Step by step guide on how to install Windows 7 via Boot Camp on your Mac

It is very well known fact, Apple produces excellent quality of hardwares. Microsoft Windows 7 is a fantastic operating system. How about if you want to install Windows 7 on a Mac?

It is possible, and from our personal experience, it runs fine too. It is fully legal, if the copy of Windows 7 is genuine.

Apple has an update for Boot Camp, follow the instructions below: it has added support for Windows 7 and fixed the problem of audio input of Macbooks.

For this we need:

• USB Keyboard and Mouse, or the integrated, in the case of laptops / Macbook.
• Snow Leopard Installation DVD, which contains the required drivers for Windows.
• An original copy of Microsoft Windows 7. If you have a Mac Pro or Macbook Pro of early 2008, you could use a 64-bit version, but for everyone else only 32 bit is recommended.
• We recommend having more than 20GB of hard disk (internal, Windows will not boot from an external hard drive) free to do the partition later.
• Download Boot Camp Update 3.1 for 32-bit or 64-bit and save it in a USB flash drive for later use. Check this link from Apple.

Lets get started
Step 1: Run Boot Camp Assistant:

On the desktop, go to the “Go” and then “Utilities.” Inside the folder open the wizard.

a) In the introduction screen click “Continue.” Further instructions are there, so it is not necessary to print the manual.

b) In this window you will see that much space to leave the Windows partition, it depends on you. Just move the point in between the 2 icons for Mac and Windows to your liking. When you’re ready, click “Partition.”

c) Once this is finished, you’ll see a disk icon on the desktop, called Bootcamp. Do not touch it. Know that at this  moment it is FAT, but the Windows installation will make as NTFS.

(For the starters, NTFS is Microsoft’s propitiatory format, just like Mac OS Journaled )

d) Put the Windows installation disc and click “Start Installation.” Your Mac will reboot, but will not enter into OS X, but boot from the installation disc and start loading the files needed for setup. If by some chance you get to restart in OS X, open the wizard again, set “start Windows Setup” again and before restart, before entering the Mac press the Option (or Alt) and select the alternative.

Step 2: Installing Windows 7

Boot from Windows 7 disk, select your language, accept the license agreement, and select “Setup customization.” Follow:

a) When you reach the window “Where to install Windows?” choose partition “BOOTCAMP”. It is important to select that and no other, but can cause a serious problem with the booting in Mac OS X:

b) Click on “Drive Options (Advanced)”, press “format” and accept the warning. Ready! we have the disk in NTFS format now. You should know that since Mac can not write (read only) data in the Bootcamp partition, but Windows itself can read and write data to the Mac partition.

c) Click “Next” and we’ll be installing Windows. Your Mac will reboot sometime, and it is normal to start in the Windows disk, but if you do not be alarmed, you should be get alarmed when it will restart,  press “Option” and select the Windows disk to continue with the installation.

Step 3: Installing Boot Camp Drivers

When the installation is complete Windows operating system will remain as primary OS, but it will reverse later, for now, let:

a) Once in Windows 7, you will see all no major drivers are installed, be sure to change the screen resolution and insert the installation disc of Mac OS X.

b) If you have the Snow Leopard DVD, go to Start, Computer and navigate to the folder Boot Camp. It runs the file “Setup.exe” and after opening continues with the installation. For changes to take effect you must restart. If you have downloaded the drivers from elsewhere, insert the DVD you burned and install the drivers from there.

c) After rebooting, run the Update Wizard Boot Camp 3.1. That should get everything running perfectly.

Step 4: Let Mac be your primary operating system:

As said earlier, Windows will remain as the primary OS; to reverse it you need to these steps:

a) To the right of the taskbar in Windows 7 there will be a black square icon, which is Boot Camp, right click and set “Control Panel Boot Camp.” It selects the Mac OS X disk and restart. When you do boot into the Mac by default, unless you press Alt and select Windows.

We have properly configured Windows 7 in our Mac and  make it clear we will be updating the guide to more problems as they arise, but we honestly do not think such condition will arise.

For those who getting black screenn of death, follow this KB article from Apple: support.apple.com