Mac Mini to run only Windows 8 Pro?

[Cape Dave]

Why are you so bent on windows 8? It's the most hated Microsoft OS since Vista release. It makes no sense at all to want a mac mini running win 8 only.

Windows 8 only sucks without Start8. With Start8, it is a fantastic OS.

Why MS wanted all desktop users to have to learn a totally kludgy new interface that was designed for phones and tablets I will NEVER understand. Ballmer should be fired for letting that happen. Talk about messing with your core audience. Sheesh!

The Start8 company is making millions upon millions of dollars from a really fantastic $5 dollar piece of software. Good for them.

 

[OhHaiThere]

I've done this with Windows 7, it is no problem.

What I suggest you do is:
- make a Time Machine backup to an external HDD but also leave some space for an OS X partition
- reboot into Time Machine and restore into the empty partition on the external HDD
- reboot into the restored partition on the external HDD
- see if you can use Bootcamp assistant to create the Windows install on the SSD
- if yes then no problem
- if no then buy Winclone (shareware)
- if no then boot from the internal OS X partition and use Bootcamp assistant from there
- install Windows
- boot into OS X on the external HDD
- install Winclone and make a backup of Windows
- wipe the SSD with the diskutility and create a MS DOS partition
- restore the Windows partition, follow instructions on the Winclone website
- boot into windows and use the Bootcamp utility in the system tray to ensure that your function keys are set properly and that you are booting the right partition (windows)
- remove the external HDD but keep it for backing up / restoring the Windows partition

Enjoy - these machines are very silent and take up next to no space.

Ingenious idea and this way I can waste an external drive for OS X instead of the valuable internal space. Thanks for your post!

PS 2 One of my machines is now dual booting with Windows 7, the other is now running Mountain Lion. Don't like Windows 8 and wanted to have automatic backups, time machine is a life saver for me and there is not something that is close to that under windows.

Windows 8 has File History, same thing as Time Machine (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/how-use-file-history). The video goes through the long way of doing restore. There's a "History" button in Explorer that you can click to see your entire history.

What a waste of a nice machine.

The machine will be put to good use

Windows 8 only sucks without Start8. With Start8, it is a fantastic OS.

Why MS wanted all desktop users to have to learn a totally kludgy new interface that was designed for phones and tablets I will NEVER understand. Ballmer should be fired for letting that happen. Talk about messing with your core audience. Sheesh!

The Start8 company is making millions upon millions of dollars from a really fantastic $5 dollar piece of software. Good for them.

Check out ClassicShell (http://www.classicshell.net/) free and works very well.

 

[monkeybagel]

The goal is to take out the drive out of the mini, install an SSD (or dual SSD) and fresh-install Windows. Is that doable?



That's the question... could I do it though?

Yes. If you have a bootable USB drive or external DVD drive, you would install it like you do Windows on any other computer.

You would need to boot into OS X to allow the Boot Camp Assistant to download the Boot Camp drivers and install them onto a spare USB drive before you wiped the drive. Once you get the drivers, turn off the computer. Insert the Windows 8 thumb drive and boot the computer. Hold down Option for the boot menu, and select EFI Boot. This will load the Windows 8 EFI installer. When the Windows screen appears, press Shift+F10 on the keyboard to open a command prompt. Type "diskpart" and press Enter.

type:
select disk 0
clean
exit

Then type "exit" to exit from the command prompt. Proceed with installation as normal. When Windows boots for the first time, put in the Boot Camp drivers media and run Setup from there to install all Apple drivers. That's it.

 

[hudson1]

Hello everyone, I'm considering getting a couple of Mac Mini's for different tasks, but in both cases I want to run only Windows 8 Pro on both. The only option I'm aware of in running Windows natively is to dual boot. Is it possible to run Windows 8 WITHOUT keeping OS X? I don't want to waste the space on an SSD with an OS I won't use.

Next question that I have is: how is driver support in Mac Mini? I bought a MacBook Air for my wife with the same intent: running Windows 8 only (we tested it in dual boot though) and unfortunately the drivers provided by Apple were extremely basic. Stuff worked but no options to tweak settings (even things as simple as changing the two-finger scrolling direction in the track pad). Ended up getting her an X1 Carbon and that ended up being much nicer for her anyway.

I want Apple hardware, but not the software... am I looking to just have problems similar to what we had with the Air? Should I just look for a PC alternative instead?

TIA

May I ask the obvious question that I don't think has yet been asked? What do you intend to do with this Win8/mini machine that you either can't do with OS X and/or dictates you remove OS X?

 

[COrocket]

May I ask the obvious question that I don't think has yet been asked? What do you intend to do with this Win8/mini machine that you either can't do with OS X and/or dictates you remove OS X?

He said he wants to remove OSX to save space on an SSD. Not sure about the capability part

 

[OhHaiThere]

Yes. If you have a bootable USB drive or external DVD drive, you would install it like you do Windows on any other computer.

