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willie45

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 27, 2007
234
5
Hi

I am about to install XP on my iMac and, having read so many tales of woe about Boot Camp Beta, I am considering using parallels. I have a 2,16Gb machine currently fitted with 1Gb or RAM. My partner uses Photoshop elements 4 for processing RAW files on her pc which we want to put out for general use and let her use the iMac.

Anyway, I am wondering if there is enough power there to run Elements under parallels or whether I would need to ugrade the RAM or run Boot Camp. I would be happy to use Boot Camp if it worked all right because I wont need to switch between OS X and XP all the time I will use OS X and she will use XP

Thank you for your help

Willie
 

willie45

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 27, 2007
234
5
From reading some of the posts here and reading some people saying that Boot Camp can mess up your system a bit I was reluctant. This included a couple of posts by quite apparently experienced Mac users who said that when they heard significant problems with mac boot up times the words "boot" and "camp" were usually involved. It put me off a bit.

I would be more than happy just to use Boot Camp as long as I could be confident if wouldn't cause me problems

Willie
 

willie45

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 27, 2007
234
5
I suppose what I am wondering is whether to use Boot Camp or Parallels. I could use Boot Camp for free and see how it looks before buying Leopard. Alternatively I could use Parallels for free to see how I get on with it.

My query is really this. If I put XP on through Boot Camp can I undo it by using the OS X CD and erasing all my Hard Disk thus putting my system back to "as from the factory" if there is any problem? I know ( at least this is my belief!) that I can easily delete any virtual machine I create in Parallels.

If I do install Boot Camp first and decide I want to use Parallels I know I can do this with no hassle. On the other hand if I put Parallels on first am I right in assuming that I would need to delete XP and reinstall if I wanted to use Boot Camp?

Thanks

Willie
 

mkrishnan

Moderator emeritus
Jan 9, 2004
29,776
15
Grand Rapids, MI, USA
Well, here are some thoughts to shape your decision....

1) As you know, you share your memory between platforms when you use Parallels or VMWare. If you think about an even split, as an approximation, you have about 512MB for each Tiger and Windows XP. I know 512MB is not a very satisfactory amount of memory for Tiger. I don't know XP quite as well, but I think it's less unsatisfactory in XP, although still not considered ideal.

2) Photoshop Elements makes minimal use of the graphics card's native capabilities, so the relatively poor graphics capabilities emulated in VMWare and Parallels (which do not yet have very strong direct access to the video card) are not really an issue.

3) Bootcamp issues are pretty isolated, as far as I know. It's not magic. All you're doing is adding a partition to the drive and making that partition bootable. Other than that, Bootcamp has zero impact on the OS X installation. It's also worth keeping in mind that you can install XP under bootcamp and then use the bootcamp partition directly in Parallels -- so I personally would install it under Bootcamp first and then Parallels after.

4) Yes, you can return the hard drive of your Mac to "factory" condition using the install DVDs even if you put Bootcamp on it (you just have to repartition the drive at the beginning of the process).

Parallels or VMWare are perfectly good options, and they save you from rebooting. I personally would install Bootcamp anyways for the reason outlined in (3) -- should you ever want to boot natively in Windows instead of running it in virtualization, you are able to do so this way. However, if you're going to spend the money on either Parallels or VMWare, also spend the money on an upgrade to 2GB of memory (which is not expensive).

Good luck.
 

willie45

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 27, 2007
234
5
Thanks for your very useful thoughts Mohan. Having read what you have to say I will probably install XP via Boot Camp and if all hell breaks loose, I will still be able to undo it all by erasing my HDD and making things as they were when I bought the computer.

I might well install parallels and see how that goes later.

But here's a thought. If I install an OEM version of windows via Boot Camp, and then try to use that same installation with Parallels will I have to re-validate windows and if so will Microsoft accept my OEM version as running on the same pc or a different "virtual" pc?

Thanks

Willie
 

mkrishnan

Moderator emeritus
Jan 9, 2004
29,776
15
Grand Rapids, MI, USA
I might well install parallels and see how that goes later.

