Comments on: Mac Pro (2.66 GHz): First impressions

By: Pierre Igot

Pierre Igot — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 17:28:28 +0000

I am afraid Parallels does not recognize the Windows XP CD that came with Virtual PC 5. I also have an old copy of Windows 98 (French) lying around, so I tried that as well, but it gets stuck right after the first step (where you have to choose whether you want to boot from a CD or a floppy disk). So right now I cannot make Parallels work at all.

I guess the next step is to try and obtain a Windows XP Home SP2 CD and use it with my Windows XP serial number. (The serial number includes the ominous string “OEM,” but I have read reports that you can get Windows XP activated over the phone with Microsoft just the same, which makes sense, since you can no longer use Virtual PC on the Intel Macs!)

Like you said, I cannot manufacture a Windows XP Home SP2 CD myself here with only Mac hardware, so I’ll have to try and find someone with a PC to do it.

By: danridley

danridley — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 02:38:50 +0000

Oh, and the VPC copy of Windows XP should work just fine. Check the license to see if it’s legal; they may have put something in the license to say you could only run it in VPC.

For Boot Camp, if the disc doesn’t have SP2 on it already, you’d need to create an SP2 slipstreamed install disc, which can be done quite easily. There are numerous guides on the Web, although they tend to require an existing Windows install. That could be a Catch-22 (Catch-SP2?). For Parallels, you can install straight from your disc and just upgrade to SP2 after the fact.

By: danridley

danridley — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 02:35:27 +0000

In theory, yes. Remember that you can use Windows for a time (30 days? 7 days?) without activating, so in practical terms, if your plan was to try them both and pick one, you could simply avoid activation until you’d made the decision. However, running both Parallels and Boot Camp long-term would require two licenses.

By: Pierre Igot

Pierre Igot — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 16:53:21 +0000

Thanks for the comments and suggestions, Dan. At this point, my only remaining concern is that, if I want to try both Parallels and Windows on a separate partition, I have to have two Windows XP licences, right? I don’t know yet whether I can still use the one that came with Virtual PC… But then I would need another one as well.

By: danridley

danridley — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 16:07:36 +0000

Parallels is fabulous. My only complaint is that it uses a ton of RAM even when the VM isn’t running; make sure you quit the application after you shut down (or hibernate) Windows to free up the RAM.

Boot Camp is also rock-solid; the only reports I’ve seen about partition confusion have to do more with the users being confused than the Windows installer. You should always have a backup anyway; but I wouldn’t be frightened of Boot Camp.

You actually *don’t need it* at all if you’re installing Windows to another drive; what Boot Camp’s partitioner does that’s special is that it will create *both* GPT and MBR partition tables on the same drive. However, if you just boot from a Windows CD and use it to format a completely separate drive, it’ll install just fine, and your Mac will know how to boot it. Just use the Boot Camp wizard to burn a driver CD.

The nice thing about that is that, as Mike mentioned, you can physically remove your OS X drives to be absolutely sure about where the Windows install is going.

By: Pierre Igot

Pierre Igot — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 19:32:50 +0000

OK, Mike, thanks for the advice.

By: Mike Lauder

Mike Lauder — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 17:52:52 +0000

Yes, stick in an extra SATA drive that’s big enough for your needs and give that over in it’s entirety to Windows. Saves any problems with partitions getting messed up, and you can remove all your OSX drives while you perform the windows install to remove any chance of losing your data. Remember, Bootcamp doesn’t really do anything too smart – it creates a driver disk and the correct partitions for Windows. After you’ve installed it and run the partitioner it isn’t actually required any more.

By: Pierre Igot

Pierre Igot — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 12:09:21 +0000

Although I might be interested in trying out some games down the road (which would require Boot Camp), it is more important for me to be able to test web sites in Internet Explorer, etc. So I would indeed prefer the Parallels approach.

Mike: You mean separate drive, not separate partition? I guess I would have to get a cheap SATA hard drive somewhere then…

By: Mike Lauder

Mike Lauder — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 10:24:48 +0000

If you want to install Windows via Bootcamp I’d recommend putting it on a separate drive. That way there is no way for the installer to get confused, especially if you remove all the other drives while installing window.

By: ssp

ssp — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 22:10:12 +0000

Sounds like a good start! Good luck with that machine.

If you really have to use Windows – I can recommend Parallels. It leaves the crappy software safely contained in a window, giving you both peace of mind and the ability to do chores like IE testing of web sites without needing a real Wintel box or a slow VLC connection.