FAT32, NTFS or Parallels

I'm looking into getting a MBP and while I will use OS X, I'll also be needing a lot of Windows XP. I'm curious as to what people use as their primary XP implementation: Boot Camp with FAT32, Boot Camp with NTFS, Parallels or CrossOver Mac. I'd like to do some gaming too which I don't think Parallels or CrossOver is suited for, but I added it in to be inclusive of all Mac XP users. Also do people generally use MacDrive especially if they are using Boot Camp and NTFS?

 

I have my XP partitioned as Fat 32. I didnt feel like dealing with MacDrive.
Crossover... good idea, but doesn't work well.
Parallels is pretty much perfect for anything that doesn't use the graphics card.

I would use only parallels if I had a working desktop (need to get the ram replaced) and if I had the money for parallels.

 

NTFS is very closely guarded by Microsoft- only a few companies have the rights to make software that can read AND write NTFS. If you want to avoid trouble stay with fat32 even though it slows XP down somewhat.

 

I use NTFS because I can just transfer files using my flash drive.

 

I use Parallels because I only need XP for a few small things. If I were to need to game I would use XP with NTFS. I have no need to share files between the two.

 

Has anyone tried MacDrive? I'm curious as to how it works. Can you actually directly save to the Mac partitions or do you have to manually copy files over to the Windows partition, save, then copy back?

On the topic of partitions, do people usually partition their HDD into multiple Mac partitions? Like for my desktop XP, I have a separate partition for the OS, one for Apps, one for games, one for video work, and one for other files. It reduces fragmentation, and time for searches, virus scans, defragmenting, etc. Is the same possible/necessary for OS X?

 

MacDrive is absolutely amazing. It turns your mac partition into a regular window partition, I can see what's in my Mac partition, save, copy etc, and even install my windows game in Mac partition. Since I only allocate small amount of HD space for bootcamp Windows, this feature allows me to run games from the Mac partition in Windows.

 

I agree with easyeye. I use MacDrive on my desktop to allow it to read/write to my Mac formatted external. MacDrive is well worth the cost.

 

HFS has almost no fragmentation, even in worst cases. It actually auto-defrags and allocates blocks as to minimize fragmentation on the spot (there is a thread here discussing that, try making a search). Very few OS X users use antivirus software. I understand using different partitions would indeed lower search times, but I believe most users use Spotlight. So I guess there is not so much incentive to partition a drive in a Mac as in a Windows machine. If I had a bigger HDD I would probably use 2 or 3 partitions, but with 60GB I just don't
think it is worth the hassle.

 

This might be some what off topic but with the Adobe Creative Suite would it be better to use Parallels or Bootcamp?

 

Does bootcamp perfectly run Windows XP on Mac, or are there limitations? Is it like a dual boot?

 

It's dual boot. I've found no limitations with it.

 

Hey i installed XP with NTFS because last time i played games there seemed to be glitches when it shutdown in XP. But the thing is now there is the Windows hard drive icon mounted in Mac OSX desktop and it has the old icon
I have changed all the other icons including macosx hard also. so do u know how i can change becoz its only read and write now (the xp hard i mean)