# Windows XP partition size?



## Lawrence (Mar 11, 2003)

What's a good size to make the partition?
I've ordered Windows XP Home SP2 and I'd like to get everything prepared for it.

I'll be using my external Firewire Newertech with a 7200 rpm - 500 gb drive in it,
I'd like to keep at least half of it for OSX 10.5.2, Is it alright to have Windows on an external?

The computer I'm using is the mini in my sig.

Dave


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

I use 20 G on my MBP with a 160G HD.

I used to only use 10 G on my 1.83 MBP with 80 G HD and both worked fine.

On the current after installing XP Pro there are 14 G free.

On the old MBP there were only 4 G free.


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## Lawrence (Mar 11, 2003)

That's great thanks Sinc.
I'm going to load all my Garmin maps in to it and finally load my GPS the easy way,
I just hate using that Bobcat software method, I can hardly wait.

Cheers!

Dave


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## groovetube (Jan 2, 2003)

I have 20 as well with mine, I just don't plan on keeping a lot of large files in the partition.


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## Macinguelph (Oct 27, 2007)

20 G seems to be popular. I too used a 20 GB partition for bootcamp, but ultimately it all depends on how much windows storage you think you'll need. If you're planning on storing large game files or media, you may want more space, although XP itself with all of the updates and anti-virus software seems to take about 6 GB.

To answer your question about external drives: it is my understanding that you cannot boot Windows from an external drive. They are very sticky about proprietary software and all that, makes you appreciate OS X even more.


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## Wako (Oct 11, 2006)

I use 5GB to host Windows on my iMac Hard Drive (C2D, 17") and 40 on an external FW drive, and all the software are on it. I DON'T recommend that, as my memory is always low... 300mb-ish. 8GB would probably be ok, and if you can spare it, 10GB will be plenty if your software is on another drive.


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## Lawrence (Mar 11, 2003)

Macinguelph said:


> 20 G seems to be popular. I too used a 20 GB partition for bootcamp, but ultimately it all depends on how much windows storage you think you'll need. If you're planning on storing large game files or media, you may want more space, although XP itself with all of the updates and anti-virus software seems to take about 6 GB.
> 
> To answer your question about external drives: it is my understanding that you cannot boot Windows from an external drive. They are very sticky about proprietary software and all that, makes you appreciate OS X even more.


I'd hate to have to partition the main drive on my mini, What if I used the whole of
the main drive in my mini for XP and then used the external drive for OSX?
Would that work?

Dave


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## zlinger (Aug 28, 2007)

Depends on what you will use it for, but I set mine to 20GB partition. If you are using a 64GB SDD, 12 to 16GB but you will need to lean up the apps. I can boot with bootcamp or parallels. I also renamed the bootcamp partition to "Windows HD", in addition to the "Macintosh HD".

20GB gives me lots of room for windows XP pro, office XP edition, various scientific apps that I use (stats programs, mapping, database), acrobat reader, and thats all. After system setup with my set of apps, I have 11GB free space. No eye candy except for desktop pictures, clean and simple... with no duplication in apps such as third party browsers.

Also, here's a tip that works well for me. For data interoperability between the Mac and Win system, I formatted the bootcamp partition FAT32 (not NTFS). This allows you to gain access to the partition for r/w. I keep all of my data on "Macintosh HD", and parallels auto connects to my Mac home folder as a drive letter.

In the end, I have a good toolset of windows programs that I need for work. I can run it in bootcamp for full throttle, or parallels with coherency mode. I just need to now figure a way to backup the partition in case it dies??


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## zlinger (Aug 28, 2007)

dolawren said:


> I'd hate to have to partition the main drive on my mini, What if I used the whole of
> the main drive in my mini for XP and then used the external drive for OSX?
> Would that work?
> 
> Dave


I guess it would work, but I would recommend a partitioning scheme. For example, on my Mac Mini, it is a 60GB drive. (40GB Mac, 20GB Windows - 2/3 Mac, 1/3 Window). I learn to live with the reduced drive sizes, as long as the OS's are running stable and easy to maintain. 

Then just setup an external "file server" drive(s!) so that ALL data is external to the machine, with one being brought completely offsite for extra safety (encrypted too for security). Downloads, temp files, EyeTV video grabs, etc. can occur locally, but then moved to the external drive that is nicely organized. RAIDed drive for redundancy, and offsite incase the house burns down or gets robbed..


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## Lawrence (Mar 11, 2003)

I have an external USB 2 drive that I could use I suppose,
It's a Lacie 40 gb drive that I haven't used in years.

Dave


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## Macinguelph (Oct 27, 2007)

dolawren said:


> I'd hate to have to partition the main drive on my mini, What if I used the whole of
> the main drive in my mini for XP and then used the external drive for OSX?
> Would that work?
> 
> Dave


My BIG concern with that would be whether or not your Mac would still know it was a Mac. I would think that in order for Bootcamp to work at all, OS X would have to remain on the internal hard drive. While I'm certainly no expert in these matters, it sounds scary to me.


