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Sam Rayner

Changing the Boot Camp Drive Icon

After partitioning my iMac’s boot volume to accommodate Windows, I wished there was a way to differentiate between the two icons at a glance in Finder and on my desktop.

Unfortunately, changing the icon for an NTFS formatted volume isn’t as easy as just copying one across. There was a step by step guide to doing it on the OnMac Wiki though, so I went ahead creating an alternative.

My Boot Camp drive icon

I can’t take any credit for the real design work—simply applying the Boot Camp symbol to the default drive icon in Photoshop—but I think it adds a bit of variety.

If you’re running Leopard, you’ll need to stray slightly from OnMac’s instructions when applying it:

  1. Format a USB stick as FAT32
  2. Apply the icon to the stick using the standard method
  3. Boot into Windows and view hidden files on the stick
  4. Copy .VolumeIcon.icns and the file named ._ to the root of your C:\ drive
  5. Boot back into OS X and enjoy your new icon!

Of course, you don’t have to use my icon. Whatever icon you choose, those steps should pretty much have you covered. If you do run into trouble though, feel free to leave a comment.

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Comments (Post One)

#1 Merlijn Van Holder’s Gravatar Merlijn Van Holder (2 years ago)

Well, when I get a Mac again, I’ll surely run both OS X and Windows on it.

Your icon will definitely be on my desktop. :)

#2 Sam Clark’s Gravatar Sam Clark (1 year, 11 months ago)

Whoa awsome, thankyou so much!

I just logged in using paralellels and it worked a charm

#3 Sam Rayner’s Gravatar Sam Rayner (1 year, 11 months ago)

No problem Sam, glad you found it useful :)

#4 John’s Gravatar John (1 year, 7 months ago)

wow thanks alot, i was looking for an icon like this. do you also have a similar one for the macintosh HD ?

#5 Sam Rayner’s Gravatar Sam Rayner (1 year, 7 months ago)

Well personally I’d just use the default drive icon for that John, but I suppose you could make one with an X or Apple logo on it. If I ever do, I’ll post it here :)

#6 Merlijn Van Holder’s Gravatar Merlijn Van Holder (1 year, 6 months ago)

So, I actually got around to picking up a MacBook Pro 15” the other day. As I promised in my earlier comment, your icon is sitting on my desktop for my Windows XP Boot Camp drive.

Thanks, Sam! :)

Loving Leopard by the way, Intel Macs rock.

#7 Sam Rayner’s Gravatar Sam Rayner (1 year, 6 months ago)

No probs mate. Enjoy your new MacBook! :)

I hadn’t realised you’d launched the new ShaDoW Design! I’m on holiday using GPRS at the moment but I’ll have a proper look when I get back :)

#8 Merlijn Van Holder’s Gravatar Merlijn Van Holder (1 year, 6 months ago)

Its a temporary site for a job offer I got, haha, I just keep delaying that damn thing don’t I? I think you raised the bar when it comes to blog design, so its hard to create one up-to-par.

#9 Geoff Thibeau’s Gravatar Geoff Thibeau (1 year, 6 months ago)

I’m being nit-picky when I say this, but the Boot Camp logo doesn’t have the same perspective as the hard drive. And the lighting is backwards; the highlights on the drive are coming from the viewer’s position, not from 11 o’clock.

With that said, if I had an Intel-based Mac, I’d still probably use your rendition. :)

#10 Sam Rayner’s Gravatar Sam Rayner (1 year, 6 months ago)

You’ve definitely got a point Geoff. As I say, I just applied the Boot Camp symbol to the default drive icon. I probably should have spent some more time on it.

If I get a chance I’ll have a look at improving it. Thanks.

#11 John’s Gravatar John (1 year, 4 months ago)

Very nice indeed. I’ve actually taken this one step further and colourised the diamonds ala M$. It makes a distasteful task (booting into windows) much more enjoyable in a small way. :)

#12 ByDesign Games’s Gravatar ByDesign Games (1 year, 1 month ago)

Hi there!

Thanks for this cool icon. Was just about to create the exact same thing, but then googled and found you!

Info on the steps, there is a much easier way that doesn’t require a flash disk or even a reboot.

Just apply the “standard method” using the icon on the dmg & your boot camp disk, ala…

a) Open your dmg
b) ctrl-click on the icon -> Get Info
c) Click on the small version in the upper left corner (should highlight)
d) CMD-C to copy.
e) ctrl-click on your boot camp disk -> Get Info
f) click on the small version in the upper left corner
g) CMD-P to paste.

That’s it!

If you want to restore the original, just Get Info again on the disk, select the small version, and hit the Delete key.

Thanks again!

#13 Sam Rayner’s Gravatar Sam Rayner (1 year, 1 month ago)

Hmm, thanks for the tip! I don’t think that worked when I tried though. The partition might have to be FAT32 in order for it to stick. Mine is NTFS.

#14 Sam Rayner’s Gravatar Sam Rayner (1 year, 1 month ago)

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#15 ByDesign Games’s Gravatar ByDesign Games (1 year, 1 month ago)

re: NTFS
Ahh ok, did not test against NTFS. Since OSX doesn’t write to NTFS, the above will indeed not work… however can see most users opting for FAT (since OSX reads AND writes to FAT), so hopefully this will save them some steps.

Imagine if you’ve already installed MacFUSE or similar OSX - NTFS enabler, it _should_ work (but totally have not tried).

#16 Sam Rayner’s Gravatar Sam Rayner (3 months ago)

Unfortunately this technique doesn’t work with Snow Leopard. A few alternative solutions are discussed in this MacRumors thread though.

#17 MC’s Gravatar MC (1 month ago)

The instructions to change the BootCamp icon are great. One problem, though. I followed the instructions EXACTLY as written, yet my BootCamp icon remains the basic silver one. Any thoughts? Thanks.

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