27” iMac SSD+HDD: partition for games

[bizango]

Promises of speed have lured me over to the idea of a SSD dual-drive for the new iMac I’ll be buying in ...um...October (crosses fingers, toes). I’ll be using the OSX side for everything from email to 3D rendering, but want to bootcamp Windows 7 for a few games on Steam (Skyrim, COD...).

Can I bootcamp a smallish partition on the SSD just for Windows 7 (thinking ~50gb) and then also partition the HDD for the actual Steam app and games.. and maybe a couple other programs?

Or perhaps foregoing the speed of the SSD for bootcamp/windows and just partitioning the HDD is better & simpler for a simpleton like me?

Is that a good plan or am I an idiot?

Thanks!
PS. sorry if this should be posted somewhere else...

 

[maxmiles]

I'm in the same situation and have a few problems. For one, Boot Camp isn't cooperating with installing a Win partition on the HDD. (I wanted to just create a 200 GB partition on the HDD, while keeping the rest of the 2TB for media files, for when I'm booted to 10.8 on the SSD.)

Boot Camp will allow me to have one partition on the 2TB drive, but I don't want to waste all that space on windows. It will also allow me to partition my SSD, but I feel there's not enough space on the SSD for a windows partition.

Following the notes of other's, I've gotten as far as using iPartition to "make visible to windows" a FAT partition on the HDD I created in Disk Utility, but the Win7 install disk won't boot.

So piggybacking the OP, if anyone has experience on how to successfully get Windows on the INTERNAL HDD on an iMac with a SSD/HDD system, please share.

 

[hfg]

I added a 240GB SSD to my 27" iMac in addition to the 2TB original drive purchased with it.

I partitioned the SSD to have 160GB OS X and 80GB for Windows7 using Boot Camp. I also partitioned the hard disk to have 1.5TB for OS X data libraries, and 500GB NTFS for Windows games and stuff.

Worked fine for me and gives you the best performance and capacity under both operating systems.

Just use Disk Utility to format the hard drive into 2 partitions, then assign the proper format to each one. I then reformatted the windows partition on the HD using Windows format (once installed on the SSD) to be sure the NTFS was fully compatible. To maxmiles, once your disk is partitioned, you can simply do a standard Windows installation from DVD-boot after formatting for NTFS ... you don't need to use Boot Camp at all (other than to get the hardware drivers which you can do at the start of the BootCamp program, then exit).


-howard

 

[maxmiles]

Hi Howard, thsnks for the help.

I've used Disk Utility to partition the 2TB drive into, at this point, 3 partitions. One 1.7Gb partition for the Mac to use as storage, one 200Gb FAT formatted partition for windows, and an extra 40Gb Mac partition for an extra install of 10.8. I used "iPartition" to use it's diagnostic function to "make visible to windows" as reading online some people were having trouble getting the Win7 install disk to recognise the windows formatted drive. So I've done all of that but now unfortunately when I try booting from 2 different Windows 7 install disks all I get is a white screen, and sonetimes a white screen with the Apple logo. So.. I'm not sure what to do now, it seems there's an issue with the install disk but I don't know enough to figure it out.

 

[hfg]

I have had a problem installing Windows when I have too many logical disks. It is my understanding that the Windows installer can't see past 4 partitions, and when multiple partitions are created, additional hidden partitions (EFI) are also created, causing problems for the installer. I have seen some discussions here on ways to "cloak" the partitions to make them more agreeable with Windows if the multiple partitioned drives are absolutely required. Someone with a better understanding may chime in here ... or you may be able to find some threads (probably under the Windows on Mac sub-forum) relating to the problem.

You might also look under the Mac Pro forums as that was one place I encountered it. The Apple Support pages (another place to search) suggested removing excess drives while installing Windows, then replacing them once it all was running.

I have been able to do the SSD and HD with 2 partitions on each for OS X and Windows on several laptops and a iMac.


Good luck,
-howard

 

[bizango]

Thanks all. This is good news and great info.
Now I just have to bide my time until the rumored 2012's are let out of the gate...