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## Lawrence (Mar 11, 2003)

I've printed out the Bootcamp manual and it says that I need to keep the Mac as
a single partition, Also when I install Windows a Windows partition will be created.

So what I've done now is to reinstall OSX from the Leopard disk and then upgraded
the system to OSX 10.5.2, I've also kept the drive as big as I could make it by not
installing more than I need to. (Minimum amount of applications etc.)
I now have just over 62 gb of free space available on my 80 gb Mac Mini hard drive.
(Actual size of the hard drive is 75 gb after formatting)

This should allow me up to 30 gb of space for the Windows XP installation.
(I think I'll make it a 30 gb partition when I install via bootcamp)

Dave


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## gwillikers (Jun 19, 2003)

I dedicated a 120 GB eSATA internal drive to XP. I used the NTFS filesystem option so that I could use Winclone (free utility) to back it up.
I admit that 120 GB is way too much, but even with a smaller partition you can use Winclone as long as you use NTFS as the filesystem when setting up with Boot Camp.


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## Lawrence (Mar 11, 2003)

I should receive the Windows XP SP2 software by the end of this week,
I can hardly wait, I'm really looking forward to finally loading up my GPS.
Is there anything else I should get? Virus/Spyware software? Which should I get?

Noticed Webroot Virus Spyware software at Staples, Is it any good?
There are two versions, The cheaper version has a three user license for $39.99
Or should I get Norton 360?

It's been a long time since I bought and used anti virus software.

Dave


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

I use the AVG free edition and it works fine and serves my needs without dragging down the system speed. Of course, I don't use Windows on the web very much unless it is to a site I know like Garmin, so I have had no issues with virus or spyware.


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## Macinguelph (Oct 27, 2007)

I use Rogers as my ISP and it comes with free Norton anti-virus and spyware and all that other junk for Windoze. It does seem to bog down the whole start up process, but it's free and regularly updated. I've heard good things about AVG too.


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## Lawrence (Mar 11, 2003)

SINC said:


> I use the AVG free edition and it works fine and serves my needs without dragging down the system speed. Of course, I don't use Windows on the web very much unless it is to a site I know like Garmin, so I have had no issues with virus or spyware.


That's great, Thanks Sinc, I've downloaded the free version of AVG
Took me awhile to find the true download link but I managed to download it,
I'll install it after I get Windows XP SP2 installed and running.

Cheers!

Happy Family Day!

Dave


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## Deep Blue (Sep 16, 2005)

I use Parallels and am quite happy. No partition necessary.


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## gordguide (Jan 13, 2001)

It depends on how much you depend on Windows apps, but if you only need it for a few things that, for some reason, you can't run on OSX, then I would suggest 20% of the HD space, keeping in mind that you probably need a 10GB minimum and can probably stop at a 20GB maximum for XPsp2.

FAT32 has a 4GB maximum file limit; any single file (this includes archives like zip files) cannot exceed 4GB.

On the good side is both OS's can read and write to that format/partition. MacOS can only read (not write to) NTFS, and Windows cannot even see Mac formatted partitions. You can use paid 3rd party software to see Mac partitions on Windows but in my experience MacDrive is buggy and not really worth the effort, grief, or price.

We may soon be able to write to NTFS, as several projects for Linux/UNIX (and therefore OSX, one way or another) are ongoing. Naturally, it's not simple so there's no telling exactly when, if ever, it will be working.

Broadly speaking it's difficult to recommend a partition size as it really depends on the individual needs of the user, and those can change over time as well. Even people with lots of experience sometimes wish they had juggled the partition sizes differently.

I personally think if you end up running without problems for a year or two you can probably conclude you came as close as anyone usually does to guessing the right mix. In the end, at some point one or the other is going to be "too empty" while the other is "too full".

Don't underestimate the utility of an external USB flash drive to act as a cross-platform (FAT32) drive to expedite file transfers between MacOS and XP (or 98SE/Vista). Then you can use NTFS which is a much better file system for your Windows BootCamp installation.

And, I don't intend to hijack the thread, but I've found that as someone who sometimes needs to access eMail, Internet, etc from "other people's" computers, that installing PortableApps on a flash drive is an awesome solution. A 2GB drive is enough, 4GB or more is plenty. You can then use that drive to do double duty as your x-platform drive for moving files from MacOS to Windows.

What PortableApps offers is a method whereby no data is written to the host Windows machine, so (for example) you could check your eMail and not have your login or other data "helpfully" saved in some autofill-enabled IE system and in general simply leave no data on the computer you "borrow". Very handy.


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## Lawrence (Mar 11, 2003)

Thanks for all the suggestions, I have got it all installed on a 32 gb partition,
I have also downloaded and run the free antivirus software from AVG, Works great.
The keyboard is now going to take me a while to get used to though.

Heh

Dave


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