New iMac - NTFS FAT32 & HFS+

[ElPinko]

Hi all,

throwing out a Hypothetical here to try and get a jump start on my new iMac next month. The setup I plan to run will be iMac 24" 2.93 4gb RAM + parallels & Windows 7 + a 1 TB external HDD

I plan to partition a small amount of HDD just for Windows, but for the most of the time I will emulate rather than restart the computer.

I currently own a Windows XP Laptop and have never owned or used a mac, therefor all my ideas from this point on are theory...

the 1TB drive I own is what I currently use to house all of my media and documents - this is because of my intention to migrate over to mac in a month with little aggravation. I started using the HDD in FAT32 but was forced to reformat it to NTFS when it refused to keep my HD movies that were over 4Gb in size.

When I get the iMac i understand that OSX will read but not write to the NTFS drive?

If I emulate windows will that read the HDD no problem? And could it then be used to write to the drive?

Does windows read HFS+

Do any of you have this situation and what do you do?

I can empty the contents of the drive onto another drive and format my external HDD to any format, I just need to know what you all think is best?

 

[Tallest Skil]

Windows does not read HFS+. Free drivers in Snow Leopard or for-pay third-party software now can let you read it.

To write to NTFS from OS X, install NTFS-3G and MacFUSE.

 

[ElPinko]

Free Drivers in Snow Leopard will allow me to do what specifically? Sorry I'm confused by your answer. I wont be buying a mac until Snow Leopard anyway.

 

[Eidorian]

No reason to pay for read only.

 

[LTX]

Free Drivers in Snow Leopard will allow me to do what specifically? Sorry I'm confused by your answer. I wont be buying a mac until Snow Leopard anyway.

Wouldn't you rather use the education discount (or find a friend who has it), buy the Mac at the beginning of September, get the free iPod Touch (sell it if you don't need it), and get Snow for $10?

 

[ElPinko]

LTX I'm over in the U.K where apparently the education discount runs all year round, but I also work for a company that offers partner discounts, however these don't seem to be quite as generous, upto 15% but its 7% for iMacs...

 

[patrick0brien]

The OS’s Partitioning Virtualization

I would suggest you install Windows on the internal Drive using Bootcamp, then also use Parallels to also access that partition. This way, whether you boot to Windows, or Virtualize to it, you will be accessing the same instance. Essentially, the only performance difference is that the boot-to version would be better for games.

Note: Parallels, Fusion, et. al., don’t ’Emulate’ – using a code-command translation table to get one OS to speak the language of the host OS. These “Virtualize” – essentially calving off a portion of the processor, RAM, etc. and directly interfacing with them. Downside, you have another OS taking up resources too, so full capacity is not reachable, it’s just physics.

Bootcamp create more of a ‘soft’ partition of FAT32 (guys, correct me if I’m wrong) on top of the HFS+ of the Mac’s file structure. Within that, the Windows partition can go – you can probably Ghost it. Then you just point Parallels within OS X to the same instance and you have two choice of interaction.

Personally, I use Windows in a Parallels instance only as an application layer within OSX. It’s funny to see folks reactions to an XP window sharing screen space with OSX windows.

The NTFS Media Drive

I feel reformatting your external HDD to HFS+ and migrating your content back to it, and run it all through the Mac side of the house.

But that’s just me.

 

[LTX]

LTX I'm over in the U.K where apparently the education discount runs all year round, but I also work for a company that offers partner discounts, however these don't seem to be quite as generous, upto 15% but its 7% for iMacs...

The education discount is all year here also, but the iPod Touch deal is only until September 8.