Hi, I am a new convert to Mac and to virtualization. I'm trying to install Windows XP and had a couple of questions: 1. Early in the install process, I'm presented with partitioning choices. The unpartitioned Mac HD is listed (something like 7994MB). When I try to select it, it automatically creates a new partition (labeled "RAW") which is something like 7985MB---this leaves the unpartitioned portion at 8MB (listed separately below the new partition). Is this OK? I don't really understand it and tried to do a search for this in the forums but didn't come up with much. 2. I selected the NTFS (not the quick option) file system. Is that OK? 3. When setting up XP networking, I'm asked about whether I want to be a part of a Domain. The default was NO, so I selected that. Is that OK? Does that setting have anything to do with the file sharing option with OS X? I appreciate any help you could provide this novice.
If you got as far as (3), then you have your answers to (1) and (2) -- they are fine. You have an 8 gig HD for XP. NTFS is a more robust filesystem than FAT32 (your other choice). Not selecting quick wasted a few minutes but otherwise had no effect, and to join a domain (3) you need to be on a network with a domain controller, which I assume you are not if you are asking the question. The domain question has nothing to do with OSX anything. Enjoy your new toy.
Thanks, joem. What I was concerned about was the the larger nearly 80GB partition was the one automatically selected for the XP installation, leaving the 8MB unpartitioned are for OS X? Things seem to be working OK, but the partition thing confuses me.
You originally said 8 gig and now you are saying 80?? 8 makes sense. The left over 8 MB is tiny (8 megabytes) and is probably an artifact of the XP installer. You are talking about a Parallels installation and not bootcamp, right? You created an 8 gig virtual disk before you started, then installed XP on the virtual HD, right? So XP thinks you have an 8G disk in your PC. XP partitions it, and installs in the single partition it creates using most of the virtual disk. This is what I would expect it to do, and should work fine for you. If you need more space (and have space available on your Mac HD), you can expend it (complex process) or just create another virtual HD and attach it, then format it within XP. If you do add a second virtual HD, you will probably want to figure out how much space you will need and make it big enough. Note that the XP HD is just a file on your host OS (OSX).
