Is there a way to have soley XP on a MAC?

[Mr Levitator]

I have a Mac Book Air. I would like to put XP on it, but I don't really want to have MAC OS on it unless I have to. So my question is; is there a way to format the HDD and install XP as the sole operating system?

Thanks in advance.

Mr L.

Ps, sorry to MAC fans, I tried but I just can't get used to MAC OS, its just too different to what I am used to!

[Background Noise]

Don't think so. Why don't you just use bootcamp and install windows. You can always boot into windows and never know mac os is there. Presumably you can allocate almost all of the disc to windows.

[Shunter]

Yes, it can be done. It is however not something for the faint of heart.

Macs use EFI instead of BIOS. There is no support for EFI in XP, so you would need to do some considerable messing about with the EFI system partition in order to do what you want.

If you don't know what EFI or BIOS are, and how they work, you don't want to even go near this kind of idea. That said, if you fly something interesting I'm easily bribed :)

[PerAdUK]

I think there's a program called "parallels" that you can use to boot XP.
But why would you want to mate? It's common knowledge that OSX is >9000 times better. :p

[Saab Dastard]

"Parallels" is virtualisation software for the MAC, allowing you to create one or more Virtual Machines within OSX that can run a guest OS such as Windows or Linux. OSX is running with the guest OS in a "window", if you will.

It is quite different to a dual-boot system, where either - but not both - of the installed OS can be running at any one time.

AFAIK, Boot Camp is free, Parallels is not (VMWare is also not free, but Sun's VM is free).

SD

[Hasselhof]

Reinstall OS X but when you do, use Disk Utility to create a very small partition for it (2-3GB would probably do it). Then when you install OS X, customize the install to reduce the number of packages to be installed (hence minimalist install - but make sure that once you've installed it you delete all the extra crap that might have remained such as iTunes blah blah blah just incase). Once you've got the system up and running, immediately install XP with boot camp using the remaining HDD space. Once its all up and ready to go, reboot into OS X and in the System Preferences, select the XP partition as the boot partition. That way the computer will default boot into XP, you can press option to go into OS X if you want, and you'll aready have a fully operating OS including NTFS read support that can help recover any problems you might have down the track with XP. (Make that read WILL have with XP, the whole idea of what your trying to achieve just runs completely contrary to what any sane Mac purchaser should do IMHO :})

[Pelikanpete]

You could just sell the Macbook Air and buy a Windows laptop. Although I can't imagine why anyone would want to.

As a fairly recent switcher to Macs myself, I had found that whilst XP was adequate (but often very irritating), Vista is absolute nonsense - a real dogs dinner of gismos and shiny bits, and the user interface was clearly designed by the same people who make gambling machines in pubs. At some point you will want to move on from XP (Microsoft are stopping selling it this year anyway) and where will you go then? Maybe you're better off fighting your way through OSX and learning to live with it (and so be able to use future versions). I for one think it's streets ahead anyway.

[cribble]

Trust the force. Abandon the Dark Side.

Get to know the Mac OS

[planecrazy.eu]

Seems pointless buying a MacBook Air and then not to use OSX?

I read one pays around £250-£300 extra to have OSX on a machine...

Toshiba, HP and Sony have such machines that are as slim, or borderline, and are £200 or so cheaper...

How about Dell and there thin xps 13", its not a great deal bigger,

I know its naughty, but here is a link to an MSN article on thin laptops...

The Thin Laptop Wars - Tech and Gadget Features | Articles – MSN Tech and Gadgets UK (http://tech.uk.msn.com/features/article.aspx?cp-documentid=8823619)

Not a self promo link, so cant see the harm