Apple KB Article: Boot Camp doesn't work with multiple partitions
The first thing I do when I get a new Mac (or a new PC for that matter) is wipe out the hard drive, make two
partitions, and do a fresh install on one of the partitions. I then store all my data on the other partition, just in
case I ever need to reinstall the OS (is this a fool proof way to back up your data? Not by a long shot, since your
data and the OS might be on different partitions but those partitions are still sitting on the same disk).Why am I talking about this? Because it would seem that people like me are left out in the cold with Boot Camp, since Boot Camp requires an Intel Mac with a single partition to work its magic. This makes sense since Boot Camp uses different partitioning magic, but it is still worth noting.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
dombi said 11:48AM on 4-13-2006
I also partition my hard drive. That is actually the first thing I do, when I get a new computer. This is what happened to my MacBook Pro as well.
I was suprised to see that Apple did not think about this. There are many people who partition their drives and split up their data. I hope that the solution is in the works.
I suggest you send Apple your feedback and let them know that you would like this feature to be added.
http://www.apple.com/feedback/
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Joshua Ochs said 12:02PM on 4-13-2006
The BootCamp assistant doesn't do anything except burn a driver CD and repartition. You can open the assistant package, locate the image is burns, and burn it manually or copy the exe off of it.
As for partitioning, "diskutil" now supports "resizeVolume" for HFS+ volumes, so if you have more partitions, just resize one and add a FAT32 partition (note that the syntax is VERY odd - read the man page!). Or, if you're just setting up your computer, create a FAT32 partition at the same time as your others.
"BootCamp" isn't necessary at all to install Windows; all you really need is the firmware update.
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icerabbit said 12:17PM on 4-13-2006
This was the first thing that came to my mind (after the "oh my!" upon release): what if you have an extra partition, or two? With the added benefit that it would be handy for sharing a certain set of documents between the two OS.
Every Mac goes through an install with me gets three partitions (OS - Actua - Archive); so as a minimum I see three partitions work (OS X - Actua - XP) for the dual boot scenario.
I hope apple will address this in the next release or by the time Leopard comes around.
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Jmain said 2:03PM on 4-13-2006
Not sure if anyone else has this issue. On my imac 17" I installed bootcamp and installed XP. What I found is when booting now the system just stays at the Grey screen for OS X and a Black screen for XP. If I shutdown and restart it will boot.
Does it every time.
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Lagomorpho said 1:42AM on 4-14-2006
What would happen if you partitioned your drive so there was one 20gb partition and the rest free space? There is technically only one partition. You can install OSX and Windows and then change the free space into another partition.
I don't have an intel Mac to try this out on.
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Arnoz said 5:30AM on 4-14-2006
So, if i've correcly understood: i'm going to receive my MacBook Pro in a few days. I would have liked to partition the disk in 2 parts, one for the OS and the other for my user account. So i won't be able to use BootCamp to create a 3rd partition to install Windows? :(
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