BootCamp, Parallels Questions.

[WalcomTV]

Hi, with my new 2011 iMac on the way, I am going to be installing Windows 7 Ultimate under Bootcamp onto it.

A few questions.

1. Could someone please link me to a good video/text guide to installing Windows on a Mac. BootCamp or Parallels.
2. I remember reading that you can access the Windows partition on your Hard Drive made via BootCamp in Parallels. Is this true? If so, this would be fantastic.
3. How does Parallels work exactly? Is it just an emulator as such, or as said above, read a partition and work from it?

Sorry for the really stupid questions.

- Wally.

 

[Mac-key]

1. This link here should get you started.

2. Yes, you can run your bootcamp partition in a virtual environment. However, you may run into some windows 7 activation issues when switching between bootcamp and a VM. Plus, there are some features you can't use such as "suspend" (Fusion, not sure of the parallels equivalent)

3. Not exactly sure on this question.

 

[Quad5Ny]

Answer to question #3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_machine

But yes, you can either have it make a virtual hard disk file (in which you install windows) or you can point it to your bootcamp partition. - http://download.parallels.com/desktop/v6/docs/en/Parallels_Desktop_Users_Guide/23112.htm


And some additional info for Question #2 - You can Read from your Windows partition in OS X but you cannot write to it (unless you install a 3rd party driver).

 

[WalcomTV]

Thanks a bunch.