Parallels using Boot Camp partition

[papa-alpha]

A little help . . .

I have a Boot Camp partition with Win XP installed.
I have Parallels installed with a seperate installation of Win XP.

Is there any speed advantage or any other advantage of blowing off the current Parallels install of Win XP and installing a new Parallels virtual machine using the Boot Camp install of Win XP. (I believe this is do able). So I would have a single install of WinXp that would work in both modes.

Is there a down side to this sort of an install?

Will it save the space of an entire install of Windows?
Will I still be able to boot into Windows natively (Option key on boot)?
If I install windows software in the Boot Camp partion will it then show up in the Parallels virtual machine and visa versa?

Thanks,

Phil

 

[BigHungry04]

You can use the boot camp partition in Parallels. As far as I know there isn't a downside to that sort of install. It will only have one copy of windows on your computer so it would free up the space that is currently used by Windows that you installed through Parallels. You would also be able to boot into Windows natively. As you will be using the same partition in both Parallels and Boot Camp, yes you will be able to install applications in both and it will be usable in both with the exception of some games for which you would need to be using Windows through Boot Camp.