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Bootcamp HD Size on Air

S

Scuba629

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 14, 2010
249
5
What size does everyone use for their Bootcamp partitions? I have a 256GB drive and wasn't sure how large to make the Windows 7 partition...

I'm not sure how many games will go on it but games are the reason I am using Bootcamp and not just a VM.

Thoughts?
 
Scuba629 said:
What size does everyone use for their Bootcamp partitions? I have a 256GB drive and wasn't sure how large to make the Windows 7 partition...

I'm not sure how many games will go on it but games are the reason I am using Bootcamp and not just a VM.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Mine is 30 GB but you can make it bigger if needed later on.
 
Scuba629 said:
Wait you can resize it? I must admit im new to bootcamp but I thought once you selected the initial partition size it was a done deal. No?
Click to expand...

There are some apps that supposedly resize partitions, but they have mixed results. It's best to set a size, and consider it as a done deal.
 
I was thinking 60GB but maybe that's to much? After looking at Streams website most games are ready for Mac.
 
I went with a minimal Win 7 bootcamp at 40gb. You could use that as your baseline and then add space for whatever games you need.
 
Last edited:
I set mine at 60GB. I was waffling on whether or not to go 80GB but it really depends on how much you think you'll be using your Win7 partition and how many programs, etc. you'll be installing on the Windows side. Cheers!

P.S. I can also tell you that my 60GB partition actually formatted out to 56GB usable and a full install of Win7 Ultimate 64 (including all updates) left only 23GB of available space. Only thing extra installed is Apple iTunes and Quicktime. If you have to install MS Office or games on the Windows side then I would highly suggest you go at least 80GB.

James
 
Scuba629 said:
Wait you can resize it? I must admit im new to bootcamp but I thought once you selected the initial partition size it was a done deal. No?
Click to expand...

Winclone is the best program for resizing a partition later. It also works as a way to back an up entire partition. It is $20. You can even use it to move a Boot Camp partition to a new Mac, but sometimes there are added steps because of driver incompatibilities.

Anyway, I have a 75GB partition. It's enough for Windows 7 64-bit Professional, Windows XP Mode (which I used to need when my corporate site required IE 6.0 or 7.0), Office 2010, Quicken 2012, some utilities, and about 20GB free. Windows itself requires 20GB.
 
Shouldn't standard Unix utilities like fdisk be able to resize the partition? And if the partition is resized, how would you go about fixing the boot sectors and such?
 
Blackened Apple said:
Shouldn't standard Unix utilities like fdisk be able to resize the partition? And if the partition is resized, how would you go about fixing the boot sectors and such?
Click to expand...

I believe that's what Winclone does. It used to be a "free" program, but was abandoned for a time before a new person took it over and made it a paid program. For $20, it's well worth it for me.
 
ZBoater said:
Not if you want Windows to work afterwards...
Click to expand...

Hmm, I've resized my fair share of Windows partitions in dual-boot Linux boxes, never once had a problem getting Windows to work afterwards... Just run grub-update afterwards to make it point to the right place, and everything should work as intended.

Now, I have no idea if there's any command like grub-update when it comes to the boot manager Apple uses, but if there is, Winclone doesn't really seem that necessary...
 
I'm seeing comments recommending 20 and 30GB installs. I'm wondering if these guys have boot camp at all.

Initially, I tried the minimum install. As soon as I got up and running I was getting 'low disk space' warnings. Then I tried 30GB, which seemed like a good size, but once I installed one (rather large) program (autodesk revit) I was out of space again.

Finally I set it to 50GB which is enough for a few large programs and some space for files. I would't recommend going any lower.
 
Kaemon said:
Yeah go ahead and try and play a game on that. Good luck.
Click to expand...

Games play fine, even on 4GB of RAM. What specifically are you complaining about? :confused:

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schopaia said:
Finally I set it to 50GB which is enough for a few large programs and some space for files. I would't recommend going any lower.
Click to expand...

That's what mine is set up at, and it seems like a decent size. With Parallels you can have all your data on the Mac partition, which has the added bonus of being backed up with Time Machine.
 
ZBoater said:
Games play fine, even on 4GB of RAM. What specifically are you complaining about? :confused:
Moshe1010 said:
The only place I play games is in my bedroom.
Click to expand...

I'm not talking about the RAM, or anything like that. But the benefit of using Windows primarily would be for games, and the fact is a VM won't get the performance that directly booting into it will. Thats what I mean.
Click to expand...
 
Kaemon said:
ZBoater said:
Games play fine, even on 4GB of RAM. What specifically are you complaining about? :confused:


I'm not talking about the RAM, or anything like that. But the benefit of using Windows primarily would be for games, and the fact is a VM won't get the performance that directly booting into it will. Thats what I mean.
Click to expand...


I don't know about games because I don't use WIN for that purpose. I like VM because it gives me the opportunity to run OSX and WIN at the same time, and I can change between the windows instantly.
Click to expand...
 
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