Boot Camp? Is it worth it? Problems, glitches, etc???

[BrownPlopz]

Hi everyone,
I am newly registered to the forum, and have been using Macs my entire life, due to my Graphic Designer father, but lately, as friends are getting into games like Crisis, and Call of Duty, I have been wondering about Boot Camp. You see, in April, I'll be getting a new, 20", 2.4Ghz, 4GB Ram 500GB HDD iMac, and in seeing and hearing about the feature Boot Camp, I immediately wanted it, but, now there are some questions buzzing, like:
-Will it ruin my Mac by slowing it down, infecting it, lengthening the boot time, etc?
-Will it allow me to game on the PC partition?
-Will the PC partition ever blue screen on me??? (typical PCs, thought there might be a chance :P)
-If antiviral software is installed on the PC partition, will it affect the Mac partition too?
-Is antiviral software even needed for the PC partition???
-and, will I be able to use a PC (made for Windows) keyboard/mouse on the Mac while on the PC partition??

Please help me out, as I am currently in need of answers to plan out what accessories to buy. Your help is greatly appreciated, thank you

[flopticalcube]

Originally Posted by BrownPlopz

Hi everyone,
I am newly registered to the forum, and have been using Macs my entire life, due to my Graphic Designer father, but lately, as friends are getting into games like Crisis, and Call of Duty, I have been wondering about Boot Camp. You see, in April, I'll be getting a new, 20", 2.4Ghz, 4GB Ram 500GB HDD iMac, and in seeing and hearing about the feature Boot Camp, I immediately wanted it, but, now there are some questions buzzing, like:
-Will it ruin my Mac by slowing it down, infecting it, lengthening the boot time, etc?
-Will it allow me to game on the PC partition?
-Will the PC partition ever blue screen on me??? (typical PCs, thought there might be a chance :P)
-If antiviral software is installed on the PC partition, will it affect the Mac partition too?
-Is antiviral software even needed for the PC partition???
-and, will I be able to use a PC (made for Windows) keyboard/mouse on the Mac while on the PC partition??

Please help me out, as I am currently in need of answers to plan out what accessories to buy. Your help is greatly appreciated, thank you

No.
Yes.
Yes (probably).
No.
Yes.
Yes, if they are USB.

[LeeTom]

Spot on.

Originally Posted by flopticalcube

No.
Yes.
Yes (probably).
No.
Yes.
Yes, if they are USB.

[Neil321]

Originally Posted by BrownPlopz

Hi everyone,
I am newly registered to the forum, and have been using Macs my entire life, due to my Graphic Designer father, but lately, as friends are getting into games like Crisis, and Call of Duty, I have been wondering about Boot Camp. You see, in April, I'll be getting a new, 20", 2.4Ghz, 4GB Ram 500GB HDD iMac, and in seeing and hearing about the feature Boot Camp, I immediately wanted it, but, now there are some questions buzzing, like:
-Will it ruin my Mac by slowing it down, infecting it, lengthening the boot time, etc?
-Will it allow me to game on the PC partition?
-Will the PC partition ever blue screen on me??? (typical PCs, thought there might be a chance :P)
-If antiviral software is installed on the PC partition, will it affect the Mac partition too?
-Is antiviral software even needed for the PC partition???
-and, will I be able to use a PC (made for Windows) keyboard/mouse on the Mac while on the PC partition??

Please help me out, as I am currently in need of answers to plan out what accessories to buy. Your help is greatly appreciated, thank you

no windows runs at native speeds
yes you can play games
maybe
no
yes
yes ( usb )

edit: faster typers than me

[BrownPlopz]

THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE! This was greatly appreciated, and once again, thank you! One more thing, what size should I make the PC partition if using Windows XP? Thank you in advance for this one, as I won't be checking this until tomorrow.

