Best Way to Setup Bootcamp with new MBP?

[belsokar]

So I'm buying a new MBP in the next day or two, and was wondering the best way to setup Bootcamp. I'm essentially getting a base configuration MBP with an 80gb hard drive. Do I need to setup Bootcamp right away, or can I wait until later until I decide if I really need to the ability to dual boot into windows?

My main concerns are that 80GB is not all that much....and I'm not sure if I have to decide now how much to partition? For example, can I work on my laptop for a month, and then decide I want to setup a 20GB partition for windows, and then partition at that time? Or does it involve re-formatting the entire disk?

How about if I partition say 40GB now for windows, but decide down the road I really don't need that much. Can I change that partition size and re-allocate some hard disk space back to the mac osx?

Finally, can I setup bootcamp on an external harddrive and boot externally?

 

[belsokar]

Also, does installing a separate Bootcamp parition effect the performance of OSX at all? I don't want to do it if there are any major negatives to my experience in OSX

 

[balamw]

Please visit the Windows on Mac forum for the answers to all these questions and more!



B

 

[benthewraith]

Also, does installing a separate Bootcamp parition effect the performance of OSX at all? I don't want to do it if there are any major negatives to my experience in OSX

No.

It's really up to you. However, I'd go ahead and do it if you're worried about eating up too much disk space. Things like iTunes libraries and stuff can be kept on external hard drives if that's how you feel.