Trevor Tizard

Hi,

Can you help with a mac OS and Win xp under boot camp question. I'm intending to run Max under boot camp and all my adobe products under Mac OS. Am I right in thinking that Mac OS will see the contents of the windows partition, but XP will not see any files in the Mac partition.

This being the case, where do you guys keep you're bitmaps for you're shaders?

Excuse me if this is a dumb question, this is all a bit new as I've not worked with a mac before.

Thanks,


Trev

STRAT

i run the same configuration as you, mac os and windows os and bootcamp in the middle

yes, in mac mode you can read and copy from the windows partition, but you cant write to it. In windows mode you cant even see the mac partition.

I personally keep my shader maps on our office network server , but, if you only have a desktop to work on you'll need to store the maps where the pc can read them from. unfortunately the mac partition wont be the answer, and since you cant save them from a mac into the windows section there might be a fair amount of faffing back and forth between the modes.

personally, i also use photoshop in pc mode to help aide this solution.

I've been using this set up and configuration for the last year. before the summer of last year i'd never used a mac in my life before. Must admit, after a good year's use, i can see the mac os as a beautifully crafted and usable operating system. very stable, memory efficient and user friendly.......but i dont like it. i'm a windows user of 15 years or so and must admit to liking it emensly, so switching over to a new system like the mac os isn't exactly to my liking. i'm too used to windows. (things like the mac mouse movement/action, just subtly different and annoying etc).

dont let me put you off though.

i use a mac because it's rendering capabilities are awsome compaired to a pc. means i get the best of both worlds - my beloved pc software and the mac hardware. i've just yesterday also installed XP64 too, so even happier

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Trevor Tizard

Hi Strat,

Thanks very much for the response. I too currently store everything on the network and it sounds like I should continue to do so. I also have an extra copy of Photoshop which I may well run too.

I've heard that there is no direct support for XP64 with boot camp, was it a problem finding drivers?

Also, I think you're a fellow Vray user. Have you tried distributed rendering, and we're there any issues. Now I have two computers it makes sense to give it a go.

It's nice to know I'm not alone with this configuration (I've inherited this Mac), and really do appreciate the help.

Regards,


Trev

STRAT

xp64 doesn't support bootcamp, you're correct (found this out only yesterday whilst installing).

the solution for us was fortunate - i have 2 discs in my mac. 1 disc is where the mac side of things sit, and the other is where windows sits. whilst in mac mode, we re-formated the second disk to ms-dos/windows compatible format (mac gives this option, as does bootcamp if i recall). We then re-booted onto the freshly formated second blank drive (keep your finger on the ALT key whilst rebooting), put in the XP64 install disk and installed it on there from fresh.
In effect we bypassed bootcamp completely. it's not really needed. choosing your boot method can be used pressing the ALT key as mentioned.
If you only have a single drive and want to install XP64 then i dont know. i'm not to technical. You'd have to partition your disc in mac mode. weather this would require a complete re-install of the mac OS i dont know. and how you'd switch between the 2 modes on a single disk without bootcamp i dont know that either. you'll need to take advise.

yup, i use Vray. but Vray for cinema wont support distributed rendering until the next imminent release. i'm quite happy my XP64 mac will co-operate nicely with the other macs/pc's in my office though.

Also, i can provide links to download all the driver support you'll need too. they're just 2 zipped files you copy to your computer, double click on them and they automatically update your system to it's best.

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Trevor Tizard

Thanks again,

I've done a little digging and this Mac has one large hard drive with 2Gb of ram and 2 processors (4 core I think - I'm not technical either).

Seems prudent to stick with xp32 on a partition as I can DR with my current PC to speed up the rendering process.

Should be good...............I looking forward to getting final renders done without having to set them of over night......hopefully.

Strat, if you don't mind I'll probably bother you again before too long once I've got it installed for help with basic numpty questions.


Trev

STRAT

ask any questions. i'll answer what i can

my mac's an 8 core beast. render's beautifully in 64 bit with 4 gig ram

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Trevor Tizard

Now I'm already jealous...........!

Thanks again.

AJLynn

There's a fairly inexpensive program called Macdrive that makes Windows able to read/write Mac partitions. It appears to work with XP32 and Vista32/64 but not XP64.

Trevor Tizard

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the link............looks interesting. Would be nice to be able to have Mac OS write files in the windows partition too though (assuming I've read things correctly). Presumably this software would let max get bitmaps from a Mac partition?

Trev

mattclinch

don't mean to hijack the thread, but when is the OS with built in bootcamp facility being released? or is bootcamp now integrated into the last version of the OS?

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Matt Clinch
Arch Viz Artist @ Hayes Davidson
http://www.hayesdavidson.com