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Windows only on my iMac?

A

AfterDeath

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 11, 2008
14
0
Can I install Windows on my iMac all on it's own without having to dual boot with OS X? Or do I have to have a small partition with OS X running so that I can use Bootcamp?

I am fed up with OS X and just regret buying the iMac. I should have just built a good PC and dual booted between XP and Ubuntu... ah... hindsight :rolleyes:
 
AfterDeath said:
I am fed up with OS X and just regret buying the iMac. I should have just built a good PC and dual booted between XP and Ubuntu... ah... hindsight :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Why not just sell it and do just that?
You will be much happier

Woof, Woof – Dawg
pawprint.gif
 
Wanna buy it? :D

I tried finding someone around the office to buy it but nobody is going for that. Plus, I paid 1500 bucks for it and nobody is willing to shell that out for the hardware they get.

Believe me. I want to like that Mac. I really did when I first got it. But then I tried to get things done on it and all I ever managed to do was get a spinning wheel that would pop up and just hand there for about 10 minutes. Then it would go away and the machine was frozen. So I would reboot, and go through it all over again in about 30 minutes.

So I took it to the apple store to see what's doin. That was fun. I felt more like I was just suppose to be happy to look at my Mac. Like it was more of some status symbol that a tool to be used to get work done. Do after getting no help but plenty of attitude I hit some forums to see what might be wrong.

"It's part of the Mac experience." is what I heard more than once. WHAT!?! God, if Windows stalls for a second it is proclaimed a great injustice to man. If the freakin wheel of happy death appears I should feel honored I guess.

Anyway, the hardware seems straight. While in Windows it runs fine and everything is nice and fast. So no complaints on that end. Even after installing Leopard over and over I still have the same problems. So now I just want to make a clean break and at least get some use out of the hardware I have.
 
AfterDeath said:
Can I install Windows on my iMac all on it's own without having to dual boot with OS X? Or do I have to have a small partition with OS X running so that I can use Bootcamp?

I am fed up with OS X and just regret buying the iMac. I should have just built a good PC and dual booted between XP and Ubuntu... ah... hindsight :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Yes, just sell it to someone who actually knows how to use computers. Novices, and those who use their computers for games should stick with Windoze PC's. They're cheaper [for a reason], and the Tinker Toy interface is easier for those with weaker minds to use.

Sorry, just kidding [a little].
 
Sorry you had such a bad experience. If you want only windows on it, you could completely wipe the HDD, and instead of re installing OS X, you could install windows. Should work, google around I'm sure there's something that will show you how. :)

Good luck.
 
That whole GNU/Linux reference just fly right past you? BTW, that is the elisted/jerk attitude I met with in the store.

And thanks passingXstorm. I am going to try a clean install of Leopard again tonight and give it another shot. Like I said, i want to like it. I see a lot of great things in there. But the freezing up is killing me.
 
I dont really understand the question-- you could run Vista or XP in bootcamp and put the computer to sleep/ hibernate (in XP), as most sentient beings dont boot every day. Even if you do boot every day you can select your windows partition. Anyway, your imac will get wet under your bridge, eventually.
 
Freezing isn't normal for iMac's. Maybe you have some hardware problem that you should get checked out?
 
TBi said:
Freezing isn't normal for iMac's. Maybe you have some hardware problem that you should get checked out?
Click to expand...

I agree, and think you have some unresolved hardware/software issues
This shouldn't be normal on your iMac
How much RAM do you have and what programs are your running?

Ignore those who are giving you are hard time... it is just the nature of the board at times

Woof, Woof – Dawg
pawprint.gif
 
Sounds like there is just a problem with your iMac. I've had my iMac for a month now and have pretty much never had anything freeze on me. Even when encoding videos or compiling code it's completely usable for other tasks.
 
Have you installed 3rd party RAM? Some manufacturers chips cause more issues than they're worth on OSX. If so it may be worth removing the RAM for a couple of days and seeing if you get a smoother experience.

BTW, the spinning beach ball thing is most definitely NOT a Mac feature. If you get it when your Mac isn't actually doing something you've set it doing it indicates a problem.

As to your original question, it is possible to install Windows directly onto the Mac and do away with OSX, but I would recommend keeping a small OSX partition in case any firmware updates are released by Apple that require it for installation.
 
It seems to be any application I run. Browsing, flash video, music, Word... you name it.

I can only run for about 25 to 30 minutes and then I am rebooting again. Here is something else that is weird. One night I was importing a CSV file into Excel (hard since i don't know how to use a computer ;) ) It was a pretty big project so I was saving often while I setup the CSV. I would freeze up and force a reboot. But my CSV file did not reflect the changes that had been saved prior to the freeze. This happened a few times. So I saved my file and did a normal restart. This time the files were actually saved.

I tried to get some help at the Mac store in Annapolis but getting crapped on for an hour wasn't fixing the problem. I did suspect some hardware issue but things go great while I'm in Windows. Now, I am not a fan of Vista at all but it runs fantastic on the iMac. That is why I am thinking of just using all the HDD for it.

But, I bought a Mac because of all the great features in it. But if I freeze up all the time I really can't use them.
 
Shouldn't be Happening

Something doesn't seem quite right. Have you tried a memtest86 to check your RAM?

I would have to agree with you, I have a Windoze Vista Bootcamp partition that runs like a dream compared to my old Dell Laptop (or custom built work machine for that matter).

No, there is definitey something the matter, I think there is some unresolved hardware that Windows is somehow overlooking/bypassing.

