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Windows Vista and Macs
uberneko
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Note: I asked Moe if it was okay to make this thread but I REALLY need to do this, so I have gone ahead and made it without his reply. Hope I am not breaking any rules here.
I have a desktop computer with Windows Vista 64 bit Home Premium on it. It died. For some reason Bad Company 2 crashed while I was playing it and the whole computer became unresponsive and BSOD'd, then rebooted. Of course, since it rebooted instead of just closing BC2 or whatever, it trashed my boot files. My boot files became corrupt, I tried finding ways to fix them, nothing worked, and now the computer will not boot whatsoever.
I need to use Windows Vista. I have a Macbook that is capable of running it.
My issue, however, is that Vista came pre-loaded on the desktop and I can't find the place to have Cyberpower send me a recovery disk. In any case, I need to use Vista NOW.
I got a .iso file. I figure this is legal because I have a legitimate CD key on the side of my desktop computer's case. Of course, since the gods are against me, I don't have any DVDs. I also don't have my Mac OS X disk because I just moved to Portland, but it is getting sent to me. I really need to use Vista right this moment though.
So here's my question:
If I install Windows Vista on my Mac by using Parallels, as opposed to using Boot Camp (because I ONLY have the .iso file), will I be able to use Vista through Boot Camp after it is installed via Parallels? I am asking because after reading up on how to install Vista with Parallels it says you have to dedicate some of your RAM to using Vista. My Mac only has 2 gigs of RAM, so I'd have to dedicate at least half of that to using Vista. I really want to use all 2 gigs of RAM.
Sorry if this is long winded. This whole situation has me stressed out because the computer was perfectly fine until out of nowhere it crashed while I was playing BC2, and it frustrates me beyond all belief that the game crashed, then the computer crashed, which effectively fucked the entire computer up.
I have a desktop computer with Windows Vista 64 bit Home Premium on it. It died. For some reason Bad Company 2 crashed while I was playing it and the whole computer became unresponsive and BSOD'd, then rebooted. Of course, since it rebooted instead of just closing BC2 or whatever, it trashed my boot files. My boot files became corrupt, I tried finding ways to fix them, nothing worked, and now the computer will not boot whatsoever.
I need to use Windows Vista. I have a Macbook that is capable of running it.
My issue, however, is that Vista came pre-loaded on the desktop and I can't find the place to have Cyberpower send me a recovery disk. In any case, I need to use Vista NOW.
I got a .iso file. I figure this is legal because I have a legitimate CD key on the side of my desktop computer's case. Of course, since the gods are against me, I don't have any DVDs. I also don't have my Mac OS X disk because I just moved to Portland, but it is getting sent to me. I really need to use Vista right this moment though.
So here's my question:
If I install Windows Vista on my Mac by using Parallels, as opposed to using Boot Camp (because I ONLY have the .iso file), will I be able to use Vista through Boot Camp after it is installed via Parallels? I am asking because after reading up on how to install Vista with Parallels it says you have to dedicate some of your RAM to using Vista. My Mac only has 2 gigs of RAM, so I'd have to dedicate at least half of that to using Vista. I really want to use all 2 gigs of RAM.
Sorry if this is long winded. This whole situation has me stressed out because the computer was perfectly fine until out of nowhere it crashed while I was playing BC2, and it frustrates me beyond all belief that the game crashed, then the computer crashed, which effectively fucked the entire computer up.
uberneko on
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If you want to play games on it you will have to install and run it with Boot Camp. Also you'll need your OSX disc because it has all the Macbook drivers on it
Is there any way Cyberpower can send me a recovery disk? I just moved 1500 miles away from my home and I don't have the money to buy a brand new copy of Vista when I have a perfectly good CD-key from a legally owned copy.
Short answer: No.
Long answer: This works if you do it the other way, as Parallels can run using a boot camp partition, but Boot Camp can't run using a Parallels virtual disk image.
Source: This is from this thread: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=299030 which might be a starting point for further research.
