
One of the hardest things to do with a brand new machine is to set it up and then NOT MESS WITH installing new software, hardware, OSes, haxies, long enough to establish that the hardware is good and working reliably.
Chances are it IS the hard drive that needs replacing, which is what warranties are for. Repeatedly installing the OSX , BootCamp, Windows and MacDrive (I still can't believe you jumped right back into THAT fire so quickly..) just protracted the agony for you, because you introduced a whackload of extra variables that confused the diagnosis.
One of the hardest things to do with a brand new machine is to set it up and then NOT MESS WITH installing new software, hardware, OSes, haxies, long enough to establish that the hardware is good and working reliably.
Chances are it IS the hard drive that needs replacing, which is what warranties are for. Repeatedly installing the OSX , BootCamp, Windows and MacDrive (I still can't believe you jumped right back into THAT fire so quickly..) just protracted the agony for you, because you introduced a whackload of extra variables that confused the diagnosis.
I'd just return the mac and start over, possibly using a different method or steps the second time around.
Basically, return to sender.
Basically, return to sender.
!) Take the Mac in to the Apple store, have them check it over
2) Forget about putting WIN on it and if you absolutely need WIN to run certain specialized software, simply buy a cheap WIN machine to use in conjunction with your Mac; then you'll have the best of both worlds without running the risk of gumming up either machine. One reason I bought a Mac in the first place was to get away from Windows and all of its problems; why the heck would I turn around and put it on a pristine Mac which is beautifully integrated with its OS?
Rather than blaming the Mac for your problems, take a good look at what you were trying to do.....
2) Forget about putting WIN on it and if you absolutely need WIN to run certain specialized software, simply buy a cheap WIN machine to use in conjunction with your Mac; then you'll have the best of both worlds without running the risk of gumming up either machine. One reason I bought a Mac in the first place was to get away from Windows and all of its problems; why the heck would I turn around and put it on a pristine Mac which is beautifully integrated with its OS?
Rather than blaming the Mac for your problems, take a good look at what you were trying to do.....
dpaanlka said:
Clix Pix said:
If you have nothing helpful to offer and would rather argue with me about why Windows is inferior, then please leave your comments out of this thread. Earth shattering news here: not everyone operates under the same circumstances. You should be happy that I'm converting over to your beloved OSX, where it wouldn't have been possible for me to consider before the ability to dual boot. I think you know very well that this thread was created in frustration and previous to the comments from those who actually helped me, I did feel that it was a waste of money. I do not necessarily feel the same now.
Regardless, please just stay out of this if you're just going to question my motives. I have plenty of legitimate reasons to run both Windows and OSX, and I don't need to be preached to about why you feel that is wrong. The most important of which is that I put $3000 into a computer because I knew it could run both Windows and OSX. I know this not because Apple claims to (they make no guarantees on Windows, and I understand this), but because I have many friends doing the same and I KNOW the equipment is able to run both. I also know I have a bad peice of hardware, and I'd like to get it fixed. I DON'T think this is an unreasonable expectation for a brand new $3000 peice of hardware.
Having said all that - to those of you who have been helpful and informative and/or those who are interested in an update - I was able to go into the Apple store on Sunday, and they told me what I expected them to - they cannot support the configuration with Windows installed. I have no problem with this - it is a risk I took when I installed Windows and I don't expect them to support a third-party influenced configuration. I've been instructed to use only OSX and try to recreate the problem, at which point they would replace the laptop. This is completely fair to me, and I've now reinstalled OSX ONLY and I hope to have a new laptop soon. They've been pretty fair and helpful, and while I know from experience it happens with OSX too, I understand that it needs to be proved to them. Hopefully they'll follow through when it does happen.
Again, thanks to those of you who have helped - I really appreciate the assistance.
-Dan
- Status