Downloading & Installing Windows 7 on a Mac from Home

Transcription

1 Downloading & Installing Windows 7 on a Mac from Home This tutorial is NOT meant for students who have a Mac older than 2007, if you have more than one hard drive installed in your laptop, or if you're hard drive has more than one primary partition on it. If you bought your computer brand new and have never installed another operating system (OS), you should be fine. Contact kilbane@wisc.edu if you have questions. If you do not plan to back up your data or if you do not have a Mac OS X install disk, DO NOT DO THIS TUTORIAL. We hold no responsibility if your data is lost and/or if you mess up your computer. If you do not feel comfortable installing Windows on your Mac you should look into renting a computer from DoIT for the semester. You have been warned. Introduction: This tutorial will help you download and install Windows 7 onto your Mac, however it is not intended to be a complete guide. Please read the entire document before beginning so you know what you need. Please be patient, some of these steps are long and stopping in the middle of them is extremely problematic do each step from the beginning to the end. Although this tutorial is meant to be straight forward, not everyone's computer may be set up the same and some steps may be slightly different. There is plenty of documentation on the web to troubleshoot issues but if you encounter problems please let kilbane@wisc.edu know. What you need 1. External device to backup your data an external hard drive or multiple blank DVDs will work 2. Time - Leave yourself enough time to do each step (1-5) from beginning to end. It is okay to do each step at different times (in order though), but make sure each step is done to completion before taking a break. 3. Power adapter - losing power during an OS install is BAD and will cause data loss 4. One blank DVD - needed to burn Windows 7 onto 5. Access to a Windows computer hooked up to the internet 6. Either the original Mac OS X installation disk that came with your computer OR A friend's Mac OS X installation disk

2 Steps Step 1: Update Mac OS Software Updating your Mac before running Boot Camp is a good way to help things run smoothly. To update, click on the apple button in the upper left hand corner of the screen and select Software Update. Continuously check the Software Update to make sure you are completely updated after each reboot. Step 2: Backup your files It doesn't matter which method you use to backup your data as long as you do some form of it. You can save your files to an external hard drive, burn them to DVDs, or pay to have them backed up online. Time Machine is a Mac OS X program that can perform backups for you, but it might be a more in depth backup than some people want. Choose whatever method you wish. If you have never made a backup before (shame on you!) the backup will take awhile, depending on how much data is on your computer. Be patient you will not regret doing this. Step 3: Download and burn the Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Installation DVD Note: This MUST be done on a Windows computer To download a Windows 7 DVD: 1) Log into your CAE account at 2) Click on the "MSDN Academic Alliance" link under the Resources Heading in the left column. 3) Click Windows 7. Choose the 32 or 64 bit version of Windows Service Pack 1 depending on your Mac: ----From Mac Boot Camp guide Windows 7 Service Pack 1 32-bit version: - MacBook Pro from 2007 or later -any Intel-based Mac Pro, MacBook, or Mac mini Windows 7 Service Pack 1 64-bit versions: - Mac Pro, or MacBook Pro introduced in early 2008 or later - MacBook introduced in 2009 or later If you are unsure, you can visit to identify your Mac. Click on the model (e.g. MacBook or MacBook Pro) then click on specifications and it will show all previous laptop versions with their specs and release dates. If you have more than 4 GB of RAM, the 64-bit version will help performance. If you still aren't sure, download the 32-bit version.

3 You only get one free download so please double check which version you are downloading. Also, please download the Service Pack 1 versions so you do not need to update Windows as much later. 4) Proceed through the checkout process, uncheck the notifications box if desired. Once completed, you will receive an with a link to your receipt. 5) On the receipt is both the Product Key (write this down) and a Download Options link where you can download an.exe file (.exe files only run on Windows). Download this executable file and open it. 6) Choose a download directory and begin the download. The file will take awhile to download (it took me over an hour to do so over a wifi connection in the ME building). 7) The file that is downloaded is an.iso file, it's basically an exact image of the data on a disk. You may use any program that can burn.iso files. ImgBurn is one of many free programs that can do this. If you are using ImgBurn, choose Write Image File To Disk, find the.iso file where ever you saved it, insert a blank DVD, and click burn. Step 4: Partitioning, Installing Windows, Installing Drivers (1.5-3 hours) This is the longest step, prepare for 3 hours if things run slowly. This is also the step where having a 2 nd computer can be useful for troubleshooting. Before installing Windows, you need to acquire either the Mac OS installation disk that came with your computer or a friend's install disk. This online tutorial has great pictures to reference in the Installing Windows 7 via Boot Camp section. I recommend referring to them. Part I: Partitioning 1) In Mac OS, go to MacHD -> Application -> Utilities-> Boot Camp Assistant or search for Boot Camp Assistant using the search icon in the upper right corner of the screen. 2) If you would like to Save the Installation & Setup Guide feel free to do so. This guide contains slightly more information than is covered here, including some troubleshooting, so it may be good to save it to a flash drive. 3) Click Continue. Choose the I have install disk... option and click Continue. 4) On the next screen, choose the option to Create or remove a Windows partition. Here you can decide how much space you want to allocate from your Mac partition to your Windows partition. You can drag the divider bar to create more or less space. You should not allocate less than 35GB for Windows, since you will need space to install other software and save files. You will NOT be able to save files onto your Mac partition while operating in your Windows partition and vice versa (not easily anyways).

