Adding XP to my Snow Leopard Dell Mini 10v

[Janit]

Yeah, I know I'm way behind the times, and doing Windows sucks.

Nevertheless I need to run Windows XP in order to run some applications that can not be run anywhere else.

What is a reasonable size for the XP partition? How much space does XP require? I don't expect to use the partition very much -- 2 or 3 times a year most likely, though it's always possible that I will find a few other apps that require Windows once I stick my toe into the dark side. The drive in my Mini10v is 160GB.

Does anyone here have a favorite method for making a dual-boot SL-XP Mini10v? My first thought had been just to put XP on an external USB drive, but all my research says that won't work -- the XP has to be installed on the internal drive.

Any tips will be appreciated. Any rotten fruit or vegetables thrown in this direction will be added to the compost heap out back

[hal]

dual boot is COMPLICATED and iffy...

I would seriously consider installing on a different drive and swapping back and forth.

Sorry - can't point you to the proper site. Every time I do this, I have to relearn from ground zero.

[SKYLANE]

http://www.mydellmini.com

Check the forums there, this is where I found everything I needed to do it. I retired my 10v awhile ago, but I believe I was at 10.6.7 and XP on it when I retired it (or was in Windows 7, don't recall now). Finding exactly what I needed was lots of research of the site listed above.

[SDGuy]

From the above - this is the forum you want to read...

[Janit]

Yes I have been sifting through the mydellmini forums. Most of the posts there are complex because people were still trying to figure out how to do it. I was hoping I could be lazy if anyone here had followed a specific detailed protocol with success and remembered what they did.

When I first put SL on my Mini10v, I ended up writing out the complete recipe, so I could do it again exactly the same way if I had to. There was a guide, but it needed modifications to be compatible with 10.6.4. Somebody was always tweaking the bootloaders etc.

That obsessiveness came in handy, as I just made a superduper bootable clone and I never would have remembered what to do without my notes.

[rz]

I had a Dell Mini 9 with Leopard on it. I put XP on an SD card and ran it through Virtual Box. For XP, I used a 16GB SD card. Yeah, it was slow, but it was fine for the one program I really needed it for. Once I no longer needed it, I gave the mini to my sister. They use it for when they go camping, as most campgrounds have free wifi.

[colonel panic]

Why not use Parallels Desktop? Easy to use and setup, no rebooting, no partitioning.

[Forrest]

I don't think Parallels, and all other virtualization programs will work well on an Atom based machine. Virtualization programs rely on Intel Vt-x for speed. Vt-x is not available on the Atom processor.

[tenders]

You could buy an inexpensive used 8 or 16 gb Dell Mini SSD on eBay and just swap it in when you need it. On the Mini 9 the swap only takes 15 seconds.

[decay]

tenders wrote:
You could buy an inexpensive used 8 or 16 gb Dell Mini SSD on eBay and just swap it in when you need it. On the Mini 9 the swap only takes 15 seconds.

i sort of like this idea.