Fix Bootcamp … 3TB is not rare any more.

Apple really ought to get its act into gear. There's been way too many
fails recently.

There are any number of software issues currently pending (in IOS 6,
Maps, et alia) but when they sell Macs with certain drive
configuarations, then their software ought to work on those drive
configurations.

The latest for me is that BootCamp won't install Windows on drives over
2.2 TB in size. Apple have known this for nearly two years (hey, that's
when they first put up a notice at apple.com acknowledging the
problem), and have failed to rectify it. Now previously they had a
(very thin) excuse for not doing so. Hey the maximum sized internal
drive you could get from Apple until recently was 2 GB … so the problem
didn’t arise for BootCamp unless you installed a larger third party
drive.

However now they offer 3GB conventional and Fusion internal drives with
their new model iMac.

I just took delivery of a Fusion Drive one. Nice machine. Real quick
disk I/O. Went berserk and got a Promise RAID drive with it … so the
world is currently my quick storage oyster.

To get Windows 7 64 bit installed on the internal drive was an
interesting exercise, only made possible by the developer of the
Winclone package (Twocanoes Software) who in an essay on same, written
about 18 months back, explained the problem and laid down the various
partitioning and other steps necessary to allow the installation of
Windows on new Macs. The guy is a legend … buy his package if you need
a BootCamp partition backup solution.

But what I'd like to know is that if he's figured out how to do it 18
months ago, and his method works, why haven't the 'Geniuses' in Apple's
software development departments figured out how to automate the bloody
thing in Bootcamp Assistant after the problem has been hitting them
between the eyes for nigh on two years. I mean, it wasn't exactly a
secret.

Now the last version of Bootcamp Assistant was released in October
2012, just before they announced the new iMacs and it won’t install
Windows on a large hard drive. I'm presuming that new MacPros are
fairly close to being released, given that they haven't been updated
for a couple of years now … and they will in all likelihood have drive
options that are WAY bigger than the 3TB maximum in the iMacs … so the
problem is likely to become more pronounced 'as time goes by'.

Is Apple simply hoping that this problem goes away? Are they content to
adopt the Bill Gates "Nobody will ever need more than 640K of RAM'
solution? Or are they gonna get their Bootcamp mavens on the job and if
necessary AppleScript the various routines that need doing as part of
the DiskUtility/BootCamp Assistant process to ensure that those who do
buy Apple's latest and greatest aren't hamstrung in functionality
because they bought the leading edge?

Just my 2 cents worth ...

 

Oh yeah …

For those of a more pendantic bent … read 'TB' for 'GB' in this puppy.
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