Installing XP Pro - Need some advice

jp_bl_68 · 1 Jul 2009 at 14:40

I'm going to install XP Pro on my MacBook using Bootcamp mainly to play a few games, like BF 2, and use some hardware that's not Mac compatible but I'm not sure how big the partition should be. I'm posting this here rather than on the Mac forum because my question is strictly related to Windows.

I know that if I make the partition larger than 32GB I have to use NTFS and if it's smaller than that I can format using FAT32. Is there any advantage to using one over the other? Also, as I'm not going to be using Windows for storing music or videos I won't need much space and I don't want to eat into the Mac partition too much. What's the minimum amount of free space XP Pro needs to run smoothly?

Admiral Huddy · 1 Jul 2009 at 14:46

XP Home and Professional – Requires at least 1.5GB but allow for at least 5GB

For what you need, FAT32 will be fine, but for security, i'd still format as NTFS. Why is this a problem?

jp_bl_68 · 1 Jul 2009 at 14:49

Will it benefit from having more than that or doesn't it matter after a certain point?

Admiral Huddy · 1 Jul 2009 at 14:52

jp_bl_68 said:
Will it benefit from having more than that or doesn't it matter after a certain point?

That does depend on what you are using it for and your housekeeping discipline. If all the files, folders etc are on another partition/disk then the 5GB will be fine. Just make sure you change the document properties to point to another partition if you need to.

For XP, i did have just a 5gb partition with this setup. The files and the page file where on a separate partition/disk. Worked fine.

I do the same for Vista but have 20GB allocated instead.

jp_bl_68 · 1 Jul 2009 at 15:26

Thanks. I'm mainly going to be using it for playing a few games. Do you know if there's any benefit in using NTFS over FAT32?

Admiral Huddy · 2 Jul 2009 at 09:16

Because of the way FAT allocates space, you may find FAT better for partitions less thn 8GB. However, NTFS provides increases security, better disk space usage (NTFS provides smaller cluster sizes and wastes less disk space waste than FAT32) and reliability:

FAT32 drives are much more susceptible to disk errors than NTFS.

NTFS volumes have the ability to recover from errors more readily than similar FAT32 volumes.

Log files are created under NTFS which can be used for automatic file system repairs.

NTFS supports dynamic cluster remapping for bad sectors and prevent them from being used in the future.

I see no need for FAT32 tbh..

bledd · 2 Jul 2009 at 10:02

i've found that vista 64 needs 30gb min, 40gb to be comfy

the winsxs folders grow a lot!

Admiral Huddy · 2 Jul 2009 at 10:03

XP Home and Professional – Requires at least 1.5GB but allow for at least 5GB
Vista Home Basic - 20 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space
Home Premium / Business / Ultimate - 40 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space
Windows 7 RC - 6 GB available disk space (32-bit) / 20 GB (64-bit)
(Source – Microsoft)

jp_bl_68 · 2 Jul 2009 at 12:09

Admiral Huddy said:
Because of the way FAT allocates space, you may find FAT better for partitions less thn 8GB. However, NTFS provides increases security, better disk space usage (NTFS provides smaller cluster sizes and wastes less disk space waste than FAT32) and reliability:

FAT32 drives are much more susceptible to disk errors than NTFS.

NTFS volumes have the ability to recover from errors more readily than similar FAT32 volumes.

Log files are created under NTFS which can be used for automatic file system repairs.

NTFS supports dynamic cluster remapping for bad sectors and prevent them from being used in the future.

I see no need for FAT32 tbh..

But FAT32 is noticeably faster, isn't it?

At the moment I'm leaning towards FAT32 because Mac OS X is more compatible with FAT32 than NTFS but the stability issues and loss of performance with larger partitions is definitely a concern.

pingwing · 2 Jul 2009 at 12:14

Iv helped my flatmate do this a few times on his macbook pro over the last couple of years, you WILL need at least 20gig of space! You can install xp on a few gig of space (1.5-5gig) but that doesnt account for games and so on (he managed to fill most of it up with left 4 dead, day of defeat and civ4 complete).

Also stick to ntfs, unless you need to read and write to xp from osx (which if its just a gaming partion then you really shouldnt) as osx ntfs writing isnt amazing.

Admiral Huddy · 2 Jul 2009 at 12:14

I can't speak for Mac OS X.. Is there any reason NOT to go with NTFS?

NTFS handles disk space allocation much more efficiently than FAT32 so therefore has a performance advantage. It's been a long time since if used a FAT32 partition because volumes are so much bigger by default today.

jp_bl_68 · 2 Jul 2009 at 12:20

Admiral Huddy said:
Is there any reason NOT to go with NTFS?

I got this from another board "FAT32...allows you to copy files to the Windows partition when using the Mac. Using NTFS you can only read the Windows partition, not write to it."

That's my main reason for not going with NTFS. But now I'm starting to rethink that. I'd rather sacrifice convenience than stability and security.