File transfer with Boot Camp?

Firstly, I hope this is in the right place... I apologise if its not...

Secondly, I did try doing a search on here, but didnt find what i was lookin for.

Im not really a Mac owner as yet, but i do have my eye on a Macbook Pro. Im going to have to use Boot Camp as i have Photoshop CS3 and Dreamweaver etc. for PC but not Mac, so obviously my work will all be done on the Windows partition. Problem is, i plan on keeping all my photo's and other stuff on OS X. So im gonna have to copy the select pics i want to use when designing, to an external flashdrive and paste in the XP partition, then delete when done to save space. There has to be a way around this, being able to transfer files from OS X to XP ??? Will using an external flashdrive even work in the mac ???

I've looked into Macdrive - Apparently its rubbish, and TransMac (or whatever its called) just hasnt got any good reviews either so im not keen to test it. I read somewhere that if you first format the partition you want to install windows on, as a fat32, then you can make a shortcut folder on your windows which leads to a place on your OS X, and on your OS X partition, make an 'alias' which leads to a place on your windows partition? Make any sense? Like a shared network i suppose... Anyone try that?

Does Boot Camp give you the option of choosing FAT32 or NTFS?

Anyone using Parallels for this? Hows it working for you? Doesnt using Parallels drain CPU usage?

Any tips and advice or links would be greatly appreciated!!! Im sure this Q has been asked before, i just cant seem to find the right answer.

Sorry you dealing with an absolute noob here!

Many thanks!!!

You can indeed choose FAT32, but your Windows partition is limited to 32Gigs in size.

You can swap your Windows CS3 suite to the OS X version though you know if you call Adobe.

Thx for the reply!

Ye i plan on getting CS3 for Mac, but not right now. Apparently Leopard is causing all sorts of problems with the tools etc. Until the big 5.2 update, I'll be using it on XP.

Just need to find an easy way of transfering files between OS's

You can give Paragon's NTFS for Mac a try. Provides full read and write access to NTFS partitions from OS X. Several of us here helped beta test this software and it has worked without issue for me.

If you use FAT32 you can read and write to your XP/boot camp partition. No fuss no extra software.

I've you've already installed XP using NTFS and you don't want to start over then, as others have noted, Paragon is excellent.

Thanks all... the few reviews i've read of Paragon all say its magic! Thanks for the tip!

But if all i need to do is install XP using FAT32, then i think thats easier. Does XP run like it should under FAT32 ??? How much of a difference is there in windows, between FAT32 and NTFS ???

mrplow - Whats the process like of copying files across between OS's then? Is it as simple as drag and drop?

suppose now i just gotta find out if UT3 will run like it should under FAT32? Wonder if it makes a diff? Hmmm...

Sorry for all the Q's - But thx for all the A's

Ye i plan on getting CS3 for Mac, but not right now. Apparently Leopard is causing all sorts of problems with the tools etc. Until the big 5.2 update, I'll be using it on XP.

Click to expand...

The whole CS3 has been working fine for me on Leopard since October. The only problem is that the type boxes very occasionally don't accept any numbers, but this is fixed by just moving the mouse scroll wheel up or down.

Seems a shame to get OS X and not run software which makes great use of it in particular.

RudeBoi said:

Thanks all... the few reviews i've read of Paragon all say its magic! Thanks for the tip!

But if all i need to do is install XP using FAT32, then i think thats easier. Does XP run like it should under FAT32 ??? How much of a difference is there in windows, between FAT32 and NTFS ???

mrplow - Whats the process like of copying files across between OS's then? Is it as simple as drag and drop?

suppose now i just gotta find out if UT3 will run like it should under FAT32? Wonder if it makes a diff? Hmmm...

Sorry for all the Q's - But thx for all the A's

Click to expand...

On such a small partition (boot camp's limited to 32gb i believe) You'll see little or no difference between NTFS and FAT32.

File transfer is just drag-and-drop when in OS X as it can natively read & write FAT32. XP can obviously read/write FAT32. But it can't read the Mac file system AFAIK. So any shared files will need to be stored on the XP partition or on a FAT32 formatted external HDD.

HTH

Alexis said:

Seems a shame to get OS X and not run software which makes great use of it in particular.

Click to expand...

Tell me about it! I just read so much bad stuff that was happening with CS3, i wasnt gonna bother with getting it for Mac just yet. Here's a recent link you can read if you want:

http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20080107160607729

mrplow said:

On such a small partition (boot camp's limited to 32gb i believe) You'll see little or no difference between NTFS and FAT32.

File transfer is just drag-and-drop when in OS X as it can natively read & write FAT32. XP can obviously read/write FAT32. But it can't read the Mac file system AFAIK. So any shared files will need to be stored on the XP partition or on a FAT32 formatted external HDD.

Click to expand...

So if im working in XP, & i need a specific photo to edit and crop, i cant just access OS X and drag-and-drop into my XP partition??? (Can i do this this Paragons software). U saying all the photo's i need should be kept on the XP partition then? Forgive my ignorance - im a novice

RudeBoi said:

So if im working in XP, & i need a specific photo to edit and crop, i cant just access OS X and drag-and-drop into my XP partition??? (Can i do this this Paragons software). U saying all the photo's i need should be kept on the XP partition then? Forgive my ignorance - im a novice

Click to expand...

From XP - "i cant just access OS X and drag-and-drop into my XP partition" - That's about the top and bottom off it:
XP can't natively access the MAC OSX file system. Paragon won't help here either. It just extends the ability of OS X to read NTFS.

So if you want to read/write to files stored on your Mac partition you'll need something like MacDrive.

If you use Parallels or VMWare Fusion you can copy back and forth but running Photoshop in a virtual environment isn't a pleasant experience in my opinion.

Maybe i should get CS3 for Mac then and just deal with the issues until the 5.2 update - should be cumin out soon anywayz...

Thx for the help mrplow - was never keen on Parallels and the like, and Macdrive has had such bad reviews i wont even worry about it.