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iMacfan · Oct 19, 2006, 07:24 AM

Hello,

My boss uses a Macbook Pro, but is not that into computers. From time to time I act as his tech support guy, and he would love it if I could install windows on his machine to use a windows only program at work (Medical imaging). I've persuaded him to get both a copy of WinXP Pro OEM and a portable HD to back everything up beforehand.

Any tips or ideas on how not to screw it up and wreck my not-yet-started career? A year or so ago I installed an OSX update on his powerbook (to work with a new iPod), and it failed to restart first time - I nearly needed his professional services!

Thanks in advance for any help,

David

tomrock · Oct 19, 2006, 08:12 AM

If the portable hard drive is firewire, I'd use SuperDuper to back it up. That way if anything happens, you can boot off the backup and restore his drive very easily.

Other than that, just make sure you're up to date with firmware and updates. Bootcamp should install fine.

Good luck.

hookem2oo7 · Oct 19, 2006, 08:19 AM

Yeah, just be sure you have a backup (either an image, or bootable backup like tomrock mentioned) that you can restore the internal drive with in case something goes wrong. BootCamp is beta, but it installed and partitioned my 60gb drive in my macbook with a 50/10 split with no problems whatsoever.

Gossamer · Oct 19, 2006, 12:35 PM

If he only needs one program, maybe Crossover would be a better solution. It makes it very easy for me to use IE for stuff that requires it within OS X.

ghporter · Oct 19, 2006, 03:34 PM

My most fundamental advice is to take it slowly and READ EVERYTHING ON THE SCREEN before making any choices. Windows is not that hard to deal with (not that it's as "just works" easy as MacOS), so taking your time and knowing what choice you're making are the best ways to stay out of trouble.

Give Windows plenty of elbow room-for just one app, even a big one, you can probably get by with a minimum-sized Windows partition. Boot Camp will let you select almost any size partition you want, so I'd go with at least 10GB. Make it 20GB and you'll have lots of room for the boss's saved images too (which will no doubt be pretty freakin' huge). For the best stability, format the Windows partition with the NTFS system-OS X can't write to it but it can read it, and you can do backups to DVD or the external drive.

iMacfan · Oct 19, 2006, 03:59 PM

Thanks everyone for the replies. As the application retrieves the DICOM files from a central server, I guess that bootcamp is the best idea. The drive will be USB only, as I can get a 120Gb 2.5" Western Digital drive for less than a 60Gb USB/FW Firefly.

David

tomrock · Oct 19, 2006, 04:14 PM

It probably won't matter, but I don't think you can boot off a USB drive. It might be worth it to spend a little more and get firewire (or better yet -- a case with both firewire and USB connectivity).

hookem2oo7 · Oct 19, 2006, 04:16 PM

intel macs can boot off of a usb drive

edit:: as long as its partitioned with a GUID map

Person Man · Oct 19, 2006, 04:20 PM

Originally Posted by Gossamer

If he only needs one program, maybe Crossover would be a better solution. It makes it very easy for me to use IE for stuff that requires it within OS X.

Definitely NOT for someone who is not very computer savvy. We computer geeks may be able to handle it, but for someone who is not very good with computers, it's too early for Crossover to be useful.

Also, there may not be much support in Crossover for non-general purpose specialized software like what his boss will be using.

iMacfan · Oct 19, 2006, 04:22 PM

While I'm at it, there are two more things I'm not that sure about.

Firstly, the version of XP that seems to be available is SP2b - what's the b about, and does it matter at all?

Also, any suggestions for an easy to use backup solution so that he can backup his computer regularly and save future heartache?

David

ghporter · Oct 19, 2006, 05:24 PM

"2b or not 2b" is not a question. (I couldn't resist!) It's just an update to SP2 that subsumes a number of fixes and updates between the release of SP2 and fairly recently.

Are you asking about backing up Windows or the OS X partition or both?

iMacfan · Oct 20, 2006, 03:00 AM

Originally Posted by ghporter

Are you asking about backing up Windows or the OS X partition or both?

Preferrably both, from OSX

David

ghporter · Oct 20, 2006, 06:25 AM

Both should be pretty easy to back up, though restoring is potentially an issue.

You can use Windows' built in backup program (under All Programs|Accessories|System Tools) to back it up to just about any media, and of course restore through the same mechanism-which means you need Windows running to restore. You could use Ghost (not free) to create an image of the partition, and that does NOT need Windows running to restore-there's a utility that comes with Ghost that lets you make a bootable CD that runs Ghost, and I think it will also make the first disc of an image bootable for restoral as well.

Backing up OS X can be pretty simple too. Apple offers Backup 3, but it requires an active .Mac account because it backs up to that account. Carbon Copy Cloner is a good image utility, and it works fine EXCEPT that it's not yet a Universal Binary and there are issues with trying to boot an Intel Mac from an image intended for PPC Macs. The simplest solution I've found so far has been using rsync, which is freely available AND HAS A GUI FRONT END! Read here for instructions. rsync can back up your whole disk, and I believe that means even the NTFS partiton you put Windows on.

Sherman Homan · Oct 20, 2006, 06:38 AM

Any tips or ideas on how not to screw it up and wreck my not-yet-started career?

Apply for a new job first. Then go ahead and install Windoze on your boss's Mac. That should cover you!

aristotles · Oct 21, 2006, 09:35 PM

How not to screw it up?

Read and follow the directions word for word.