i wanna get a mac but can i dual boot it with vista? and how do i do it?

Answer 1

If you run Parallels ($79), you can run both operating systems at the same time - and even copy and paste from applications in one OS to apps in the other OS. Boot Camp (free) will allow you to select which OS you want to start up with.

Answer 2

Hello,

(ANS) YES! Thats entirely possible from a purely technical point of view provided your hardware matches the system requirements for both Vista & MAC OS X.

The way I would do this would be to have a large hard disk drive and to partition the drive into x2. You would install MS Windows Vista as your "primary" OS & that would leave you with a blank or empty partition remaining onto which you could install MAC OS X.

**Once Vista is installed you would need to look for or find a file in the root folder (in the root of C:\ ) called boot.ini.

**You can edit the boot.ini file to include the Mac OS as your secondary OS.

**Once you have edited the boot.ini you should then get a boot menu which then allows you to select which OS you want to run at start up, select the OS & it should load as required.

**Boot.ini can be edited with wordpad or notepad.

**Make a backup copy of boot.ini just incase you make an error. That way you can undo any mistakes in the editing process until you have it just right.

**But you will need to understand how to edit the boot.ini file, its NOT difficult if you already understand what a path statement is & how it works.

**Do bear in mind that MS Vista uses NTFS file system were as MAC OS X used the HPS (high performance file system).

They may not neccessarily be able to read & write files across the different OS systems. In other words files on one disk may be read only?? You need to check out how NTFS & HPS work together so you know!! BEFORE you install a duel boot system.

Best Regards IR
(10yrs+ in the computer industry, MCSE trained).

Answer 3

Yes you could run windows. I'm not sure if its up to windows vista yet but on mine I have xp. just buy the software and upload it to your mac.