can i share files between os X and XP?

K

kingkongballs

Registered
I ask this question in this forum because i'd like to set XP up on my mac book, and know i'll have to partition during the boot camp setup.

I work with photoshop, flash and a few other programs, some mac specific and others windows specific.
What i want to do is get both OS' running and create a third partition where i can save stuff to, so if i need to get, for example, an edited video from X, and import into something i'm doing in XP, it's a simple drag and drop option.

os X seems to show my windows drive on the desktop, but it's non-writable, plus it's my Windows system folder which i'd rather not touch.

Any ideas?

many thanks..
 
NTFS is only writeable on Microsoft operating systems from NT and up. Everything else (Mac OS X, Linux, *BSD, etc.) can only read NTFS partitions. This is mainly because MS has a tight lock on the intellectual property for NTFS and isn't going to let go of it, which means other operating systems can't take advantage of fully accessing NTFS volumes.

FAT32, on the other hand, is fully accessible on all operating systems. If you format the partition you're going to use for XP as FAT32, then you can mount it and move files back and forth from your Mac OS X environment and the FAT32 partition.
 
You'll be limited to a max filesize of 2GB in FAT32. Also, it's not the latest and greatest format, so I wouldn't put too much faith in it, but it'd work for a transfer partition.
 
hmm. So after installing XP, where should i make the 3rd partition? through windows or OS X?

I have external hard drives, but i cannot be bothered with the excess clutter.
 
If you create a partition for Windows through Boot Camp and leave enough unallocated space, you can make the Windows system partition NTFS and then from within Windows create the partition on the unallocated space by right-clicking/control-clicking My Computer and selecting Manage, then when the Computer Management snap-in comes up, click Disk Management under the Storage tree. There you can format the unallocated space as FAT32 and use that as a storage partition for moving files from one OS to the other since both can read FAT32.
 
i was hoping you wouldnt say that. I took a look in the disk management today and the unallocated space is only a few hundred MB, which means i'll have to start again. it's no big deal, i've got nothing installed on it anyway.

Thanks for all the help.

**edit**

i smashed my startup disk back to 1 partition, how then do i set the unallocated space?
 
There's another way to attack this. When you start the installation for OS X and are at the welcome screen for the installation, go to the menu and select Disk Utility. From within Disk Utility, create two partitions: one decent sized one for OS X (enough so that you can resize it through Boot Camp to perform the Windows installation as well), and then one FAT32 partition that's a size that you want it to be. Once that's done, perform the OS X installation as normal.

Once in OS X, run Boot Camp. This should theoretically take the OS X partition and resize it for the Windows installation. The FAT32 partition should be left untouched. Now you should have your OS X partition, your NTFS Windows XP partition, and the FAT32 partition for moving files back and forth between both operating systems.

Mind you, this is based on theory, but it should work.
 
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... :confused:
 
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.
 
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. :D

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. :rolleyes:

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! :)
 
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 :(
 
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.
 
I'm looking into importing a 1/2 decent and 1/2 the price bluetooth mouse from Hong Kong, i've spent far too much money already.
I shouldnt complain though, i have 2 powerful OS in 1 machine.

I couldnt get into partition magic to set anything. I installed it on my PC and it works fine, but it cant find the C:/ on the mac.
It's ok, maybe this will be included in the alpha release of boot camp.

thanks a lot for the help though.

there are a few things i'd like to find out about the mac, but i'm brain dead at the moment, so when i remember i'll make a new post somewhere else and see if i can get some help on that stuff.
 
Well, the other option you can do is to run Windows XP through Parallels Desktop. This way Windows runs right on top of OS X and since it's on an x86 CPU that supports hardware virtualization, it will run pretty much at native speeds on top of OS X (or so I've heard from many people here that have used this solution). Then you can share files between the two environments and you don't have to boot out of OS X ever. The only issue would be games, which would probably benefit from Windows XP through Boot Camp.

As for any other questions, feel free to ask here. Everyone is definitely willing to help. :)
 
I know this is a really old thread, but this is what a Google search turned up. 8)

I have a MacBook Pro with 10.5. With Boot Camp, I also have a 32GB FAT partition running Win XP Pro SP3 smoothly.

I'd like to do what this guy was wanting to do. Have OSX, have Windows on an NTFS partition, then have a 3rd FAT partition for data.



So my question is: Has anyone succeeded in this? I'm not wanting to go through as many installs as this guy, so any tips would be appreciated.

Thanks!
 
Hey guys,

I know it's been a while since anyone has posted here, but maybe you'll get a notification or something.

First off:
I'd like to thank everyone who posted in this thread, the information was very helpful. Disappointing since I can't have a native installation of both OS' with a single shared storage partition, but parallels was a great suggestion!

Second:
I've been struggling for the last two days trying to achieve the multi OS install with no luck, seems that no matter what I try nothing works. Here's a list of what I did and the results:

:mad:
Used OS X to partition the drive 200GB drive into 2: 50GB's and 1: 86GB (I know it doesn't add up, blame the people who advertise without doing the really math, it's 1024 damn it!)
--Result: This wont work, it will produce a "Corrupt hal.dll" error. The problem isn't with this file, it's actually with boot.ini, long story short, with OS X on the drive, the boot.ini won't work like normal.

:mad:
Used OS X to partition the drive into 1: 100GB and 1: 86GB. The idea here is that boot camp will handle the re-partitioning of the 100GB's into 2 separate drives for each OS. From here I tried 3 variation. One of which was to leave the extra 86GB as "Free Space". The second was to make the 86GB into "FAT32". The third was to make it into another Mac style partition.
--Result: Variation...
1) FAILED: When left as free space, OS X installed, Boot Camp broke the 100GB's into 2: 50GB's and when Windows tried to install, it gathered the free space up into a single drive with the 50GB.
2)FAILED: OS X installed fine but Boot Camp couldn't split the Mac partition without it being a single Mac drive.
3)FAILED: Same as 2), it needs to be one Mac drive

:D
I downloaded Parallels and it's awesome. It's not quite 2 native OS installs but it has some great perks!!! Even when I had the 2 OS' installed and working, while Boot Camp made the driver installs way easier then I was expecting, I still lost so much. Multi-touch didn't work, nor did the keyboard lighting or auto light adjustments. Widgets are also gone (obviously) and I'm XP so I don't even have Vista's widget ripoffs. But, since windows now runs virtually all hardware drivers function the same, this means the lighting, widgets, AND multi-touch work (I don't have to get an external mouse just for right click). Also, it's easy as can be to transfer files between the OS', it is literally drag and drop or even copy and past.

I have been a Windows user (NOT PC, PC is every computer everywhere that is not a server) since 3.x systems. I've used Mac here and there, but never felt like switching. Plus I've been developing on the Windows platform for the last 5 years and there is no Mac version of Visual Studio. I switched to Mac mostly for the hardware, it truly is better. The downside to the switch is my schooling and profession lye within the Windows world and so I must have Windows on my system, there is just no way around it.

Parallels is truly the best setup, I've been told by a friend that VMware is better (faster) but I have yet to try it, I'll update this posting when I do. At this point my only complaint is that Apple still has not given us a 2 button built-in mouse, but they are making hardware advances that Windows systems still don't (I'm talking about multi-touch technology)

I hope this helps, I know I could have used it earlier on in my weekend, but hey, everything I've seen and heard about Mac and OS X says the work is worth the reward!
 
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