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Brought a Mac Mini but no OSX Disc?

R

rirawin

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 17, 2008
150
0
Slight problem?

I want to use bootcamp to install Windows 7 duh, however, the mac mini i brought doesn't have the os discs included so how would I get the drivers for Windows after installing.

For that matter how would I do a fresh reformat without the OSX disc if I ever need to reformat and install again?.

Thank you
 
Osx Lion and Mountain Lion do not include disks - they have a recovery partition on the HDD for use when you need to re-install. IIRC, you can download the bootcamp drivers from Apple.
 
old-wiz said:
Osx Lion and Mountain Lion do not include disks - they have a recovery partition on the HDD for use when you need to re-install. IIRC, you can download the bootcamp drivers from Apple.
Click to expand...

Hi

Can you tell me which one to download?

http://support.apple.com/downloads/#macoscomponents

I have a x64bit Windows 7 disc

Is it this one?

Boot Camp Software Update 3.2 for Windows 64 bit

Also once I downloaded, what then please?. do I simply stick them on a usb drive and that be it?.

Thank you from a new mac owner.
 
Download bootcamp and it should tell you when/how to install windows.

OSX and updates can be downloaded via the app store.
 
OK going to give it a stab!!

Can I ask how do I access the recovery partition too as well.
 
If you have Mountain Lion installed, then you have BootCamp v4 already.

While getting Bootcamp ready it asks if you want to download any additional software/drivers for your Mac so that your Windows install performs the best that it should.

Click the box asking if you want to download that software and save it to a USB drive.

Partition your hard drive if you wish to share it with OS X or during the Windows install you may format and erase your entire OS X partition if you want to use the machine solely for Windows.

Boot up Windows to start your installation and choose the Bootcamp partition and format that partition and continue or
...delete the OS X partition and Bootcamp partition to use the entire hard drive for Windows then format the new partition NTFS for Windows and continue..

After your computer gets to the Windows Desktop, insert the USB drive you had Bootcamp download your drivers/software to and insert it and run the program.

This will install all of the necessary hardware drivers for your Mac to function correctly in a Windows environment.

Then spend the next 2-3 hours downloading and installing Windows updates:D


**Then internet recovery partition is basically 100-200MB partition that allows you, in the case of something going wrong, to completely format and reinstall OS X onto your computer without the need of any type of Boot disks. You just need internet access for the entire process.
It gives you access to the basic Mac boot up tools
 
Thanks guys:)

First Impressions

OK OSX is lovely, can't believe I been missing this throughout my life:)

One question is since I have a mac mini server, its asking me to enter my user and password every time I start osx?, how do I disable this?.

So far so awesome, as a Windows user for years this is blinding.
 
I think this is also under SystemPreferences/Security&Privacy ... uncheck the box labeled "Disable automatic login" :)

edit: If you have several user accounts, you can choose which one to auto-login under SystemPreferences/Users&Groups ... unlock padlock and select "Login Options" then select a user-ID from the list next to Automatic Logon.

-howard
 
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