[7891]

I am in a Computer Club with 23 computers, but only 9 are Macs. It is time to replace computers and I advocate buying all Macs and using Bootcamp for Vista so a class could boot up in either OS depending on the subject. The officers are PC people and almost convinced the Vista side will be trouble free for a class on Vista and its software. They went to Apple Store for a demo. The tech said for some reason their attempt to boot in Vista caused a crash and they could not figure out why. The officers are spooked. My Question??. Has any one had any problems with Vista on Bootcamp and booting up either one way or the other? I need some reassurance.
I note on one thread a statement that the PC side on Bootcamp cannot see an external hard drive on a USB port. Is that true? I have no trouble on my IMac (with XP) with USB flash drives, but have not tried an External HD. Please advise. Thanks

[Typhoon14]

No problems at all, and no issues with external USB or FireWire drives. My University deploys a similar setup with dual-booting Macs serving all needs on a large scale, and it works quite well.

[Quietus_Prime]

7891,

No problems running Vista on my MacBook! I also installed Vista on my mother's iMac (the original Intel Mac) and no problems there either.

One thing though: When I did Windows Update and it said that SP1 for Vista was available, for some reason the install failed spectacularly. My sugestion is that when you get Windows Vista installed you immediately install SP1 without using Windows Update. You can download it here.

Other than that, Vista runs great! It even runs better than "PC" hardware (laptop or desktop.)

Martin

[Typhoon14]

Having configured Vista on many machines, some macs, mostly not, I can say that you certainly cannot be guaranteed a trouble-free experience with Vista, regardless of what hardware it is installed on. The SP1 update was just released, and has caused problems for many people. Windows Update even tries to identify particular hardware configurations where SP1 will break the drivers and tries to avoid installing on those configurations.

[7891]

Thanks for the answers. The club has decided to buy IMacs and install Vista. It will be fun.

[Quietus_Prime]

7891,

Like they say in the Army: Hell YEAH! That is a very wise choice that no one will regret. Make sure that they leave MacOS X so people get exposure to it too. Also you may want to catalog the usage of the computers and then decide which OS is better suited based on the usage.

Additionally, you can offer some classes on MacOS X. Oh, the possibilities!!!!

Good luck and have fun!!

Martin

[Quietus_Prime]

Typhoon14,

Actually it is quiet a trouble-free experience running Vista (believe it or not!) The only issue was with SP1 but I posted a workaround for that so it should be fine. What I'd like to know is how many people experienced problems with SP1.

Also, driver issues has been going since Windows XP. The nice thing about XP and Vista is that if something does not work right you roll back the driver, restart and be done with it. It is well known the fact the Windows Update will recommend drivers that have been certified to run on XP or Vista but they go against manufacturer's recommendations. That's the reason why manufacturers don't bother sending their drivers to be certified by MS; too much money and usually MS will request that an older version be posted.

When you know you got bad drivers, just roll them back and make sure that the next time you do Windows Updates you do not download them.

Martin

[kms007]

Just installed Vista SP1 on my early 2008 Mac Pro. Absolutely no problems whatsoever. I never thought I'd type this about Vista, but "It Just Works." ;)