Is it possible to have both Parallels/Fusion AND Bootcamp?

[respectabilia]

I read that for gaming, Bootcamp is the way to go, but for other general Windows use, Parallels or Fusion is the way to go.

But for me, I am planning to play games - hence Bootcamp - as well as use Parallels/Fusion for general use, namely to use Microsoft Office Onenote (an unbeatable note-taking software that needs a Mac version yesterday).

Is this even possible and how much memory will the additional parallels take (I'm planning a 40gb bootcamp partition btw on a 250gb hard drive)?

@bootedbear: don't worry, windows question not relevant...

 

[bootedbear]

Yes, you can have both on your system, but I can't answer your Windows licensing question.

 

[RRmalvado]

Actually Parallels (not sure of Fusion) can use your Bootcamp partition as its image. So you would only need to install Windows onto Bootcamp and then point Parallels to that installation. It works great for your purpose.

 

[respectabilia]

Actually Parallels (not sure of Fusion) can use your Bootcamp partition as its image. So you would only need to install Windows onto Bootcamp and then point Parallels to that installation. It works great for your purpose.

Great news! The best of both worlds!

 

[sbddude]

Make sure you follow the instructions on Parallels web site in the knowlegebase for windows activation. it involves cloning the MAC address from the VM to the actual NIC in bootcamp.

Otherwise windows will ask to activate every time you switch between bootcamp and parallels.

 

[huckduck]

actually, i would suggest a larger bootcamp partition

i used to run bootcamp and parallels on my MBP, and found that once i installed some larger software suites for 3d, i ran out of space for games. i have a 250 drive and i'd suggest probably 80 for the bootcamp.

even with that making the bootcamp drive ntfs (actually 40 gb would make it ntfs as well) macfuse+ntfs-3g is making things much easier these days.

 

[balamw]

actually, i would suggest a larger bootcamp partition

My rule of thumb is 20-25% of the drive which would be closer to 50-60 GB, but it really depends on what you are doing with Windows...

I have 32 GB partition on my 120GB iMac which feels cramped as soon as I actually want to do anything useful.

B

 

[George Knighton]

Actually Parallels (not sure of Fusion) can use your Bootcamp partition as its image. So you would only need to install Windows onto Bootcamp and then point Parallels to that installation. It works great for your purpose.

Make sure you follow the instructions on Parallels web site in the knowlegebase for windows activation. it involves cloning the MAC address from the VM to the actual NIC in bootcamp.

Otherwise windows will ask to activate every time you switch between bootcamp and parallels.

Many, many people seem to have trouble with this and break activation repeatedly and have to end up calling Microsoft via the help line to get their Windows installations reactivated.

I ended up with three Windows licenses. One for Bootcamp on Macbook, one for Bootcamp on iMac, and one for Parallels virtual machine on iMac. This was the only way I could get it to work 100% reliably all of the time.

Although I followed the Parallels instructions for creating the virtual machine from Bootcamp, I would still end up breaking the activation on either the virtual machine or the Bootcamp machine. I don't know how Microsoft is seeing around the cloning, but it'd always eventually be seen as two different physical machines, and I couldn't deal with that. Sometimes when I need Windows, I need it instantly and reliably, and don't have time to fiddle with stuff...so I just bought a third license.

The original poster will also break his Office activation if he's not careful, and I'd recommend installing Office only on the virtual machine, and only installing his games on the Bootcamp machine.



At least, this is one dumb old man's experience with all of this.