Boot Camp - Data Accessability from Mac & Windows?

sherm123

Boot Camp - Data Accessability from Mac & Windows?I'm a long time PC user about to switch to an iMac.



It appears that BootCamp will enable me to continue to use some of the PC based applications I'm used to. I'm puzzled about one thing. If I set up a Windows partition on my Hard file and transfer my music and photo databases to it, will that data be viewable and be available to me when I'm running OS X programs?

Similarly, is data in the Macintosh partition available when I'm runing PC applications?

kickaha

My understanding is that...



Windows cannot natively read or write HFS+ drives, so if you want access to the Mac data from the Windows side, you'll have to get an add on.



If you format the Windows partition as NTFS, then the Mac side can read it... but not write to it.



I don't believe that XP can run on a FAT32 partition, can it? If so, then you could do that and have both read/write with both OSs. Maybe make a minimal NTFS partition for booting XP, and a larger data-only FAT32 partition for shared data.

trailmaster308

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kickaha


I don't believe that XP can run on a FAT32 partition, can it?

It can but you are limited to the size you can create that partition.

sherm123

Thanks to those who replied. You input has been helpful.

sandau

I am pretty sure windows XP can only format FAT32 to 32GB.



you might consider Parallels' latest beta. You can use your bootcamp partition right in OS X, and its quite amazing:



http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/beta_testing/

cam'ron

My set up is XP Pro on a FAT32 drive with MacDrive so it can see and use the Mac OS partition. So, I can grab files or put files on either partition at anytime. But, if you upgrade to Vista you will lose that functionality (it will only give you the option to setup on a NTFS partition).