Wiping OSX, installing XP, then installing OSX as secondary boot?

[Raaaaagh]

Why not just use bootcamp?

I work in a very large organisation with a very homogenised IT staff, who can only give me access to the corporate network if they wipe the machine and install their approved image of XP.

I've tried to convince them to install it on my mba using bootcamp but they basically have an aneurysm.

So can I just make an image of my current install - give the mba air to them to wipe and install XP, and reinstall a OSX as a secondary boot?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

You could take a look at rEFIt and see if it is possible.

 

[impulse462]

If you mean, back up your current OS X image via time machine, then partition your SSD, and have your IT staff install their image of XP on one partition, and then reinstall OS X on the secondary partition and then get your files back from time machine, than yeah it'll work.

 

[ITASOR]

Bootcamp really just partitions your drive. Do you know how they install their image? You may be able to use Bootcamp to create the Windows partition, then tell them to install their image to that partition.

 

[2IS]

My guess is that the IT staff is not familiar with boot camp and how it works and want to stick with "what they know" functionality wise there should be no difference between using bootcamp right off the bat and doing what they are proposing.

 

[Raaaaagh]

Some good ideas. I'll look at bootcamp first, then talk to IT again

 

[hfg]

If you provide a separate partition, most easily done at this point with BootCamp, there is no reason they can't do their "standard" install as long as they are careful to use the correct partition. They may have their "aneurysm" when they have to use your OS X disk to access the hardware drivers from the BootCamp directory in order to have a fully working Windows install. They probably only have the drivers in their install image for systems/motherboards that they routinely encounter within their domain.

Just remind them that ANY new motherboard/system comes with a "driver disk", and the Mac is no different and requires drivers for the motherboard chipsets.

-howard

 

[KPOM]

Just stick with Boot Camp. Your IT ought to be able to install their version of XP on it. One thing to keep in mind, though, is that the new MacBook Airs (late 2010) don't officially support XP. They only officially support Windows 7. Thus you won't have Boot Camp drivers for everything and may need to go to Windows Update to download drivers from the web and do some other tweaks to get it to work.

Hopefully your employer will skip Vista and go right to Windows 7 and you'll be able to use this in the near future.

 

[a042349]

Is security a concern? Since the Mac OS has access to the NTFS data in the Windows partition, the security of their corporate data is only as secure as you have your Mac configured.

I worked for years at a financial firm and total control over whatever was on the laptops/mobile devices was one of our biggest "aneurysm" pressure points. For security reasons we locked down USB ports, prevented CD writing, etc. No way would we allow another (non-managed) OS control over our data security.

Just a thought...they're prolly just lazy/intimidated.