[macvoiceover] Re: windows xp and bootcamp

  • From: Bryan Smart <bryansmart@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "macvoiceover@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <macvoiceover@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 02:41:03 -0500

Like I said, I only halfway care about BootCamp, since it is so much easier to 
run in VMWare.

Still, there are some reasons that I might need to use BootCamp. I sometimes 
need to be able to run/demo Sonar and CakeTalking at tradeshows, and Sonar 
won't run well in a VM. Ultimately, I'd like to take my MacBook along for this 
task instead of the PC laptop I use for that at the moment.

Anything I put together, I'll share with the list.

Bryan 

-----Original Message-----
From: macvoiceover-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
[mailto:macvoiceover-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of hank smith
Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 3:51 PM
To: macvoiceover@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [macvoiceover] Re: windows xp and bootcamp

can you keep me posted on getting a working xml file fore vo users?
this would help me out alot
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bryan Smart" <bryansmart@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <macvoiceover@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 9:44 AM
Subject: [macvoiceover] Re: windows xp and bootcamp


Oh OK.

Well, if you're installing without sighted help, and you're not comfortable 
with modifying/reburning CD images, then it might be better to try 
installing Vista or Windows 7 in BootCamp instead of XP. In Win7 and Vista, 
you can put the unattended setup file (unattend.xml), on a USB flashdisk. 
When you boot the Windows disk, the Windows installer will search for USB 
disks that contain this file, and will use it to provide the information 
that is needed to install Windows. This method makes it easy to install 
without having to modify your Vista or Windows 7 disk.

I don't have a real stable unattend.xml for Windows 7 yet that I could 
distribute. Sorry. I have one that I made for 32-bit Win7 Ultimate, but it 
doesn't work with 64-bit Win7, and I'm not sure that it will work with other 
editions of Win7.

Another wrinkle is that, on a PC, it is a fairly straight forward process to 
include directions in the unattend.xml file that tell it to repartition your 
first hard drive, create a single NTFS partition, and install Windows to 
that partition. This obviously isn't what you'd want to do in BootCamp, 
since it would blow away MacOS. I tried to throw together an unattend.xml 
last week that simply installed to the second partition on the Mac's hard 
drive, which I'd formatted in advance with FAT32. Windows installed, but the 
MacOS was gone. Fortunately, I had a backup, but this kind of 
experimentation eats up lots of time. I think that I was confused about 
disk/partition numbers in the WAIK tool that builds these unattended setup 
files for Vista and Win7. Some of the indexes (disk number, partition 
number, etc) are 0 based, and some are 1 based. Is confusing. I suppose that 
I could work it all out after spending some time with the docs, but I only 
halfway care. Running in VMWare is so much easier.

It should be possible to put together an autounattend.xml that could be 
distributed to VO users that are installing with BootCamp, as long as they 
had a simple hard drive partitioning setup (1 Mac partition and 1 Windows 
partition, in that order). The potential for an inexperienced user to run in 
to disaster is quite high, though. Actually, a small mistake could mess 
anyone up. That's what backups are for, but so many people skip them.

Bryan

-----Original Message-----
From: macvoiceover-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
[mailto:macvoiceover-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of hank smith
Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 2009 9:04 AM
To: macvoiceover@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [macvoiceover] Re: windows xp and bootcamp

bootcamp doesn't do that just vmware
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bryan Smart" <bryansmart@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <macvoiceover@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 2009 6:45 AM
Subject: [macvoiceover] Re: windows xp and bootcamp


I've only played a little with BootCamp in Snow Leopard, but doesn't the
BootCamp assistant include one of those automatic setup assistants like
VMWare has? You insert your Windows disk, enter your Windows product key in
to the setup assistant, the Mac reboots, and Windows automatically installs.
You don't need to mess with Windows unattended setup.

