Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
partitions
, and the key thing for you is that each partition looks, acts, and responds just as if it was an entire
hard drive on its own.
You'll also often see a partition referred to as a
volume
. For your purposes, the two words are synonymous.
For example, suppose you have a 200GB hard drive and you divide it into, say, a 150GB partition and a 50GB
partition. For all intents and purposes, you can treat the 150GB partition as a 150GB hard drive, and the 50GB
partition as a
separate
50GB hard drive.
Separate
is the operative word here because it means you can install
one operating system on the 150GB partition and another on the 50GB partition. Both operating systems will be
clam-happy because they
think
they have their hard drive all to themselves. You'll be happy too, because as
long as you have the right software (such as Boot Camp) you're free to dual-boot between the two systems as
you please.
Deciding on a partition size
You see in the next section that the Boot Camp Assistant lets you choose the size of your Windows partition. So
now the big question looms: How big should you make that partition? The answer depends on four factors:
Which version of Windows are you installing?
32-bit Windows 7 (or 8) requires a minimum of 16GB,
whereas 64-bit Windows 7 (or 8) needs 20GB at a minimum.
Will you be installing lots of Windows applications?
The more applications you want to use in Windows,
the more space you need, particularly if you'll be installing behemoth programs such as Microsoft Office.
Will you be working with a large amount of data in Windows?
If you have lots of huge video files and
thousands of audio files and photos, you need lots of storage space to handle everything.
If your data files already reside on another Windows PC and you're going to transfer them to your MacBook Air, you
can get an idea of how much room the files take up. On the Windows PC, open the folder that contains the data, select
all the files, right-click any selected file, and then click Properties. In the dialog that appears, read the Size on Disk
value.
How much free space is left on your MacBook Air hard drive?
Ideally you want to leave your MacBook
Air with plenty of room to grow, so that may constrain the size of the Windows partition. For example, if your
MacBook Air hard drive has 50GB free, you probably don't want your Windows partition to be any larger than
about 25GB.
