I am living with Mac for over 7 years, but I do need windows too! especially when I am working on a multiplatform product. I have kept an additional desktop that runs on windows 7 but at times I need it on my laptop as well.
If you have grabbed yourself windows 7 copy, you are good to begin.
First step is to Upgrade Boot Camp3.1. So if you haven’t already do a Software Update, which will grab the latest version for you. Older Boot Camp versions didn’t support Windows 7, the Mac owners who decided to install it along with Snow Leopard. There were complaints of slow startup times, magic mouse malfunctions etc.. But with upgraded BootCamp 3.1 you have all you need to support Windows 7.
Mac OS X and Windows 7 have to be located in separate partitions, so you’ll need to create a new partition on your hard drive (or a separate partition on a separate hard drive) to install it. Firstly Open Boot Camp Assistant by looking in the Utilities folder under Applications, this will take you on a step by step process, just make sure to create an NTFS partition and make it a minimum of 16GB as windows 7 needs that. Keep in mind that you’ll want to install all your Windows software that you need on the same partition so keep the allocation.
Once you are done with partitioning, keep Boot Camp Assistant still open, choose the option to “Start the Windows installer.” Then insert your copy of Windows 7 in the drive and click Continue to start installing. Just like standard installing process follow the instructions. When it prompts whether you want to do a standard or custom installation, choose “custom” and select the partition labeled BOOTCAMP. You’ll must click “Drive options (advanced)” after highlighting it and choose Format.
Once the Windows 7 installed, the job is not done! because it can not interface correctly with Mac hardware, so you need to install the drivers. Thankfully, Apple has made this possible they’re located on your OS X install disc. With Windows running, eject the Windows 7 disc, insert the OS X disc in, and let it load (you may need to double click on the CD-ROM drive if it doesn’t start automatically). It will do all the work automatically, just keep clicking on those Continue buttons one by one.
Once past that, you are done..but one thing you have to remember always is this that your Mac will still boot into OS X automatically unless you hold down the option button at startup, which shows a menu allowing you to choose which operating system to use.
Enjoy Windows 7 on your beautiful Mac!
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