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How many instances of Windows can BootCamp handle?

Hi, i have an early 2008 Mac Pro. I have OSX 10.6 Snow lepard, with Windows XP 32 bit Pro already installed via BootCamp on a seperate HD. I want to know if I can install Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit on a third HD using BootCamp and then select which operating system I want to run, Snow Lepard, XP pro or Windows 7
via bootcamp?

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Sep 8, 2010 2:49 PM

Reply
9 replies

Sep 8, 2010 3:56 PM in response to Kappy

I am not sure what you mean, multiple mixed particians on the same drive?
I currently have two physical HD's, and want to add a third.
I have 2 operating systems on two physical drives, OSX on a 350gb Hd, XP on a 500gb HD and I want to add a third 750gb hd for windows 7.,

Maybe I am missing something, each partition is on a seperate drive and there would be no mixed partitions on any of the drives.

Thanks, Sam

Sep 9, 2010 4:38 AM in response to Kappy

Ok here is a more explicit question, i currently have a mac pro early 2008 with two hard drives, a Maxtor 320gb with mack OSX installed, another drive with XP pro installed on a 500GB seagate drive and now I want to know can I add a third 720gb seagate hard drive and install windows 7 with bootcamp? If I can, when I use bootcamp manager, will it allow me to choose one of the tree operating systems installed? I.E. OSX, XP or Windows 7?
Each operating system will be on it's own drive explicitly.

Thanks, Sam

Sep 9, 2010 6:22 AM in response to 78c3sam

You can have almost as many as you want, but the order you install has to follow Windows order as XP and Vista or 7 together.

Windows has its own boot manager.

Apple Boot Camp control panel only sees the primary Windows, then you are in Windows boot manager tree.

People have Windows on 3 different drives in Mac Pro (XP, Vista, 7).

Windows 7 has its own XP Mode and it is hard to imagine actually needing XP. You can also probably run some stuff in VMs so you don't need 2-3 other Windows running natively.

Sep 9, 2010 9:01 AM in response to 78c3sam

OK, got it. The answer is "yes." As long as it's an internal drive you can create Boot Camp partitions on any of them, but only one Boot Camp partition per internal drive. When you create the partition and proceed to the Windows installation step your Windows system will be installed on the correct partition. But be careful when Windows reaches the step of formatting the partition. Windows won't know which partition to format until you select it, so be sure you know which partition that is and don't inadvertently format the wrong one.

Sep 10, 2010 6:52 AM in response to The hatter

Thanks for all the replies.
As for me wanting to have the ability to run XP, my situation is, I am visually disabled, and the task of a complete reinstall of software, datafiles and Windows 7 is quite time consuming.
I was planning to install Windows 7 initially and then reinstall data and software when it was convenient. That way, I would have XP to fall back on if I needed to do something I was unable to in Windows 7.
From your reply, I gather I can do this, however, using the Microsoft boot manager is not a realistic option for me. Being blind, I use text to speech software and the computer only speaks when the operating system has booted up. I believe when you are talking about the Windows boot manager, you are referring when the PC first starts to boot one would press the F8 key and the boot manager comes up. At this point of a Windows boot, my text to speech software has not yet loaded, so it would be rather difficult and more likely impossible for me to select which operating system I wanted.
I guess I am just going to have to bite the bullet and do a install of Windows 7 and software, then pickup a SATA enclosure for the XP drive and grab my data that way.

Thanks, Sam

Sep 10, 2010 6:58 AM in response to 78c3sam

When Windows has multiple versions it pauses for 20 seconds or goes to the default without F8 even being invoked.

I'd guess Windows 7 has better text to speech support.

Seems like something that would be nice to find help and have someone who could set it up.

When installing Windows on non-boot drive in Mac Pro the other drives, those with Mac partitions, have to be removed during the duration of install.

Sep 22, 2010 9:15 AM in response to The hatter

Just thought I would pass this on.
I tried to install Windows 7 64bit on my early 2008 Mac Pro, I first removed the drive with XP Pro 32bit on it then installed a new 750gb drive to install Windows 7 on. Tried several times through boot camp assistant but it kept giving and error and would not install to that drive. I then pulled all drives (including the drive with Snow Leopard 10.6) and installed the new 750gb drive to bay 1. turned on the Mac Pro and installed like a charm, I didn't know that you can run your mac without a snow leopard drive at all. I reinstalled the drives, snow leopard back to bay 1, my XP Pro drive in bay 2 and Windows 7 in bay 3. Lastly, when using bootcamp manager, I can select from any of the 3 operating systems in either version of windows and also in snow leopard, don't even se a Windows boot manager at all, just boots into the operating system I choose.

How many instances of Windows can BootCamp handle?

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