I have a macbook pro I am running OSX and WinXP on. I use windows for work and OSX for regular computer use. I was wondering can I keep my music files on the OSX side and my outlook contacts and calander on the windows side and sync my Touch with both my windows and mac itunes?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPod touch Syncing Touch With 1 Computer Running Bootcamp
- Thread starter samo1215
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Why don't you make another FAT32 partition and put your iTunes library on there? That way both Windows and OS X can read and write the same library, so you do not have to sync with just one side, and when you load into Windows, you can sync your iTunes and Outlook, and when you load up OS X, you can sync just music. I am not 100% sure this will work for you, so I would wait for another person to confirm this solution before you go through the process of creating a third partition, as it could be potentially damaging.
therealmrbob
macrumors regular
I haven't tried this.
I have indeed heard that it works tho, you would just have to turn contact syncing off on os x and then turn all the syncing except contacts off on the windows one.
I have indeed heard that it works tho, you would just have to turn contact syncing off on os x and then turn all the syncing except contacts off on the windows one.
Thanks for the suggestion. I'm a bit new to macs so I have to admit I looked into this and am not sure how to create another partition.
Sorry for the late reply, but I had to come up with the best way to do it.
1. Back up all important documents and apps from both OS's (including your iTunes library
2. Plug in your computer
3. Insert your OS X install disc when in OS X and reboot from it--it will take a while to boot.
4. Open Disk Utility under Utilities on the Menu Bar
5. Click on the top level of your hard disk--Not Macintosh HD or Windows, but the name of your hard drive (mine is 232.9 GB WDC WD2500...)
6. Choose the partition tab
7. press the plus under the graph of your partitions
8. Rename the new partition on the right (When the drive is formatted to FAT32, it will always be all capitals)
9. Set the format to FAT32 if available (if not I will get to how to do this later in step 9a)
10. Set your size to a bit bigger than your iTunes library (mine is around 85gb, so I would make mine around 95 to 100) and remember that you may not be able to expand it later.
11. Press Apply and wait until it is completely finished.
12. Reboot into OS X.
13. Make sure your files are intact.
14. Reboot to Windows
15. Make sure your files are intact.
16. Go back into OS X
(9a.) When in OS X, open disk utility and select the new partition
(9a2.) Click the Erase tab
(9a3.) Change the volume format to FAT32
(9a4.) Click on Erase
17. Copy your iTunes Library Folder (Usually the Music/iTunes folder)
18. Open iTunes in OS X while holding option
19. Select the iTunes Library file under iTunes on your new partition
20. Your music and playlists should all be preserved
21. Go into iTunes's preferences
22. Click Advanced and make sure that that the path shown in the first box is set to the new partition--if it is not, change it to that folder
23. Make sure that the Keep iTunes folder organized and Copy items into iTunes music folder are checked
24. Repeat steps 18-23 in Windows, but when you open iTunes, hold Shift, not Option.
25. Tada! You are done! I reccomend doing syncing in Windows so that your contacts will always sync right, but you can now add songs and listen on both sides.
If you have any more questions, please ask! I hope this guide helped!
1. Back up all important documents and apps from both OS's (including your iTunes library
2. Plug in your computer
3. Insert your OS X install disc when in OS X and reboot from it--it will take a while to boot.
4. Open Disk Utility under Utilities on the Menu Bar
5. Click on the top level of your hard disk--Not Macintosh HD or Windows, but the name of your hard drive (mine is 232.9 GB WDC WD2500...)
6. Choose the partition tab
7. press the plus under the graph of your partitions
8. Rename the new partition on the right (When the drive is formatted to FAT32, it will always be all capitals)
9. Set the format to FAT32 if available (if not I will get to how to do this later in step 9a)
10. Set your size to a bit bigger than your iTunes library (mine is around 85gb, so I would make mine around 95 to 100) and remember that you may not be able to expand it later.
