is vista stable through bootcamp?

i am planning on getting a MBP and i want to install vista on it. does vista run stably on mac or are there problems with it and should get XP instead?

 

No, there's no problems. It runs like it should!

 

i just installed vista yesterday through bootcamp! it was a painless process... i thought i would run into some problems but i didnt!

vista seems to be stable. it runs just like any other vista machine out there for all that i can see. before installing vista, bootcamp will burn a cd with all the necessary windows drivers for you! its pretty neat!

good luck!

 

It should run the same on an Apple laptop as it runs on any other laptop. They all have the same hardware (Core 2 Duos, Intel chipsets, etc.)

 

Wasn't that before Leopard? Are they still doing that?
Now it's just the Leopard DVD you have to stick in after you've installed Windows, and install the drivers...

 

I have Vista on my MBP and it runs very well. The Windows Experience Index utility that's in it rates it very high... higher than my desktop rating even (lowest sub-score was 5.2 with the hard-drive that I have - 5400 RPM).

Boot Camp's driver's are very good, but if you intend to maximize the video card's performance in XP or Vista then grab the drivers from www.laptopvideo2go.com.

The only downside is that running Vista on the MBP tends to drain the battery a bit faster than if you were running Mac OSX. For example, I average 4 hours when in OSX with the wireless on. In Vista, the battery drains in about 3 hours with the wireless on and same medium screen brightness.

Also, when running Vista the MBP's under-side gets hot. Fortunately you can get SMC Fan Control to tune up the fans to run at a minimum of 3000 RPM's instead of 2000 to keep things cool.

 

oops yes i guess it is! i dont have leopard yet.. so i had to use the tiger boot camp version

 

Yeah, Vista runs perfectly.

 

I've got Vista x64 installed on my MacBook and XP on my MBA. Both run fine without any stability issues.

 

Vista runs perfectly on my MBP with only one exception... The audio driver is pretty bad. When you have the volume low, there is a constant static noise. The only solution is to mute the sound and pray for a decent driver update.

If anyone knows a fix for this, you will have my sincere gratitude!

 

is it true that bootcamp limits windows to only 32GB, and it its true is there any way to get rid of the limiter?

 

short answer: not true, there is no limiter, and therefore no need to get rid of it.

the 32 GB problem in detail:

normally, and ideally, a modern windows installation is based on the ntfs file system. the ntfs file system is a GOOD file system, allowing for large windows installations (well above 32GB) and also large single files (well above 4GB). it also gives good performance.

alternatively, you CAN install windows using the fat32 file system. the fat32 file system is older, less robust, slower, and has some strict limitations: the windows installation itself (sometimes called the partition) cannot exceed 32GB. Also- single files have a maximum size of 4GB. this can lead to a variety of problems and therefore is not recommended, although it is an option.

The only catch is that the OSX operating system can read and write to a fat32 partition, whereas it can only read (not write) to an ntfs partition.

you will actually get the choice, when installing windows, between ntfs and fat32. obviously, you should pick ntfs, and you MUST pick ntfs if you have chosen to give the windows a partition larger than 32GB. there is free software available that will allow you to write to the ntfs partition.

all that means is that when you boot into osx, you will see the windows hard drive. if you want to be able to put files on that hard drive from osx, you won't be able to do it without some extra software. windows can't see the osx hard drive at ALL out of the box, but again, there is 3rd party software that will allow you to overcome that.

 

Nice explanation. +rep