Windows on a Pre Partitioned Drive

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Level 1

0 points

Windows on a Pre Partitioned Drive

Hello All.

I have a 13" MBP.

I recently purchased a 500GB drive and an external Enclosure. I popped the drive into the enclosure, opened disk utility and partitioned it to have 4 partitions.

1. 200GB Mac OS extended journaled (To use for my OS and files)
2. Remainder Mac OS extended journaled (To use for my media files)
3. 20GB Mac OS extended journaled (To eventually use for my BOOTCAMP drive)
4. 5GB Fat 32 (to use as an easy way to transfer between OSX and Windows XP)

Now my question is. Will i be able to install Windows XP onto the 20GB partition? Do I use boot camp or can I just install it onto that partition?

Thanks

13" Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Jan 6, 2010 2:02 PM

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Answer 1

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Jan 6, 2010 2:40 PM in response to skylark8503

No, let Boot Camp Assistant create your Windows partition - and large enough! and then shrink your Mac Extended volume later to add more; though I'd leave it as is and just use externals and not partition.

A SD memory card can be your temp volume for transfering files.

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Answer 2

rajeshpr

Level 1

8 points

Jan 7, 2010 6:40 AM in response to skylark8503

I have a similar set up, the problem is boot camp partition won’t work as there is a partition already. So what you need to do is
1. Delete all the partitions and make one big single drive
2. Create a boot camp partition
3. Install the Windows
4. Go back to OSX create a Partition
5. If you want to windows to read and write on the newly created Partition format it as NTFS by installing NFTS 3g” http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/24481/ntfs-3g”( if disk utility cannot format in NTFS format in FAT32)
6. Log in to windows, you will see all the drives, if you have formatted in FAT32 you can format as NTFS from windows side
7. Then load all your data either from windows or osx.

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Answer 3

Jan 7, 2010 8:01 AM in response to skylark8503

skylark8503 wrote:
Hello All.

I have a 13" MBP.

I recently purchased a 500GB drive and an external Enclosure. I popped the drive into the enclosure, opened disk utility and partitioned it to have 4 partitions.

1. 200GB Mac OS extended journaled (To use for my OS and files)
2. Remainder Mac OS extended journaled (To use for my media files)
3. 20GB Mac OS extended journaled (To eventually use for my BOOTCAMP drive)
4. 5GB Fat 32 (to use as an easy way to transfer between OSX and Windows XP)

Now my question is. Will i be able to install Windows XP onto the 20GB partition? Do I use boot camp or can I just install it onto that partition?

Thanks

As hatter says, use Boot Camp Assistant to deal with your Windows partition. You can get 3 partitions using only Apple software, but getting 4 is problematic. I'd forget about the FAT32 partition and use MacDrive and Mac-related software to go between your OS X and Win partitions. Let me know if you are interested in getting 3; you have to be a bit devious to do so. 🙂

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Answer 4

Widdzuk

Level 1

0 points

Jan 7, 2010 3:11 PM in response to skylark8503

I had the exact same problem, then I read elsewhere that you don't even need bootcamp to begin with. What I did was used disk util to make a windows conpatable partition. Then poped the windows disk in ( win 7 in my case) and booted from the cd, I did it the 'normal way'. I reformated the fat32 to ntfs in the win installer then simply installed. Then I booted into windows (I had the black screen issue with win 7, but sorted that) and used the bootcamp cd in windows to install all the relevant bootcamp drivers. Worked spot on. And didn't have to delete my existing partitionsbin the first place.

Hope this helps.

Martin

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Answer 5

Lewis

Level 3

651 points

Jan 8, 2010 2:40 PM in response to Widdzuk

Martin,
If I can get your scheme to work, then I'll sing your praises.
But I can only follow to the line
"Then poped the windows disk in ( win 7 in my case) and booted from the cd, I did it the 'normal way'."
Don't know what the normal way is. I assume windows won't boot if bootcamp is not involved. (I have seen the thread on the black screen problem.
Lewis

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Answer 6

Widdzuk

Level 1

0 points

Jan 10, 2010 8:22 AM in response to Lewis

Hi, I basically booted from the win7 cd. As you would with either a pc or mac. It was a bootable disk and was visible in the startup boot options you get when you use the option key at stArtup. And windows treated the mac as if it was installed on a normal pc. Just make sure you install it on the correct partition

hope you sort it.

Thanks

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