No prob, Willie. Particularly if you ever get North of 1GB... like to about 2 or more, then I think it'd be great to install Parallels, because you can use Parallels whenever you want to, and if it's not enough for what you want, you just reboot in Bootcamp! But most of the time, Parallels'll probably be much more convenient. :)

Of course, you're doing more than just using Elements, right? Because PSE4/Mac must be cheaper than Parallels.
 

mkrishnan

Moderator emeritus
Jan 9, 2004
29,776
15
Grand Rapids, MI, USA
FWIW they're both $79.99 :p

ohsnapdog.jpg
 

willie45

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 27, 2007
234
5
T

But here's a thought. If I install an OEM version of windows via Boot Camp, and then try to use that same installation with Parallels will I have to re-validate windows and if so will Microsoft accept my OEM version as running on the same pc or a different "virtual" pc?

Thanks

Willie

I think I might have been adding the above to my post while you guys were replying. Any thoughts on it?

Yes I will by wanting to run windows for more than elements 4. But that is the one thing my partner uses more than anything else and I wondered how it would go :)

Thanks

Willi
 

willie45

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 27, 2007
234
5
Thanks once more Mohan. I haven't installed XP yet, I wanted to make sure there would be no issues because of the Parallels installation I wanted to do later. I'm not sure what an "en 0 ethernet" is. The mention this on the linked forum you posted.

I have found my mac address through system preferences so can I assume this "en 0" thing won't matter and I will be able to sort this out by simply adding my mac address in parallels. Does the "en 0" only refer to some setting on an Apple router? Excuse my ignorance :confused:

Willie
 

Chuckypool

macrumors member
Aug 22, 2007
51
0
Auckland, New Zealand
Hi Willie,
FWIW, I'm no expert with this sort of thing either. However, I used Boot Camp to partition my drive and install an OEM copy of Windows XP. The instructions look daunting but it was actually quite straight forward.

I've also installed Parallels and it was pretty easy as well. It recognised my existing Boot Camp Windows install and everything worked perfectly. I use a wireless router and Windows connected to that automatically through Parallels.

I wouldn't worry and just give it a go. It can all be undone if it doesn't work (from what I can gather).

Cheers,
Chris
 

willie45

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 27, 2007
234
5
Hi Chris

Thanks. I am going for it tonight. Fingers crossed! Any problems and you will doubtless here from me later :p

Thanks to everyone again :)

Willie
 

willie45

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 27, 2007
234
5
All right, I have decided to put this install on hold for a couple of weeks. My reasons are:

Leopard is about to appear and although I believe windows won't stop running when Boot Camp Assistant stops, new drivers and updates will, very likely, be difficult. This might well make it a problem to connect to DVDs, Music players etc etc once Apple and others update them. ( I believe Apple will do what they can to extract the most money they can from anyone they can. If this means disabling the current configurations for utilities and making them only available by paying for an upgrade, they will. I don't hold the view that they are a "nice" company at all!! They currently make the best OS but on the whole I trust them slightly less than the average )


I have an OEM version of windows and am not going to risk using this all up on one install of a beta ( Boot Camp) product


I don't really feel the need for the advantages of parallels and would prefer a dual boot system, but would like the security of one which is likely to be supported for a few years.

I might have grabbed the wrong end of the stick on a few of the above but that is my reasoning so far.

Anyway, thanks to all for the help you have given

Willie
 

balamw

Moderator emeritus
Aug 16, 2005
19,365
979
New England
new drivers and updates will, very likely, be difficult. This might well make it a problem to connect to DVDs, Music players etc etc once Apple and others update them.
:confused: The firmware in modern Intel Macs is all that is needed to boot Windows, Boot Camp is just a series of utilities and Windows drivers. Are you suggesting that Apple is somehow going to break the XP drivers?

B
 

willie45

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 27, 2007
234
5
:confused: The firmware in modern Intel Macs is all that is needed to boot Windows, Boot Camp is just a series of utilities and Windows drivers. Are you suggesting that Apple is somehow going to break the XP drivers?

B


Actually there is a very good chance that I was talking rubbish :p

I'm afraid when I posted I was in a slightly altered state of consciousness having imbibed a few at the time after a difficult day.

Sorry for my ramblings. Also I didn't mean to imply Apple were untrustworthy. I meant to say I trust then no more (not less ) than the average huge company. I suppose what I was trying to say was that given the fact that they have repeatedly (and fairly) said that Boot Camp was a beta for time limited use, that there will be some reason as to why users will need to upgrade to the full version.

I don't believe Apple are being unfair at all by doing this but I do believe they are making software to make money and are unlikely to give it away just to be nice.

As I said above I could well be talking drivel though :)

Willie
 
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