More questions about Mac switch! (Parallels/Partitions!)

Morning all, continueing my MBP research, i've become stumped on the discovery that mac doesn't like NTFS!

I have 2x external drives with all my movies/tv/music on (820gb total) but theyre both NTFS! I will be using Vista on my MBP (if/when i get one), and can see myself using Mac OS X more frequently for general tasks, but i will still be recording TV programs to these external drives.

Basically what im trying to determine is, if i keep these NTFS, could i for instance run parallels, with vista. Record the program and save it to the external, for viewing in mac os x?

Will the vista running in parallels see the hardware just as if it was a normal laptop?

Confuddling!

 

There is a few third-party "experimental" drivers/whatever for OSX to read/write to NTFS. Otherwise I *think* running windows virtually will be able to see the NTFS volumes and read/write them, not sure how good parallels is with USB2.0 yet... but theoretically yes. Otherwise, OSX can at least read NTFS volumes native from what I can tell.

 

yes Parallels and Boot Camp can read NTFS drives ..

I run Boot Camp and Parallels to access my external drives, which store data in NTFS .. the Mac can read from these drives, but can't write to them .. writing to them is pretty simple from Parallels .. it's just opening another window and dragging and dropping content into the Parallels thing, which then writes to the NTFS drives ..

 

Excellent exactly what i needed to know! Cheers buddy.

Oh one more thing, i assume that, if i have vista properly installed via boot camp, the vista i run in parallel is infact/can be that install?

 

check out this, which I have used before:
http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/default.asp
allows you to access mac partitions from vista and vice versa, even if you are logged in via boot camp ... full read/write

 

yes, MacDrive lets you access your Mac files .. from within BootCamp ..

Parallels has the feature built in .. so you can browse your Parallels drive for files and stuff, from within the Mac's OS .. you can also drag and drop files between the two operating systems ..

I know Parallels has a feature where it lets you use your Boot Camp partition in Mac's OS .. I tried it with one of the previous versions of Parallels and it didn't run too well .. (or it crashed or something) .. I, now, only use Parallels and don't use Boot Camp .. so wouldn't be able to tell you about it .. perhaps someone else on the forum can shed some light on this ..

 

Well i ended up getting one!

Went down to the southampton store (would you believe it narrowly missed two nasty motorway accidents on the way!!)

Had a mess about with it in the store (packed full of chavvy kids fecking about with iSight), liked the build of it and the weight was less than i expected. Had a brief chat about parallels/bootcamp etc. and decided to whack it on the overdraft now and pay it off later .

Went for the 15.4" 2.2ghz with a glossy screen, just messing about with it now. Mac OS X is WEIRD!

Bootcamp doing its thing as we speak .

Will reply with impressions etc. once i've used it for a day or two.

 

Mac OS X is weird? You're going to be flamed for that comment chris .

Anyways, I recommend you really try out Mac OS X. It may be a bit confusing at first but you will love it later on.

Here's two articles that help you understand how to work Mac OS X.

http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/

 

Yeah just tinkering at the moment, its just weird not having windows as such, and also when you press the red cross the program just kinda hides itself which totally confused me.

Other than that, it is easy to use.
The machine itself is marvellous, feels very well made and the magsafe connector is awesome .

 

Yes, the program doesn't close when you close the window...the easiest way to quit a program when you're done using it is press Apple+Q. It will quit the program instantly and close the window as well.

 

I know what he means when he says "wierd." Not wierd-bad, but wierd-different. That's how I felt at first when I was working on my brother's IMac. But the wierdest of all for me was going from OS X back to Windows. That's what sold me on OS X. It helped me see OS X and Mac in a whole new perspective. I'm hoping to get my own MBP this weekend. Thanks for sharing those links to learn OS X - I'm going to need them big time.

 

Don't forget http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=131996

 

Uh oh bit of a nightmare atm!

Just started this boot camp malarky, rebooted into the vista installer, and its getting a read error (the disk was a bit scratched). Only problem is, upon restart it keeps booting the Vista disk and not OS X, and i cant find a way to get the sucker out! Eject button doesnt work, i assume because I'm not in an OS and its not an actual button.

HELP oh mac gods!

 

Phew! Google saved me, turns out if you hold down the trackpad button for about a minute at boot it spits it out!