newbie planning

[LMO]

I'm a long time windows user and have decided to buy a new MBP. Over time I expect most of my routine usage will end up being on the Mac OS, but initially I have a lot of windows apps I need to use, and long term there are a few critical apps that I need that only run on windows.

I have a couple of questions to help figure out how to get started:

1. Can I resize a windows Boot Camp partition?

2. Does installing Parallels impact OSX performance when not actually running the desktop app? How about VMWare?

-Lynn

 

[Sbrocket]

I'm a long time windows user and have decided to buy a new MBP. Over time I expect most of my routine usage will end up being on the Mac OS, but initially I have a lot of windows apps I need to use, and long term there are a few critical apps that I need that only run on windows.

I have a couple of questions to help figure out how to get started:

1. Can I resize a windows Boot Camp partition?

2. Does installing Parallels impact OSX performance when not actually running the desktop app? How about VMWare?

-Lynn

1. I don't recommend wanting a Windows partition larger than 32GB in size. If you did want to make it larger, you would need to format it using NTFS rather than FAT32 and then you wouldn't be able to access it in Mac OS X.

That said, it is possible to resize a Boot Camp partition. However, the process is not currently something straightforward that can be easily accomplished through a simple interface. Its not terribly complicated however; basically, you create a disk image of your Windows drive in OSX (this is one of MANY reasons you want FAT32), destroy your Windows partition using the Boot Camp utility so you again have a single Mac partition, recreate the Windows partition with the new size, do the stage 1 CD Windows install (where it copies over the install files), and then erase those files and restore your previously backed up Windows files from the disk image. I've done this before myself with no problems at all, but it does take time. Best thing to do: just decide on a good size when you create the Boot Camp partition for the first time!

2. If you're not running the Parallels application, its not taking up any CPU cycles and isn't impacting your performance (to the best of my knowledge). However, I strongly recommend VMware Fusion. Current beta version is Beta 5 and it has most if not all of and more of Parallels' features. I've used both (have a Parallels 3.0 purchased serial code and the VMware beta) and I definitely prefer VMware. Its simply a more fluid and better implemented virtualization solution. Plus right now its free .

Got any other questions, feel free to ask. That's what we're here for! (Forum search is your friend too.)

 

[LMO]

1. I don't recommend wanting a Windows partition larger than 32GB in size. If you did want to make it larger, you would need to format it using NTFS rather than FAT32 and then you wouldn't be able to access it in Mac OS X.

I'm currently running WinXP with 80GB in use (not counting swap file space etc.) so I'm not sure it makes sense to run Vista in a 32GB Boot Camp partition, unless I can put the data files somewhere else. How do people handle this?

2. If you're not running the Parallels application, its not taking up any CPU cycles and isn't impacting your performance (to the best of my knowledge).

Parallels must virtualize the Mac OS machine when the Desktop app is active, so it seems that the hypervisor layer would have to be there all the time. Anybody know how this is handled?

However, I strongly recommend VMware Fusion. Current beta version is Beta 5

Looking at the vmware site I don't see any mention of beta 5, and the links to beta 4 are broken.

Thanks for the reply. I spent a day using search trying to find a discussion of these questions but didn't have any luck. Are there any threads that are recommended reading for a newbie.

Lynn

 

[M@lew]

If you're installing Vista though, you HAVE to format NTFS.