(2011-08-12) Bootcamp For Pc Games

The Boys want to be able to play some PC Computer Game-s (SWTOR and a variety of free ones).

A little research implied that a game-usable PC would cost ~$1000. And having just 1 would create separate issues.

So going to try and BootCamp route, installing it on both The Wife's IMac and my old MacBook. Man I can't believe I paid for MsWindows.

A little research implies I should aim for ~80GB partition for MsWindows. Blech.

The IMac

• partitioning rejected, need to run Disk Repair
• repair DiskPermissions successfully
• Verify Disk failed - "Volume Bit Map needs minor repair", "Invalid volume free block count". Won't even let me Repair!
• Aug19 update: remember I have Disk Warrior, run the Files repair. Try to partition again - fail again.
  • next step - find install CD see if I can boot from that to run the Directory repair
• Aug23 update: can't find Disk Warrior CD. Boot up in FireWire-target mode and run Disk Utility-repair from MacBook. Worked!
• Try partition again: "Some files cannot be moved. Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. Restore you information to the disk and try using BootCamp Assistant again."! Hey, it is already that format (according to Disk Utility)!
• Tried this (fsck) - no difference.
• Sounds like Disk Fragmentation problem. Some recommend iDefrag, others dis-recommend it.
• Aug31: decide to go ahead and mimic process used on MacBook
  • complete a Back Up; attached EtherNet cable to IMac; use Airport Utility to turn off WireLess part of Time Capsule
  • boot from original install DVD, do erase-and-install. Tell it to bring in setup info from Time Machine. Wait hours for Calculating... disk amount, then Restore.
  • It seems to have restored the MacBook data! It never gave me a choice between backup sets! Now the actual MacBook has popped up with This computer's local hostname "Bill-Seitzs-MacBook-2.local" is already in use on this network. The name has been changed to "Bill-Seitzs-MacBook-3.local". I just shut this machine down for now. Posted ticket.
  • Re-erased. This time didn't immediately do Restore, did manual user-account creation. Then launched Migration Assistant to initiate restore. Now it gave me 2 choices, but not sure either is the right one. (Because 1 of the options is for the newest MacBookPro which is backed up to the external drive on the Time Capsule - 2011-06-11-[[Time CapsuleGettingFull]].)
• Sept01: continuing restore via Migration Assistant
  • phew - once I accepted the drive selection, it let me pick between the 2 Back Up sets on that drive, so now looking good....
  • hmm, doesn't seem to want to restore over top of the account I'm logged in as. So have to create a duplicate account, then try to rename things later...
• Sept01-02 - re-install World Of Warcraft
• Sept04:
  • get Time Capsule working over WireLess again
  • dump dupe user account, rename the primary account (though leave the user-directory name as-is, just because it's working fine)
  • try partition: "Verification failed". zomg. Very close to giving up.
  • Reboot in FireWire-target mode, run Disk Utility from MacBook. Run "Repair Disk", it goes through verification and says "This disk appears to be OK". (No repairs done.)
  • Reboot regular. Try partition again. It works!
  • Continue with MsWindows install.... Looking promising, gives license-accept stuff. Gets as far as which partition to install in, but when I select the BootCamp partition, it says "Windows cannot be installed to Disk 0 Partition 3." Asking for details says "Windows must be installed to a partition formatted as NTFS."
  • Ah, click on the "disk advanced options" button and a number of extra things appear, including "Format...". Click on that. Then it brings you back and you can click on "Next..." button to do install.
  • Got as far as the Product Key activation. It rejects it as valid. Microsoft talks about installing twice!?!? (Others talk about doing phone-based activation.
  • Just just leave the key blank and continue for now, to complete installation at least once. I tell it to auto-install only important updates. It finishes install, does some downloading/updating.
  • I keep the DVD in, restart, hold down C key, it prompts me with "To boot from CD or DVD, press any key" which I do...
  • It starts installation process again. Last time I picked "Customer (advanced)" for install. Now I pick "Upgrade". It says "The computer started using the Windows installation disc. Remove the installation disc and restart your computer so that Windows starts normally. Then, insert the installation disc and restart the upgrade. (Do not select "Customer(advanced)" to perform an upgrade. "Customer (advanced)" installs a new copy of Windows and deletes your programs and settings.)"
    • hrm, how do I eject? ok
    • except not in a position to do that right now. So I exit from the install, it reboots, the DVD is still in. This time when it says "To boot from CD or DVD, press any key" I do nothing, and after a couple seconds it boots up from the hard drive. Can't figure out how to run the install from inside windows, the old Run option isn't under Start anymore. Help says that it should prompt me after I insert the disc. So I follow instructions above to Eject the disc, then I insert it again. It gives me prompt to run setup.exe which I choose.
    • goes through entire install process again. But now it accepts the Product Key!
  • install BootCamp drivers from MacOs X DVD. Get warning about known compatibility problems, but run program anyway.
  • everything running fine, but audio is completely mute
    • some people find it's an issue if the Mac side was muted before you rebooted. So I rebooted into Mac, made sure it was unmuted, restarted again into Windows, still have problem.
    • next I will follow this advice and download fresh audio drivers for Realtek.
    • downloaded Driver Boost, but decided I didn't want to pay them $30. So I went back to the direct Realtek link and installed from there. No change, even after rebooting.
    • Went into the Device Manager under Windows, had it check online for updates for the driver. It says it's current.
• Sept05 - continue mute-audio games
  • Uninstall audio driver via Control Panel, reboot, it auto-reinstalls, still no good. But notice the driver info says its from 2009.
  • Decide to try Realtek download again. Keep having timeout issues (hmm, maybe this happened last night, and I didn't notice it?), finally succeed, it does install steps (which definitely didn't happen last night), then restarts. Success!
  • When I shut down, it installs 87 updates.

