On 5 Apr 2006 at 14:06, Karen wrote: > This is how it all works...it is quite interesting. > > http://tinyurl.com/fknzx
[as an aside, I find it helpful when you're providing a tinyurl citation to also provide the original URL. There are two reasons for this: 1. the actual URL tells the reader what the actual source is, which can help determine whether or not to follow the link. 2. if tinyurl goes out of business someday, you'd still have a record of the real URL, which might still be valid. This is especially important for any discussions that are archived.] > Apparently, a "virtual" partition is created and that is where XP > lives. . . . I'm not sure what's "virtual" about the partition -- the article certainly doesn't say that. Perhaps you're interpreting the nondestructive repartioning as an indication of this? That wouldn't be correct, as Partition Magic and other partitioning products have been able to do nondestructive repartioning of active volumes for over a decade (that's how long I've been using it, since 1996). > . . . My only question is if this "firmware update" that allows > Window to run on the Intel Macs poses potential virus/worm etc. > issues that up until now we have been immune from. (yes..yes...I > know. It is partially that there aren't as many people trying to > write nasty little pieces of code for the Mac.) But Open Firmware > was more secure than the Microsoft BIOS. So I am really curious as > to how exactly the firmware update changes EFI in it's current state. So far as I can tell, I can't see how this BIOS support would have any effect on your OS X partition. Perhaps a WinXP virus that corrupts the BIOS could cause problems with WinXP, but I don't see how that could affect OS X, since OS X doesn't use that BIOS support in the first place. Now, if there were a partition that was visible to both OS X and WinXP, a WinXP virus could damage data there or plant a nasty that could run on OS X in addition to its WinXP payload. I don't know where OS X stores its user-level startup routines, but if it's in /usr filespace and you put your /usr folder on the partition that is accessible from both OS's, that could allow a clever WinXP virus to drop an OS X-only payload that could cause problems in OS X. But the answer to that is to never store your /usr folders (or any other data associated with OS X startup or operations) on a partition that is read/write accessible to both OS's. I believe that OS X can read but not write NTFS, and Windows can't do either with OS X's file system. I believe there are utilities for the Mac that can make NTFS volumes read/write, so that would be a requirement to make this work. But my guess is that this would have to be a third partition, outside either the OS X or WinXP partitions, for it to work. Thoughts? -- David W. Fenton http://dfenton.com David Fenton Associates http://dfenton.com/DFA/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
