Installing Windows - Boot Camp or manual and enabling NTFS write permissions

Hello everyone

I just bought a new MacBook Pro Mid 2012 15-inch non-retina model. I want to install Windows on my MacBook and I have a question. Should I do it through Boot Camp or manually? I also want to install Ubuntu which is not supported through Boot Camp. Is Ubuntu required on a Mac? All Linux features are the same on Mac right?

Coming to Windows, which path should I choose? And, I also want a bootloader which shows up without pressing the option button. And yeah, I forgot to add that I don't have Windows 7 on a CD but on a pen drive. I have made it a bootable disk.

My next question is how to enable write permissions for NTFS drives? When I connect my pen drive, it doesn't let me save anything. What are the various ways to enable write permissions? It will be great if I don't have to pay extra because I have already spent a fortune on the MacBook, MS Office for Mac and AppleCare.

Please help me out

And yeah MacBook rocks!! Such an awesome device!!

pratnala said:

I want to install Windows on my MacBook and I have a question. Should I do it through Boot Camp or manually?

Click to expand...

Use bootcamp.

I also want to install Ubuntu which is not supported through Boot Camp. Is Ubuntu required on a Mac? All Linux features are the same on Mac right?

Click to expand...

Ubuntu isn't required - no.
Which features do you need in Linux in particular?
There are ways of installing Ubuntu but I wouldn't start down that path unless you have a need to.

Coming to Windows, which path should I choose?

Click to expand...

Not quite sure what you mean by this

And, I also want a bootloader which shows up without pressing the option button.

Click to expand...

rEFIt will do this, but again, I'd exercise caution. Ask yourself if you really need this and read up carefully/backup before you make these kind of changes.

And yeah, I forgot to add that I don't have Windows 7 on a CD but on a pen drive. I have made it a bootable disk.

Click to expand...

From Apple's Windows 7 install guide:
You may be able to install Windows 7 with a USB flash drive that contains a Windows 7 ISO
image downloaded from Microsoft. To check whether you can do so, open Boot Camp
Assistant, click Continue, and see if the option “Create a Windows 7 install disk” is available.
To install Windows 7 with a USB flash drive, you need the following:
- An ISO image of Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate downloaded
from Microsoft.
- A USB flash drive with 4 GB or more.
Boot Camp Assistant erases the flash drive, and copies to it the Windows 7 ISO
image and software drivers that let Windows work with your Mac hardware
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/boot_camp_install-setup_10.7.pdf

My next question is how to enable write permissions for NTFS drives? When I connect my pen drive, it doesn't let me save anything. What are the various ways to enable write permissions? It will be great if I don't have to pay extra because I have already spent a fortune on the MacBook, MS Office for Mac and AppleCare.

Click to expand...

There are free alternatives. But I'd suggest that for $20 Paragon NTFS is the most robust and reliable solution.

mrplow said:

Use bootcamp.


Ubuntu isn't required - no.
Which features do you need in Linux in particular?
There are ways of installing Ubuntu but I wouldn't start down that path unless you have a need to.


Not quite sure what you mean by this


rEFIt will do this, but again, I'd exercise caution. Ask yourself if you really need this and read up carefully/backup before you make these kind of changes.


From Apple's Windows 7 install guide:
You may be able to install Windows 7 with a USB flash drive that contains a Windows 7 ISO
image downloaded from Microsoft. To check whether you can do so, open Boot Camp
Assistant, click Continue, and see if the option “Create a Windows 7 install disk” is available.
To install Windows 7 with a USB flash drive, you need the following:
- An ISO image of Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate downloaded
from Microsoft.
- A USB flash drive with 4 GB or more.
Boot Camp Assistant erases the flash drive, and copies to it the Windows 7 ISO
image and software drivers that let Windows work with your Mac hardware
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/boot_camp_install-setup_10.7.pdf


There are free alternatives. But I'd suggest that for $20 Paragon NTFS is the most robust and reliable solution.

Click to expand...

