Multiple OS and Partition Question

[dmk1974]

I'm thinking about creating a partition with Boot Camp so I can install Windows 7 on my Mac Mini. I don't think it has the horsepower to run in Fusion.

My question is, can I create 3 partitions on the drive per the following:

1.) Snow Leopard
2.) Windows 7
3.) My Files

The intent is that the 3rd partition listed can be accessed weather I boot up with Snow Leopard or Windows 7. Is this possible? Or are there partition formatting issues that would prevent this. Perhaps I'm better off keeping "My Files" on an external drive or my server computer (which is windows based, but so far I've had no issue accessing from my Mac).

Thanks!

 

[i.shaun]

If the "My files" Partition is formatted HFS+J (Mac Format), then Windows will not even see it.

If it is Formatted "NTFS", you can read only from OS X (But you can use Third party software called Mac-Fuse & NTFS 3G to allow OS X to also write to NTFS Volumes.

That would probably be the easiest way. You can also try formatting it FAT32 if the option is available. That file system is universal and can be read/written by OS X and Windows. It has a 4GB file size limit though (No single file can exceed 4GB in size).

 

[dmk1974]

If the "My files" Partition is formatted HFS+J (Mac Format), then Windows will not even see it.

If it is Formatted "NTFS", you can read only from OS X (But you can use Third party software called Mac-Fuse & NTFS 3G to allow OS X to also write to NTFS Volumes.

That would probably be the easiest way. You can also try formatting it FAT32 if the option is available. That file system is universal and can be read/written by OS X and Windows. It has a 4GB file size limit though (No single file can exceed 4GB in size).

Thanks. I hope I don't have any files bigger then 4 GB, but some may cross 1 or 2 GB. I'll have to see if show leopard allows that format of FAT32.

 

[Schroedinger]

Stick to two partitions, keep everything on the mac side, and get a program called MacDrive (don't remember the cost) that will allow you to access the mac side while in Windows. You can use the advice given to read the windows side from the mac.

FAT32 is ancient and should only be used on usb flash drives.