Bootcamp then Parallels or just Parallels?

[blue2noise]

Hey guys,

Ordered my first Mac after a lifetime of Windows machines. I was planning on installing Win7 on it and using Parallels for the times I have no Mac option (specific games or apps).

Should I install it as a boot camp partition and then link it in Parallels or just do a clean VM install in Parallels?

I'm curious as to what the experiences are and what is my best course of action when my machine shows up.

Thanks!

 

[jaydentaku]

I think you will be blown away as to watch parallels can do. For me, there is little convenience in booting into windows and the osx and visa versa.

Parallels allows the use of dragging files to and from windows and osx, it places a windows folder on your dock for easy access and performance is superb.

etc etc. I really could go on.

 

[blue2noise]

I think you will be blown away as to watch parallels can do. For me, there is little convenience in booting into windows and the osx and visa versa.

Parallels allows the use of dragging files to and from windows and osx, it places a windows folder on your dock for easy access and performance is superb.

etc etc. I really could go on.

I'm very impressed from what I have seen. My only concern would be any high end Win only games that may come out at some point. How does it handle 3D graphics?

I'm getting the Quad Core i5 iMac 27" with 8GB of ram

 

[MacDawg]

The rule of thumb has always been, if you game, Bootcamp

Parallels and Fusion are great for most things, but if you game, you will likely not be happy with the performance

 

[blue2noise]

The rule of thumb has always been, if you game, Bootcamp

Parallels and Fusion are great for most things, but if you game, you will likely not be happy with the performance

That's what I heard too. Do the boot camp partition and the Parallels VM of that mirror each other? Like installations, files and such?

 

[MacDawg]

That's what I heard too. Do the boot camp partition and the Parallels VM of that mirror each other? Like installations, files and such?

It is seamless. Install through Bootcamp and Parallels will read the partition.
All your files, programs, etc. are the same and only one Windows install is required

 

[blue2noise]

It is seamless. Install through Bootcamp and Parallels will read the partition.
All your files, programs, etc. are the same and only one Windows install is required

Excellent. So I would do as follows:

1. Install a boot camp partition of Windows
2. Reboot into OSX
3. Install Parallels
4. Link Parallels to the boot camp partition during install instead of another windows install.

Do I have that correct?

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[MacDawg]

^^^

Yes
It will walk you through the process of reading the Bootcamp partition

Anything you install or do in Parallels will be available when you use Bootcamp and vice versa

 

[blue2noise]

^^^

Yes
It will walk you through the process of reading the Bootcamp partition

Anything you install or do in Parallels will be available when you use Bootcamp and vice versa

Thanks again for your help and I am ready to roll! Here's hoping I almost never even need that Windows machine

 

[jwhite4304]

Parallels failed during install - locked up. Now when I try to install, the installer does not see the Boot Camp partition and wants to install from a Windows disc. Help, please?

Jim