am i on the right track - partitioning new hard drive

[klee1987]

Hi all,

I bought a new 500GB scorpio blue for my sister's core duo macbook.

I have a question. here is what i want to do:

1) a mac os x partition of course

2) a bootcamp partition running xp

3) a media partition so that it can be read under both os x and windows

Here's what I think I'm going to do, i need someone to double check to see if I'm thinking on the right track:

Put scorpio blue into a usb enclosure

partition the drive into 2 equal halves in the mac default format using disk utility

carbon copy to clone the existing drive so that it will boot when it is inserted into the machine. (say partition A contains os x, partition B is going to be the media part.)

put the drive into the machine. boot machine

set up boot camp and xp using bootcamp assistant. bootcamp partition will come from partition A.

format partition B to fat 32 using disk utility so both os x and windows can read and write to it. ( will xp be able to see partition B?)

Is this going to work?

thanks a million

 

[kasakka]

I'd format the media partition to NTFS in Windows and then install NTFS-3G on OSX to read/write on it. Remember, that the max size for a single file in FAT32 is 4 GB.

Install Windows 7 RC instead of XP.

 

[GoCubsGo]

^ agree with the above BUT, is Win 7 really widely available?

 

[klee1987]

I'd format the media partition to NTFS in Windows and then install NTFS-3G on OSX to read/write on it. Remember, that the max size for a single file in FAT32 is 4 GB.

Install Windows 7 RC instead of XP.

1) That's a good point. I already have MacFuse installed on the mac, so I will download NTFS-3g from the website to work with MacFuse. Correct? (or is ntfs-3g already installed? I installed MacFuse as prompted by VMware fusion

I am actually done with the formatting and cloning part. I plugged it into a windows PC, and as expected it does not recognize the partitions. If I reformat partition B into FAT on the mac, will it be recognised on the windows pc so that I can reformat it to NTFS?

2) thanks for this but I won't have access to the computer until after Windows 7 RC expires, my sister will not like having it shut down every hour so I will stick with XP.

Sorry for my lame questions. I have only had a mac myself for a month...so i consider myself a newbie...

I have to get that stupid torx screwdriver from a shop to remove the drive!

 

[JessicaD]

Jessica,

Windows 7 RC is available for download directly from Microsoft and can be used through next year for evaluation purposes. If you wish to try Windows 7, you may want to hurry up and download Windows 7 RC while you still can. Come August 15th the Win 7 download will no longer be available. The Win 7 RC can be downloaded directly from Microsoft here: http://tinyurl.com/cwl3fs
If you enjoy your experience with the RC version of Win7, you can now pre-order your copy of Windows 7 for a discounted price! For more information, see the Windows 7 Pre-Order offer page here: http://tinyurl.com/nldc8p
Jessica
Microsoft Windows Client Team