If I download windows through boot camp on my mac, will it erase my os x?

Question

I want to have both windows and OS X El Capitan running on my computer, as I prefer OS X but my favorite games isn´t compatible with it.

So if I use the boot camp assistant on my mac to donwload windows, will I still have OS X afterwards?

It says "create partition for windows" what does it mean?

Answer 1

"If I download windows through boot camp on my mac, will it erase my os x?"



Wrong word. "Download" means copy a file from another computer, even an Internet website computer. Boot Camp does not provide Windows to you. Buy Windows from Microsoft.com



Nothing done by Boot Camp Assistant can erase OS X. You can only use Boot Camp Assistant while using OS X. It is not possible to erase OS X while the computer is booted to OS X. This has been compared with sawing off a limb of a tree, while you are sitting on that limb.



"It says 'create partition for windows' what does it mean?"



Which word do you not understand?



"create" = make a new thing.



"partition" = an area of a computer drive / storage that can be formatted separately from the rest of the drive / storage. The storage ships from Apple with one partition formatted as "Mac OS Extended (journaled)" that is called / named / labeled "Macintosh HD". Boot Camp Assistant creates a new hybrid partition from the available space of the original partition. The original becomes smaller, when the new partition is created. Not all of the available space can be used; OS X needs at least 15% of the remaining partition to be *available space* to allow flexibility for various cache and swap files.



[Missing here is the "partition scheme" or "partition table". This is the way the partition(s) of the storage are recognized by the operating system. macOS can read both Mac and Windows partition schemes. Windows cannot read macOS partition schemes.]



"for Windows" = the special hybrid partition that is created by Boot Camp Assistant to allow Windows to be happy booting from a GUID Partition Table storage device. macOS cannot reliably boot to Master Boot Record partition scheme, so the whole storage must remain GUID. Windows cannot *normally* boot to any GUID storage, so Boot Camp Assistant creates a special hybrid Master Boot Record partition. Windows is fooled into thinking it is booting to a storage with Master Boot Record partition scheme.



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Answer 2

You set the Windows partition size as part of the install process. As long as you have plenty of free space try that an OSX with half the disc space each.



It re-sizes the OSX space and adds a Windows partition.

You can remove windows later on and give all the space back to OSX, if you want to.





Have you looked at winebottler or crossover to run your games? Many games & even Steam can run Windows versions through one of those, without using dual boot.



Also, if the game is on Steam, have you tried installing the Mac version of Steam?? A fair percentage of Windows h=games are also available on a Mac (or Linux) via the native Steam clients.

Answer 3

no ur fine I have a Mac and I'm using it. it works

Answer 4

try a virtual machine, it doesn't erase anything