What is the best and most stable way to create a dual boot system? Mac OS X & Windows

LABachlr

LABachlr

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I need to take an iMac that was just bought 2 weeks ago and create a dual boot system (Mac OS X & Windows), as my friend realized that some of the programs that he's used to using do not have the same functionality in the Mac version. So he wants to have access to both Mac and Windows.

We'll either use Windows XP or Windows 7, depending on which one he has the disk for. Is there any difference between the two in setting it up? I would think not since it will be a fresh install on a separate partition that is just for Windows.

Btw, there's no potential problem in creating a separate partition with Disk Utility, right (vs. doing a fresh install of Mac OS X and creating the partitions during the fresh install)?

If you could give me a link to step-by-step instructions for the dual boot setup, I'd greatly appreciate it. We don't care if we have to pay for the solution. We just need it to be the most secure and reliable setup. Can't afford any downtime just to "save money", because that would end up costing more money than saved.

TIA
 
There's only one display, and we need it to be as stable and fast as possible. So, I'm thinking a dual boot would be best. What are your thoughts? Please include links to instructions for the method(s) you suggest. Thanks.
 
LABachlr said:
There's only one display, and we need it to be as stable and fast as possible. So, I'm thinking a dual boot would be best. What are your thoughts? Please include links to instructions for the method(s) you suggest. Thanks.
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Well I use Fusion & Boot Camp. I had Boot Camp Windows 7 first then got Fusion (for its stability). Some articles (Review | VMWare Fusion vs. Parallels Desktop & VMWare Fusion 3.0 vs. Parallels Desktop 5.0) compare the two. Most say Fusion for stability and Parallels for speed.

I use Boot Camp for a certain game and Fusion for some of my Work sites (that only work with Windows).
 
We went with VMware Fusion. It works awesome, thanks. We were going to go with the dual boot because I thought that the virtual solutions would be too slow, but it is quite fast, actually.
 
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