Installing Windows 7 on a Macbook

Z

zll

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Hey guys,

A friend of mine is having trouble with her Macbook and can't afford the R500 per hour that most Apple guys want to charge to service the thing. Everytime she starts it up, she gets a grey screen warning her of an error, and asking to reboot. It's apparently some kind of kernel panic, which could have been caused by quite a few things.

Now I was wondering, would it be possible for me to install Windows 7 on it without using bootcamp, and without risking her data? If I can get Windows on I can almost definitely isolate it as either a hardware or software problem, or (hopefully) buy enough time to get her data off.

Any ideas?
 
zolly said:
Now I was wondering, would it be possible for me to install Windows 7 on it without using bootcamp, and without risking her data? If I can get Windows on I can almost definitely isolate it as either a hardware or software problem, or (hopefully) buy enough time to get her data off.
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No but you could use a linux boot disk but I'm not sure if it will read the disk. Likewise pull the drive and hook it up to another computer. You'll need to install software on the other machine to read it though.

Have you tried using the hardware diagnostic tools that came with the laptop? Or doing a disk repair using the install disk?
 
I don't actually have the machine with me. Before making her drive out with it, I was wondering if there was anything I could try first. Since there is I'll drop her a line and see if she wants me to take a look at it.

If removing the drive isn't too difficult I'll probably do that first so I can backup her stuff.
 
I also get an error like that but only when I visit gmail.com:(. I started to experience this problem after updating to snow leopard
 
Have you got an apple or access to another one?
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Unfortunately not, but I might try and organise another one. Apparently I can use the working Mac to pick up the other one as an external drive. I've also gotten several methods of troubleshooting which I'll try.

@Mac, thanks dude, but we're in Cape Town :p
 
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Try the following. You need to get into text prompt, and issue these commands. It will start your MBP as a new laptop, and will create a new admin acct. After the MBP is alive again, you can then delete the old admin...

Step 1) Reboot your Apple Mac, MacBook or MacBook Pro.

Step 2) Hold down the Apple(command) + S keys a second after you switch on the MBP, and hold them down

Step 3) When you see text prompt, type in the following commands, and you’ll be well on your way to creating a new user account with administrator privleges in no time (don’t forget to press enter after each line):

Oh, in case you are wondering, you will not lose any data from doing this, it just forces a start like from factory....obviously get the spaces etc 100 % right or it will not accept your input

mount -uw /

rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone

shutdown -h now
 
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Wouldn't it be possible to access the drive with another mac over Firewire?
 
Thanks guys. I sent a message to her and it seems she lost her disks, so I was wondering if I can get any of the troubleshooting/repair apps off the net?

How does MacOS work? Can I install it off another set of installation disks? Or does it use some kind of cd key like Windows?

She might be able to get the disks from a friend.
 
zolly said:
Now I was wondering, would it be possible for me to install Windows 7 on it without using bootcamp, and without risking her data?
Click to expand...

NO. Windows is stupid as hell when it comes to file systems other than FAT/NTFS. This is looking for trouble with a capital t.


bwana said:
No but you could use a linux boot disk but I'm not sure if it will read the disk. Likewise pull the drive and hook it up to another computer. You'll need to install software on the other machine to read it though.

Have you tried using the hardware diagnostic tools that came with the laptop? Or doing a disk repair using the install disk?
Click to expand...

Linux has read/write support for HFS(+) file systems & countless others.

Would also try the DisK Utility on the install cd first.
 
It's actually pretty simple to access a mac hdd on a windows computer but personally since the data on the drive is important I'd take the MB to someone who knows what they're doing and instead focus on preventing this from happening again.

If she'd taken a few minutes out of every day to let time machine do it's thing then she could have painlessly reformatted, recovered her data, and been on her way.

BTW - what happens when you start up in safe mode?
 
I'll be back to this thread once I get the machine from her, but I think I can make a start from here. Thanks guys.
 
Plug the drive in an external case, than access it on another Mac.. copy the important data.. put drive back - get some restore CD's or Snow Leopard Retail.. and re-install / restore data..
 
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