
So that works out great, as we put the Windows partition on partition four, and it can boot since it is the last of the first 4 partitions. OS X and all user data are on partition three. OS X also installs a recovery partition, which is normally partition three. The partition table on Intel Macs is the GUID partition table (GPT) and it requires that the first partition be a small EFI partition. The other limitation of legacy booting on Intel Macs is that the Windows partition must be the last used partition of the first four partitions on a disk. With the new 3 TB and larger disks, this causes booting issues for booting Windows on an Intel Mac. This wasn’t an issue when 2.2 TB was considered crazy huge. However, in order for Windows to boot using this legacy method, the Windows partition must be completely within the first 2.2 TB’s of the physical disk.
Boot camp for mac lion windows 8#
This provides the ability to support both Windows 8 and earlier versions of Windows. The Mac volume you will see on your desktop is made up of a single Logical Volume, and that Logical Volume has a single Logical Volume Group, and that Logical Volume Group has 2 physical partitions.īooting Windows on Intel Macs uses the legacy MBR type booting (versus the newer EFI based booting). For Boot Camp support, Core Storage is relatively simple. The volume you see on your desktop is called a Logical Volume, and can be made up of multiple Logical Volume Groups, and those groups are made up of physical partitions. Core Storage has its own terminology as well. The important piece to understand about Core Storage for Boot Camp support is even if you see a single volume on your desktop, it is possible a single Mac volume might be made up of multiple physical partitions on the disk. In Apple’s own words (from the man page on diskutil):ĬoreStorage maintains a world of virtual disks, somewhat like RAID, in which one can easily add or remove imported backing store disks, as well as exported usable volumes, to or from a pool (or several pools).Ĭore Storage is what provides the functionality behind File Vault 2 (full volume encryption) and is what is used to provide the 3 TB support for Boot Camp.
Boot camp for mac lion update#
The 10.8.3 update provides support for Boot Camp on 3 TB or larger drives by combining the 2 Mac partitions into a single Mac volume, and making sure the Windows partition is within the first 2.2 TB (allowing it to boot using the legacy MBR boot dance).
Boot camp for mac lion install#
While it was still possible to set up the partitions so that you could install Windows and still use all of the available space, you still either had to pave and rebuild the partitions or be happy with two Mac volumes and a Boot Camp volume. They are still a build-to-order option on the iMac, and until the 10.8.3 update, it was not possible to use Boot Camp assistant on 3 TB (or larger) drives. This is important because 3 TB drives are now becoming more common. With the release of 10.8.3, Apple has provided support for Boot Camp on 3 TB or larger drives. Updates Boot Camp on Large (3 TB+) drive with 10.8.3
