Category Archives: Information Technology

Installing Windows 7 with Boot Camp on an unsupported iMac

I’ve spent the latter part of this week at work migrating to a new to me Late 2009 21.5 inch iMac. That means my old Early 2009 20 inch iMac was without purpose. Since I didn’t want it getting depressed or anything I decided to use it as a Windows 7 machine. Why you ask? Because I’m the Sharepoint admin for the library and sometimes using Sharepoint on a Mac is unpleasant.

So I formatted the iMac, reinstalled 10.6 and updated it. Then I started up Boot Camp and popped in Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit DVD.

“Wait!”you say, “that iMac doesn’t support 64-bit Windows 7!” Well, I didn’t realize that at the time. So I happily installed Windows 7, restarted it and proceeded to install the Boot Camp drivers. Then I got a “Boot Camp x64 is unsupported on this computer model” message. Great, now what?

Turns out the solution is pretty simple.

1. Go to Start > Computer. Then right click on your cd/dvd rom drive where the Snow Leopard DVD appears and click open.

2. From there, move to Boot Camp > Drivers > Apple and right click on the file with the name BootCamp64.msi. From the list of options appeared, select Troubleshoot compatibility.

3. Wait a few seconds, and a screen like the following will appear. From this screen click on the “Start the program…” button and the installation process will begin.

4. When the drivers are installed, you’ll need to restart the computer.

5. Enjoy!

You’ll need to run Apple Software update a few times to get to the latest version of Boot Camp but after that everything will work just fine.

I found these instructions at Michael Anastasiou’s site. He also has screen shots. Thanks Michael!

Testing Dragon app on the iPad

I haven’t posted anything in a long time just because I haven’t really had the time. But I got an iPad from work to test out and I decided to test out dictation software. I thought the best place to try that was on my blog so we’ll see how it works. Maybe I’ll post more often. I’m still amazed that Dragon software for the iPad is free. The app is very limited compared to what the full software on the Mac or PC would be but when all you really want to do is get some text into a computer this is a great way to do it.

IT 566 is over

My IT 566 class is over. I got an A in case anyone is curious. I haven’t decided if I’m going to take any more classes or not. There don’t seem to be any online classes this summer or fall.

The two classes I’ve taken in the Instructional Technology program so far have been interesting but not especially challenging. At least IT 566 was an excuse to tinker and play.

The server I was running for the class is no more. I reformatted the drive and set it up as a computer for my daughter . It’s running Edubuntu and has some good kid’s software on it.

I took Windows XP off my desktop machine and it’s running Ubuntu now. I really don’t like the new Unity interface in 11.04. So I’m using the nornal Gnome interface, called Ubuntu Classic. Unity is Ubuntu’s New Coke, and we know how well that turned out.

As a side note, I’m not longer running a server 24/7 So the links to librarymonk.zapto.org in older IT 566 posts will no longer work.

July jobs update

The paperwork for my job upgrade was been sent to HR, but it will be October before I see any salary increase. But the increase in pay will be retroactive until July 1, so it could be a nice payday. It doesn’t appear as though I’ve made it to the final interview stages of either of the jobs I applied for, although I could still be surprised.