Windows 7 beta installed to boot camp via vmware

[hybster]

This will outline a simple and easy method to install the windows 7 build 7000 to a boot camp partition, using only vmware fusion 2.
This is novel because it can be accomplished without a superdrive and without burning a dvd.

1. Use boot camp assistant to make a windows partition.
2. Mount the windows .iso file in fusion and set the bios (F2 during virtual machine boot) to boot from the virtual dvd-drive.
3. Run the windows install
4. When windows wants to restart the first time, shutdown the virtual machine.
5. Reboot the mac and boot the windows partition, boot camp style.
6. Voila!

Hope you can use this.

 

[baboo2]

ah perfect timing, i was about to install windows 7
I just have a few specific questions:

Step 2- is F2 ( FN 2?)

Step 4- will the windows automatically restart (that counts as the first time?) then I have to press command Q to close VM Fusion( virtual machine?)

Also, any driver problems and any quick links for the solutions? Thanks!

 

[hybster]

ah perfect timing, i was about to install windows 7
I just have a few specific questions:

Step 2- is F2 ( FN 2?)

Step 4- will the windows automatically restart (that counts as the first time?) then I have to press command Q to close VM Fusion( virtual machine?)

Also, any driver problems and any quick links for the solutions? Thanks!

Step 2: The function key 2, so -> "fn+f2"

Step 4: It will, it counts down from 15 sec. So you will need to close the vm at that point.

Everything seems to work, except the special apple mapping for the function keys and the trackpad functionality is limited.

Good luck!

 

[Sijmen]

Good news that it's possible!

 

[Turmoil]

why would anyone destroy a lovely computer like the Air by infecting it with Windows?

 

[dborja]

why would anyone destroy a lovely computer like the Air by infecting it with Windows?

Agree. But sometimes, there's stuff that can only be done within Windoze since some applications don't have Mac OS X versions. Thankfully, this is now only 5% of the time for me; whereas 6 years ago, it would have been 60%...

 

[jackfrost123]

@dborja
Windoze xp would serve for all purposes required though, no reason to bother with vista, and absolutely no reason to install via bootcamp a beta windoze 7 version to have few functional apps. And btw I thinks right now the % should be more around 0.5 -0.1% percent of what you can't do. Most of the people I know that switched with intel macs said great at the beginning we ll have our windows programs and a dual boot as well and that d be great, you know what? No one opened windows more than once since...

 

[andrewp]

Why do people freak out about this?

Mac OS X isn't that fast anymore after all, so installing a MS OS with a startup time below 30 sec isn't that bad...

Not that I dislike Mac OSx but it's not like black/white...

 

[hybster]

Why do people freak out about this?

Mac OS X isn't that fast anymore after all, so installing a MS OS with a startup time below 30 sec isn't that bad...

Not that I dislike Mac OSx but it's not like black/white...

I agree, it is getting rather abusive
I enjoy gaming on the mba, something that does not leave a lot of options under osx.

 

[blackhand1001]

I have personally tried the Windows 7 beta on some pretty ancient hardware and was decently surprised with how quickly it ran and how compatible it was. It has plenty of driver support as it uses the same driver module as Vista. It really did boot in under 30 seconds on the following hardware.

Also if your into gaming, there is no substitute for a natively booting windows.
Test Machine:
Pentium 4 2ghz 400mhz fsb
512mb ram
40gb HD
DVD Drive
Geforce 6200 gt

 

[jackfrost123]

Great another fresh Jan. 2009 user, who couldn't possibly be just the op, coming here to verify how great windows 7 is, how stable and with full driver support and above all of pentium 4...Just registered at a mac website to write how great windows 7 is.

Irregardless that the touted vista couldn't even run on pentium 4, irregardless of the fact that even vista nowadays has driver problems, irregardless of the repeated crashes of windows 7 on 10 times better hardware reported on the wintel forums...

And all that not even on the windows on mac forum, but on the mba forum....

What a parody this thread is...

 

[jordanful]

Thanks for the info. This is exactly what I am looking to do, as I have an empty Boot Camp partition (couldn't install Windows 7 from DVD on Boot Camp for some odd reason).

I installed Fusion, pointed it to my .iso file and booted into the Bios menu. Here is where I'm having a little trouble.

In the Bios menu, under the Boot section, I don't see how to tell it to boot from a virtual DVD-Drive.

My main goal is to install Windows 7 on the empty Boot Camp partition using VMWare Fusion, but ultimately I will only need to run Windows through Boot Camp, not in a virtualization space.

I'm running Leopard and trying to install either Windows 7 64-bit release 7000 (which I have the DVD for), or Windows 7 32-bit (which I only have the image for).

Thanks so much for any help. I'm new to this stuff! Any ideas?