need advice/help.. Boot camp vs VM/Parallels...

[HBOC]

Ok, I am going to install Win7 on my MBP, as I just bought a Sony Ericsson C905a phone and to flash (debrand it), I need windows to accomplish this . To do everything else, there are plug ins for Mac, but whatever.

I have NEVER done this before. Upon my search, I learned that you cannot install an OS onto an external drive. This was AFTER i had backed up my external to reformat it for Win7. lol.

So now my question is what uses the LEAST AMOUNT of space that i need. I wont be using the Windows side that much. I searched the forums and found some good info, BUT I failed to find any info on what would use the least amount of space. I know that running a virtual PC, you have to set a certain amount of RAM to run. In bootcamp, you do not. If the amount of hard drive space is the same, I will install it with Parallels (just waiting to buy, to see what would be better). I will be using next to nothing as far as computing power on the Windows side. My girlfriend has a dell xps workstation, so if i ever need a dedicated Windows machine, I have access to one..

Thanks for the help in advance!

 

[balamw]

Upon my search, I learned that you cannot install an OS onto an external drive.

If all you are doing is running it within Parallels, you can put your VM files on the external just fine. A typical 32 bit Win 7 install will be ~10-15 GB.

B

 

[HBOC]

thanks for the help! I am in the middle of gathering all the info so I am not too lost, lol.

 

[maflynn]

So now my question is what uses the LEAST AMOUNT of space that i need. I wont be using the Windows side that much. I searched the forums and found some good info, BUT I failed to find any info on what would use the least amount of space. I know that running a virtual PC, you have to set a certain amount of RAM to run. In bootcamp, you do not. If the amount of hard drive space is the same, I will install it with Parallels (just waiting to buy, to see what would be better). I will be using next to nothing as far as computing power on the Windows side. My girlfriend has a dell xps workstation, so if i ever need a dedicated Windows machine, I have access to one..

You can choose the amount of ram, cpu and hard drive space you wish to provide windows within the virtualization application. I use vmware and I can dynamically set the ram and cpu (when the vm is off). You need to decide on hard drive size at time of install. While you cannot increase the size of the drive, you can create a second drive (a D or E drive for windows) after the fact.

Personally, I prefer VMware over BootCamp since it allows me to stay in OSX and provides the best experience for me.