Do i need a bootcamp partition?

[johnh57]

I'm running w10 (infrequently) using parallels v10, When I first set the mbp up I created a bootcamp partition and installed Windows 7. Later when I installed parallels it was installed with the install from bootcamp option.

As I understand it, I still have the ability to boot into bootcamp rather than running the vm, but there are some issues. Parallels warns that any changes in files while running in bootcamp won't be recognized by the vm. I assume that this means you're running 2 copies of whatever software you're using, say excel for example, one installed on the vm, one on bootcamp. So there are also licensing issues at play? Initially I was trying to run autocad lt, but ran into issues with multiple installations and licenses.

I'm getting close to ordering a new imac. I believe I will install clean rather than port things over. Is there any reason to create a bootcamp partition at all? Or should I just install parallels and create a vm without the bc partition? (I'm not concerned about autocad, I have since upgraded to autocad it for mac.)

 

[Shirasaki]

If parallel has full access of your boot camp partition, it will directly write data on it. According to your description, I suppose parallel doesn't have access to write to your BootCamp. Therefore it will create their own virtual disk to save changes made inside this BootCamp.
As I know, VMware fusion can do so, since I have VMware tools installed on BootCamp partition, and I can find it when boot to Windows under BootCamp.

 

[johnh57]

Apparently there are 2 options in parallels for setting up a windows VM when you have an existing bootcamp partition. I'm not sure now which option I used. I'll have to dig through the parallels configuration logs and see if i can figure out what I really did.

In answer to my own question though, it is not necessary to install a bootcamp partition on the drive. I may look at just installing w10 solely on a vm when I upgrade the computer. It is even possible to recover the bootcamp partition space on the drive and move everything into a vm environment - I'd do this except for the w10 licensing agreement makes this a dubious proposition. It sounds as though I'd loose my windows 10 registration.

 

[Gjwilly]

It sounds as though I'd loose my windows 10 registration.

Yep.
When your first installed Windows 10 it analyzed your hardware and transmitted the info to Microsoft.
If you reinstall to a VM the hardware will not match and your original license will not be valid for the new configuration.

 

[johnh57]

Thanks, Thats pretty much what I thought. If I order a new iMac, I will order a new copy of W10 for it and install it on a VM from scratch without a bootcamp partition.

The old laptop is messier. It's running w10 in a VM from the bootcamp partition since BC pre-dates the VM. I'd like to clean it up and recover the space, but thats probably more trouble than its worth due to the windows licensing issues.