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Bought new MacBook Pro, need some guidance please

Discussion in 'Technology' started by daytona355, Jan 20, 2013.

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  1. daytona355

    daytona355 F1 World Champ
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    #51 daytona355, Feb 23, 2013
    3tb time csule arrived now, so I need to set it up to backup. The apple guy who has been so good so far is to contac me now, help me to set the backups for my mac and the vm, and add in the mac air I bought the wife. Once that's in place, I will feel so much more comfortable.

    The mac had an episode yesterday that highlighted my worries, came on, logged into the vm and was waiting for it all to finish loading, suddenly screen went to the blank, pre-apple Id screen on switch on, and proceeded to restart up. I didn't know what was going on, and that's why I want the backup ASAP!
     
  2. Schimpf

    Schimpf Karting

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    #52 Schimpf, Feb 28, 2013
    A new computer shouldn't be hanging & rebooting.
    I'd request Apple to "fix it" since it's under warranty. Of course back up anything critical before they touch it..never trust a human to do the job correctly.

    Their software, on the phones at least, seems to be on a downhill slide still imo. Maybe same with their PC OS?
     
  3. daytona355

    daytona355 F1 World Champ
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    #53 daytona355, Mar 1, 2013
    I hope it's not indicative. I must say, haven't heard yet from the apple guy, so haven't done a back up yet as I daren't switch the time capsule on and try it cold, I have no idea how set up will go
     
  4. daytona355

    daytona355 F1 World Champ
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    #54 daytona355, Mar 3, 2013
    Okay, full backup done last night, wireless network set up via the time capsule. When into the backup selections and removed the virtual machine file from the backup schedule...... Is that what I should be doing.

    Plan is, provided that's correct, to simply add it back in once every few days or so as necessary and backup via an Ethernet cable just to update the virtual machine, then take it out again. That way, backups won't ge the issues some say it gets with backing up 155gb of windows every hour!

    Likely getting an Apple TV unit today now that everything else is on the way
     
  5. Fast_ian

    Fast_ian Two Time F1 World Champ

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    #55 Fast_ian, Mar 3, 2013
    Yep!

    That will work! :) Don't understand the need for ethernet though - Suspend the VM and tell Time Machine to back it up. Done job. Note that the VM must be "stopped" when you do this; If not, it will start, see the "file" has changed and start again ad nauseum.....

    Is the wife's Air also getting backed up to it?

    Becoming quite the Apple fan it seems! ;)

    Took a while, but seems you got there in the end and Apple redeemed themselves.... Congrats!

    Cheers,
    Ian
     
  6. daytona355

    daytona355 F1 World Champ
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    #56 daytona355, Mar 4, 2013
    The wife hasn't done hers yet. But having seen how easy it is to set up, don't expect any issues. I like the idea of Apple TV for work really as I can put my clients information on the big screen for them (the odd film or YouTube clip will be good too), seems easy to do

    Only one snag arose yesterday, windows has just noticed it is on a vm, and is stating it is not a genuine copy, and turned my screen black! I'm waiting to see now if it forces me to buy a copy of windows 7 professional now!
     
  7. Ricambi America

    Ricambi America F1 World Champ
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    #57 Ricambi America, Mar 4, 2013
    We have an AppleTV here at Ricambi too. It works wonderfully when using it as an AirPlay monitor (to mirror a MacBook for presentations and such). Of course, during the summer we seem to spend far too much time with it just watching baseball games!
     
  8. daytona355

    daytona355 F1 World Champ
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    #58 daytona355, Jul 20, 2013
    Okay. It's been a while now, but I have to say, I stopped using the mac. It runs so slowly in the vm that it was pointless. It loses the printer every time you boot up, meaning reinstalling time after time, it takes upwards of 5 minutes to open a word document, absolutely rubbish

    I got it out, and am thinking to sell it, and the time machine, and buy a new windows laptop, a Sony vaio since all that I have had have been excellent.

    Two questions: do I try one more time, and buy boot amp, copy of windows 7, and somehow reset to factory and start again. If so, can someone tell me how to take down the vm and remove VMware fusion, thus making it virtually the original mac save the addition of files.

    Second, if I buy a new windows machine, will windows 8 be a nightmare, or will it be easy to use, and easy to migrate the software from my windows 7 professional Sony vaio current machine straight onto the new one (such as video, pics, iTunes etc)


    Sorry to ask, but I am getting so fed up with having spent so much money on the machine and its a great paperweight since April.
     
