Vista BootCamp help

[mikedamirault]

I have been looking all over for information about installing Vista on my MacBook Air, but have not heard exactly what I want to hear, I found this forum to be the closest to anybody that will be able to help me

The following quote is what I posted on Yahoo! Answers, but for those of you that have been there, you know how many idiots answer there

I just went out and got a copy of Vista for my MacBook Air, I also got a SuperDrive along with it just in case, so before I go to throw Vista on, there are some questions that I have before doing so (preferrably from somebody that has experience doing so)

1. Before I remove the shrinkwrap from the SuperDrive, do I even need it? I have an internal IDE DVD-ROM drive (scavenged from a PC), and an IDE to USB converter (one of those things usually used to test a drive to see if it's working properly, like an enclosure without the case), I think I have heard something that they work with OS X but not with BootCamp setup, I am not sure if this is true, or just somebody that wanted to give Apple a selling point, I think that I may use the SuperDrive later on, it's just my mother was not happy throwing down $100 for it

2. Since I am installing Vista, a hard drive hog as much as it is a resource hog (well, the hard drive counts as one of those resources, but still), and the MacBook Air only has an 80GB hard drive (10 of it used up by OS X), I don't want to take up a big partition for Vista, so what is good amount to partition off? I just need enough to be able to load the operating system and some updates later down the road (I will use an external USB hard drive to install software on)

3. When am I supposed to connect the drive and pop the Vista disc in? I hear that you are supposed to do it before running the BootCamp wizard, but does BootCamp get any info from the Vista DVD before I boot from it?

I am not as much of a noob as you may think, I am actually good with computers, it's just I know that there are sensors everywhere on Mac hardware (like how the MacBook Air's SuperDrive only works with MacBook Air unless it has been modded), but while I have used my share of Macs, I am more of a PC guy when it comes to hardware

I really want to get to installing Vista by tonight, so I am looking for answers ASAP

If you have a Y!A account, and you want to post the answer there, here's the link to my question, http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081014171209AAdKxf3&r=w (I was being hounded at the time to go cook dinner, so I split it in two)

Thanks, to those who reply

 

[mikedamirault]

Comon, somebody? Please? I could really use the help, I am about to answer my own question, and I know it's going to come back to bite me

Here's the reason I am asking how big Vista is, the MacBook Air only has an 80GB hard drive, before I got the Air, I had an iBook G3 (it was stolen, the MacBook Air is a replacement for 2 computers I had stolen, the iBook and a Dell, which is where Vista comes in), in the iBook, I also had an 80GB hard drive, and without Windows (being that it couldn't support Windows without the Virtual PC thing, which I didn't have), I still managed to completely fill the internal hard drive (to the point I couldn't even download a 5MB file), I am now even willing to use external hard drives as my main means of storage, but being that the MacBook Air was around $2-thousand, and still having to get a USB to ethernet adapter, having to get Vista, and the SuperDrive (for in case), and for the fact that the economy is bad, I am really strapped for cash, so I don't really have the money to spend on a hard drive, external or internal (add on the fact that I just got my AppleCare Protection Plan approved after saying I wasn't eligible, so I am definately not voiding my warranty on a hard drive replace, so an Apple Approved tech is going to need to install it, and I have to pay for that), I am actually wondering if I even need the SuperDrive, being if I don't, and I peel off the shrinkwrap, my mother's going to get angry

My idea, for saftey reasons, is I should open the SuperDrive (so I don't mess anything up BootCamp wise), connect it before running BootCamp (better safe than sorry) popping in the DVD before running BootCamp (Why not?), run BootCamp (this is after doing updates of course), and set the BootCamp partition for 20GBs (to fully support Vista and all of it's updates, and drivers, with OS X taking up roughly 10GBs, that leaves me 40GBs~50GBs for use in OS X, which I will be using more often, giving me room to do stuff, until I can afford a laptop hard drive and licensed installation, in order to keep AppleCare), so does that sound right? If you think I should change anything, please tell, because I am about to start in a couple of minutes

 

[mikedamirault]

I already started install, everything seems to be going well, though I am not too happy about the lack of storage space