How much space should I partition for Windows XP Pro?

Well I guess it depends on what you’re going to use it for… If you have a 1TB hard drive, I’d suggest more than 35GB if you’re thinking of installing lots of apps. But as for bare-bones, 30(%?) or so GB is what I usually give XP. I think I gave it 40GB to install FFXI, and I still had plenty of room.

Well r u gonna partition it on an external hard drive or on a computer?

I have a terabyte. It’s internal. I don’t even know what apps are out there! I’m a Mac user of 5 years. I’m out of touch with Windows. I guess 40GB couldn’t hurt.

So Ur gonna use bootcamp?

Nope. Just going to boot from the Windows partition.
I’m on a Hackintosh.

If you have 1000GB, you might want to give your XP partition a little bit more breathing room—maybe 100GB? You definitely wouldn’t need more than that for anything, even after installing tons of apps. If you’re not planning on installing a lot (or any) apps on it, 40GB should be more than enough.

I was going to have another partition for XP data storage. I’d like the OS to be NTFS, the Windows data to be FAT32, and the rest to be Mac only. Holy, complexity…

Thanks for the advice, guys. =)

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh….
So, can I install to already formatted space? Maybe I’ll just make one FAT32 partition for os, apps, and data, and leave it at that.
I have to repartition in Setup, anyway, right?
How does this work? My braiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin… it hurts.

If you’re using boot camp, it’ll do the partitioning and stuff for you. Then when you’re installing XP it’ll just ask which partition you want to use, and you can choose the one you made with Boot Camp. It’ll then format it as FAT32 or whatever.

What’s this I’m reading about a 32GB partition limit for FAT32?
Ah.
Okay.
Away I go. Wish me luck.

Fuck. It’s not working. I may have to call it a night soon. What a waste of time.
I’ve installed it, but it reads “Disk error” when I try to boot from it. I just keep reformatting it. I hope that’s not bad for the disk.

Also keep in mind there’s a 4GB file size limit for FAT drives too.

Great approach on keeping your data apart from the OS partition, I wish more people followed suit… then again most people barely know what a partition IS.

Give XP 100GB and it’ll be very happy. I usually give it 40GB but I install most of my programs on another partition.

Sucks to hear of your troubles, I hope you can figure it out soon :)

I don’t expect to store much video on the FAT partition, as I don’t plan to edit video with Windows, so the file size limit shouldn’t be a big problem. Thanks for reminding me, though… it’s hard to keep track of all this in my head.

I’ve formatted the entire disk for Mac and I’m going to use it for storage until I figure out what’s gone wrong.

Lurve for the support during my frustration =]

@vanslonski…huh?

NONE. download windows 7 from a torrent site and get a key from microsoft for the beta.

Haha, not likely. You shouldn’t be using a beta as your primary OS, let alone an OS installation that you’re willing to completely lose on August 1st. Might as well install the proper, and more efficient, version of Windows, XP Pro SP3.

@dynamicduo – My thoughts exactly. I’ll go for stability and longevity first. A beta won’t cut it.