Windows 7

[ManWearPants]

I'm using a 24" imac and used bootcamp with mac os and windows 7 RC.

after the RC coming to expiry, had a hard time trying to reinstall... (long story)
parallel virtual machine is very slow and many things dun work...
but i'm now on bootcamp again, using snow leopard mac os and windows xp sp1 (original with old acer laptop). and now i'm keen to buy the new windows 7.

http://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/10/22/windows-7-pricing-in-singapore/
http://fuwell.com.sg/promo.php?fId=01&pId=&sId=01&lId=1&proId=151

but like to ask which version to buy
i can ask the salesman but think it is better to find out first.

1. what's oem (full install)? i get dvd and serial, but no box or manuals, rite?

2. for upgrade version, do i need to install xp first everytime i need to install win7 (future installation/reinstallations)

3. is ultimate and pro an overkill compared to home premium. i do ms-office, web, video-viewing and photoshop. and i read below that netbook only supports win7 home premium (and the issue of whether i can just transfer the dvd contents to usb drive to install, or do i have to buy an external dvd-writer), so does it make sense to buy home premium oem (full install) since it is cheaper than upgrade version and can install from blank (no need xp already installed).

http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1890

4. i may look at the price of challenger, and then look at the prices of the shops in SLS 4-5th floor to see those prices on the board. is there a better way u do to get cheaper prices? thanks for any advices.

5. and lastly, just to ask, even at bootcamp 3.1 at this moment, i can only dual boot and cannot boot three systems via boot camp (mac, xp, win7) rite? i know internet talks about a lot of complicated methods but they are beyond me. at the moment, i'm comfortable with bootcamp and if there is any way of using bootcamp for that, that will be great.

Since no one answers your Q, I will try to the best of my knowledge.

1. OEM is meant to come with computers that you purchased. They are not meant for direct retail that is why you won't find them outside of Sim Lim. I think if you look at the terms of OEM licenses, there are a pair of holograms stickers. One on the PC itself and the other on this OEM CD package. So I am not sure if just buying one side of the licenses will make it legal. Of course there is nothing stopping you from using it and they are usually much cheaper than retail versions.

2. For XP, M$ do not recommend you to do an in place upgrade. They recommend you to back up data and install from scratch. The directory structure of XP and 7 are different. For Vista, it is ok to upgrade. Upgrade versions will detect for an existing installation.

3. Get the retail version as it comes with both 32 and 64 bit disc. I will get the ultimate version as it allows my parents to boot up in a different language. You can see the difference on M$ website. Otherwise the Home Premium version will suffice for most users. The Professional version is more for corporate use or you have a complex home network.

4. If you can get student prices, those will be the cheapest. Otherwise, as usual, Sim Lim. But never from Challengers unless they are running some promotions.

5. Sometimes, I don't understand about Mac users on bootcamp. If the single OS cannot do everything, then should just ditch it and use Windows. You never hear of Windows users wanting to boot into OSX. You can run Windows natively on your Mac if it is on the Intel platform. Anyway, to ans your Q, no. There are other ways such as running virtual machines such as VMware Fusion, Parallels but they require fix allocation of CPU and memory resources which will ultimately slows down your native OS.

 

[zac08]

Just curious as I am planning my next system upgrade.

Anyone doing post processing still going for Windows 7 32-bit, why?

What software is not working in Windows 7 64-bit?

I am running 64 bit. But any programs on 32 bits can still be installed, the Win 7 has a separate program folder for 32bit (program files x86)

 

[ManWearPants]

Yup the 120GB version. the smaller capacity ones i thought might be abit tight on requirements, but i only plan to install and run the key apps on it

Very small, very quiet, very not hot.

nightwolf75 .. once u try .. u will not want a rotating platter to be ur main boot drive anymore

*finger faster than timing, went home to time , the startup time for windows 7 from "starting windows" black screen to clicking is about 10sec for a clean install

Ryan

I always have one question on SSD. If your SSD dies as in really die beyond repair. How to recover the data from the ram. With the hdd platter, you can still send it to disaster recovery center to recover data from the platter. What can you do to a SSD to recover data?

 

[ManWearPants]

I am running 64 bit. But any programs on 32 bits can still be installed, the Win 7 has a separate program folder for 32bit (program files x86)

I used to run 64-bit XP which also have a separate program folder for 32 bit program. But still not all program will run. I cannot remember which but I got fustrated and just reinstall the 32 bit. But that was many years back. I am sure 64 bit will have much better software support now.

[edit] I remembers some programs will not install stating the OS is incompatible. can't remember which though.

 

[zoossh]

i'm already using windows 7 OEM 64bit pro version, on the imac, run on bootcamp.

what i dun like is the search function on windows explorer, which dun seem to work well. and the apple remote dun work on windows for itune.

Since no one answers your Q, I will try to the best of my knowledge.

1. OEM is meant to come with computers that you purchased. They are not meant for direct retail that is why you won't find them outside of Sim Lim. I think if you look at the terms of OEM licenses, there are a pair of holograms stickers. One on the PC itself and the other on this OEM CD package. So I am not sure if just buying one side of the licenses will make it legal. Of course there is nothing stopping you from using it and they are usually much cheaper than retail versions.

