Three questions about Windows XP under Boot Camp

[pirescoelho90]

I apologize in this isn't the right thread to post this, but I didn't finda any more suitable.

So, here's my problem.

I installed XP with boot camp on my macbook pro (snow lepoard, boot camp 3) and the installation of the os and the drivers went fine and the windows was worknig properly. I noticed some issues though.

1: My mac os x partition is recognized by XP, and I can poen the folders and stuff. But shouldn't it be unrecognizabe to windows? I wold prefer it that way, cause I dont want to accidentay mess something up on that partition when using windows.

2: When using the OSX, I noticed thet my battery life was reduced substantially. After I installed windows it lasted about 4-5h, when, before the intallation of windows, it lasted the usual 7h.
Isn't this strange? Cause this happens when I'm using the OSX! Maybe it has something to do with the disk beeing partitionized?
Anyway, then I decided to remove windows and this issue was gone! The battery life went back to the usual 7h.

3:I noticed that, when using XP, there is a red light inside the headpnone output. This has never been there when I'm using the osx.

So.. ane this issues normal? and how can I make the OSX partition unrecognizable to windows like it should be?

Thanks!

 

[j.barbo]

Question 3:

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/application_updates/bootcampdriversupdate22forwindows.html

 

[Eric S.]

1: My mac os x partition is recognized by XP, and I can poen the folders and stuff. But shouldn't it be unrecognizabe to windows? I wold prefer it that way, cause I dont want to accidentay mess something up on that partition when using windows.

Where exactly do you see your OS X partition under Windows? I don't understand how Windows could mount it at all, if it is formatted as HFS+.

 

[txhockey9404]

For number 1, when you installed your Snow Leopard Bootcamp drivers, one of them allowed read access to HFS+ partitions (what Mac OS X uses for its disks). Your Windows XP will not be able to modify or change files on the Mac OS X partition in any way. It simply does not know how to make any changes to HFS+, just as out-of-the-box Snow Leopard cannot write to NTFS (what Windows Vista and 7 must use for their file system, but XP can elect to use). So, the XP side seeing the Mac files should be absolutely no problem for you. Viruses cannot attack the Mac side because it is read only to Windows. Apple designed the driver specifically in this way so that viruses cannot destroy your Mac files. If you really feel the need to remove the read access to the Mac partition, just uninstall the driver. However, you should feel that your Mac data is safe because Windows cannot alter it.

For number 2, try ejecting (click on the drive and press Command or Apple and E at the same time) the Windows partition when you start up and see if that helps. It may just be that Finder is trying to index it every time you start up in order to use faster searching in spotlight.

Number 3 is normal but can be fixed as stated earlier.

Actually, number 1 is pretty normal as well.

If you really don't want Windows to have anything to do with your mac files and you don't use Windows for gaming or other heavy duty graphical or cpu work, I would recommend using the free program Virtualbox to run both OS X and XP at the same time. Windows will have no access to Mac files unless you specifically grant it, and it will run XP at pretty good speed. You also do not need to create a partition for Windows, and the virtual drive you create for it can expand as much as necessary. The only downside is that while both XP and OS X are running, your battery life will decrease severely, your Mac side may run slower if you do not have enough RAM, and the computer may get very hot. Honestly, if you really only need Windows for one or two light weight programs (like Internet Explorer or Microsoft Word, etc), I think that virtualization is the way to go, and Virtualbox is a free virtualization program (like VMWare Fusion and Parallels but with fewer features) that I personally think is great.