Bootcamp Partition space requirements?

[Jambajoo]

Hi all, not fairly knowledgable in MAC, but I remember when setting up windows on my friends Mac Air, it wouldn't let me make the Bootcamp partition over a certain size in relation to the mac partition. I can't remember what the exact ratio was though. Now my GF wants to get a Mac Air, and we are trying to decide what size hard drive to get.

She will want to run windows, however I can't find any information on this now..is this something that no longer exists? The only information I was able to find was that the Mac partition needs at least 5gb free space after partitioning, but that wasn't related to the issue I ran into before.

Thanks!

 

[maflynn]

Here's a link to detail how much space windows needs
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/system-requirements

You need 16 to 20gb

 

[Jambajoo]

Here's a link to detail how much space windows needs
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/system-requirements

You need 16 to 20gb

Thanks, I am not referring to how much space Windows needs. I mean, before even installing Windows, just choosing the partition size, it wouldn't let me make it larger than a certain amount (I want to say it wouldn't let me make it larger than the Mac partition but I can't recall). If I tried it would display some message that it couldn't do it despite the mac partition having plenty of space.

Was my friends laptop just weird or was this something in the older versions of bootcamp?

 

[Jambajoo]

I guess what I mean to say is, are there any space limitations for the bootcamp partition other than leaving 5gb free on the mac partition?

I could have SWORN that when I installed it before on 10.6, it would not let me get it over a certain size, even though the mac partition have roughly 30gb free still.

Actually now that I think about it, I think what it said was that, my bootcamp parition could not exceed the size (in gbs) of free space the mac partition would have after partitioning.

Which would explain why on my friends laptop the windows partition is 28gb and the mac partition has 30gb free space still. I remember when you drag the slider on this step (http://macs.about.com/od/bootcamp/ss/bootcampassist_5.htm), if i tried to make it so the windows partition was larger than the remaining freespace it would error out when it tried to partition it.

Is this by design or some random problem with my friends air, and if ordering a new one, i shouldn't be faced with such a limitation?