Big Decision regarding BootCamp

Hello all, I would really appreciate some advice regarding putting Vista Premium on my brand spanking new MacMini.

Here's the situation. I use my current four year old PC for both work (Sage Accounts and basic Office) and play (internet, DVDs, music etc). The PC is dying but my screen is really nice.

I wanted a Mac, but the problem is Sage Accounts only runs in Windows. So I just bought the 120GB Mini, with the view of putting Windows on it just for Sage using BootCamp. Fine.

So on the way home I stopped past PCWorld, but unfortunately they only had Vista Premium. Ideally I would have liked XP, then Vista Basic.

So I'm slightly concerned about disk space. Vista Premium says it needs 40GB + 15GB to run. That's the majority of my HD gone!

So, here's my dilemma/possible options. I've bought (and opened) Vista, so can't take it back. Either I:

1) Put Vista on the Mini, have the small HD room left and get an external drive pretty soonish. What partition size should I use?
2) Cut my losses and get XP, because there'll be no point in putting vista on the mini. Keep Vista in the cupboard for the next time (!!) I get a PC.
3) Weep.

So, I'm not really sure what to do. Any advice would be REALLY appreciated!!!

Fran

Also worth adding that the most important thing is performance. As long as it all works smoothy I'll be happy! Money is relatively not important!

Thanks again!

Vista Premium will NOT take that much space. Around 12GB which might expand to 15GB with temporary files. Also, if you delete all those useless apps, and wallpapers and such, you can save a lot of space.

Ideally of course, you would run XP for windows needs.

fp04 said:

Also worth adding that the most important thing is performance. As long as it all works smoothy I'll be happy! Money is relatively not important!

Thanks again!

Click to expand...

This tool may be of interest:
http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/index.cfm?newsid=11267

Thanks man! That's great news. When I'm installing Premium will I have the option to not install most of the junk which I won't be using (i.e. I'll be using Leopard for EVERYTHING else)?

fp04 said:

Thanks man! That's great news. When I'm installing Premium will I have the option to not install most of the junk which I won't be using (i.e. I'll be using Leopard for EVERYTHING else)?

Click to expand...

The vLite tool takes the original disc, lets you choose which components are part of the install then creates a new install disc for you to use instead of your original.