CampTune - Installing windows as single OS - questions about EFI firmware

[omzaz]

Hi,

Other than establishing and sizing the parititions on which the OS resides, I don't really understand what bootcamp or camptune does. I know EFI & partition tables have a role in the boot process, but I don't really get it.

With that in mind, I have a few questions. Any help would be much appreciated.

1. Does installing windows as a sole OS via CampTune affect the EFI firmware on the mac?

2. If I don't have OS X installed on the internal drive, is there a way to update the EFI firmware if one becomes available. For example, can I update it via a bootable copy of OS X on an external USB. If the answer to Q1 was yes, would doing this mess up whatever camptune did?

3. The only issue I have with Windows on a Macbook, is that the power management does not seem to be as good as on PC hardware. Is this affected in any way by the EFI firmware (hence my interest in future updates) or is it mainly dependent on the bootcamp drivers?

Thanks

[Mech_An]

Originally Posted by omzaz

1. Does installing windows as a sole OS via CampTune affect the EFI firmware on the mac?

It doesn't affect the firmware.

In simple words:
Like native Bootcamp utility from Apple, Install OS wizard from Camptune CD creates Hybrid GPT\MBR partitioning schema.
Hybrid GPT means that MBR schema for Windows is placed together with native Apply GPT schema to enable dual-boot configuration.
Then Mac OS bootloader allows to boot from GPT (Mac OS) or MBR (Windows).

2. If I don't have OS X installed on the internal drive, is there a way to update the EFI firmware if one becomes available. For example, can I update it via a bootable copy of OS X on an external USB. If the answer to Q1 was yes, would doing this mess up whatever camptune did?

Firmware update should not affect partitioning schema. So most probably update from external Mac OS copy will work.

I would recommend you to copy\backup your internal HDD configuration (e.g. from WinPE Paragon Recovery CD) before EFI upgrade.

3. The only issue I have with Windows on a Macbook, is that the power management does not seem to be as good as on PC hardware. Is this affected in any way by the EFI firmware (hence my interest in future updates) or is it mainly dependent on the bootcamp drivers?

What power management features do you mean?

[omzaz]

Thanks for your very helpful reply.

With regard to my power management comment, I don't really mean anything specific. Its just a subjective opinion really that battery life running Windows on my Macbook Pro is not as good as I would hope when compared with other Windows laptops I have used, and when compared with running OS X on my Macbook Pro.

But regardless, does EFI firmware play any role with regard to battery life?

[Mech_An]

Originally Posted by omzaz

But regardless, does EFI firmware play any role with regard to battery life?

It is common issue with Mac Books and Windows. EFI is not the reason as there are EFI based Windows laptops and battery works as expected regardless of the firmware (BIOS or EFI).

The most common advise is to update BootCamp drivers for Windows.