why do I need bootcamp?!

I've just got a very general question about bootcamp here; what is it? At first I thought it must just be a program that allows you to choose between os's, that being the end of it. I have windows 2000 and xp installed on my pc, and on start up it gives me the option, thats it, and I assumed thats what this bootcamp thing did. But I've been reading about peoples problems with hard disk access being slow, and this and that etc..., and people have been saying 'its bootcamp not having the right driver' and stuff like that.

I'm simply not getting it, why cant windows simply be installed? End of. Why must it be sp2 that you install, why wont my old version run? Surely you're just installing another operating system on a hard drive of a computer with standard bits in it?!

I hope you can see my question in all that terrable english. Obviously when my mac pro arrives in a few days I'll have to go down this bootcamp route, but I like to know whats going on in my computer!

thanks

Cam said:

Obviously when my mac pro arrives in a few days I'll have to go down this bootcamp route, but I like to know whats going on in my computer!

thanks

Click to expand...

Why would you obviously need to install Windows? I haven't really been able to find anyting that I do in Windows that I can't do on the Mac.
If you have some more questions as to the why of BootCamp, check out Apple's official BootCamp FAQ's:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303572

Macs use the new EFI system, instead of the antiquated BIOS found in most PC's.

Neither Windows XP or Windows Vista support efi though, so Apple created Boot camp to enable them to be installed anyway.

But the boot camp utility can also burn the specific drivers windows needs to recognize your mac's hardware, that's why you'll see references to "Boot camp's drivers".


All driver issues have been solved now though with the latest boot camp update.

Cam said:

I'm simply not getting it, why cant windows simply be installed? End of. Why must it be sp2 that you install, why wont my old version run? Surely you're just installing another operating system on a hard drive of a computer with standard bits in it?!

Click to expand...

Hi Cam,

I understand your frustration but really it's great for Windows users that they have this functionality with the new intel macs.

Windows XP SP2 is the current OS and therefore earlier versions with only SP1 will not be able to be installed with Boot Camp.

Below is an article you might find interesting. It covers the steps you need to create the latest version of the Windows OS:

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sp2_slipstream.asp