HDD space for Bootcamp/Parallels

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Ok, I'm getting closer to adding windows to my MacBook, but first I am going to upgrade the memory (512 FTL) and the HDD. I'm either going to get a 100 gig 7200 rpm drive, or wait for the Seagate 120 gig 7200 rpm drive (estimated release is August). The Apple website says you need 10gigs for bootcamp, but is that just for bootcamp, or does that include whats needed for the Windows OS too?

Also, can I install Windows once, and then run it through bootcamp and parallels (obviously not at the same time)?
 
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What Boot Camp essentially does is create a partition on your hard drive. So 10GB is good for a secondary operating system that isn't used very often. Of course, when you use the Boot Camp Assistant, you can technically choose however much space you want. Just in case this isn't clear, it means 10GB is the hard drive space Windows will see available to it, not the entire hard drive in your Mac. So if you set your Boot Camp partition for 10GB, then you'll have 10GB to install Windows on and any other Windows programs you might wish to install.

The latest beta version of Parallels (available from their website) allows you to use your Boot Camp partition under virtualization. So you no longer have to use twice as much space to maintain both a Boot Camp partition and Parallels image, as used to be the case not too long ago.
 
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sounds good to me. Thanks for figuring out what the **** I was asking, I was tired and know I didnt word it as best as I could have
 
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Can you vary the size of the boot camp partition after it is originally set? Say you initially set it up for 10 gigs and then you see in six months you want to increase it to 15 gigs. Is that possible?
 
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Can you vary the size of the boot camp partition after it is originally set? Say you initially set it up for 10 gigs and then you see in six months you want to increase it to 15 gigs. Is that possible?

No, you would have to start from scratch by deleting the partition and creating a new bigger one (and reinstall windows obviously).

Amen-Moses
 
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Ok, I'm getting closer to adding windows to my MacBook, but first I am going to upgrade the memory (512 FTL) and the HDD. I'm either going to get a 100 gig 7200 rpm drive, or wait for the Seagate 120 gig 7200 rpm drive (estimated release is August). The Apple website says you need 10gigs for bootcamp, but is that just for bootcamp, or does that include whats needed for the Windows OS too?

Also, can I install Windows once, and then run it through bootcamp and parallels (obviously not at the same time)?

Get a 160G 5400 drive, the 7200 is not noticably faster on the MacBook and the 5400's are a darn site cheaper, cooler and use less power.

Amen-Moses
 
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Can you vary the size of the boot camp partition after it is originally set? Say you initially set it up for 10 gigs and then you see in six months you want to increase it to 15 gigs. Is that possible?

Unfortunately, Boot Camp is a very stripped down version of partitioning software, so it won't be able to adjust sizes of partitions that most full featured partitioning software can.
 
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Get a 160G 5400 drive, the 7200 is not noticably faster on the MacBook and the 5400's are a darn site cheaper, cooler and use less power.

Amen-Moses

with 2 gigs of ram 1800rpms wont make a difference?
 
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with 2 gigs of ram 1800rpms wont make a difference?

Not a noticeable difference no. 4200 to 5400 is very noticeable whereas 5400 to 7200 isn't. I reckon that the difference lies in the cache on the drives, the 5400 and 7200 drive both have similar cache sizes whereas the 4200 cache is a lot smaller.

Given that the 7200 runs hotter is far more expensive and uses 30-40% more power than the 5400 and doesn't come in as large storage sizes to me it's a no-brainer.

Just to clarify, I have a MacBook with a 100G 7200 speed drive and a MacBook Pro with a 160G 5400 speed drive and recently upgraded an iBook from 4200 to 5400 (30G to 120G) so I've had the chance to compare them all.

Amen-Moses
 
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Not a noticeable difference no. 4200 to 5400 is very noticeable whereas 5400 to 7200 isn't. I reckon that the difference lies in the cache on the drives, the 5400 and 7200 drive both have similar cache sizes whereas the 4200 cache is a lot smaller.

Given that the 7200 runs hotter is far more expensive and uses 30-40% more power than the 5400 and doesn't come in as large storage sizes to me it's a no-brainer.

Just to clarify, I have a MacBook with a 100G 7200 speed drive and a MacBook Pro with a 160G 5400 speed drive and recently upgraded an iBook from 4200 to 5400 (30G to 120G) so I've had the chance to compare them all.

Amen-Moses

sounds good to me. its not like I'm using the computer for producing music for a living or anything :p
 
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Get a 160G 5400 drive, the 7200 is not noticably faster on the MacBook and the 5400's are a darn site cheaper, cooler and use less power.

Amen-Moses

I don't agree with this at all. I installed a 7200 RPM 100GB drive, and it is noticably faster than the 60GB 5400 RPM drive I had before.
 
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I don't agree with this at all. I installed a 7200 RPM 100GB drive, and it is noticably faster than the 60GB 5400 RPM drive I had before.

but doesn't that mean that the drive is both spinning faster AND packed tighter? i'm certainly not super-on-top of specs and techs, but I believe that going from 5400 to 7200, as well going from a sparse (in non-relative terms) 60Gb to a dense 100Gb would be an exponential increase in speed... not a 1+1 kind of thing, but a 3 x 3...

but I do believe that I know just enough to get myself into trouble at times... feel free to let me know if this would be one of those times. :)
 

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