11. Press Apply and wait until it is completely finished.
12. Reboot into OS X.
13. Make sure your files are intact.
14. Reboot to Windows
15. Make sure your files are intact.
16. Go back into OS X
(9a.) When in OS X, open disk utility and select the new partition
(9a2.) Click the Erase tab
(9a3.) Change the volume format to FAT32
(9a4.) Click on Erase
17. Copy your iTunes Library Folder (Usually the Music/iTunes folder)
18. Open iTunes in OS X while holding option
19. Select the iTunes Library file under iTunes on your new partition
20. Your music and playlists should all be preserved
21. Go into iTunes's preferences
22. Click Advanced and make sure that that the path shown in the first box is set to the new partition--if it is not, change it to that folder
23. Make sure that the Keep iTunes folder organized and Copy items into iTunes music folder are checked
24. Repeat steps 18-23 in Windows, but when you open iTunes, hold Shift, not Option.
25. Tada! You are done! I reccomend doing syncing in Windows so that your contacts will always sync right, but you can now add songs and listen on both sides.
If you have any more questions, please ask! I hope this guide helped!
Thank you so much for the help, I really appreciate it. I'll give it a shot this week. Thanks again!!!
No problem. I had to do something similar with my computer because I wanted to share my media with the other computers on my network from my computer, and did not want them to access my other files, so I created a separate unlocked partition. If you ever run out of space, I would recommend making an image of the partition you just created and restoring it to a new drive. It will take a while, but the new drive will be identical to the old one. I ran out of space on my internal drive and purchased an external drive that now lives attached to my Airport Extreme serving as an iTunes server as well as a Time Machine server.
Sorry to drege up an old thread but I finally got around to obtaining an external HD and am attempting to follow the instructions you gave me. The problem I'm having is that while I can create a new partition I can't make it any bigger than 18GBs. I have a 200GB hard drive (really only 186GBs for some reason) with two existing 93GB partitions (one for Windows and one for OSX). Using Disk Utility I can only resize the OSX partition. The trouble with that is I need to shrink the Windows one as well so I can create a 50GB music partition. Thanks again for all the help.
barr08
macrumors 65816
If your external HD is formatted as FAT32, you don't have to partition it, as PC and Mac can read and write to FAT32 drives. I keep my music on an unpartitioned FAT32 external HD, and use iTunes in both XP and OS X.
Thanks for the suggestion. Normally I wouldn't object to keeping my music on the external drive but I travel so frequently that I would really like to keep it on my internal HD so I don't have to lug any extras around with me.
Ok, I am going to mend my tutorial a bit because I guess Windows partitions cannot be resized. You will lose all data by following these directions so BACK UP!
1. Back up data from both sides onto your new External HD
2. Boot from OS X Install Disc
3. Open Disk Utility
4. Click the top level of your hard drive
5. Click partition
6. Choose 3 partitions from the drop down menu
7. Set sizes and format OS X partition for HFS Extended (Journaled), Windows for FAT32-you can reformat it in the Windows installer, and Music for FAT32
8. Make sure you choose to use the GUID Partition table so you can boot OS X from that drive
9. Press apply
10. Wait
11. Reintstall OS X
12. Reinstall Windows
13. Put files back on both partitions except for music
14. Follow Steps 17 to 25 from the previous instructions
Hope it fixes it. Sorry for making you delete everything, but that is pretty much the only way to get the size you want because you can only take space back from OS X and not Windows.
1. Back up data from both sides onto your new External HD
2. Boot from OS X Install Disc
3. Open Disk Utility
4. Click the top level of your hard drive
5. Click partition
6. Choose 3 partitions from the drop down menu
7. Set sizes and format OS X partition for HFS Extended (Journaled), Windows for FAT32-you can reformat it in the Windows installer, and Music for FAT32
8. Make sure you choose to use the GUID Partition table so you can boot OS X from that drive
9. Press apply
10. Wait
11. Reintstall OS X
12. Reinstall Windows
13. Put files back on both partitions except for music
14. Follow Steps 17 to 25 from the previous instructions
Hope it fixes it. Sorry for making you delete everything, but that is pretty much the only way to get the size you want because you can only take space back from OS X and not Windows.