OSX and Bootcamp question

Hondamaker · 03-20-2008, 06:38 PM

If I decide to put windows on my iMac, when it creates the partition, will it delete and reformat my hard drive to do so?

geordisjd · 03-20-2008, 07:20 PM

Originally Posted by Hondamaker

If I decide to put windows on my iMac, when it creates the partition, will it delete and reformat my hard drive to do so?

I don't know what you mean about "delete", but it will partition a given portion of your HD (say 5 GB, that's what I used when I had bootcamp and reformat it so you can install Windows and run it native), and of course, that won't be available to the Mac part.

Hondamaker · 03-20-2008, 08:02 PM

Originally Posted by geordisjd

I don't know what you mean about "delete", but it will partition a given portion of your HD (say 5 GB, that's what I used when I had bootcamp and reformat it so you can install Windows and run it native), and of course, that won't be available to the Mac part.

well, you know how when you create a partition in windows the whole HDD is reformatted during the process.

geordisjd · 03-20-2008, 08:04 PM

Originally Posted by Hondamaker

well, you know how when you create a partition in windows the whole HDD is reformatted during the process.

I don't know anything about partitions in windows, but the Mac only formats the number of GB's that you'll assign to bootcamp. the rest of your mac stuff will be fine.

depthnerd · 03-20-2008, 08:05 PM

No it will dedicate a section of unused space to make room for Windows. And when i set up partitions on my old Windows machine it didn't format anything.

acosmichippo · 03-21-2008, 12:34 PM

if you format the windows partition as FAT32, you CAN read and write to it in OSX.

also, ifyour hard drive is relatively full, OSX may not be able to create a partition.

Hondamaker · 03-21-2008, 12:43 PM

So, what you're all saying is that I can put Windows on my mac using Boot Camp, and I won't lose any current data.

acosmichippo · 03-21-2008, 12:49 PM

correct. worst case scenario is the bootcamp assistant won't be able to partition the HD because there are too many files it can't move... and then you're just back to where you started.

Hondamaker · 03-21-2008, 01:04 PM

Awesome, thanks for everyone's help!

depthnerd · 03-21-2008, 03:49 PM

Well you'll need a guide on how to do it, actually. There are certain things you have to do to get it working properly on Boot Camp.

http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/04/b...indows-xp.html