How much space do I need for Windows using Bootcamp?

I recently bought a MBP when I decided I was going back to school. Unfortunately, I just learned that my school uses Windows for its exam applications so, I'm going to have to install Bootcamp (Parallels is not acceptable) and Windows XP.

How much space do I need to set aside in order to run XP? I will only be using Windows for some word processing and the exam application. The IT guy at school said I could use a partition as small as 5GB. Is that correct? Will Windows run ok with such a small partition? Thanks.

 

The minimum partition size for Windows (or OS X, for that matter) is 5 GB. I would say partition Windows for about 15-20 GB, in my opinion.

 

20 is a good start. Remember that NTFS requires like 15% of your drive space to be free for optimal use as well as for defragmentation. Then, if you ever intend to hibernate in Windows, you'd need enough space = to your RAM. You might need a couple of GB for your pagefile too. Then, if you intend to let Vista make shadow copies and system restore points on your system drive, you'll need to allocate several GB for that (at least). Finally, you'll want extra space for Windows updates, especially service packs. In other words, if you let it, Vista alone can easily take over 20GB.

EDIT: oops, just reread your post. Ignore all that about Vista. XP doesn't require quite so much. You'll still want 15% of your drive free, and the space for your page file and hibsys if you plan on using that, but XP won't make shadow copies. It will have system restore points if you let it though. It's also unlikely that XP will see any sizable updates ever again, so you don't need to leave as much space for that either.

 

I agree with everything you said except that. You can pretty much fill up NTFS without problems. You are thinking of FAT32.

 

I would recommend against formatting in NTFS, because you probably might wanna review some files later while running mac and it will be a hassle to have to reboot just to move some files or whatever.

Anyway, I have bootcamp 1.3 with a 7gb partition, I have windows xp installed, as well as office 2007. Some documents and some movies. I still have 2gb left which is more than enough for word processing and such. So going by what you said, I wouldn't put more than 10gb in your windows partition.

 

You're probably right.

However, you still can't defragment your files properly (especially if you have large files) in NTFS with low disk space, unless you use 3rd party defrag software (Windows defrag gives you some sort of error message I believe once you hit 15 or 10%). As far as I know, even 3rd party software tend to break down once you get under the 5% free space mark too.

 

I got around that limitation by using VMWare Fusion to copy files to and from my Windows XP partition. Works quite well, but it is a tad slow. You could simply open up Windows Explorer and a Finder window, and drag-n-drop files. Couldn't be simpler.

 

Ok, so to review....I'll plan about 10Gb give or take and format it in NTFS, right? Thanks again.

 

That sounds fine as long as you aren't going to be playing games or loading movies. Also, if you want Windows and Mac to be compatible, you can always format it in FAT32. I personally prefer NTFS.

 

Yeah if you aren't really gonna be using windows intensively, I would go for compatibility and use fat32.

That way you can be in os x and decide to open a windows file and work on it (in os x) and then save it back to the windows hard drive when you are done with it.

 

What are the disadvantages of fat32 instead of ntfs?

 

FAT32 can only address disc sizes up to 32 GB. NTFS can go much, much higher.

Edit: FAT32 can only address volumes up to 32 GB. Here is some more information about the limitations it has.

 

so what seems to be the common consensus? ... question for mbp owners who are using bootcamp ... are you predominantly formatting ur windows partition in ntfs... or fat32? ... also ... i know this might sound a tad silly .. but are there any software limitations/compatibility issues pertaining to fat32? (to make my point clearer... are there any softwares (games, media, office) for windows that won't work on fat32?) ...
also, sidenote on this ... if i install VMWare Fusion and run windows .... then can i potentially overcome the problem of file transfers between the mac and windows partitions (if the windows partition is ntfs) and no longer need to install MacDrive and Mac Fuse?

(apologies for the slight thread hijack)

 

Windows can't create FAT32 volumes over 32GB, but it can mount them just fine (there is actually a limit, but I can't remember what it was and it's greater than the max HDD space in your internal HDD anyway). FAT32 volumes greater than that can be created using 3rd party software, and a lot of externals come in FAT32 format in volumes far greater than 32GB as well.

The maximum file size of a single file in FAT32 is 4GB (well, not quite 4GB, but close enough).

In addition, it gets fragmented more easily than NTFS.

There shouldn't be any compatibility issues with FAT32 that I know of though.

 

I couldn't make up my mind so I split my drive straight down the middle: half for OSX, and half for Windows XP (in NTFS format). I view NTFS as more efficient, and speedy than FAT32 is.

 

Jackson, what are you intending to use windows for?

 

Here's your answer, in the original post :

 

Damn my skimming.