How big does the Bootcamp partition need to be?

[professorbutters]

Yes, I am a total hypocrite.  Despite everything I've said before, I want to install a Bootcamp partition on my Mac and play from the Windows side.

I have a few questions.

Assuming that I don't run anything but games, and probably only Sims 2, how big a partition do I need?  I currently have about 160 GB of hard drive space and 4 GB of RAM.  This is assuming I am running Windows XP/Leopard, some kind of anti-virus, the base game, all the EPs, several SPs, and some third party software, like SimPE.  At the moment I have about 2.6 GB worth of CC in the Mac version of the game.

I'd like to be able to copy some of my CC on the Mac side (just things like clothes, etc) and transfer it over rather than downloading every single file.  I'd also like to be able to take pictures on the PC partition and transfer them to the Mac partition so that I can use my current versions of Photoshop and MS Office.  Can I do that with a flash drive?

I've heard that the limit for a FAT partition is 32 GB.  Will that be enough, and does it matter?

Any information would be helpful.

[J. M. Pescado]

None of that matters because Windoze uses NTFS, not FAT, which has no such limitations. However, it needs to be big enough to hold everything you put on it! Of course, you can always embiggen it later.

[pbox]

The BootCamp FAQs at Apple should answer all of those questions: http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/

[rufio]

Transferring things by flash drive would probably work just fine, but you might also be able to actually mount your Windows partition while using the Mac side and transfer the files directly via the console.  I don't specifically know how this would work for Macs, but Apple may have instructions for doing it.

(And IIRC, the last Windoze to use FAT32 was ME.)

[professorbutters]

The BootCamp FAQs at Apple should answer all of those questions: http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/

It does--but it doesn't answer all my questions.  When you install Bootcamp, it gives you the option of partitioning it as NTFS or FAT (yes, even with XP.)  With FAT, the partition is visible on the Mac side and I think you can drag and drop some things, at least in one direction, but you have a limit of 32 GB. With NTFS, you can't.  Also, someone told me that whatever you pick, you're stuck with, so I couldn't make it bigger later.  On the other hand, the same guy told me I needed 12-15 GB of hard drive space to install Windows XP, which seems a little big to me.  I'm coming up with 15.5 GB for the base game and all the EPs, plus 350 MB each for the SPs, and maybe 3-4 GB of CC, which would be about 24 GB, max.  

Snow Leopard evidently has some kind of read-write capacity, but that would mean Snow Leopard, and when I upgraded from Tiger to Leopard, my Sims installation became FUBAR'd.  There's also some kind of third party software that enables back and forth writing (Mac Drive.)

[rufio]

It does--but it doesn't answer all my questions.  When you install Bootcamp, it gives you the option of partitioning it as NTFS or FAT (yes, even with XP.)  With FAT, the partition is visible on the Mac side and I think you can drag and drop some things, at least in one direction, but you have a limit of 32 GB. With NTFS, you can't.

Huh.  I found this with google, though, which looks like it solves the problem.

On the other hand, the same guy told me I needed 12-15 GB of hard drive space to install Windows XP, which seems a little big to me.

That does not sound big to me - Windows is the bloatware to end all bloatware.

[Simsbaby]

The Sims 2 with all expansion packs and stuff packs is 11.3 GB for me. That's just the games though, no user data. I also removed most of the unessential files (languages, startup movies, splash music, etc.) I'm sure you could make it slightly smaller by compressing the package files too. I would allocate at least 35+ GB personally. It would be better to have it larger than you need at the moment instead of finding it too small later.

From my experience with BootCamp, you can read the Windows partitions from within Mac OS X, but you can't write to NTFS. You can't read or write to the Mac OS X partition in Windows by default, but I know there are plugins for both.

[professorbutters]

Thank you.  So it sounds as though the NTFS partition is the way to go; I think you have a good point about starting a bit on the large side.  Is there any way to transfer files back and forth?  Would I be able, for example, to save files I needed on a flash drive, reboot, and then pull them off the flash drive?

[rufio]

Is there any way to transfer files back and forth?  Would I be able, for example, to save files I needed on a flash drive, reboot, and then pull them off the flash drive?

That should probably work fine, or you can try and mess around with the MacFUse thing.

[Sigmund]

I currently have about 40 GB partitioned for Windows on my macbook. It's mostly for TS2+expansions and not much else. I do remember Windows itself taking up a good chunk of space, but I don't remember how much off the top of my head. By default the partition is read-only, but I've been using NTFS-3G for the last few months without any problems.

[witch]

In XP, my Windows folder is 8.7GB. That's not counting Program Files. Don't know if that's any help. I have all the service packs and netwhotsits up to date.