Partition Problem!

This is a kind of operating system/hard-ware question, but whatever.

Basically, I have a 60GB Mini Mac (Intel-processor) and a 500GB External hard-drive. I'm not sure on the RAM for the hard drive, but I copied 15 GB of music in about 40 minutes if that helps at all.

What I want to do: I want to partition the Mini Mac so I can run OS X (for basically everything you'd want to use a mac for) and run Windows XP (for basically just games like Half-Life, nothing too hardcore). Is it possible to run both operating systems on a Mini Mac and store programs and files for BOTH systems on the external hard drives? If so, how would I do that?

Thanks for your help!

It's certainly very possible. You'll need to format the external drive using something that both Windows and OS X can read/write to. The out-of-the-box solution is to use FAT32, but that is a rather antiquated and limited file system that really should be avoided (see my previous commentary on that here).

I would recommend using Windows to format the external drive using NTFS. Then download and install MacFUSE and NTFS-3G to enable OS X to have write access to NTFS partitions.

And to install Windows you would need to use Boot Camp, but I'm sure you already knew that ;P

Coolio.

Been pretty busy this week, but I'll try it out over the weekend...we'll see how it goes!


Thanks for the help!