You would need to boot into OS X to allow the Boot Camp Assistant to download the Boot Camp drivers and install them onto a spare USB drive before you wiped the drive. Once you get the drivers, turn off the computer. Insert the Windows 8 thumb drive and boot the computer. Hold down Option for the boot menu, and select EFI Boot. This will load the Windows 8 EFI installer. When the Windows screen appears, press Shift+F10 on the keyboard to open a command prompt. Type "diskpart" and press Enter.

type:
select disk 0
clean
exit

Then type "exit" to exit from the command prompt. Proceed with installation as normal. When Windows boots for the first time, put in the Boot Camp drivers media and run Setup from there to install all Apple drivers. That's it.

Thank you!

----------

May I ask the obvious question that I don't think has yet been asked? What do you intend to do with this Win8/mini machine that you either can't do with OS X and/or dictates you remove OS X?

He said he wants to remove OSX to save space on an SSD. Not sure about the capability part

That's exactly right. I don't want to leave 20-30+(?)GB of space to an OS I'll never use.

 

[Giuly]

HP MicroServer w/Windows Server 2012; Lenovo W530 (2441-36U); Lenovo X1 Carbon (i7/8gb); Nexus 4 (16gb); Apple TV1 w/Crystalbuntu; iPad Mini

Why did you buy Macs again? You look more like an Intel NUC kinda guy.

 

[MJL]

Yes. If you have a bootable USB drive or external DVD drive, you would install it like you do Windows on any other computer.

You would need to boot into OS X to allow the Boot Camp Assistant to download the Boot Camp drivers and install them onto a spare USB drive before you wiped the drive. Once you get the drivers, turn off the computer. Insert the Windows 8 thumb drive and boot the computer. Hold down Option for the boot menu, and select EFI Boot. This will load the Windows 8 EFI installer. When the Windows screen appears, press Shift+F10 on the keyboard to open a command prompt. Type "diskpart" and press Enter.

type:
select disk 0
clean
exit

Then type "exit" to exit from the command prompt. Proceed with installation as normal. When Windows boots for the first time, put in the Boot Camp drivers media and run Setup from there to install all Apple drivers. That's it.

- 1) Does Windows 8 install properly under EFI, I've had problems with audio?
- 2) What do you use for partition imaging, as far as I understand Winclone does not do that (yet?).

Thanks!

 

[Cape Dave]

Why did you buy Macs again? You look more like an Intel NUC kinda guy.

I looked at NUC. Core i7 has been "coming soon" like forever. Also, at the time I looked, there was no 512GB mSATA SSD available.

Also, is it QUIET???

Also, does it have an awesome Forum like this one???

 

[monkeybagel]

- 1) Does Windows 8 install properly under EFI, I've had problems with audio?
- 2) What do you use for partition imaging, as far as I understand Winclone does not do that (yet?).

Thanks!

I never really use partition imaging for Windows. (On Macintoshes at least)

EFI is hit or miss. It works fine on my 2012 Mac Pro and Windows 8. Have not tried it on my notebooks. The only way to know is try it an see.

 

[MJL]

I never really use partition imaging for Windows. (On Macintoshes at least)

EFI is hit or miss. It works fine on my 2012 Mac Pro and Windows 8. Have not tried it on my notebooks. The only way to know is try it an see.

With due respect: If you give advice when you have not the experience with the particular setup (and personally done it) then you will only confuse the OP. If he follows your advice and it does not work then he will do a lot of work with no results.

As far as I know no-one has been able to get audio working on the Mac mini under EFI and for me partition imaging is a necessity.

Peace

 

[monkeybagel]

Audio works on the 2010 Mac mini.

As I said in the original post, EFI is hit or miss with Windows. The only way to know is to try.

What is so important about imaging? Windows has a backup utility built in that can be used.

 

[hudson1]

That's exactly right. I don't want to leave 20-30+(?)GB of space to an OS I'll never use.

Yeah, I basically understood that up front but I guess I don't know why you have no intention of using OS X despite buying a Mac. Just curios... is there a special reason?

 

[pesos]

Pay no mind to the hater fanbois - the mini makes a great Win8 workstation depending on your needs. Been running this setup with a 27" TB display for the last 6 months.

Popped in my own 256 GB ssd from my previous system and bumped the ram to 16 GB. The i7 mini runs Hyper-V like a champ with this config - I can virtualize an entire server farm with ease under Win8.

Personally I can't stand OS X, but that's beside the point. I keep a small 15 GB partition to go over to OS X for some system testing for work and to run firmware updates - but as mentioned you can easily do that with an external if you want to reclaim that space.

Don't let people turn you off your good taste in hardware and software ;-)

I did recently sell my mini/TB display combo as I have an Asus pq321 coming shortly and unfortunately the mini can't drive it... So ended up picking up an Inspiron 660s for now - will be interesting to see what the next gen mini shows up with (not to mention the mac pro).

 

[Chippy99]

Maybe he wants the Thunderbolt port? Mac mini is the only computer I think of its size that has thunderbolt. Other than that, Mac mini hardware is really nothing special.

This is even smaller than a Mac Mini, and has a Thunderbolt port.