I'm a computer science student so they tell us we have to use Linux mostly for coding because of compatibility. Will OSX handle everything?

Also, from windows, will I be able to write to the mac partition or do I need a software again for that?

Instead of Paragon, what are the other solutions? I read there are command line solutions. What are they and are they safe?

And will Apple support Windows 8 through Boot Camp when it releases?

As far as Windows writing to Mac partitions you will need additional software for that such as HFS for Windows - file system driver | PARAGON Software Group. There are other programs someone else will have to comment on their reliability. When I am in Windows I am usually writing to a FAT 32 volume that the Mac and Windows both read/write to.

There is some command line geekery to enable NTFS write support but I have seen numerous reports of unreliability also. I'm sure some someone has more experience with that than I do.

One free option Home - FUSE for OS X

I could be wrong but I don't see Apple dropping support for for Camping Windows. There'd have to be some good reason for it.

Writing to a FAT32 volume makes sense for me.

After installing Windows through Boot Camp, can I see the Mac partition in Windows Explorer?

pratnala said:

Writing to a FAT32 volume makes sense for me.

After installing Windows through Boot Camp, can I see the Mac partition in Windows Explorer?

Click to expand...

Windows 7 and 8 can only be installed to a NTFS partition. Also keep in mind that FAT-32 is limited in how large the file size can be. (~4 GB) And Windows will refuse to create a FAT-32 partition greater than 32 GB.

A Mac (HFS+) partition can be seen from the Windows Explorer, however, Windows is unable to read or write to it without a third party driver as recommended by Slydude.

Can't Windows even read files from the HFS+ partition? Most of my files are small so I can use the FAT32 partition as a temporary place. Is there any freeware just to read HFS files? The thing is $20 might not be much for you but when you convert it to Indian rupees, it is a lot.

Sorry, I don't know of any free ware app that would allow Windows to read and write to a HFS + partition.

However, if you install Windows on your Mac using virtual software, the sharing capability of the VM allows read and write access both ways. VirtualBox from Oracle is free. Here is the download LINK. You would still need a valid copy of Windows 7.

Now if I buy Paragon, will I get free updates or do I have to pay for every future version as well?

Ask Paragon Forums.

I just installed Windows via Boot Camp. It is working brilliantly. There is one issue though. At startup, how many ever times I press the option key, it doesn't give me an option which OS to boot into. Am I doing something wrong?

You just hold it down on startup until the options appear

You must also hold down the Option key right after hearing the startup "bong"sound. If you wait even a little too long the machine will move on to your startup drive.

Is rEFit reliable? mrplow has scared me with respect to rEFit

Yes, rEFIt is reliable. However, it can be daunting to setup and get working right. It takes a bit of experimentation with its configuration file before it will behave the way you wish. The configuration file is in plain text so it's fairly easy to edit and make changes to.

pratnala said:

Is rEFit reliable? mrplow has scared me with respect to rEFit

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Wasn't my intention to scare!

It's just that when you start using tools that can manipulate partitions and disks at a low level you need to understand the tool and it's options.
A bit of time beforehand reading up on the tool and what it does and how, will be time well spent and much better than your next post being headed " used rEFIt and now can't boot into OSX"

mrplow said:

Wasn't my intention to scare!

It's just that when you start using tools that can manipulate partitions and disks at a low level you need to understand the tool and it's options.
A bit of time beforehand reading up on the tool and what it does and how, will be time well spent and much better than your next post being headed " used rEFIt and now can't boot into OSX"

Click to expand...

Now I get it! Any link you would recommend to read up about rEFit?

Moved thread to the proper forum. Getting too large to leave in Switcher as it really belongs here in the "Running Windows......." forum.

Best place to read about rEFIt is on their home page. LINK You'll find installation instructions and a user manual.

I read the installation instructions on this link for rEFit rEFIt - Documentation - Installing rEFIt and installed it. But no bootloader on startup yet. I have to still hold the option key if I want to boot into Windows which is not my default. Did I do anything wrong?