4 You will also NOT be able to resize the partitions later (not easily anyways). Dedicating 40GB+ is a good idea if you have the free space on your hard drive. 5) Click Partition when ready. The partitioning process is short and afterward you will see a BOOTCAMP drive on your desktop. Part II: Windows Installation 1) Plug your computer in if it is not already. 2) Boot Camp Assistant will next ask you to insert your Windows 7 installation disk. Do so and click Start Installation. The computer will reboot into Windows and begin the install. 3) Windows will load files for 5 to 10 minutes and then guide you through the install. When you get to the installation type section choose Custom (advanced). You will then need to specify which partition to format and install Windows on. You MUST choose the BOOTCAMP Partition! Highlight the BOOTCAMP partition and select Disk Options (advanced). With the BOOTCAMP partition still highlighted click Format. A warning message will appear, click OK. With the BOOTCAMP partition still highlighted click Next. Windows will begin to install itself and will eventually eject the install disk and reboot. Remove the disk. Windows will continue installing and rebooting. This part may take 30 minutes to an hour. 4) After Windows is successfully installed you will need to setup your account and some preferences. Enter your name and password, the Product Key from your receipt, use the recommended security settings, choose the date and time, and do NOT connect to a network (if you accidentally do, it's okay). 5) After doing this, you will boot into Windows. Hopefully, your keyboard, mousepad, and Airport card work, however other devices like your speakers and webcam will not. This is one reason why you need to install additional drivers. Part III: Installing Drivers 1) In Windows, insert your Mac OS X installation disk. 2) A box should pop-up with an auto-run option. Go ahead and choose it, but make sure the Program Name reads Boot Camp on the next windows that pops up. If it does not, reinsert the disk and choose Open folder to view files, navigate to the setup application in the Boot Camp folder (not the one outside of the folder). 3) Once the Boot Camp installer is open it will guide you through the process. Make sure the Apple Software Update for Windows box is checked. Notifications will let you know when each driver is successfully installed. The status bar may appear to hang up, but it's working. 4) Once done, eject the disk and reboot. 5) When Windows loads, you should update the Mac drivers. To do this, click on the

5 Windows menu button in the lower left corner of the screen and search for Apple Software Update. Make sure you are connected to the internet. If Boot Camp Update or Apple Software Update are shown, please update these. Windows may need to restart. Step 5: Update Windows, install protective programs and other post install steps Before you download any additional software, it is recommended that you update Windows. To do this, click on the Windows menu button in the lower left corner of the screen and search for Windows Update. Make sure you are connected to the internet. Windows will restart if necessary. If you forgot to activate Windows, search for Activate Windows and follow the instructions to do so. The Product Key is in on the receipt that was in a link in an you received. For those of you not familiar with Windows, Windows tends to attract a lot more malware than Mac OS. It is recommended that you install programs to protect your computer. Microsoft Security Essentials is a free collection of programs created by Microsoft to do this. You may download it here Talk to DoIT or do a little research on your own if you would like to know more about Internet Security in Windows. You will notice that each time you boot up, your computer automatically boots into Windows. To pick between Mac OS and Windows, hold down the option button on your keyboard after hearing the boot up sound. You will then be able to choose which OS you want to boot into. To make your computer permanently choose Mac OS (forcing you to hit the option key if you want Windows), you must log into Mac OS, go to your System Preferences (MacHD->Applications->System Preferences), then the Startup Disk option. Here, you can change the default startup partition to be the Mac OS partition. Hopefully Windows is up and running! If you have any questions please contact Jake Kilbane as kilbane@wisc.edu. Any feedback on this tutorial is much appreciated.