OS X, Win XP, and my Inspiron hard drive

[mrcqm]

Originally Posted by New2Macs

So far, though, I do finally see the advantages of Mac ownership, though I do have a hard time seeing myself as becoming "rabid" about this machine as some Mac users tend to be (no disrespect intended, I promise, just in case...LOL) Each system does seem to have advantages - I am just one of those greedy souls that seem to want the best of both worlds.

I have become a "power user" at best in the Windows world whereas at one point I was on the MCSE track for Windows 2000. Within a few months of my purchase of a Mac Mini G4 for a very specific purpose (digital darkroom) I pretty much abandoned the Windows platform altogether. Today I use Windows only when an app or a necessary web site requires it.

Here's a few pointers:
There is a learning curve. By trying to force yourself to learn the "new way" as opposed to always defaulting to a Windows VM, you'll make that learning curve far easier to overcome.
In Windows if you want to look up a particular photo, you'll typically go to the folder that photo is in, scroll through the files within that folder, and open the one you need. In a Mac, while you certainly could do it that way, it's typically easier to view photos simply as photos. Let iPhoto or Aperture manage them. If you're using Leopard (I believe you are but am too lazy to scroll through this post to know for sure) any time you use the file open dialog box you'll see all of your photos right there. The same is true for movies, audio clips, etc. Let media be thought of as media and it'll be far easier to locate what you need than thinking of them simply as files. Hard to explain exactly what I mean by that; hopefully that wasn't gibberish.
Ask questions. Lots of help is available.

Regarding "best of both worlds".... VMware is a great solution that is used in production systems of many of the world's largest companies. By running Windows within a VM you can easily create backup copies and clones of your Windows environment.

[mmkerc]

Regarding dual booting or using VMware Fusion I think you will find that you cannot tell the difference. That has been my experience using Parallels (similar to Fusion). I am interested in finding out how the performance of the dual core 2.2 compares to the single core 3.2 so please post after a while of using it what your conclusion is.

[New2Macs]

Someone on this forum suggested I look at Ramjet for memory in my Mac Pro. I was impressed with the quality of the memory they shipped me as well as their excellent customer service.

Crucial was cheaper (for now), so I'll probably go with them. I used their scantool to make sure that I was checking out the right type, but the budget says that I should probably wait for a bit. If the insurance company does right by me and pays for the Dell (replacement coverage is the *only* way to go) then I'll have my handy plastic card out faster than you can say "overnight shipping for $12.99" - LOL.

There is a learning curve. By trying to force yourself to learn the "new way" as opposed to always defaulting to a Windows VM, you'll make that learning curve far easier to overcome.

Yes, there is. I saw a very similar advisement on another forum, and I've tried very hard to take it heart. My biggest issue so far has been the keyboard, believe it or not. Part of it has been getting used to the different key sizes and part of it because of a very interesting delay that this Mac has: when I suddenly decide to start typing something such as a URL, I've had issues with the first letter not appearing. I don't know how many times I've gotten 404 errors over ww.whatever.com

My time has been divided between OS systems, but the ajority of it has been spent in VM getting everything transferred over from the Dell HD to this one (speaking of learning curves, not an easy task). I finally, happily, have my myriad bookmarks firmly settled in Firefox, a password manager with all of my passwords squared away, and most of my preferences established. I do have one semi-serious issue that I must resolve, but that's a topic for another post if I can't find the answer myself.

My greatest loss in a Mac world is that I will seriously miss the software that came with my EOS 400D and CS2. There is some info on the Canon site about how to manage without it, but I haven't had time to examine it closely enough yet. Fusion will get me through just fine for now, though, and you are right - I haven't seen a significant different between dual boot and VM.

Slightly OT: CS2 runs faster on this Mac than it did on my Dell 3.2 / 3ghz (or was it 4ghz? Can't boot to tell and too disinterested to crack the case again - ha). I don't have all of the plug-ins installed yet, but I don't know if that matters past the initial program boot, anyway. It launches very cleanly and offers very smooth operation, and that is a very big relief to me. I know I had a noticeable amount of drag on the pc because Symantec is such a memory hog. There were far too many times that my processor would lock up because of a Symantec process utilizing 95% of available resources, but Trend Micro let a nasty through on my desktop last spring, so I didn't feel like I had a lot of choice. Oh well.

