Wanting to boot linux, windows natively (non-virtualized desktop) General Questions

Discussion in 'Mac Basics and Help' started by rossjohnson87, Mar 13, 2009.

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  1. rossjohnson87, Mar 13, 2009

    rossjohnson87 macrumors newbie

    Joined:
    Mar 13, 2009
    #1
    Hi, like the title says I want to create three separate partitions that can be booted up and run exclusively but have some questions.

    I would like to separate my drive in this fashion

    320 GB HD

    25 GB Partition-Ubuntu
    50 GB Partition-Windows XP
    245 GB Partition-Mac OS X Leopard

    I'm running a new Macbook Pro that I've had since late November. I have just created a back up of the whole system, 102 GB's that I'd like to restore on the new reformatted Mac partition.

    Questions:

    Can the above actions be done?

    Can Linux be booted by itself?

    Is it possible to migrate my Windows files from VMWare to the new Windows Partition?

    Can I restore my Mac with the back up easily? If so, is it just done in Time Machine and pretty straightforward?

    How long does it take to reformat the HD? How long to create partitions?

    Any suggestions on size adjustments for the partitions? Windows would be mostly for gaming/IT programs. Linux almost exclusively for IT programs?

    Last one, what's the boot from disk command I need to press on starting?
     
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  2. MarkMS, Mar 13, 2009

    MarkMS macrumors 6502a

    Joined:
    Aug 30, 2006
    #2
    Remember that on an advertised 320GB hard drive, only about 298GB is usable. It's all semantics and units. Their 320 comes from 320,000,000,000 bytes which translates to 298.02GB.


    1. Yes, I have a similar setup. Except I'm on openSUSE for my Linux distro and use VMware for Outlook integration for my BlackBerry. I boot into Windows mainly for the occasional gaming session.

    2. Yes.

    3. I think, what you want to do, can't be done. You can migrate certain files (i.e., documents, music, work files) from VMware to OS X and then to Windows on Bootcamp. You just can't clone the VMware Windows file into the Bootcamp partition. At least, last time I checked it wasn't possible.

    5. A few minutes to create and format the partitions. Just make sure to set the Windows partition to MS-DOS (FAT) in Disk Utility and then switch to NTFS or keep FAT in the Windows installer. I did the same to my Linux partition and later changed it in openSUSE's installer.

    6. Up to you. Just make sure to factor in that today's new games are HUGE files. Since you don't really have 320GB, but 298GB, I'd stick with the 25GB and 50GB for Ubuntu and Windows, respectively. That should leave you with 223GB for OS X. More than enough unless you have a boat load of files. If so, then you should look into getting an external hard drive.

    7. Hold the option key.
     
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  3. rossjohnson87, Mar 14, 2009

    rossjohnson87 thread starter macrumors newbie

    Joined:
    Mar 13, 2009
    #3
    Tyvm :d
     
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