Boot Camp Virgin - First Post - Specific Questions

hey yall,


some time lurker, first time poster. (I did read the stickies!)

A long while back I used to be a PC maniac.
By a long while I mean back when XP roamed the earth,
and by maniac I mean I built my own gaming rig.
That was 6 years ago...an eternity in technology times.

Since then I've gone 100% Apple and I love it! Best choice ever!
But I do miss some of the games...
so. Bootcamp.

I want to install Windows on my Macbook Pro 2.3 i5 with 4 GB of RAM and OS 10.7.
I'll do the backup and partition routine first.
My questions are:

- Is my MacBook decent enough for what I want to do?
- Should I upgrade to Mountain Lion first? (Any good reasons to, or not to?)
- How often does a major disaster happen during a partitioning? Like a full blown reinstall the OS and go get all your backups disaster?
- What version of Windows is the most compatible and stable with BootCamp?

The games I want to play are mostly XP era:
- Free Lancer (old Space sim)
- RealFlight G4 (RC flight sim)
- SimCity
- World of Tanks (friends play and it looks awesome.)
The last one, World of Tanks, is newer, so I think Win 7 is more of a good match.
But I remember that Vista was a major PITA with XP apps and games, so I'm curious if 7 is a good bet for older games.

Thanks in advance for the info!

(1.) You need to look at the system requirements of the games you wish to play and see if your hardware meets them.

(2.) I recommend keeping your system up to date. Right now that includes upgrading to ML. But, that's up to you.

(3.) The number 1 problem installing Windows on a Mac is user error.
They install Windows on their OS X partition instead of their Boot Camp partition, thus requiring a reinstall of OS X and starting all over again.

Step 1:
Open Boot Camp Assistant
Print the Boot Camp Installation and Set up guide
Read it

You will have a step by step walkthrough and (4.) learn which version of Windows your version of Boot Camp Assistant requires.

thanks!

Hey Bob,


thanks for the tips!
I did find this:
Using Boot Camp to install Windows 7 on your Mac: The Complete Walkthrough - Simple Help

And it looks like a legit walk through.
For the games being mostly XP era, my hardware is far above and beyond the minimums.

I've been thinking about upgrading to Mountain Lion, and outside of sheer stinginess about my
iTunes gift card I can't see a good reason not to.

So the odds of a catastrophic mess are lessened if one simply installs Boot Camp correctly on the
correct partition?
Is making the partition a risky deal? I might start this process today methinks...
the walk through has given me some hope.

Even though that is a fairly good walkthrough - you should still open the Boot Camp Assistant on "your" computer, print and read the directions for "your" computer.

As always - While I have not heard of problems related to solely creating the partition - I do not recommend anyone go about playing with the partitions on their drive - even with Boot Camp - until after you have backed up your drive.

sounds good! I will definitely do that...
I have no desire for this thing to get messed up.
Thanks again Bob!