Well, I'm off to do a search for Bootcamp issues, and if I can't find the answer I need, then I will be back with a new post sooner than I planned.

MCSE track for Windows, eh? Impressive and an impressive switch.

[mmkerc]

Regarding your keyboard issue try checking your system preferences in particular the universal access system preferences as that has a selection for "slow keys".

[New2Macs]

That seems to have fixed it for the most part.
Every so often I will still end up with a missing first letter, but once in a while is live-withable.

FYI: The bootcamp issue was not something that I could find specifically addressed on the web, but it is very probable that I was not putting the right info into Google.

Anyway, after my initial install of XP, I used bootcamp to delete the partition that it had made, a process that was surprisingly fast and easy. On boot after that, however, my machine kept trying to boot into the XP partition, giving me the error message that there was no bootable disk. (Booting with the option key allowed me to choose the Mac drive, especially since it was the only option listed. ?)

After searching unsuccessfully for this problem being addressed, I remembered something else that I had read where you could go into the system prefs and set your boot disk there. I did that, and I haven't had a problem since.

You probably already knew how to deal with something like this, but I thought that I would share just in case it might help you help someone else later.

Thanks again for all of your help.

[mmkerc]

What is it you are trying to do with your Canon camera/photos? I used the 300D/Rebel and have switched long ago to using iPhoto/Aperture/Photoshop for all of my photo needs.

[mrcqm]

I've seen the issue you describe regarding Bootcamp giving a "can't find the Windows partition" error. How did you erase the Bootcamp partition? Did you do so through the Bootcamp Assistant by choosing "revert to Mac OS partition" (or whatever it is it says – that's not exact)?

I saw that error when I aborted a Vista install halfway through. The problem was resolved by repairing my OS X volume. Do this in Disk Utility. You'll probably have to do it by booting from your install DVD. It's very quick.

[New2Macs]

What is it you are trying to do with your Canon camera/photos? I used the 300D/Rebel and have switched long ago to using iPhoto/Aperture/Photoshop for all of my photo needs.
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I have CS2 - but it's for Windows, and Aperture isn't in the budget. I use the EOS downloader first, then Zoombrowser to convert the .raw files. I do a good deal of my edits in ZB as I try to keep it simple: adjust exposure, white balance, standard vs. landscape mode, etc. I know CS2 does raw, but the interface was more complex and the program itself so much more memory intensive than what I needed for those basic edits.

Here's the deal with the Bootcamp problem:
I created my Windows partition, did my install with XP Home Service Pack I, etc. Realized my fatigue-induced error. Launched OS X then bootcamp. Since I had already partitioned, I got a different menu than before - this time, one of my options was to delete the XP partition. I chose that and everything was undone in a flash. So far, so good.

Installed Fusion. Loaded XP Pro service pack 2. Installed various software packages, then shut 'er down and went away for a while. Booted up and got the gray screen. Panicked briefly, then rebooted holding down the option key. Launched bootcamp, but all it offered was to make another Windows partition. Launched disk utility, and it confirmed that I only had one partition. Launched Fusion again, and it asked which partition I wanted to boot to. (???)

At this point, I figured maybe Fusion was picking up on some sort of file ghosting*, so I ran disk utility again and told it to make a permanent (secure) erase of all deleted files. Once it finished that, then I rebooted, thoroughly expecting a clean boot. It hung again, so after pondering for a bit, I remembered someone mentioning the option of being able to choose our boot disk. I found that, set it to the hard drive, and rebooted cleanly into X. I then launched Fusion, and was only offered XP as an alternative instead of XP or "Bootcamp Partition".

Sorry if this was particularly windy as I suspect this may have been more than you wanted to read, but since I don't know what info is relevant, really, I figured it was better to over-answer and let you do the sifting than omit what might have been important.



