• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

What's your bootcamp partition size?

S

suklee

Diamond Member
So my copy of Snow Leopard finally arrived the other day, and I'm itching to do a clean install on a new hard drive for my 13" MBP (currently stock 160GB). Problem is, I don't know how much longer I can wait to get those new 640GB, 750GB, or 1TB drives - any one hear any news about their availability?

Anyway, Boot Camp will be used strictly for gaming, so I'm wondering how much I should devote for Windows XP Home if I get a 500GB drive. I just checked my desktop's Steam, BF2, and GTA4 directories and they add up to roughly 33GB. If I give Bootcamp a total of 50GB, would you say 17GB is enough for XP 32-bit, swap files, and whatnot?

Second... I'd like to start off on Snow Leopard as 'clean and fresh' as possible. I understand there's Migration Assistant, but would this copy over some of the bloat and junk that I might not want? My MBP has been great so far but I'm seeing daily beachballing, particularly in Firefox 3.5.2 so I'm hoping a clean slate will fix this.

Finally, once XP is installed, will I be able to boot into my bootcamp partition with VMware Fusion? Would be nice to install the games 'in the background', inside OS X.
 
Yea.. 17GB is plenty.

I would steer away from Migration Assistant, since that does copy over all your files/settings from your previous install.

Yea, you can access your Bootcamp partition from VMWare.
 
Yea.. my problem is the speed. I can't go back to a 5400 rpm drive.

I really want SSD but they're just so frickin' expensive. But I've seen launch times with them and they are insane. I'm gonna hold off until I run out of drive space, or a 1TB 7200rpm comes out.
 
Yeah, after this HD upgrade, the next laptop I get will definitely have a SSD. It'll be a few years down the road and hopefully SSDs will have *drastically* reduced price/GB ratios.

I used to have a 7200rpm (80GB) in my old T43, but I've been reading some of the threads on macrumors and it looks like a tossup between the WD 5400rpm and a Seagate 7200rpm.
 
Yea.. I keep hearing reports of how the newer 5400 rpm drives are very close to their 7200 rpm counter parts, but I'm skeptical. I heard that about my current 320GB drive and it definitely wasn't the case. I started doing heavy writing to my drive while I was working on pics from my camera, and it brought my system down to a crawl with the 5400 version. The 7200 just chugs right through though. Odd...
 
ok Kmax, I'm back with a Segate 7200.4 500GB drive. I had originally gotten a USB+FW enclosure, but returned it for a simple USB-only case.

I'll let you know how it goes.
 
The drive is installed and I'm up and running. Had to buy a set of Torx screwdrivers but no issues otherwise. I did a clean install from the Snow Leopard DVD and opted to use Migration Assistant to move everything over from the original 160GB drive - just didn't want the hassle of re-installing everything. First time using M.A. and my goodness, it was sooooo easy 🙂

The system does feel much snappier overall, so many thanks Kmax for reminding me of the benefits of 7200rpm! I can 'feel' the drive's spinning if I place my hand directly over the hard disk area, but it's not a bother at all.

I'm off to try Boot Camp and install XP.

edit: oops, my XP Home is SP1. I installed it and can't get the boot camp drivers to install. I'm going to slipstream SP2 and try the install again.

Can I boot into XP using VMware Fusion and update XP to SP2? 😕
 
I got XP updated to SP3, most of the stuff is working nicely. Gaming in BF2 and TF2 was a fairly positive experience, except I couldn't set 1280x800 in TF2 for some reason.

Is there a way to keep the fan on full blast in Windows?

And, my Apple in-ear headphones' microphone is not working properly. It works in OS X using the combined input/output audio jack, but in XP the mic doesn't record properly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top