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Running Windows on 2008 Mac Pro

post #1 of 11
4/3/12 at 7:51pm
Thread Starter 
I am giving my son my 2008 Mac Pro as soon as Apple releases the new Mac Pros. I told him he can have it by the end of June because if there are no Mac Pros I will be a 12 core 2010. He has been bugging me constantly to install Window on one of the 4 internal drives now. What I want to know is if we use bootcamp am I at risk getting a virus, and if his Windows drive crashes does that effect my Mac drive in bay 1 the reason I am concerned is I do 3d modeling for a living, and all my programs and file reside on that drive.
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post #2 of 11
4/3/12 at 8:24pm
You should be fine. Just install proper anti-spyware and virus protection as you would on a PC.
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post #3 of 11
4/3/12 at 9:59pm
I ask because if he doesn't understand the risks involved in running Windows you put your whole machine at risk. Personally I wouldn't go this route at all. I might see the wisdom in a Windows install running on a VM but even here I wouldn't be 100% confident.

The problem is this; there are so many viruses and other troublesome apps out there that I, nor anyone else for that matter, could never say for sure that your Mac install would never get damaged by bad software running on Windows.

Quote:
Originally Posted by tony3d View Post

I am giving my son my 2008 Mac Pro as soon as Apple releases the new Mac Pros. I told him he can have it by the end of June because if there are no Mac Pros I will be a 12 core 2010. He has been bugging me constantly to install Window on one of the 4 internal drives now. What I want to know is if we use bootcamp am I at risk getting a virus, and if his Windows drive crashes does that effect my Mac drive in bay 1 the reason I am concerned is I do 3d modeling for a living, and all my programs and file reside on that drive.

The Windows install can pick up viruses and such. Mac OS is far less likely to pickup anything from the Windows install. Viruses per say aren't the problem, rather it is malicious software that might destroy a volume, boot record, reformat a drive or whatever. As long as there are disks attached to the machine bad software running on Windows can screw with them.
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post #4 of 11
4/4/12 at 12:09am
  • hmm
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I find modeling things to be a lot more ram and OpenGL intensive. I mention ram especially due to sculpting. You never mentioned what you model for or in. Bootcamp doesn't affect OSX. I'm not even sure if a virus can do anything via Parallels, but it definitely cannot if it's on a bootcamp sector and you boot into OSX. You'd just hold the option key when booting and select the OSX drive or partition.
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post #5 of 11
4/4/12 at 2:11am
Quote:
Originally Posted by hmm View Post

Bootcamp doesn't affect OSX.

It doesn't have write access to the filesystem but it can see and format the drives as they mount just like an external drive. Formatting an entire drive would take seconds.

The only protection is to have multiple, regular cloned backups.

With a modern OS like Windows 7, the chances of getting a virus are not that high. It depends on what the Windows partition is used for. If it's just for gaming and the games come off a disc or an approved online service, there should be no problems.
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post #6 of 11
4/4/12 at 3:44am
Hmm.

I tried running Bootcamp for a while on this Core 2 Duo iMac.

It was 'ok' as far as Windows goes. I used it for playing CoX until a Mac version came out (I was very patient...)

Once my 5400rpm HD went down...I bought a 7200rpm HD and never bothered with Bootcamp again.

I found Windows to be like a girl with far too much make up on. Hard work and up her, coughs, itself. Really high maintainence. I don't like it's 'logic' or it's upside down back to front way of copying the Mac.

To me, it's still a rip off OS. I can't think of one windows app I need now. I do have a copy of Studio Max (it wasn't cheap...was it ever?) and possibly could have a play with it. I just like Lightwave better (and I have a dual version disk of that...)

There's so much to see and do on the Mac to want to even bother with the Dante's Inferno that is Windows.

You could just stick a copy of windows on an external HD. When it becomes a pain...just drop kick it into a bin.

Lemon Bon Bon.
You know, for a company that specializes in the video-graphics market, you'd think that they would offer top-of-the-line GPUs...[/
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You know, for a company that specializes in the video-graphics market, you'd think that they would offer top-of-the-line GPUs...[/
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post #7 of 11
4/4/12 at 3:46am
If he wants to game just get him a PS3. They're cheap enough.

Lemon Bon Bon.
You know, for a company that specializes in the video-graphics market, you'd think that they would offer top-of-the-line GPUs...[/
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You know, for a company that specializes in the video-graphics market, you'd think that they would offer top-of-the-line GPUs...[/
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post #8 of 11
4/4/12 at 6:32am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lemon Bon Bon. View Post

If he wants to game just get him a PS3. They're cheap enough.

Lemon Bon Bon.

That's fair unless he wants to play Diablo 3.
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post #9 of 11
4/4/12 at 11:01am
  • hmm
  • Keylogger
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin View Post

It doesn't have write access to the filesystem but it can see and format the drives as they mount just like an external drive. Formatting an entire drive would take seconds.

The only protection is to have multiple, regular cloned backups.

With a modern OS like Windows 7, the chances of getting a virus are not that high. It depends on what the Windows partition is used for. If it's just for gaming and the games come off a disc or an approved online service, there should be no problems.

I don't recall Windows mounting HFS+. When you say seconds, you mean looking at raw hardware and deleting its directory. How many viruses in the wild actually wipe secondary disks in such a manner? Backups shouldn't be on the same machine anyway. If something goes down, I can just restore from the backup drive or if necessary take the backup drive out and swap the raw drive in for the one that failed. He should have something like this anyway if he's dependent on the machine for work. A virus is just one potential issue, and the risk of this happening is not really greater than any other type of data loss.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Lemon Bon Bon. View Post


I found Windows to be like a girl with far too much make up on. Hard work and up her, coughs, itself. Really high maintainence. I don't like it's 'logic' or it's upside down back to front way of copying the Mac.

How? There are a couple weird things in it I find annoying, but you'd probably never guess them. The typical complaint is different keyboard mappings which are annoying to change (if you're used to a Mac). Other than that, you select a program, it runs.
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post #10 of 11
4/4/12 at 4:27pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lemon Bon Bon. View Post

If he wants to game just get him a PS3. They're cheap enough.

Lemon Bon Bon.

He has a PS3 Xbox, and Wii. He likes the games on PC.
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post #11 of 11
4/5/12 at 3:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by hmm View Post

I don't recall Windows mounting HFS+.

Bootcamp does now in read-only mode.

Quote:
Originally Posted by hmm View Post

When you say seconds, you mean looking at raw hardware and deleting its directory. How many viruses in the wild actually wipe secondary disks in such a manner?

I haven't heard of any but I'd be surprised if they didn't exist.

It could happen but it's not likely as is actually getting a dangerous virus.
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