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l008com · Sep 5, 2010, 04:47 PM

I have a pervious generation, 13" MacBook Pro 9400m. It has a 7200 RPM 500 GB hard drive with a windows 7 partition that I use for gaming. And a mac partition of course with 10.6 (server). So very soon I will be buying a current generation MacBook Pro 13", with the 320m, slightly faster processor, more ram, etc etc. So my plan is to simply swap the hard drives when I get the new one, since my 500GB drive is also pretty new. I know OS X will not skip a beat, and keep on running like nothing ever happened. But what about windows 7? It was a huge pain in the ass getting this windows 7 up and running, with all the patches and no-cd hacks for the games, all the bootcamp drivers etc. It sucked! I don't want to do this crap again.

seanc · Sep 5, 2010, 04:54 PM

It may work fine, it may not.

Depends on how different the chipsets are.
I did write this: http://forums.macnn.com/104/alternat...tion-boot-any/

I've not tested Windows 7 between different hardware too much.
In the one case I moved to a dramatically different chipset without changing the mass storage drivers, I was able to get out of that hole by modifying the way the mass storage drivers start in the registry.

Say I move from Intel chipset to nVidia, I could enable the nVidia drivers in the registry to start at boot time, thus once the bootloader has finished, it can access the data.

l008com · Sep 5, 2010, 04:55 PM

OK. I don't know what that means but, both macs use nVidia soo hopefully it will just work.

ghporter · Sep 5, 2010, 05:00 PM

The video system is only part of the story. The rest of the logicboard's chipset can have a profound effect on whether or not an established Windows installation works right away or not.

The fix is to simply boot Windows, let it complain to you that some hardware wasn't found (or not-don't worry about that), and then install the latest Boot Camp drivers. This will install the right drivers for your Mac, whether the right drivers had been there or not.

l008com · Sep 5, 2010, 05:02 PM

OK that sounds relatively sane. . .

Originally Posted by ghporter

The video system is only part of the story. The rest of the logicboard's chipset can have a profound effect on whether or not an established Windows installation works right away or not.

The fix is to simply boot Windows, let it complain to you that some hardware wasn't found (or not-don't worry about that), and then install the latest Boot Camp drivers. This will install the right drivers for your Mac, whether the right drivers had been there or not.

ghporter · Sep 5, 2010, 05:37 PM

It usually works for any Windows installation migration, but really extreme hardware changes (and sometimes not so extreme changes) can cause the method to stumble. I don't think going from one Mac to another will be a problem, but you really do need to install the drivers just in case.

l008com · Sep 5, 2010, 05:38 PM

Now I already have bootcamp drivers installed, and they software update to the latest. Soooo I'm not totally sure what you are telling me to install?

Originally Posted by ghporter

It usually works for any Windows installation migration, but really extreme hardware changes (and sometimes not so extreme changes) can cause the method to stumble. I don't think going from one Mac to another will be a problem, but you really do need to install the drivers just in case.

Cold Warrior · Sep 5, 2010, 05:48 PM

He's saying reinstall them from the 10.6 CD if Windows complains about missing device drivers. If the hardware on your new Mac is different from your current one, the current Windows 7 system may not have the specific drivers preinstalled for your new Mac.

l008com · Sep 9, 2010, 05:45 PM

So I got my new mac and swapped hard drives from my old one. Of course OS X works like a charm. I booted windows 7 and it went all the way through, then automatically popped up with a "Installing device driver software" notification thing. Then it kinda froze. Suggestions?

l008com · Sep 9, 2010, 06:08 PM

Update: Few more boots, same story. Booted into safe mode. It didn't freeze, but when I try to install Bootcamp off the included OS disc, "Windows Installer returned '1652'" error stops me in my tracks. So much for Windows 7 being 'good'.

Cold Warrior · Sep 9, 2010, 06:17 PM

Will windows boot in safe mode?

l008com · Sep 9, 2010, 06:20 PM

^ ^ ^

Originally Posted by cold warrior

will windows boot in safe mode?

l008com · Sep 9, 2010, 06:21 PM

So I got it working. How you ask? The Windows way. I just kept rebooting until it stayed alive long enough for me to open up the bootcamp disk (not in safe mode). I installed them, now I'm installing some up to date nvidia drivers. I can't wait to check out this GPU compared to the 9400m.

l008com · Sep 9, 2010, 07:20 PM

GRRRRR all this anticipation getting my new MacBook Pro so I can play games with faster frame rates, and they don't even have a working driver for windows, for the 320m!!! I'm stick with the Microsoft driver and the generic display adapter!!! The ONLY thing I use windows for on this machine, is to play GTA. And now not only do I NOT get my higher frame rates and possibly higher resolutions, but now I can't play at all.

seanc · Sep 10, 2010, 02:04 PM

So you're trying to update the drivers from the discs that came with your new MacBook Pro yes?

Have you checked the nVidia website: NVIDIA DRIVERS 258.96 WHQL

There's always this: Grand Theft Auto comes to Mac, iPad | iPodNN

l008com · Sep 10, 2010, 02:10 PM

Sooo I'm not sure exactly what happened because windows is horrible and sometimes you can't tell if you're looking at a program or just a window or whatever, but. I first uninstalled bootcamp. Then when I went to reinstall it again, I got a COMPLETELY different installer. It was quite strange. But now it's working. I'm gaming again.