About windows (XP/W7/W8) installation in MAC (PRO/air) environment.

What? Vista forgot? Is it an operating system?

My Mac air will be used by my daughter and I will use it back to the company's x230. Therefore, we need to install air in windows.

Many people suggest bootcamp. In fact, many people do not need MAC systems, but they just like their hardware.

If you only have a gb ssd and have an OSX that is never used, it is not worthwhile to use a very valuable half SSD.

How to install Windows on a Linux instance is simple.

If you want to use a Windows (XP/W7/W8) boot disk to directly boot and format the hard disk, you will find that the boot disk that can be correctly booted on other machines cannot be successful on the Mac.

 

This is because the Mac primary Boot Sector (not the System Boot Sector 07c00h), that is, the boot menu is on HFS, and no secondary storage device is found when the Windows boot disk is started, therefore, the boot fails.

 

In fact, as long as the first Mac installation disk boot, and then use its disk tool to wipe the disk into the MS-DOS format on the line, that's it, no skill. Just note that the partition is not wiped as a MS-DOS, but the entire disk is wiped as a MS-DOS format. Mac has already created a log partition for you under the disk by default, you wipe it into the MS-DOS, then the Main Boot Sector is still on HFS, so the disk to wipe into the MS-DOS, it is the top-level device you see in the tool. It displays the name related to your device manufacturer, rather than the partition name below it.

 

This is also the reason why the OSX system must be used for boot. If it is restored from the boot menu, you cannot erase the entire disk and start the bootloader on the disk, how do you erase yourself.

 

When you press the above OSX boot disk to erase the entire disk as a MS-DOS, then insert a normal Windows boot disk, reboot to see, everything is as easy as any Windows installation. The MAC of a Windows operating system of windows will be displayed in front of you.

 

If the machine and Windows versions are too low, do not forget to install the bootcamp driver. Otherwise, you may not be able to use any device. Except for an empty Windows system.

However, I installed W8 on 2012 air, and almost all devices can use it directly.