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How to partition 120 GB hard drive MacBook for OSX+Win (BC+Par.)? Fat/NFTS?

After many happy years with my PowerBook G4 12" (I will miss it definitely, as compact and cute as it is ;-() I'll now switch to a new MacBook 2.16 GHz with 2 GB RAM and a 120 GB hard drive.

I will have to use Windows (not yet sure if XP or Vista), as I need special software not available for the Mac, so my choice will be Parallels, so that I can work in Os X and at the same time use those Windows Apps I need.

However, I also want to be able to boot Windows-only with BootCamp, so I already learned I have to install Windows on its own partition.

So my question is:
How shall I partition the hard drive?

* If I have one big partition for OSX + documents and the rest (maybe 30 or 40 GB) for Windows, I won't be able to access my documents from Windows, right?

* So I would have to keep the data I want to access from within Windows on a PC formatted partition (if I don't want to pay for a software like MacDrive)?
Or can Windows running in Parallels read from a HFS partition?

* Does this mean: if I want to access (read and write) my documents in OSX and Windows, I have to keep them on a Fat32 partition?
-> This could be the partition where Windows is installed (but I'm not sure if I feel comfortable with that solution) of I would need a 3rd partition (Fat32) for data which would cause quite a big "segmentation" of the hard drive.

How did you resolve this problem?
Unfortunately, I don't see that I could really "separate" data I only have to access from Windows and those I only want to access in OS X, so in my opinion for me they all have to be in one place.

Looking forward to your comments,

Martin

MacBook 2.16 GHz, 2 GB RAM, 120 GB HD (white) Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Posted on Jul 4, 2007 7:32 PM

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How to partition 120 GB hard drive MacBook for OSX+Win (BC+Par.)? Fat/NFTS?

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