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kubricks

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 15, 2008
48
0
I am going to need to run Windows XP on my macbook for some pro-audio applications that are not available on OS X. As the bootcamp partition will be the most critical in relation to performance will there be any benefit to having it on the first partition on the drive (I seem to recall something about it best to have your primary use OS on the first partition to cut down seek times).

What do you people think?

I'd have to wipe the drive, partition it, install OS X on the 2nd partition then bootcamp on the first right? :apple:
 
For Boot Camp, not really - what you're trying to do isn't even possible with Apple's Boot Camp implementation, and any performance difference you would see is minimal, at best, and negligible, at worst.
 
For Boot Camp, not really - what you're trying to do isn't even possible with Apple's Boot Camp implementation, and any performance difference you would see is minimal, at best, and negligible, at worst.

Yes. As I understand it, the Windows MBR partition must be the
third partition in the hybrid GPT/MBR scheme. Goodness knows
why this is the case - any explanation why would be appreciated.

There are a few more options. You can make the disk MBR only.
I wouldn't recommend that, but apparently Leopard will run off
an MBR partition - the catch being that the Leopard installer will
only install to a GPT partition. Confused yet? I am ;)

So what you'd have to do then is intall to a GPT partition and copy
across to the MBR partition. If it all goes swimmingly, there's just
a chance you can install Windows on the first partition and OS X
on a partition after that. But I certainly wouldn't recommend this
approach. It sounds risky and overcomplicated.
 
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