noob with boot camp question

[zuma022]

I'm eagerly waiting for my new iMac to be delivered. I'm planning to install XP in boot camp, but I want to keep all my files in Leopard and just have XP if I need it. Am I right in assuming that XP will be just as vulnerable to virus/malware as a regular PC?
If I would happen to catch a virus, would the files in Leopard be at risk? Can it damage the whole system or only the XP portion? Could I lose more than the files I keep in XP?

 

[merl1n]

I'm eagerly waiting for my new iMac to be delivered. I'm planning to install XP in boot camp, but I want to keep all my files in Leopard and just have XP if I need it. Am I right in assuming that XP will be just as vulnerable to virus/malware as a regular PC?
If I would happen to catch a virus, would the files in Leopard be at risk? Can it damage the whole system or only the XP portion? Could I lose more than the files I keep in XP?

Yes XP is vulnerable to viruses, but it would not spread to the Leopard files. Only XP would be affected.

You have another alternative to bootcamp. Unless you are a gamer, you could run XP in a "Virtual Machine" alongside the MacOS by using "Parallels" or "VMware Fusion". What these do is make a "drive container" on your Mac. It is nothing more than just a file. Using bootcamp, you are creating another partition on the mac.

By using Time Machine to backup your mac, these "virtual machines" (files on your mac) will also be backed up. If your "Virtual XP pc" gets infected, you can just easily go back in time and replace it from a TM backup.

Just something for thought. You can download demo's of both programs to see if you like them.

 

[zuma022]

Oh I didn't know that, thanks so much! I thought you'd always have to partition the harddisk to install XP and being able to use time machine would be even better.
Now if only the wait for this shipment wouldn't be so hard! lol

 

[MacBooksRock]

Yeah, Time Machine is a great feature. Enjoy your new iMac! 🙂