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Here are the steps that worked for me:

• First, boot from Windows 7 installation (DVD).
  • On a MacBook Pro (with BootCamp), power-on with Alt/Option key held down.
    • Initially, only the standard Mac and Windows options appear, but wait a few more seconds and then additional options appear for Windows and EFS methods of booting from the DVD.
    • I selected the Windows option (guesswork).
• Select the System Recovery option http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/668-system-recovery-options.html
• Select the STartup Repair option http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html

As it happened, this whole process was a distraction.  I was trying to get a BootCamp-W7 Virtual Machine (VM) in Parallels working - it would boot OK in BootCamp but not Parallels.  It was a matter of identifying the problem by excluding other possibilities, as much as hoping for this to be the fix.   However I record the process I went through, here, for posterity.

Gamma-shift issue:

•  http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/8/1028870
  • “QuickTime movie, created with Avid on a PC, using the DNxHD codec. When I open it in QuickTime Player on a PC, the colours are fine, but when I import it into Final Cut on a Mac, the colours are a lot brighter- gamma shift”.
  • “I have ProRes and DNxHD clips of the same thing on the timeline. When I switch from a frame in one clip to the same frame in the other clip, there is a very visible difference between the two. The DNxHD version is brighter and ‘milky’.  I’ve tried exporting DNxHD from Final Cut and it has the same problem as the DNxHD sourced from the Avid.”
  • “It’s the codec. DNxHD reports RGB values to FCP not Y’CbCr. Therefore FCP applies its internal RGB interpretation which causes the gamma shift you see.”
  • “Any non native codecs to final cut pro should be transcoded first through compressor; best way to check if the gamma has shifted is take an image with tonal ranges which vary over a gradient e.g. sky; look at the scopes in avid for the dnx file; look at the scopes in final cut pro for the dnx file; no guess work”
• x

Windows 7’s System Restore utility (GUI): The .exe file and how to run it from commandline/script:

• http://www.ditii.com/2010/02/14/system-restore-point-using-two-clicks-in-windows-7/

On Windows I installed Safari (web browser).  The installer also offered Bonjour for Windows.  That is a service discovery app from Apple.  Like Safari it comes bundled with Mac OS and now it seems, is also availabe for Windows.  So is it useful or nuisanceful?  Unsure, I decided to play safe and not install it.  Here’s a deeper article on what it does/doesn’t do:

• http://clibra.wordpress.com/2007/07/18/bonjour-for-windowsyes-no/
  • (Paraphrasing):
    • Not a nuisance but not as useful as one might have hoped, since not all apps know how to make use of it.
  • Instructions on how to remove it: http://arai.wordpress.com/2008/02/11/completly-uninstall-and-remove-bonjour-service-and-files-mdnsresponderexe-and-mdnsnspdll/
    • If you do not want Bonjour to be in your computer and want to uninstall it, sometimes you can’t find any uninstaller for it! Even if you go to Control Panel’s Add or Remove Program, you can’t find the uninstaller there …
    • (I won’t repeat the instructions here - a little knowledge is a dangerous thing - read the full article)

Article about migrating an existing Boot Camp windows system to Parallels.  I’m guessing the method could equally be applied to manually migrating any windows installation (e.g. from another machine), as an alternative to the mainstream method.

• http://forum.parallels.com/thread3261.html

Some background knowledge available here (from around 2007?):

• http://www.askdavetaylor.com/use_winxp_boot_camp_partition_in_parallels.html

SpeedTools

• [http://www.philmug.ph/forum/showthread.php?p=782450]
• [http://www.speedtools.com]

Can use Wester Digital’s MyBook drive on a network featuring multiple OSs, such as Mac OS as well as Windows, provided one does not install MioNet (bundled with the drive).  My instincts were right then (I did not install it).

• http://raoulpop.com/2007/06/25/hardware-review-wd-my-book-world-edition-ii/
• http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t/t-300586.html (which references the above)

In my case, the drive is formatted as NTFS, on a Mac it simply appears automatically in Finder then Mac OS is able to read it (Mac OS is able to read NTFS).  In retrospect, maybe would have been better to format it as HFS+ since then Windows could use MacDrive to not only read but write to it.  Meanwhile on Windows I found it necessary to run the “Discover” application bundled with MyBook, which configures the network drive mapping (to a drive letter).

From [http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/working-with-aliases-in-mac-os-x.html] as of 2010-05-15]:

• Aliases in Mac OS are like Shortcuts in Windows but better.   Aliases usually don’t break when you move or rename the original file; shortcuts do.
• Alias feature has been on the Mac since at least OS 7 circa 1992. Shortcuts first appeared with Windows 95 in 1995.

On MacBook Pro, used Sony Clip Browser (ClipBrowser) to import footage from a Sony XDCAM-EX to Mac OS HFS+.  This machine had MacDrive installed, enabling Windows apps to directly access files on the HFS+ file system.  On same machine, under Boot Camp (BootCamp) and Windows 7, ran Sony Vegas NLE.   Successfully imported and used footage by both of the following methods:

• Sony Vegas’s Device Explorer [View > Device Explorer].
  • This took several minutes to import.
  • Importing resulted in copying the [.mp4] file (and other files) to the NTFS partition.
• Direct use of [.mp4] on the HFS+ partition.
  • No need to import as such, just constructed waveforms etc.
  • This completed in seconds.
  • Only downside is that it ewas unable to save the waveform files etc., due to my config of MacDrive (read-only), so it would have to do this every time I opened the project.
    • Have yet to try the same thing when MacDrive has config for full read/write access.

GRAID mini was initially a single partition formatted HFS+ under GPT partitioning-scheme.

Repartitioned it as MBR partitioning-scheme where the HFS+partition (existing but reduced) was followed by an NTFS partition.  The repartitioning of the disk and the formatting of the NTFS partition was accomplished from Mac OS, using the iPartition application.

When I first connected the resulting disk to a MacBook Pro, the HFS+ partition was seen OK under Mac OS.  However the NTFS partition seen from Boot Camp / Windows 7 caused Windows Explorer to crash, whenever it was selected or right-clicked in that applications left-hand pane.  On the other hand if the thing selected in the left-hand pane was the computer itself then the NTFS partition (among other volumes) was listed in the right-hand pane, and it was possible to right-click that without the application crashing.  Also, no problems were experienced when accessing it from commandline, or when using Windows Explorer to look inside its folders (as opposed to teh top-level).

By right-clicking the NTFS partition in the right-hand pane, selected options to:

• Define it as a mainly-videos drive.  Presumably alters the block size or something.
• Change that volume’s name, from “GRD mini NTFS” to “GRm HTFS.  Not sure if relevant.

Subsequently was accessed OK in both left and right hand panes.