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us...p-motherboards/desktop-kit-dc3217by.html.html

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/desktops/desktop-kit-dc3217by-360view-demo-video.html

 

[pesos]

This is even smaller than a Mac Mini, and has a Thunderbolt port.

Image

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us...p-motherboards/desktop-kit-dc3217by.html.html

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/desktops/desktop-kit-dc3217by-360view-demo-video.html

The NUCs are great for certain uses. I have deployed many as silent, low-cost Hyper-V branch office servers that are non-critical.

As a workstation, they still leave a bit to be desired - not enough ports and the USB3 models still aren't out yet. Gigabyte has the BRIX coming out that should remedy that.

 

[scottsjack]

Some thoughts;

I'm running W8 on a 2010 Mac Pro and both W8 and W8.1 preview on a late 2008 MBP. All are on separate drives. All Bootcamp functions work. The poor old C2D MBP took a lot of fiddling to make that happen. The MP installation was more straight forward.

W8 installed as EFI on the MC so startup is fairly quick. My dad's HP 3rd gen i7 3.4HGz with only 8GB RAM responds quicker, starts up much faster and shuts down almost instantly compared to my 3.2GHz quad with 24GB RAM. There are other items that don't seem to work as well on the W8 MP.

A mini is a cool machine (I've got one of those too) but really a Windows 8 laptop in a box isn't very upgradeable and will always require Apple's drivers? No way.

I am switching over to one of these real W8 machines ASAP. Either an Acer Veriton 3.4GHz i7 (when/if they get Haswell) or an HP ProDesk 600 G1 i7 3.4GHz Haswell. Both are small, though not mini-sized, real PCs with desktop drives, desktop CPUs, lots of USB 2/3 ports, Intel HD Graphics and PCIe slots. For the price of a mini you can get a machine designed for W8 that will run rings around a mini.

Both the above machines are marketed as business machines and carry a three-year warranty. No shiny plastic, no throbbing lights, just small but powerful, real Windows PCs.

BTW, while I use OSX most of the time I really like Windows 8. With Start8 and/or ex7forW8 installed W8 is an excellent improvement over W7. Both of my Macs score higher on Geekbench and especially on Cinebench with W8 compared to the same Apple machines running Apple's latest OS.

 

[OhHaiThere]

The problem with the NUC and other mini's is that none of them [that I've been able to find] have a quad-core i7.

Additionally, Apple tends to put the "best" hardware in their machines. It seems that they build to a certain standard first then price it accordingly. Most PC's build to a price-point. Maybe I've been drinking too much Apple-kool-aid lately, but that's been my experience.

It's refreshing to see that there are those among you that still understand that Apple isn't the be-all-and-end-all of everything computing.

Yeah, I basically understood that up front but I guess I don't know why you have no intention of using OS X despite buying a Mac. Just curios... is there a special reason?

Besides the fact that I don't like the OS and find everything less intuitive and more buggy, it doesn't run software that I need. Media Center was one example that I gave earlier. There are many things, aesthetically, that I like about the OS - especially the gestures and how well supported they are in all apps - however aesthetics don't get work done. They're just cool.

Sorry, probably not what you wanted to hear (I realize the forum I'm on ).

 

[Dark Dragoon]

The problem with the NUC and other mini's is that none of them [that I've been able to find] have a quad-core i7.

Did you take a look at the mini-itx boards, on the site I posted earlier?
There are some which take quad core i7 processors (same generation as the current Mac mini).

 

[OhHaiThere]

Did you take a look at the mini-itx boards, on the site I posted earlier?
There are some which take quad core i7 processors (same generation as the current Mac mini).

I did, but didn't see fully built systems. I don't want to build a machine. Thanks.

 

[TC25]

I did, but didn't see fully built systems. I don't want to build a machine. Thanks.

Then buy a Mini, already.

 

[pesos]

Careful, you're going to upset some people

The one I have my eye on is http://www.xi3.com/

They are doing some interesting things...

 

[hudson1]

...

Sorry, probably not what you wanted to hear (I realize the forum I'm on ).

It was an honest question of curiosity. Also, a Mac board is not the best place to treat Mac users with contempt... especially when you're asking them for help and/or advice.

 

[AshMan]

I would not buy a mac just to run windows. if all you want is the style then go for it, but osx in my opinion is much better. I run my mac mini with parallels to run windows 7, an it runs great inside the virtual machine. windows 8 should work the same.

other option is this... http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/asus-vivopc-windows-8-mini-pc-specifications-revealed-13-06-2013/

asus vivo pc. kinda cool looking and probably as close in hardware to a mac mini without being a mac mini

more pictures here http://press.asus.com/events/asus-vivo-pc.php

I would run mac mini myself with windows via parallels, with 16gb ram, will definitely perform great and will handle everything perfect

 

[OhHaiThere]

It was an honest question of curiosity. Also, a Mac board is not the best place to treat Mac users with contempt... especially when you're asking them for help and/or advice.

Contempt? I thought I answered the question pretty civilly [and honestly]. If anything, I was the one attacked earlier for even considering such an idea. Don't take it personally, it's just an OS. People use what works for them, OS X doesn't work for me, which is the reason for my initial post.

Cheers