  9. Schimpf

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    #59 Schimpf, Jul 21, 2013
    Starting from scratch sounds like what would be required to make things work as they should (which is very little latency all around).

    If Windows is your primary "go to" then maybe a windows based laptop would be best; potentially someone could help you with running OS X in a VM on the Windows laptop. Of course, in my experience, I OS X runs better native versus "hackintosh" VM.

    If you buy a Windows based laptop then find one with a Haswell CPU, great battery life typically. Sony Vaio has one already I believe; the rest are due this fall
     
  10. Fast_ian

    Fast_ian Two Time F1 World Champ

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    #60 Fast_ian, Jul 22, 2013
    :eek: Something is very obviously *very* awry here!..... I'm a (now very occasional) Parallels user, but do know VMWare is at least "as good" - On your H/W (much more modern than mine!) you really shouldn't be able to tell you're not "native". At least for the stuff you're doing. [No offense intended of course! ;)]

    I *know* there's no way it should take "any" time to open a Word doco. How much RAM in the thing?

    Any VMWare users have any ideas?

    What OS are you running in the VM at the moment? Bootcamp will allow you to turn the thing into a "native" PC that on your H/W should be plenty fast. But, booting between the two gets old if you have to do it more than once or twice a day..... It *should* be working fine! [I assume you're not building a movie in Final Cut Pro under OSX at the same time?! ;)]

    Understand the frustration. (Time Machine works well though, huh?! ;))

    Seriously, I'm convinced something is very wrong. Hopefully, a VMWare user will jump in.....

    Cheers,
    Ian
     
  11. Zack

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    #61 Zack, Jul 22, 2013
    With Ian on this one. Macs run like a dream. Something is wrong with yours. Taking five minutes to open a Word document is a huge indication that something is not right.

    Check your network connection.

    Reset, reinstall, retry.
     
  12. daytona355

    daytona355 F1 World Champ
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    #62 daytona355, Jul 23, 2013
    Hi chaps

    The mac side works fine, unless the vm is open as well, then it is also very slow. The machine has 4gb ram, and a I5 intel chip.

    Going to try boot camp tonight, and load brand new windows to a 200gb partition. During the normal working day, I would expect to use windows only really, so booting between them is fine

    However, it is very tempting just to sell it and buy a new Sony. However, is windows 8 any good, as I need to transfer over quite a bit of stuff!
     
  13. Zack

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    #63 Zack, Jul 23, 2013
    Windows 8 is really quite good. You can also make it very much like Windows 7 if that helps you move around quicker.

    I would put more ram in the Mac as a first step. Latest can take 16gb, yes? I would load it up. Second, I would get a flash drive, if you don't have one. That will give you a huge speed boost as well.
     
  14. photonut

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    #64 photonut, Jul 23, 2013
    sid:
    i would go to the genius bar at the local apple store. your machine may be configured wrong OR you may have issues with "permissions" that is slowing down the software.
    did you try repairing permissions via the disk utility? (applications, utilities, disk utility, highlight the disk drive, check premisions, then repair permissions)
     
  15. Schimpf

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    #65 Schimpf, Jul 23, 2013
    From what I gathered, the VM is slow bc of the migration (made VM of old physical windows PC).
    I doubt an Apple employ cares (or even knows how) to troubleshoot VM issues; I could be wrong..

    Run the Task Manager & view the CPU & Memory usage when everythign is slow; but 6GB would be a good #, 8GB a happy buffer/extra. Typically I would assign W7 using Visio a 1.5GB of memory & 1 CPU core & all was fine.
     
  16. Zack

    Zack Formula 3

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    #66 Zack, Jul 23, 2013
    Yes, pointless to go to Genius bar for a non-Apple issue.

    If vmware is slow, and causes the whole machine to slow down, you need to troubleshoot that. Start with a fresh installation of vmware. Then a fresh install of W7. Then configure it to be like the machine you want. I wouldn't load up a snapshot from somewhere else as the configuration probably conflicts significantly.
     
  17. photonut

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    #67 photonut, Jul 23, 2013
    i am running vm ware on an old i5 imac with 8gb ram.
    i am very happy with the performance of vm ware.
    windows7 runs faster on this machine than it does on my pc.
    try adding memory and repairing your permissions.
    this should do it.
     
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