*probably not an legitimate computing term

[mrcqm]

Hmm... Open Disk Utility, select the disk that's doing that, and click "validate" (might not say exactly that but it'll be close).

Any errors? If so, repair by booting from the OS X install disc. That really should not happen.

[New2Macs]

Validate didn't do anything, and it wouldn't boot from my install disk (thus the source of the momentary panic - LOL).

I tried the disk utility verify and restore before I tried the secure erase. They didn't do anything either.

(I guess I left out that part.)

[mmkerc]

You might want to try iPhoto it will download directly from your camera or compact flash, and will let you make the adjustments you mentioned. It should already be loaded on your computer as part of iLife.

Regarding your ongoing windows saga I want to point out for clarity that Fusion and Bootcamp are two independent programs and do not interact.

Your startup disk is set in System Preferences or at startup by pressing the "Option" key. It (startup disk) remains selected until changed again. Therefore if you selected to startup from Bootcamp it will remain your startup disk until you switch back to Mac OS.

You cannot startup in Fusion, you can startup in the Mac OS and have Fusion open at startup. The Fusion windows partition is different from the Bootcamp windows partition.

Don't mean to preach but I was getting confused as to which partition you are checking.

[New2Macs]

Originally Posted by mmkerc

Regarding your ongoing windows saga I want to point out for clarity that Fusion and Bootcamp are two independent programs and do not interact.

Your startup disk is set in System Preferences or at startup by pressing the "Option" key. It (startup disk) remains selected until changed again. Therefore if you selected to startup from Bootcamp it will remain your startup disk until you switch back to Mac OS.

You cannot startup in Fusion, you can startup in the Mac OS and have Fusion open at startup. The Fusion windows partition is different from the Bootcamp windows partition.

Don't mean to preach but I was getting confused as to which partition you are checking.

Now *I* am confused... Let me see if I can clarify.

I mentioned Fusion not because I thought that it was a partition or that there was any degree of interaction between bootcamp and VM - however, the Fusion launch screen is the only place on this system where the bootcamp partition is still listed as present.

In other words, I can't find another partition in disk utility or anywhere else, but when I launch Fusion, it asks me if I prefer to launch XP or launch the bootcamp sector. (Interestingly, the bootcamp option only shows up intermittently in Fusion.)

Backtracking.....
Now back to the "real" boot problem - when I turned the machine on after partitioning it, it booted to Windows automatically. No problem. Then I deleted the Win partition, and my Macbook *still* tried to boot to Windows - only that partition wasn't there anymore, so I got the white screen. (now insert the stuff about trying disk utility, sidetracking notes about Fusion, and finally figuring out to specify which disk to boot to, even though there was only one disk to choose from.)

Is that better? I really was trying hard to be clear, but it sounds like I did a miserable job (sigh).

PS - My Mac defaulted to boot to the Windows partition each time, no matter which partition I chose the last time. For instance if I turned the machine on, pressed the option key and chose to boot to the Mac OS, the next time I turned it on and didn't press anything, it would still boot to the Windows partition - even when it wasn't there any more. *That'* what led me into all of this.


I've been playing around with iPhoto - that was a good suggestion. Thanks.

[mmkerc]

Okay, I understand I think

I made a bad assumption. I use Parallels (it came out first) not Fusion and was unaware the Fusion lets you startup from a bootcamp partition if you have one.

To remove the bootcamp partition from your drive you need to use Bootcamp Assistant and select "Restore startup disk to single volume". Full details can be found here.
Fusion maybe "seeing" the Bootcamp your hard drive as two volumes even though disk utility is seeing only one.

This might also be the cause of the computer still trying to startup from the old windows partition. Final question, have you tried to set the startup disk from System Preferences in the Mac OS?

[New2Macs]

<insert huge grin here>

Yep, that's about what happened and what I did.

You just cut the explanation way, way down.

I guess I got excited because I figured it out all by myself and had to share.

You know how (especially new) people get sometimes.

I bet if you glanced back over all of that blah, blah, blah it will all make sense now.