The MacBook

• after lots of effort, still only have 56GB free (out of 112GB). So that's 56GB used.
  • 32GB in Applications - ah 29GB is World Of Warcraft!
    • dump some updates, get up to 58GB free.
• so going to try 48GB partition.
• "Some files cannot be moved. Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. Restore you information to the disk and try using BootCamp Assistant again." Hey, it is already that format (according to Disk Utility)!
• Aug23 update: Tried this (fsck) - no difference.
• Sounds like Disk Fragmentation problem. Some recommend iDefrag, others dis-recommend it.
• Aug24: going to reformat/reinstall from DVD per 3rd method here.
  • Want to be able to restore from Time Capsule over EtherNet instead of WiFi for speed. Followed this method to get Time Capsule to work over EtherNet. It sounds like it's not recognizing my old setups, which worries me, but will move forward.
• Aug25:
  • It warns me during install startup that disk has newer version of system. Reconsidering, will try to do it over FireWire-target mode. Connect to IMac in target mode, launch Disk Utility on IMac, erase MacBook disk. Nearly instant. Quit Disk Utility. Use power button to shut down MacBook. Remove FireWire cable. Turn back on. Now comes up with ? disk/folder icon. So now I have no system at all on the disk, so of course it can't boot! That was stupid. So now booting from the DVD anyway. (Was trying 3rd method of erase because the 2nd method means "Unfortunately, restoring your system by this means will result in Time Machine abandoning previous backup sets and beginning a new set." This is stupid.) Now installing fresh OS from DVD.
  • Restore from Time Machine - pick backup, leave all items selected. Wait for it to Calculate - that alone took a couple hours, but finally kicked off and got done.
  • Trying to get Time Capsule back to WireLess mode per 2009-09-08-TimecapsuleAndUverse - but Airport Utility doesn't seem right suspect it's because back at original DVD version of 10.5. So run System Updates.
• Aug26
  • software updates didn't change Airport Utility options. Ah, discovered that holding down Option key makes "join a wireless network" appear in the "Wireless Mode" pulldown list!
  • Didn't seem to work at first - Time Capsule acted like it was still trying to Extend a network instead of Join. Finally pulled the plug and restarted it, then it seemed to behave fine.
  • The MacBook even seems to recognize its old Back Up sets.
  • Now have 85GB available, but World Of Warcraft needs to be re-installed, so that's the next step.
• Aug27
  • The Boys have re-installed WoW. Now have 68GM available.
  • Try to partition again, with 42GB for MsWindows. Success!
  • Stick in MsWindows-v7-home/premium-32bit disk.
  • "Windows failed to load because the kernel is missing, or corrupt." (ntkrnlpa.exe) Hit Enter to continue, make next selection, but it comes back to error message. So shut down (power button) then reboot with Windows DVD still in there. Ended up with same error! Brief search not finding any clues!
  • Posted support question.
    • Aug31: still not a single reply.
  • Aug31: Separately, see name conflict issue in IMac notes above.
• Sept05: try again
  • partition is still/already there, kick off Install....
  • success this time! Create user account, etc.
  • except the Product Key gets rejected, just like IMac (above). So, eject disc, re-insert, re-run install.
  • seems to not be connecting to WiFi, so can't go online for updates, continue without that.
  • after 2nd install, Product Key is accepted. All running.
  • Insert MacOs X disc, install drivers.
  • No sound, and won't connect to WiFi!
  • After driving myself nuts on the network stuff, realize that my Archos70 can't get an IP from the network either. So I reboot the UVerse WiFi hub. And the MacBook is now working on the net!
  • Download Realtek sound drivers. Success!
  • All done!

Aug25 sidebar: of course The Boys are now trying to install Portal2, and it requires that I upgrade from 10.5x to 10.6x...

I hate computers.