Newbie questions:

I hope I don't offend the forum gods with these questions, since I know some of this is answered by using the search button, but here goes:

I'm a 13 month Macbook user and I've had an iPhone since they dropped the price in September of their introduction year. I love my Mac stuff.
My situation is this:
My work-supplied Dell too its last crap and lost my data again. (really wish Gates would figure Time Machine out). I'm sick of it. I use the Mac for everything but my most important role which is demonstrating automotive diagnostic equipment. 95% of Auto diagnostic software works through XP and the other 5% is Windows 7. Mac is out in the cold.
I need to know how well other USB based interface modules designed for XP will work with the MBP running XP. Would it work to run a parallel desktop type program, or set up a second operating system in Boot Camp? Most tools are a small pass through box that connects to the car and to the laptop by USB.
Second question is which would be better for what I want to do: Boot Camp or a parallel desktop?

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I know why I'm losing data. I'm spoiled by the ease of the Time Machine process to back it up. I've lost two hard drives on the MBP but never lost data. I use my Windows machines hard. They are used in automotive shops training and demonstrating automotive diagnostic scan software. I've never dropped the PC, but it gets bumped and jostled around I'm sure because of the environment I work in. Naturally, I take better care of the MBP, but as I mentioned, it's been through 2 hard drive failures and it will continue to lose them until I move to solid state, I presume.
Yes, most work places do not like me messing with their PC. I work for a fortune 500 company with an IT department who won't support anything I do. They don't do iPhones, they don't do Android and we are still stuck on Lotus notes for email. They sent me a brand new PC and it took it 11 minutes to boot up-every time. So I formatted it and rebuilt it with new CDs from Dell and it worked as well as Vista can work. When it decided not to boot up anymore I'm looking for other solutions rather than stick with what hasn't worked. Vista is so difficult to make work with auto diagnostic machines. It's so difficult that NO auto OE (Ford, Chevy, etc) and no aftermarket diagnostic scan tool company supports Vista. Only 2 will even look at 7. In fact, the hardest sell for me as a salesperson is getting the customer to upgrade to XP from the junk that came on their new laptop. I don't mean to rant, but I'd pay good money to have back the hours I've wasted trying to make Vista work. Vista is what made me a die hard Mac lover. I had no idea life could be this easy.
But I digress. I have Dell CDs here with XP pro on them. Can I buy an old XP laptop and take the key off the bottom and junk the laptop? Any ideas on how I can get a legal copy of XP for use on the Mac? A lot of people selling XP on eBay and the net offer what is clearly a Dell CD with a key sticker attached to the package. I'd rather not pay them $80 when I can just use one of the junkers laying around this place. Thoughts?

 

I realize it can't get to what's on an XP partition, but does Time Machine backup what's inside the Fusion or Parallel desktop?