How safe is it to download Windows 10 on a used MacBook?

[C2GameMachine]

What I mean from my question is that the MacBook I have is a MacBook Air I got two years ago. Obviously it hasn't been sitting in the box for two years and so it's not brand new with max storage available. So I am wondering if there will be any big issues with downloading Windows? I don't want to risk breaking my laptop or losing any of my files. Is there anyway I can safeguard my files just in case? I know I can backup it but it says it would be around 83 GBs and I don't have anything to store it in. Thank you in advance.

 

[EdwinG]

Hello

You have two options to run Windows. You can run it either in Boot Camp (directly on hardware) or virtualized (as an "application" on macOS). Virtualized is slightly slower, but you can switch back and forth between Windows and macOS (because Windows is simply an application window on macOS) and you run little risk of losing your data (so that's what I'm going to suggest with high level steps).

The question that I would ask first is: how much space is available on your Mac?
Keep in mind that Windows 10 requires about a minimum of 40GB of space regardless of the chosen solution to function properly (e.g.: applying updates), in addition to another 5-8GB for the DVD file that you will need to use. And you must leave space for macOS as well.

You can get that information by going to the Apple menu, the select About my Mac, and the information will be in the Storage tab.

Then you need a virtualization application. The better known ones and easiest to use are Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion.
Once you have the virtualization application installed on your computer, you can launch it, and ask it to install Windows 10 from the DVD file, and follow the steps.

Don't hesitate to follow-up with questions

 

[imwjl]

Hello

You have two options to run Windows. You can run it either in Boot Camp (directly on hardware) or virtualized (as an "application" on macOS). Virtualized is slightly slower, but you can switch back and forth between Windows and macOS (because Windows is simply an application window on macOS) and you run little risk of losing your data (so that's what I'm going to suggest with high level steps).

[FONT=&]The question that I would ask first is: how much space is available on your Mac?
Keep in mind that Windows 10 requires about a minimum of 40GB of space regardless of the chosen solution to function properly (e.g.: applying updates), in addition to another 5-8GB for the DVD file that you will need to use. And you must leave space for macOS as well.[/FONT]

You can get that information by going to the Apple menu, the select About my Mac, and the information will be in the Storage tab.

Then you need a virtualization application. The better known ones and easiest to use are Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion.
Once you have the virtualization application installed on your computer, you can launch it, and ask it to install Windows 10 from the DVD file, and follow the steps.

Don't hesitate to follow-up with questions

Good points.

A VMware virtual machine can be thin provisioned so the VM file only grows as is truly needed. The OP should also know the virtual machine will need to use the CPU cores in the laptop. For example, a 4 core CPU can't have a 4 core VM. The portability of a VM is a big advantage over dual boot.

M1 users should know at this point ARM type Windows virtualization is not same as or as Intel type.