I'm most interested in a smaller model though, so I have to wait regardless. Even if we don't get Blu-ray drives by the time Merom is incorporated into MacBook Pros, in the very least we'll have 8X DVD-R support as well as dual-layer support. Moreover, Boot Camp and Parallels' Workstation both will be improved by then, and Apple's pro line of laptops may just have Blu-ray drives as well available as an option. By the time Merom is introduced later this year there will be even more Universal Binaries available for the platform and hopefully by then all of the issues with the current MacBook Pros will have been worked out. I would recommend waiting for a Merom version if you can. All reboots went directly into Windows setup and I hardly remembered that I was doing all of this on a Mac. With the partition formatted (a quick format works just fine), the rest of the Windows install proceeded as normal. The benefit to using a FAT32 partition is that the partition will be read and write accessible from within OS X if you create a NTFS partition you'll only be able to read from it in OS X, you won't be able to write to it. I selected the 10GB partition I had created earlier and chose to format it as a FAT partition (Windows setup forced FAT32 because of the size of the partition, although listing FAT). The only thing to pay attention to here is that you want to make sure you format and install to the right partition, as they aren't labeled. If all you've got is a SP1 disc then you'll have to create a slipstreamed version with SP2 yourself.Īfter the reboot I was dropped into the very familiar Windows XP setup process, which from this point on behaved entirely as normal. The Boot Camp assistant warns that you must have a Windows XP SP2 disc (either Home or Professional), a SP1 disc will not work. With the partition created and my Windows XP SP2 disc in the drive, it was time to reboot and start the installation. Amazingly enough, the repartitioning only took about 2 minutes. The repartitioning is non-destructive so your OS X installation, applications and documents are safe. If you actually plan on using the Windows partition on a regular basis for applications and games you may want to make it even larger (as well as opt for the larger 120GB drive). Boot Camp comes with its own partitioning utility, and it requires a minimum of 6GB set aside for your Windows partition I chose 10, but you can select whatever you'd like. ![]() Unfortunately it's impossible for you to get the Boot Camp assistant to run on a non-Intel Mac so your only hope for creating the driver disc is on your MacBook Pro or if you have another Intel based Mac laying around.Īfter burning the driver CD it's time to start the actual installation process. The assistant prompted me for a blank CD so it can burn all the drivers I'd need onto that disc. With the firmware updated I ran the Boot Camp assistant once more and now I was ready to begin. When it's done you're greeted with a ridiculously loud beep and then the system reboots and works as normal. Once the front LED starts flashing the firmware update begins and you'll see a grey screen with a progress bar at the bottom of it. You are then told to hold down the power button until the front power LED starts flashing. The firmware update gives you very little feedback or information as to what's going on: you run the program and it shuts down your MacBook Pro. I'm not sure if this is because of the switch to Intel or something else entirely. Interestingly enough, the process is different on the MacBook Pro than upgrading firmware was on my PowerBook G4 and PowerMac G5 those two machines simply updated their firmware through OS X's Software Update utility, whereas the MacBook Pro requires you to go out and download the firmware update on your own. Given that my MacBook Pro was an earlier revision (Rev C) it didn't have the updated firmware so I had to download and install it before proceeding. After mounting the Boot Camp image and running the installer I was told that I needed to update my firmware before proceeding with the installation. The Boot Camp setup process is extremely straightforward, and a lot easier than even I expected it to be. Apple announced that Boot Camp would be shipping with the next version of Mac OS X (10.5), codename Leopard, but until then we've got this free public beta. It's rare that you can make a single upgrade and experience such a noticeable increase in performance, but as I mentioned at the beginning of this article, the MacBook Pro has a couple of features that make it even more enticing.Īpple released the first public beta of Boot Camp, an application that allows you to install Windows XP SP2 on your Intel based Mac. ![]() The slightly redesigned exterior, integrated iSight and performance improvements are more than enough to make the MacBook Pro stand on its own.
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