There's a few ways. You could burn the ISO you have, and it should work as long as it's just a virgin copy of windows with no OEM restore bullshit. If you are going to school, you may be able to get a free copy through the MSDN Academic Alliance. Go to the computer lab and ask the TA.
I don't know, you should probably call them
I have a Macbook ONLY for recording music (I'm an audio production major) so the only program I have on it, besides VERY basic programs like using Chrome instead of Safari, is Logic Studio 9. I have it this way so that I can fully utilize my hard drive space for many, many .wav files that can be up to or more than 1 GB in size, and so I can fully utilize the RAM I have in this computer. I would have gotten a Macbook Pro for this, but I did the best I could with the money I had, and so far it's working just fine. I used my desktop for everything else.
And thanks for the help guys. I'll try getting through to Cyberpower about getting a disk, but I am weary about calling a tech support line to be honest.
Or, if not, to shrink the existing NTFS partition (presuming the partition table isn't fucked) and then install a second Vista partition on your desktop.
(if your partition table is fucked, grab TestDisk and un-fuck it. Then install a second Vista system to a separate partition.)
Hmm, I DO have a 4GB memory stick somewhere here with me. I could put Vista onto that and then boot from it on my desktop computer? How do I go about doing that?
Then run as appropriate.
Then put your USB stick in your desktop and boot from it. You may have to go to your BIOS setup and switch the boot order around a bit (this varies from computer to computer).
After it boots, you should see the Install Windows menu; don't reinstall Windows just yet. Pick the Repair options and see whether it can automatically resurrect your boot file (like this). If it can't, then you need to whether your partition table got fried (one trick is to click Load Drivers near the beginning and see what drives it can see in My Computer! If not, use command prompt's diskpart).
What you do at this point depends on what you really want to achieve here - retrieve user data from your desktop, then nuke it and reinstall Vista (boot a linux distro of your choice, then mount your Vista partition and start moving files off to another partition or off to your Macbook or off to an external drive)? Or try to repair the Vista install (you'll need to tel us what's wrong)? Or install a new Vista system and postpone the repair process to a later date (shrink the current non-functional Vista partition using diskpart or a linux distro of your choice, then pop the Vista disk in and pick an advanced install)? etc.
One especially relevant consideration is how much free space you vaguely remember having on the desktop; if you had a mostly-empty disk then you can go with the last option and forget about the whole issue for the next year.
Also, if you don't already own Parallels there's a free option in VirtualBox, I highly recommend it. If you wanted to go the Boot Camp route to get better performance, since you own a license of OS X, you could get a retail iso the same way you got the Vista disc so you can use it to get drivers after the boot camp install.
Edit: While you're at all this burning of isos, grab Ubuntu so you can get any files off your desktop before you scrap, or try to reformat it.
Awesome! I'll definitely give this a try as soon as I can, thanks a lot!!
Also good luck with CyberPowerPC's support. They are notoriously horrid at responding.
But IANAL, so yeah. If in doubt, just use a Linux distro to get everything out first before nuking.
It's not illegal if he just installs Vista and uses the 30 day trial period - like it's been mentioned before there's about a 99% chance he won't be able to use whatever key he was using on his OEM install and having that activate. Still, just installing the trial gives him the software he needs and the time to sort things out.
Basically: did CyberPower sell you a manufacturer mass-installed Vista, or a separate license to install and use Vista? Manufacturer packaged Windows are activated using digital certificates and the same key across thousands of computers; individually licensed Windows have separate keys. In the former, without the digital certificate you'll out of luck.
Then google how to turn 2008 R2 into a workstation (there's a site dedicated to this), and when all that work is done you'll have an install with the same visual effects, security, and UI as Window's 7 (remember I said it's pretty much the same thing). The only noteworthy difference besides the initial work (which isn't much) is you have to be more selective with which anti-virus software you install (MSE won't work, niether will some other free ones - Avast or Avira might).
There's a good chance you can get a copy of Windows 7 for the $30 student price. If that's the case, the improvements of Windows 7 over Vista on top of all the complications with your Vista setup make it sound like it would be well worth your while to investigate.