Accessing Mac OS...

[The Wreck]

Here's the deal; I've got an iMac that I bought from a friend. It is running Windows XP Pro and Mac OS. It is currently configured to automatically boot into Windows (unfortunately).

My questions are:

1.) How do I access Mac OS?
2.) Can it be configured to give me a choice on every startup?
3.) Can both OS's run simultaneously and can they be toggled?

Thanks for any help. I really want to familiarize myself with Mac OS again (it's been about six years) and at the moment it's very frustrating knowing it's in there and I can't get to it!

Jamie.

[cwa107]

Here's the deal; I've got an iMac that I bought from a friend. It is running Windows XP Pro and Mac OS. It is currently configured to automatically boot into Windows (unfortunately).

My questions are:

1.) How do I access Mac OS?
2.) Can it be configured to give me a choice on every startup?
3.) Can both OS's run simultaneously and can they be toggled?

Thanks for any help. I really want to familiarize myself with Mac OS again (it's been about six years) and at the moment it's very frustrating knowing it's in there and I can't get to it!

Jamie.

1) When you first turn it on, hold the Option key down to select the OS.
2) It works in the manner described above.
3) Yes, with so-called virtualization software like VMWare Fusion or Parallels Desktop. They both run around $80, but won't require an OS reinstall since they can both tap into your existing Boot Camp partition.

[Lifeisabeach]

2.) Can it be configured to give me a choice on every startup?

Pick up this nifty little app called rEFIt and you won't have to remember to hold down the OPTION key to pick an OS to boot into. You'll automatically get a menu to choose from when booting. And a prettier, colorful one at that.

BTW... if you want to change the default OS to OS X, open up System Preferences, click Startup Disk, and select your OS X volume.