Wait, this is a possibility, (not entirely sure, but just a thought). I am not exactly sure how the drive is partitioned when bootcamp is run. Maybe there's an existing bad sector on the HDD where OSX resides that would keep popping up regardless of the number of fresh installs where the Windoze partition hasn't contained the bad sectors, thus bypassing the bad sectors.

Bad hardware just happens, regardless o the type of computer, it's just the nature of mechanical devices and computers. It just sucks when YOU are dealt the lemon.

I don't know, it was just a thought, it seems like most hardware failures generally includes memory or HDDs. Let me know what you find.

Good luck. :cool:
 
It sounds like you have a dud there. It isn't working as it should do. I would be polite but firm in that you want it fixed or you want a replacement.
 
If you get crapped on by the genius in the store, please call the corporate number to let them know. I recently had to do that - it was the most horrid experience i've EVER experienced with Apple. They actually cared and wanted to know things weren't up to par in the store. "We can't fix what we don't know about". I got a free gift out my phone call - which isn't why i called, i just wanted to tell someone that would care about it (the manager of the store when i called to complained hung up on me).

Have you tried calling? you can ask for a level 2 support right away to break out of the "do this over and over" thing.

That said, it does sound like a hardware issue - if you have added the 3rd party RAM pull it out for now (they will make you when you call anyway), if you have RAM in 2 slots, and its Apple's - swap them slot to slot and see what happens. I had a bad RAM chip in Slot 2 and it made for some interesting times until i figured it out.

Good luck!
 
How long have you had the iMac? The reason I ask is that I was wondering if the slowness might be caused by Spotlight doing its thing for the first time. I installed Tiger on my iBook last year and it took almost an entire day to run through everything I copied over from the old hard drive. My machine is very old and the new ones might not bog down like it did, but just thought I'd throw that out there.
 
AfterDeath said:
It seems to be any application I run. Browsing, flash video, music, Word... you name it.

I can only run for about 25 to 30 minutes and then I am rebooting again. Here is something else that is weird. One night I was importing a CSV file into Excel (hard since i don't know how to use a computer ;) ) It was a pretty big project so I was saving often while I setup the CSV. I would freeze up and force a reboot. But my CSV file did not reflect the changes that had been saved prior to the freeze. This happened a few times. So I saved my file and did a normal restart. This time the files were actually saved.

I tried to get some help at the Mac store in Annapolis but getting crapped on for an hour wasn't fixing the problem. I did suspect some hardware issue but things go great while I'm in Windows. Now, I am not a fan of Vista at all but it runs fantastic on the iMac. That is why I am thinking of just using all the HDD for it.

But, I bought a Mac because of all the great features in it. But if I freeze up all the time I really can't use them.
Click to expand...

I'm a long time Windows user and recently made the switch. I too think there's something messed up with your system. My system has been rock solid. There are certainly things that are not "intuitive" to someone coming from a Windows environment but as I'm working with more I'm liking it more and more. And I really like the clean integration of many of the included applications; iCal, the address book, Mail, iPhoto, etc., all seem to play real nice with each other. I really think if you're having stability issues something's broken.
 
Sorry to hear about the bad luck with the iMac and the Apple Store. I hope you can get your iMac fixed, so you can get a fair chance to evaluate OS X.
 
AfterDeath said:
That whole GNU/Linux reference just fly right past you? BTW, that is the elisted/jerk attitude I met with in the store.

And thanks passingXstorm. I am going to try a clean install of Leopard again tonight and give it another shot. Like I said, i want to like it. I see a lot of great things in there. But the freezing up is killing me.
Click to expand...

TROLL ALERT EVERYONE. How cute we should all get accounts on Windows forums and do the same. Oh wait we don't have to all their users already do that.
 
I'm not trolling I am trying to get some kind of use out of my iMac. I think you are also missing the fact that I want to use OS X but I have not been able to reliably use it yet.
 
Good luck with Windows :rolleyes:

Just install it on your computer. Done deal. Obviously you don't know much about computers since all you have to do is install windows on the disk, nothing fancy needed.

Most likely your issues with OS ten are just PEBKAC.
 
No, it's not part of the user experience, as what your claimed is not normal. It's like claiming windows BSOD every 30 minutes.

It's not the hardware specs (and no, the hardware is reasonable in pricing, because Macs are SILENT compare to typical PC). It's how everything works. With a PC, out of the box you lose 10% of your clock cycle because you need to install anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-adware, not to mention the huge number of problem and inconsistencies of windows.

Right, Apple Store can't fix whatever it is? UNLIKELY. If it's hardware they'll repair it. Guess what? They have booted your iMac with an external drive with a clean OS install and diagnostics tools and they have checked your computer. I am guessing the iMac works fine.

The more likely reason is that they have determined that the problems are the software you installed, as Macs normally do not experience any of the things you mentioned.

You probably tinkered with it like you would with windows, and messed up the OS or the account.

Or perhaps since you did not mention "where to sell my software", then you probably didn't actually buy a retail version of software, and that might be the problem.
 
AfterDeath said:
But then I tried to get things done on it and all I ever managed to do was get a spinning wheel that would pop up and just hand there for about 10 minutes. Then it would go away and the machine was frozen. So I would reboot, and go through it all over again in about 30 minutes.
Click to expand...

That is not normal behavior and sounds like you have defective hardware, a broken install of OS X, or both. If the hardware is the issue, you'll likely have trouble running Windows as well. Perhaps you should back up your data and do a fresh install.
 
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