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Recommended Boot Camp Partition Size

jeme

jeme

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Morning - I am a noob - I have a simple question that I could not find a simple answer to in a search - I have a 13 inch MB Pro with a 160GB X25 SSD.
I want to install Windows 7 in Bootcamp (I did not like virtualization) - I might add a game or two and Office 2007 (Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Publisher) so obviously with 160GB size is important.

Would 20 GB be a good partition size to start with or do I need more?

What is the minimum that Win 7 will work on?

Finally - has Apple released Windows 7 drivers yet - I though I read that they would be out before the end of 2009?

Thanks in advance for the help - MacRumors is a great resource!
 
jeme said:
Morning - I am a noob - I have a simple question that I could not find a simple answer to in a search - I have a 13 inch MB Pro with a 160GB X25 SSD.
I want to install Windows 7 in Bootcamp (I did not like virtualization) - I might add a game or two and Office 2007 (Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Publisher) so obviously with 160GB size is important.

Would 20 GB be a good partition size to start with or do I need more?

What is the minimum that Win 7 will work on?

Finally - has Apple released Windows 7 drivers yet - I though I read that they would be out before the end of 2009?

Thanks in advance for the help - MacRumors is a great resource!
Click to expand...

I'm guessing 50GB: 20GB for windows, 20GB for games, 10GB for the rest. Make it 60GB to be safe.

Apple has not released Win7 bootcamp drivers yet even though they were supposed to release last year (Dec 2009).
 
20GB seems very small for Windows 7. I have a 100GB partition for Win7 Ultimate which is good for several steam games. Some games put a good 4-10GB of data on your drive. Keep that in mind or you'll end up having to start over with a new partition later.
 
60gb minimum. You plan on installing applications and such, plus the data that corresponds to that and finally the updates that MS sends your way consumes space.
 
You'll need at least 20GB for the 64-bit version of Windows 7, but I would stick with at least 60GB. The Bootcamp drivers are not out yet, but everything does work well except don't expect the three finger gestures to work in Safari.
I am so jealous of your SSD drive.
 
I currently have a 59.5GiB or 63GB of space for Windows 7... Although I've installed pretty much the same software you are planning to install. I have only about 3GB free. Though you could get Macdrive and you'll be able to read/write on HFS+ partitions as if they were NTFS.

If you get Macdrive you could have a bootcamp partition as low as 40GB for programs. And install games, movies etc. on the HFS+ partition.
 
DivineEvil said:
I currently have a 59.5GiB or 63GB of space for Windows 7... Although I've installed pretty much the same software you are planning to install. I have only about 3GB free. Though you could get Macdrive and you'll be able to read/write on HFS+ partitions as if they were NTFS.

If you get Macdrive you could have a bootcamp partition as low as 40GB for programs. And install games, movies etc. on the HFS+ partition.
Click to expand...

Has anyone done this? Does it work well?
 
Remember it is a 160GB drive - I can do all doc storage etc on a thumb drive - so I really just have Win 7, Office 2007 and 1 or 2 games - I am thing 40 GB - that is the most I want to use.

Working with 160 GB is tough...
 
I have 40GB on my win7 partition, and still 14GB free, it's definitely possible to work with a 40GB partition
 
drivers

jeme said:
Finally - has Apple released Windows 7 drivers yet - I though I read that they would be out before the end of 2009?

Thanks in advance for the help - MacRumors is a great resource!
Click to expand...

I have installed Win 7 64-bit Ultimate on a 75 GB partition, and the drivers for Vista 64-bit (on the OSX install disc) work flawlessly for me. It's pretty much automatic. Just follow that handy install guide on the Apple site and it should go smoothly. Good luck!
 
get a 500GB or 640GB drive - it's like $90.

then you can split the drive and have plenty for Windows 7 and your games 😎
 
joecool99 said:
get a 500GB or 640GB drive - it's like $90.

then you can split the drive and have plenty for Windows 7 and your games 😎
Click to expand...

Well, that comes down to if the op wants speed or space. In my case, my 500GB 7200rpm drive was better for me since I use about 250GB for OS X stuff and 75GB for windows. For him, he may want speed.
 
I think the question posed by the OP still hasn't been clearly answered- what is the minimum size for Win7 for basic basic needs (not including games/etc). That is, just plain Win 7 Home Premium, Office 2010, and a bit of buffer room for any updates/etc. I'm inclined to go with approximately 30gb. Any thoughts?

ps. Sorry for thread bump- it's the first match on Google!
 
Not sure what you are using Win7 for, but for gaming 25 is not enough. Most games now start around 10 GB, and I've seen some requiring as much as 30 GB of storage space. Maybe it's MMOs that are notoriously bad here, but with Win7 using about 10-15 GB, I don't see much use for a 25 GB windows partition.
 
Anyone that plays Games

I wonder if someone may be able to give me advice. Considering this thread title is my question, I thought I should use it rather than creating a new one. Now, the sole reason for the boot camp partition is for gaming. I do not foresee having anything else.


Considering that game sizes have increased since the last time, I wonder if anyone that uses the partition for the same reason I am would know and give advice. Now I have both Windows 7 Pro and Ultimate. I would then install steam and games, maybe a few emulators but that barely takes up no space.

100 gigs should suffice???? Some games I see recommend as high as 32 gigs for the game.
 
For windows + X, 20 GB. Rest can be games. 100 GB is more than enough, if you don't mind uninstalling games that you don't currently play. The largest game I'm aware of currently is Age of Conan, which is above 30GB.
 
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