can i share files between os X and XP?

[kingkongballs]

i'll give it a try and let you know.

[kingkongballs]

no joy.
Boot camp requires an unpartitioned drive to setup, so i guess it cant be done.

[nixgeek]

The other option would be to try and boot into Windows and use something like Partition Magic to split the Windows partition and create the FAT32 partition that way. That might work, or it might hose the entire system requiring an install. Trying to give you any options that I cant think of...

[kingkongballs]

really appreciate it.
up until now, i've always found mac help difficult to come by, - mac users tend to look down on anyone who uses an OS other than X, so i'm glad that i came here and got help and advice rather than snobbish comments and the usual 'bad mouthing' about XP.

I downloaded partition magic, but i'm running updates etc on os X at the moment (is there any way to burn these updates to disc so i dont have to keep downloading them every time i format?), but once that's done i'll try, and let you know how i get on.

[nixgeek]

Well, you'll find zealots on any platform whether it's Windows, Macintosh, or any other operating system (and that's on computing platforms only). While I do tend to defend the platform when I encounter some drivel from certain Windows users, it gets old fast. I usually lay down the facts, no matter what the platform, and that usually shuts up the fanboys.

On here you're going to find all the help you need, no matter what. As long as people ask in a civil manner, we here will be glad to help in a civil manner. Trust me, we've had some doozies who poopoo the platform without thinking about why it's doing what it's doing and attacking the problem from another perspective. It's usually because they want to try to use the system in a manner that it's not designed to, such as trying to make Mac OS X work like Windows and vice-versa.

Anyways, back on topic. If you need to download the updates manually for OS X, you can do so from Apple, but it tends to get tedious. The best things to download when it comes to updates are the Combo Updates. They will update you from let's say 10.4.x to 10.4.8 if you download the 10.4.8 Combo Updater. However, any other minor security updates that might appear after that would have to be downloaded manually. At that point, Software Update is the better bet.

Be sure to let us know if this method works. I'm curious to know myself. I actually had the same issue once when I had a loaner Intel iMac sent to me at work from Apple but didn't have enough time to figure out how to crack that partition issue (I wanted to do the same thing you're doing now). Good luck!

[nixgeek]

Below is the way NOT to react on here when encountering problems on your Mac. This original poster obviously made a mistake when installing OS 9 and is now blaming and flaming the system.

Reinstalling os9 with osx partition

Just thought I would give a perfect example.

[kingkongballs]

haha, poor guy.

I have an uncle who will live and die by mac's and thinks they've made the biggest mistake teaming up with intel. He moans day and night about PC's and says he's never had a problem with his mac... apart from when the hard drive died... and the memory burnt out...

It's technology, it's never 100%. What annoyed me was when i was checking out sites on setting up bootcamp & XP (even the apple site) and people fuss about the smallest of things and make it seem like XP was a buggy version of 3.1

A friend of mine, a mac lover, says it's all down to love. if you love your system it will love you back. If you treat it properly etc then it'll work, and i couldnt agree more.
I've never had any problems with my PC with virus/trojan attacks, blue screens, hard/software not being found or anything, but that's because this demi god is my work and my work is my life so everything is cared for equally.

Finding it a bit of a heart ache to get around a mac (no right mouse click..), but i'm living with it. As you said, problems people have are trying to use one OS like the other. I've accepted os X will not run like XP/Vista, so for those needs i have the other OS installed.

.rant over.

ok, with regards to the partition stuff, i thought i figured out a way last night and locked myself out of the computer.
Decided to run bootcamp, run the XP installer and on the 'partitions' screen, delete the secondary partition and split it. However i'm guessing bootcamp copies certain system files on the partition because they were missing so XP couldnt install.

I tried out a version of partition magic but it says the partition's drive letter cannot be identified. Just downloaded and installed another version (the norton one) and it's the same thing.

SO in conclusion, i guess it cannot be done at all.

It's a shame apple didnt include a card reader on the macbook, i wouldnt have minded buying a 2+ GB card and leaving that in the machine to transfer stuff over.

if you have any other ideas, i'm all ears, but i dont want to reinstall osX or XP again. i think i done about 4 installs yesterday and 2 this morning

[nixgeek]

Well, for the right mouse clicking you can get a multi-button mouse and OS X will support it just fine. I've done that when my Apple Bluetooth mouse ran out of batteries and I didn't have any handy. Added a USB two-button mouse and was on my way. Incidentally, the Mighty Mouse can be configured to work as a two-button mouse but isn't set that way by default. So if you have that mouse, then you can set it to work as two buttons.

As for the partitioning, it comes as no surprise that deleting the partition from the XP install resulted in your being locked out. I don't know why, but there's an extra partition there that I believe Boot Camp uses in order to have it run properly on the Mac. As for the drive letter on the XP side, that's weird that Partition Magic didn't find one. Was there one assigned to the XP drive in XP? You might have to manually set it to "C:" if it's not set to that already.