Windows XP shouldn't need 1.5GB of memory to run. The minimum requirement
for XP is 256MB, and 512MB is enough to run it comfortably. 1GB would be
enough if you planned on having many applications open at once. You should
be careful about assigning too much memory to the virtual machine. If you
assign too much to the VM, the VM will actually run slowly, since the memory
available to the Mac OS, where the VMWare software is running, gets very
tight. In that situation, you have a lot of memory set aside for Windows,
but not enough for the Mac. Try 512MB or 768MB for the VM.

It probably isn't worth it to run in BootCamp unless you have to. Do you
need all of the memory in your Mac for Windows because you're running a
high-end memory-hungry application? Do you need Firewire support in Windows?
BootCamp can help you with this. VMWare is much better at coexisting with
the Mac OS, though.

Bryan

-----Original Message-----
From: macvoiceover-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:macvoiceover-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of David Poehlman
Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 2009 7:33 AM
To: macvoiceover@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [macvoiceover] Re: windows xp and bootcamp

why not bootcamp?  as I said, some have done this and all you have to do is
burn a disc with a real copy of xp on it and the script.  I don't know more
than that.

On Nov 4, 2009, at 12:16 AM, hank smith wrote:

how does one do it with boot camp
can you give step buy step directions?
----- Original Message ----- From: "Ignasi Cambra" <ignasicambra@xxxxxxxxx
 >
To: <macvoiceover@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, November 03, 2009 10:05 PM
Subject: [macvoiceover] Re: windows xp and bootcamp


> Not bootcamp, any pc on which you want to install windows will
> allow  it. The process is a little tricky if one doesn't know what
> he's  doing, but it does work well most of the time...
> On Nov 3, 2009, at 5:29 PM, David Poehlman wrote:
>
>> I don't want to belabor this but I have heard that if you create a
>> bootable cd with the script on it, bootcamp will allow it.
>>
>> On Nov 3, 2009, at 5:26 PM, hank smith wrote:
>>
>> but he can't do auto unattended windows xp instalations
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Poehlman"
>> <david.poehlman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> >
>> To: <macvoiceover@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> Sent: Tuesday, November 03, 2009 11:55 AM
>> Subject: [macvoiceover] Re: windows xp and bootcamp
>>
>>
>>> You are better with what you have.  some say you can install it
>>> unassistedly and you can see the windows partition on the mac
>>> side  but not the reverse.  if you use fat32 instead of ntfs, you
>>> can  write to it from the mac side but there are drawbacks to
>>> using  fat32 for your windows install.  Bootcamp will allow you to
>>> make  the partition bootable, that is what it is for.  when you
>>> use it,  it allows for a choice of which os to start at start up
>>> when you  hold down the option key while powering up.
>>>
>>> On Nov 3, 2009, at 1:45 PM, william wrote:
>>>
>>> hello all,
>>> I have just red the different posts about this topic but I have
>>> still some questions:
>>>
>>> I have now vmware fusion 2.5 and window eyes with windows xp and
>>> this workswell except the speed.
>>> It works good in explorer but it works very slow in ms office.
>>> I have 2GB ram in my macbook and about 1500 MB is reserved for
>>> windows but this is still very slow.
>>> Is this to less of memory?
>>>
>>> I like windows on a virtual machine because you can easilly
>>> backup  a whole installation and so, I have always a working system.
>>>
>>> But, When I should chose for bootkamp:
>>> - can I Make my self (as blind user) a file to install win xp
>>> automatically?
>>> - can I mount the windows partition from inside my mac?
>>>
>>> - can I make myself the right partitiontable to install windows?
>>> - what about re-installing windows or mac without destroying the
>>> other os?
>>> (problems wit bootrecords)
>>>
>>>
>>> So, how flexible is a blind user to manage the whole computer
>>> with  2 os on it.
>>>
>>> I have still leopard but I will soon upgrade to snow leopard.
>>>
>>>
>>> thanx a lot for your suggestions
>>>
>>>
>>> best regards,
>>> William Windels
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