Parallels - run BootCamp partition or install Win through VM?

[jon08]

I'm still at loss here - what is the more recommended choice? Would I get better performance if I ran my BootCamp partition through Parallels, or would I get optimal performance if I installed Windows inside Parallels, i.e. Virtual Machine (correct me if I'm wrong on the terminology)? (I know that for the BEST performance I should use just BootCamp, but let's say if I didn't want to switch to BootCamp and wanted to access Windows through Parallels.)

One thing I've noticed while running BootCamp partition on Parallels is that if it hung and I wanted to force quit the app, it would warn me that I'd better quit the app by pressing the "Stop" button in Parallels so to avoid possibly corrupting the BootCamp partition and whatnot. From this aspect, I'd assume it would be better to have Windows installed separately in the Virtual Machine, I guess? But what about performance-wise?

 

[tomllama]

I don't think you will see any meaningful performance difference between using Parallels with the boot camp partition versus an "internal" implementation of XP. The meaningful difference would be between running XP via boot camp versus Parallels.

The main difference would be access to the Windows HDD from the Mac side. You could access the files in the boot camp partition (with appropriate software) from OSX. You would not be able to easily access the files from the internal Parallels implementation.

I used to run only from an internal Parallels machine but since I switched to having XP available from either boot camp or Parallels via the boot camp partition, I'm getting set to delete the internal partition as not necessary. I like the simple access to the boot camp partition without having to reboot as the performance differential is not an issue for most of my XP needs.