[Neil321]

Originally Posted by BrownPlopz

THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE! This was greatly appreciated, and once again, thank you! One more thing, what size should I make the PC partition if using Windows XP? Thank you in advance for this one, as I won't be checking this until tomorrow.

depends on what you want to install on it ( 10GB min to be on safe side ),when setting it up follow this

http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/

If you need to get a windows OS get a OEM of XP sp2

[jbg232]

Originally Posted by BrownPlopz

THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE! This was greatly appreciated, and once again, thank you! One more thing, what size should I make the PC partition if using Windows XP? Thank you in advance for this one, as I won't be checking this until tomorrow.

It depends:
-If you want to be able to read and write the windows files from os x then make it a fat32 partition; however, the maximum size this partition can be is 32GB
-If you can live with read only access from os x of the windows partition then you can make it ntfs. NTFS partitions are required if you want a partition > 32gb (might be a good idea for games), or if you want to install windows vista (also might be good for direct x 10 games).

One last note: Your last question was whether you could use a pc keyboard and mouse with it. You won't need to because when you install bootcamp apple gives you the drivers on the leopard dvd for all the hardware of the computer, including the windows and mouse.

[Neil321]

Originally Posted by jbg232

It depends:
-If you want to be able to read and write the windows files from os x then make it a fat32 partition; however, the maximum size this partition can be is 32GB
-If you can live with read only access from os x of the windows partition then you can make it ntfs. NTFS partitions are required if you want a partition > 32gb (might be a good idea for games), or if you want to install windows vista (also might be good for direct x 10 games).

One last note: Your last question was whether you could use a pc keyboard and mouse with it. You won't need to because when you install bootcamp apple gives you the drivers on the leopard dvd for all the hardware of the computer, including the windows and mouse.

Not forgetting FAT32 is a old & cruddy file system that limits you to 4GB file
transfers.There are also programs available that allow you to read/write to
NTFS partitions such as MacFuse and paragon

[majordude]

I run XP in Boot Camp and it flies. My MBP came with an ATI graphics card and it makes Madden 2008 look like HD TV.

I use it because a lot of shareware proggies I use only come in XP.

[BrownPlopz]

Thank you SO much to everyone who helped me out with this problem. Your help was GREATLY appreciated, and once again, thank you.

[Gatorman]

The only real problem I have with BootCamp is that my MBP sometimes gives me the grey screen of death when I try to boot into Windows. It's happened to a few other people, as well, after reading on the Apple Discussion forums. This usually results in me resetting my PMU and it boots up fine. Other than that, Windows works terrifically!

I think my problem doesn't have to do with BC, though....probably something else that I have yet to figure out!

[BrownPlopz]

Excuse the language, but WTF is with all of these "screens of death" for PCs? And how on Earth do you fix these (problems? glitches? what ARE they classified as?) when they occur?

[Mr. Zarniwoop]

Screens of death article on Wikipedia

What's a "kernel panic"? (Mac OS X) (aka Gray Screen of Death) on Apple's Support site

Sometimes "Gray Screen of Death" refers to a Mac that doesn't boot, just sitting at a gray screen.

[y0jeremy]

Originally Posted by jbg232

It depends:
-If you want to be able to read and write the windows files from os x then make it a fat32 partition; however, the maximum size this partition can be is 32GB
-If you can live with read only access from os x of the windows partition then you can make it ntfs. NTFS partitions are required if you want a partition > 32gb (might be a good idea for games), or if you want to install windows vista (also might be good for direct x 10 games).

One last note: Your last question was whether you could use a pc keyboard and mouse with it. You won't need to because when you install bootcamp apple gives you the drivers on the leopard dvd for all the hardware of the computer, including the windows and mouse.

You could actually do it NTFS, http://www.ntfs-3g.org/

[BrownPlopz]

Originally Posted by Mr. Zarniwoop

Screens of death article on Wikipedia

What's a "kernel panic"? (Mac OS X) (aka Gray Screen of Death) on Apple's Support site

Sometimes "Gray Screen of Death" refers to a Mac that doesn't boot, just sitting at a gray screen.

Thank You, come again.

[jbg232]

Originally Posted by y0jeremy

You could actually do it NTFS, http://www.ntfs-3g.org/

True, but not natively.