Parallels VM vs Parallels Bootcamp Partition

[davenz]

I am currently using windows 7 under a parallels VM.

I know you can use parallels to start up a VM of your bootcamp partition.

Is there any performance difference in using parallels to start the bootcamp partition compared to if you just had a win 7 VM set up in parallels? It seems like the best of two worlds as if you need a quick windows task you can just boot it up inside parallels, and if you need to do intensive tasks you can just shut down and start up bootcamp.

I want to make sure there is no downsides before I delete my windows 7 VM and just make parallels use the bootcamp partition.

Thanks,

 

[ScoobyMcDoo]

Here is an article from the parallels support site. There are some limitations of boot camp partitions:

Windows running from Boot Camp has the following limitations:
It can't be paused
It can't be saved as a snapshot
It can't run in Safe Mode
It can't be compressed

 

[Bear]

...

I want to make sure there is no downsides before I delete my windows 7 VM and just make parallels use the bootcamp partition.

Thanks,

The last thing listed above about not being able to compress it doesn't matter as it's a partition and not a file.

It sounds like you already have a boot camp partition? If so, the upside is you only have one windows install to maintain.

Of course you can always create another file based VM if you needed to do some testing and don't want to risk your main windows partition.

 

[donjao]

Here is an article from the parallels support site. There are some limitations of boot camp partitions:

And you would need to reactivate your Windows copy.

As of me, I did not notice any performance difference.