2. For XP, M$ do not recommend you to do an in place upgrade. They recommend you to back up data and install from scratch. The directory structure of XP and 7 are different. For Vista, it is ok to upgrade. Upgrade versions will detect for an existing installation.

3. Get the retail version as it comes with both 32 and 64 bit disc. I will get the ultimate version as it allows my parents to boot up in a different language. You can see the difference on M$ website. Otherwise the Home Premium version will suffice for most users. The Professional version is more for corporate use or you have a complex home network.

4. If you can get student prices, those will be the cheapest. Otherwise, as usual, Sim Lim. But never from Challengers unless they are running some promotions.

5. Sometimes, I don't understand about Mac users on bootcamp. If the single OS cannot do everything, then should just ditch it and use Windows. You never hear of Windows users wanting to boot into OSX. You can run Windows natively on your Mac if it is on the Intel platform. Anyway, to ans your Q, no. There are other ways such as running virtual machines such as VMware Fusion, Parallels but they require fix allocation of CPU and memory resources which will ultimately slows down your native OS.

 

[mynameisgreg]

you should google for compatibility with your imac. native support for 64bit windows 7 is not available on all mac models. i would recommend just getting the 32bit version. there's isn't a good reason to go 64bit besides having more than 4gb ram. but im sure you run photoshop in ur macOS.

i suggest getting the OEM.

@manwearpants you can never recover data from the ram. i think giantcopy suggested getting 2 drives hdd for data storage and ssd for programs so that the system runs faster. As for data recovery. Most HDDs fail because of the mechanical instruments in it. while ssds dont have any. thus Hdds would likely fail much more than ssds. OR ssd reliability is much greater than hdd.

data recovery for both work along the same principles. if youve rewritten new data over old data you can pretty much forget about recovering it. when you delete data on HDDs the data is still there but is not reflected thus you can easily recover data. but for ssds the data is physically wiped when you delete it.

HDDs have pretty much infinite write lifespan whereas SSDs have write lifespans in the order of 5 to 10. like 100,000 times. thats when they will start to fail.

 

[DaveO]

I have windows 7 and have noticed lately that my computer freezes up when I try to access something. This is just occassionally, but it is disturbing. The only way to clear it up is to close the computer down, wait a few minutes, and turn it back on. Has anyone else had this experience?

DaveO

 

[commonjunks]

@DaveO, it could be anti virus running at background and checking files when you open a folder.
I would try to disable all irrelevant services and see system freeze?

 

[ManWearPants]

HDDs have pretty much infinite write lifespan whereas SSDs have write lifespans in the order of 5 to 10. like 100,000 times. thats when they will start to fail.

It makes sense to go SSD for notebook but I''ll still stay with good old platter hdd for desktop. I have experienced more memory failure than hdd failure. The only issue with hdd is that I have to keep replacing them, from 8GB -> 16GB -> 40GB -> 80GB -> 160GB and my latest is 320GB. None really have failed on me before. (keeps fingers crossed)

 

[mynameisgreg]

It makes sense to go SSD for notebook but I''ll still stay with good old platter hdd for desktop. I have experienced more memory failure than hdd failure. The only issue with hdd is that I have to keep replacing them, from 8GB -> 16GB -> 40GB -> 80GB -> 160GB and my latest is 320GB. None really have failed on me before. (keeps fingers crossed)

haha yeah same here, i think i'd cry if it did.
Or you could go for the seagate hybrid drives. they have a small ssd with the hdd. so for programs/data you commonly access itll load up really fast and you get the massive size of a hdd. its kinda like how caching and ram works with the cpu.

 

[ManWearPants]

haha yeah same here, i think i'd cry if it did.
Or you could go for the seagate hybrid drives. they have a small ssd with the hdd. so for programs/data you commonly access itll load up really fast and you get the massive size of a hdd. its kinda like how caching and ram works with the cpu.

Oh...there is such a thing. This seems very practical. Will check it out. Thanks for the heads up.

[edit] it says the 4GB SSD on the hybrid is accessible like adaptive memory. So you can't really install your OS and program on it. Furthermore 4GB is too small for OS. It fetches from the platter side of the HDD. hmm....I would prefer if they can allocate 32GB and I can select to partition that as C: for my OS. Can this be done?

 

[ninelives]

I have windows 7 and have noticed lately that my computer freezes up when I try to access something. This is just occassionally, but it is disturbing. The only way to clear it up is to close the computer down, wait a few minutes, and turn it back on. Has anyone else had this experience?

DaveO

press shift-ctrl-esc to open up the task manager. check which app is using high cpu and memory.

 

[ninelives]

I always have one question on SSD. If your SSD dies as in really die beyond repair. How to recover the data from the ram. With the hdd platter, you can still send it to disaster recovery center to recover data from the platter. What can you do to a SSD to recover data?

you can do a backup.... either to a tape drive or external HDD. now 1 TB HDD is damn cheap. i have 4 internal drives. primary drive is for OS, other drives are for data.